goa

I've arrived in Goa. I got up at 5am yesterday in Hampi and began my journey across at 5.30am. It took me all day to get here. First I travelled 12 kilometres through the waking countryside by autorickshaw to Hospet (the nearest railway station) to catch the 6.30am train to Madgaon. I needn't have bothered with the early start: the train turned out to be two hours and ten minutes late and didn't arrive until 8.40am. Once we got going it was a pleasant eight hour ride west. There was a nice man called Imran in my carriage and also joining us the family of Mr Vijay Kumar. While we were chatting I showed Vijay's two year old daughter my photographs of Hampi (I can display them on a screen on the back of my camera). When a picture of me flashed up Vijay pointed and said to his little girl: 'look... there's uncle.' Perhaps he has been reading my blog? Part of the journey took us west through Molem National Park and up into the hills. As the train wound its way up and then down we had to pass through about 20 tunnels. Each time we went into darkness the train passengers started screaming and yelping like they were passengers on a roller coaster. Can you imagine British passengers doing that? On our way down we swept by the massive Dudhsagar Waterfalls. The train goes over of a bridge which runs across the waterfall at a point were the water flow becomes more horizontal. Going across the view was indescribably beautiful and an unexpected surprise. We arrived in Madgaon at about 4.30pm and from there I jumped on a motorcycle taxi which took me to the bus station on the other side of town. There I caught a shuttle bus from Madgaon to Panaji and I finally arrived around 6pm.

I'm staying at Orav's Guesthouse in Panaji on 31st January Road. I don't much like the hotel, but having searched the surrounding area, I can find nowhere better without a major price hike. The main problem is that there are too many bugs and insects, and the whole place has a smell of damp about it. Last night, having gone to bed about half an hour before, I got up to check for something in my bag. When I switched on the light I saw that the floor was covered with ants and three cockroaches, one of which was not much smaller than myself. Weary, disorientated, annoyed, and my eyes squinting as they struggled to adjust to the light, I strutted out to the hotel reception in my underpants. 'My room is full of bugs. You need to come and sweep them out,' I said to the man sat on a chair by the desk. 'But I'm a guest here,' he replied affronted and surprised. 'Oh,' I said, registering my near nakedness. I carried on to the hotel entrance in my blue stripe boxer shorts and found someone who did work in the hotel and got him to come and sweep the room out. The guy saw to the ants but was apparently indifferent to the massive cockroach and almost left it behind. 'GET IT OUT!!!' I reiterated to remove any remaining confusion he might have over the matter. He picked it up with his hand and left the room wondering what all the fuss was about. So ended last night.

So far this morning I've had my customary breakfast of idlis with sambar, and I've been over to the local railway offices to book a second class train ticket to Mumbai (formerly Bombay) for 19 July. This will be my final destination in India and my final train journey. I asked the friendly man behind the counter if I could take a night train. 'No. There is no night train. We only have a train which leaves Goa at 5.20pm arriving in Mumbai the next day at 6am,' he said. 'I'll take it,' I replied, choosing not question his sense of definition.

Today I'm going to explore the local area around Panaji (there's some old Portuguese architecture to see - Goa is another area in India which was once colonised by Portugal) and tomorrow I'll catch a bus over to Old Goa to see some more of the local history. After that I'm heading for the beaches of Calangute and Baga for a couple of days (they're about 40 minutes down the road from here), where I hope it won't rain too hard (it's been raining here in Panaji) but I'll have to take my chances.