Been an' gone to Goa.

A few weeks ago "Ram Krupa" played host to a final few guests. Jane, "Mata Ray Jane", passed through on her way to Thailand and Vietnam before heading back to Western Australia. Jane had a crack at the life in Mumbai, experiencing being a 'first class lady' on the trains before heading to Kerela to soak up the relaxed South Indian way. A day after Jane was off in the rickshaw, Darren "Sharpie",arrived fresh from bringing in the year of the Rat in Hong Kong. What a contrast, HK to India.. He to took on the peak hour train experience, a Mumbai must!
Whilst Sharpie was here we were able to finally get to Goa, crazy that is only a 45 minute flight and this was our first time.. We stayed at Candolim Beach at the quiet end of town and did a lot of very little for a few days. Actually as Sharpie described, it was like an English retirement village, and from their accent and array of tattoos on the lads, they were all from the same part of England. Now the beaches of India are nice and the culture is moderate to say the least so it is normal/respectful for the women to keep their tops on.. Well.. not the English ladies and we think some of the Russians.. It was a boobs out blitz. Actually in the ladies defence I think there was a standard set by an older gent, who had a lovely all over leather look with his modesty limited to a leopard print lap. I would call it a lap lap but there wasn't that much fabric..


The beach was well tended by countless beach shacks serving rough tucker and cool beer to your beach bed. What better way to round out a day of sun than to retire to one of the choice shacks with some decent tunes for happy hour!
As luck would have it our good Bombay buddy Ash flew down and joined us for his birthday.
Ash was popular on the beach, the ladies gave hime massages and pedicures and there was also this Indian bloke in white budgie smugglers sipping a tin of Fosters through a straw keeping a watchful eye on him...

We headed up to Baga Beach in the evening to check out the more lively part of Goa, with its many, beach shacks, bars and restaurants. The Goan beaches are busting at the seems, these once quiet now villages packed with tourists, screaming along on rented scooters or walking on the side of the busy rural roads doing their best to navigate their way from shop to beach to restaurant to pub..
Goa has a rich history with links to Roman times and 400 year rule of the Portuguese.
Apart from the many churches we went past, Fort Aguada, a Portuguese installation was the only historic site we explored. From our guest house on the beach it was a nice walk sown the beach to the fort which took us past the rusting hulk of the River Princess, a 240m long ore carrier which went aground off Candolim in a storm in 2000. Each year there are renewed promises to salvage and re float the ship but with mother nature doing her worst, the ship looks like it'll be there quite a while.
As usual the cows take centre stage and these ones looked particularly fresh in the early morning light....