We survived the mo-peds then...

Back to Tom again.

Mopeds were fun, and none of us 3 got hurt. 1 English guy we were with, Hugh, fell off and grazed his arm and knee but that was it. It was real fun pedding round real quiet roads, palm trees either side of you, heat in your face. And that's only the travelling part of it. The destinations are even better.

We headed to Vagator which has an old abandoned fort on a hill. We trekked up there (well, if a 15 minute scramble can be called a trek) and had some great views of the coast line.

Too be honest, I can't really remember much else of staying in Anjuna, even though we were there for 4 days. Thats what Goa does to you, its a lazy place. We just walked around, drank beers, soaked in the sun. Oh, we went to Candolim beach which is real nice as it has an old massive cargo ship shipwrecked about a mile from shore and it is all rusting slowly away.

After Anjuna we got a taxi down to Panjim which is the capital of Goa. It is a real nice place, as it used to be owned by the Portuguese colonists so it has a bit of a different feel to it. I was feeling pretty ill which put a dampner on things but its still a nice place. Found a pub simply called "Ace Pub" which was pretty good, and dirt cheap.

We got a bus out to Old Goa the next day which used to be the capital and apparently rivaled Lisbon in its day (like the 16th Century). Now it is essentially a collection of old churchs and no buildings around it. They are pretty impressive though.

We got a bus from Old Goa, back to Panjim, then onto Benaulim. We just used public transport as its so cheap, but I was feeling so ill I had a pretty shocking time.

Benaulim is a lot more chilled out, and its a place where a lot of travellers spend quite a while away from other tourists. The beach is amazing, the place we are staying is right on the beach, and is amazing. I will try to upload a picture of it at some point. We have been here 3 days now, and we are staying for another 4 at least. We haven't done too much here. Just swam, and relaxed, and eaten, and drank.

Every time we go to the beach we are told by the lifeguards not too swim out past our waist height really, as Indians can't swim and if they see Westerners they follow them out there. The current is very strong as well, but we kinda always thought it wasn't that bad. However, 3 Italians went swimming 100 metres down the beach from us and got into trouble. The lifeguards were quick and pulled 1 guy out, but the other 2 were missing, caught in an undercurrent. 1 was found dead a few minutes later and the other guy washed up the next day. It put a bit of a dampner on things but has made us take the current a lot more seriously, as those guys were probably as strong swimmers as we are (well, probably stronger). I think we listened to the lifeguards more than those guys though and never really went out deep at all.

Today I hired a ped again (sorry mum and dad) and went off to the spice plantations with Ze Germans (2 germans we have met and been hanging around with for about 5 days). It was pretty good and I saw my first Elephant. Alex and Ant had a lazy day by the beach.

Tonight we are going to a bar in the next town down (Colva) to watch Man U vs Stoke.

This is a bit of a holiday away from travelling really, so not too much of an exciting blog update. Yes, we are lazing around on a beach, with glorious sunshine, coconut trees (which scare the crap outta you when 1 falls nearby) and cold drinks. I hope you are all enjoying work and the English weather!

I think that we plan to do the same thing, but slowly travelling down India, for a while. I'll update next when something interesting has happened and we are not just lying on beaches.



Enough of a downer though...