Day 30-32Goa - Perth 08-10/09/20192

 Due to trying to avoid the costs of getting a taxi to the train station 20km away due to the cost I had an early start so as to give myself plenty of time to find my way through the bus system to the small town my train would be leaving from. Despite the traffics' best efforts I managed to make good time, even managing to fit in an omelet from down the road from the station. From my extensive experience on long trains the ten hour trip to Mumbai was a breeze and I soon found myself at jumping off the train into the mayhem that is Bombay. My plan was basic; attempt to either find a place to stay near the airport or sleep on the floor in the airport, my first step however was to find my way to somewhere near the airport. At this point I made a rookie mistake and asked someone where I may find the train there, they said they would help and took me to a taxi and after a bit of dialogue I told them where to go and went back into the train station to enquire further. I qued and managed to get a ticket for about 150 times cheaper than the taxi would have been but I still had to climb the mountain of finding the right train. This took about 45 minutes after asking about fifteen people including railway workers and the police who had no idea what they were talking about, eventually I found a European guy who pointed me in the right direction. The train took me to the nearest station to the airport and on arriving I went on a wander to look for a possible place to stay. This was less productive as I would have hoped as apparently there are next to no cheap hotels in Mumbai so I gave up on the fruitless search and decided to make a beeline to the airport which from my map looked pretty close. After haggling down a rickshaw driver to a price I thought reasonable we set off and as the trip went on the traffic got worse and by the time I arrived at the airport I nearly felt bad for how low a price I had demanded as It proved to be a fair way, nearly. After paying the driver I made for the door so they could tell me I was not allowed into the airport because my flight was not in the next four hours, it was in-fact in 22 hours. Just when I was about to set up camp by the front door for the next day one of the guards on the door told me there was a waiting area for people that had arrived before the four hour allotted airport admittance time so I went in search of it, it was at the end of the terminals and cost about 80 pence which I thought was a steal for a place to stay for a day! The waiting area was a large air-conditioned area at the end of the departures building with a lot of chars some toilets and a café, everything I needed, even a couple of power points so I got plugged in and started wasting away the hours watching breaking bad. At about 2am I started feeling a little tired so I went in search of a corner and settled down to sleep on the floor.

I woke up at about 4 am and I was freezing, I had spent next to no time in air-conditioned areas for the last month so I was not used to the frigid climate. To my delight the person on the reclined chair near by had left so I took my chance to get off the marble floor and claimed the chair taking the storm cover off my backpack to use as a sleeping bag and settled down for a far more cosy second bout of sleep. It was nine when I woke next and I was feeling peckish so after a trip to the toilet I frequented the café for a pricey sandwich and a coffee to accompany the second half of my breaking bad marathon. Over the course of the day I was asked by another guy in the café to watch his stuff while he went out for a smoke and in the early evening we we eventually got chatting which passed the last of my time in the waiting area. When my time came I collected up my effects and walked to the entrance to the airport to swagger in now I was able, I had been saving the last of my rupees for some hot food when I was through security but I was to be kept waiting. Most flights out of Mumbai are in the evening so the airport was heaving so first I had to queue for an hour for immigration and another 30 minutes for the luggage screening when I got through I literally threw my money at the KFC teller. Wasted away the rest of my wait looking through the duty free and reading until it was time to board.

I arrived into Singapore early in the morning and I had never seen an airport like it, it is huge and is set out like a hotel lobby has copulated with a mall. I wearily wandered over to the nearest help desk and asked where I may be getting my connecting flight and they gave me directions including a walk a train and another walk so I shuffled off along the trail. En route I stopped at a free computer to see what was going on in the world and shortly continued. When I reached the other side of the airport a couple of kilometres away I found that the jet-star desk didn’t open for a couple more hours so I went on a wonder and had a nap under a couple of metal chairs. I then headed to the desk to collect my boarding pass, it was at this point I found out that I needed a visa to even visit Australia and I was directed to the other side of customs to the Quantas desk. This didn’t take as long as I had feared and organising the visa was fairly cheap and fast so I once again headed to a jet star desk to collect my boarding pass. After queueing again I collected my boarding pass however when asking about my checked in bag I was told that they didn’t know where it was. I spent the next hour and a half being sent on a goose chase around Singapore airport only to come to the conclusion that I should go and get my flight and see if my bag is there when I get there and if not deal with it when I am in Perth, I was not best please but I had no choice but to do so as I was out of time. The jet star flight was pretty basic with no complementary in-flight food, refreshments or entertainment so I went without as I had no currency with me so the next 5 hours went pretty slowly.

I arrived in Perth after two days without sleep and only 3 meals and with no idea if I would find my bag there. I got through customs without any issues and apprehensively made my way to baggage claim, my fears were for naught as my bag was there waiting for me. I recognised the end of the roughing it in the form of a Pete Mulvaney waiting with a grin on his face in the arrivals hall...

