A holiday from travelling
After two months away from home, we needed a holiday! What better way than to spend two weeks in Goa, the first with Zoe's mum and sister, who were over on their own two week holiday? First, though, we had to earn it, by means of a rude introduction to India in Mumbai.
We flew overnight from Hong Kong to Mumbai, via Bankok and Colombo, on Sri Lankan Airways. The food was lovely, and the stewardesses friendly and helpful - probably the best airline we flew with all year. The passengers were in some cases plain stupid: one of the stewardesses had to unbuckle herself from her seat to go and force someone to sit down as we were coming into land; shouting at him was apparently not enough for him to get the message. Just when she'd managed to get back in her seat, with airport buildings now whizzing past the windows, someone else decided it would be a good idea to get up and open the overhead locker!
On arrival in Mumbai we'd planned to get the Shatabdi express train down to Goa, to start our holiday.
We queued for an hour to try to buy a ticket, only to find that the train was full. (You probably have to book the express in advance!) The only alternative was a 15 hour journey on a normal train. Still, we decided to go for it. But, there was actually no way of telling which train was ours. Whenever we asked someone we got a different answer, both as to the time of the train and the platform from which it would depart. (It can't be only me that gets infuriated with the apparent opinion held by many Indians that it's better to guess and give an incorrect answer than to admit that you don't know.
In the end we gave up and even managed to get back the money for the ticket; Zoe pushed straight to the front of the queue, and got away with it because she was a woman! We decided to fly to Goa, and got a taxi to the domestic airport, for which we got massively ripped off because we were so tired having still not slept all night.
The airport seemed like a haven of sanity after our introduction to the streets of Mumbai. There were three flights going to Goa with seats still available, and we got one for US$65 each. We were in Goa in around an hour (much better than 15 hours), and got a taxi to Colva where we found a nice cheap guesthouse, not too far from the hotel where Zoe's family were staying. We managed to get in touch with them, and headed down to the hotel to meet up.
Colva is a little 'resort' village in South Goa. It's got its fair share of shops selling tourist souvenirs etc, and restaurants doing a variety of food, but it's smaller scale than the places in North Goa.
We spent twelve days in Colva, not doing a great deal. We did a couple of trips out, including to Old Goa and to Anjuna market (which I think everyone goes to). We picked up some nice bedspreads at Anjuna market. We hadn't planned to hang around after Zoe's family went back to the UK, but were enjoying it so much that we spent another five days there.
It was 210 rupees a night (at the time the exchange rate was about 75 to the UK pound). We got a firmish bed, complete mosquito net with a few holes in (luckily we'd brought our own with which we were able to supplement it). The shower was cold water only.
Serjo was a very friendly man; we even got invited to his niece's wedding (although we declined the invitation)!
This is a very good budget option if you're staying in Colva, and don't mind something a bit rough around the edges. It's only a five minute walk to the beach.
