New Years Eve

Day 15

Breakfast in the train consisted of veg cutlets and potatoes, with tea and fruit juice, followed by a second breakfast of chapatti and veg curry. I couldn't stomach the second, still recovering...

We pulled into Margao station around 11:00, after frustratingly standing still for quite some time. The people on the train reverted to some interesting approaches to passing the time: a young boy in a nearby cabin danced his best Bollywood moves in the aisle of the train, the boy in our compartment started singing while his mother clicked her fingers to a beat, goras near us played some acoustic tunes I didn't recognise...

We were very pleased to find that there was in fact someone waiting for us at the station, Presley, in a delightfully air conditioned car, pumping retro dance tracks. The weather in Goa is the hottest we have had, and the sky is so clear here where it was rather hazy in other places. Presley drove us to our hotel in South Goa, on a single lane road, through lush vegetation, with pigs running across the road and cows meeting in a central place. We were amazed at how different Goa felt, everything seems so spread out and the buildings are delightfully Portuguese. It being new year, we got to witness an interesting tradition - the local boys build "old years men" by stuffing clothes and creating faces. They then carry these almost life size men to the roadsides, where they ask for donations from passers by based on the skill they put into their "men". I'm not sure what they do with the men afterwards, perhaps burn them, but I know what they do with the donations!

We arrived at the Hotel "River Sal by the Sea", a bright blue colonial looking building. Our room is really nice, with bright green decorations and a lovely balcony. The only thing I was really disappointed about was that it was on the river, not the beach, and the only way to access the sea is via a boat provided by the hotel. This really limited our freedom of movement, as there was not even a nearby bridge which we could cross. The hotel is in the Betul area of South Goa, and the nearest beach is called Mobor, close to Covalossim.

We used the next opportunity to take the boat across, and landed at the bamboo huts hotel, which has huts right on the beach which would've been a better option. We grabbed a lunch of fish and chips and fish curry at their restaurant, the blue whale, before checking out the beach...it's a long stretch of perfectly clean, perfectly white, soft sand. In fact the sand here is so soft, that it squeaks when you walk on it, I can't quite explain it! We had a walk along the beach to see what was in the area, and spotted one big resort, a couple of beach shacks (restaurants/bars) and not much else, making it very beautiful and unspoiled! We also enjoyed a swim in the clean water, and the temperature was perfect. The people at the bamboo huts are really chilled and didn't mind us using their sun loungers to relax after our swim. There was a cool breeze coming off the ocean, making the temperature just right, so we relaxed for quite some time, later grabbing a beer and waiting for our boat back.

Back at the hotel we reviewed our new years celebration options, and decided it would be best to go back to the blue whale, since a taxi anywhere else could be very expensive and quite unreliable to get back. As I write we are getting ready to head out. We are thinking of all our friends and family at this time - happy new year everyone!

- Nix