Day 26-29 Colangute 04-07/09/20192

The next thing I knew is was 5:30 in the morning and the sun was up. I disentangled myself from my belongings and made my way back to the enquiry desk and was met with the same response. My frustration must have been apparent from a way off as a man came over to me and asked me where I was headed and when I told him he informed me there had been a train the night before but not to matter there would be another in half and hour. I spent the time before the train arrived chatting to the him about all sorts and we carried on the conversation on the train over coffee. Before I knew it I was at Thivim station where we got the bus towards Mapusa, we got separated when on the bus as it was absolutely crammed due to being the first of the morning and a school service too. I never got to say goodbye but upon arriving in Mapusa the conductor told me my friend had paid for the fair. Its those chance encounters when you are travelling on your own that make the trip worth while when there are so many trying to take advantage of you. From Mapusa it was another short train journey to Calangute and I was there in no time. Trying to find where the girls were staying was a different kettle of fish, I had the address but for some reason unbeknown to me I had neglected to write the name of the hotel down. This lead to me wondering around the same place for quite some time, accidentally trespassing and asking a lot of people a lot of vague questions. Eventually I gave up and went for breakfast, it was at this point I realised I had the name of the place on my browsing history on my laptop. After a fleeting breakfast I set out name in hand and managed to find the hotel in no time. After a short chat with the owner we came to an agreement about rooms and rates and he showed me which room they were in, is should say passed out in. A very groggy and confused Naomi answered the door and she introduced me to the sleeping forms that were Jade and Kerry. After checking in and showering that first day was fairly uneventful; sleeping and TV. That evening we had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel and followed that up with drinks, for my time in Goa it was double whiskeys for 70p a pop. Cards, pool and drinks are the best vice for getting to know people. By the time I made it to bed I was nicely tipsy and I was out like a log as soon as face touched pillow.

The next day we set off to explore the surrounding area mainly up the beach to a place called baga beach. This was a bit more tourist orientated which was made obvious as it was the first place I saw beef on the menu in my time in India. Lunch was enjoyable however completely peaceful as being on a tourist beach there were the normal touts trying to sell their wares, mainly tattoos and bracelets, luckily the focus was on the girls so I was left fairly non beleaguered. The walk back along the beach took a bit longer than the walk out as we were set upon by a tropical deluge so we took refuge with the locals in a bar while the downpour passed us by. We spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool and generally taking it easy. That evening we went on the hunt for some dinner and eventually found ourselves at a upper range restaurant which suited us all. Dinner was quite nice the highlight being my first experience of Goan port which is regular strength and served chilled but was pretty pleasant. When we had finished dinner we went in search of an after dinner drink, a desire sated by a bar by the name of eclipse. This little gem was a lucky find. Upon arriving we ordered our drinks as you do and settled into a game of scrabble, when our drinks were getting towards the dregs the barman, Ranjit, came over and insisted on giving us a free round of drinks. This was the turning point of the evening. We slowly integrated ourselves into what turned out to be a very close knit patronage. After the scrabble was concluded I started chatting to a guy called Raj over a couple of games of pool, his claim to fame being that he is good friends with Dav Patelle from slumdog millionaire. When I returned to the girls they had befriended to two Daves, two middle aged guys one from Scotland and hard to understand and one from Croydon big bald and bawdy. Between Ranjit, Raj and the two Daves we where convinced to join them on their after closing time tradition of going to a club called south pacific. When closing time came around we jumped on the back of a couple of scooters and shot off to the club which turned out to be a couple of minutes down the road all arriving safely in no time. We got into the club and the free drinks continued and after a brief stint in the air-conditioned dance area we retreated to a quieter corner of the club for the rest of the evening. Plenty of laughs were had and the standard drunken mishaps, ranjit tried to kiss jade, all in all it was an awesome impromptu evening. I can scarcely remember the trip back to hotel as we zoomed down Calangute, three on a scooter, whiskey in hand I managed to guide us vaguely home to bed.

The next day was very uneventful as you may expect we were all feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. Barely managing breakfast I spent most of the morning doing absolutely nothing, when it came to mid afternoon we plucked up the courage to head out into the real world in order to find some sustenance in the form of lunch. Feeling less than savoury we found ourselves wandering into a Subway. It seemed like a good idea at the time however sometimes the best ideas go awry, due to lack of toasting, selection and relatively high prices made for a thoroughly disappointing experience, not what was needed. We then set off for the hotel again as we were all still feeling fairly rank. On the way back I managed to book my transport back up to Bombay. The rest of the day was fairly subdued and after a dinner at the hotel it was an early night for all.

After the abysmal amount of exploration the day before we decided we should go on a trip a bit further afield. We decided to get the bus to a place called Panaji Market, Panaji was the next step up in urbanism from Calangute set beside a huge river with even more hustle and bustle. When we arrived at the central bus depot we eventually found our way to the next bus through the throng of people and buses with no English signs. One more short trip and we were dropped off where the attendant promised we wanted to go and you could not mistake the smell of a near by fish market. We quickly found the source of the smell in a small fish market on the brink of the market proper, fish turned into meat which turned into clothes and tat displayed in small stalls on busy market streets. When we reached the other side the close market streets opened up to a large warehouse style building where the centre of the market presided. All along the outside of the building the walls were lined with stalls and when we reached the interior we were greeted with a huge open market set over two floors with the second floor keeping to the walls leaving the central space open. You could find pretty much anything within this building; from any local vegetable to electronics or a new suit. After a lengthy browse we departed the warehouse market to find some lunch in the surrounding town, we found a well populated local restaurant that provided us with a cheap and cheerful lunch. After another short wander we found our way home again with a bit more confidence than the trip out. That evening was spent packing my bag for my departure early the next morning....