Hoorah Goa! and train tales too

We have found ourselves a lovely beach hut and are taking a few days off in the sunshine - a little holiday from the long holiday! It feels like heaven on our beach. The sun is warm, the sea gentle and the splashing of waves on the clean sandy beach is all we can hear. It smells of sweet jasmine and  oleander and high above our heads hang ripe coconuts. Our little restaurant serves coconut lassi and fruit pancakes by day and tandoori prawns, king fish, tuna, red snapper or other succulent looking fish hooked fresh from the Arabian sea each evening.
Sanju our host is from Uttarakhand so if thrilled that we have come from there. He says people come to Goa and take away a very unreal picture of Indian people - these people are here for business, their intention is solely to make money from tourists and they work very hard at it, no-one lets you walk past their stall with out trying to get you to look. They do this to very resistant tourists all day long, they are relentless and perfectly charming with it mostly.
Sanju tells us the best train to get back up to Delhi - which is very useful information - there is a fast one, that takes only 2 night - fast when you consider the distance. So we don't need to fly back, his is very good news for us.
He and his mates return home on this same train from Goa at the seasons end. They splash out on this expensive train because they have worked so hard. They buy a bottle of whisky, and hole up with a lap top and films in a/c carriages with sheets, blankets and all meals provided! WE liked the sound of this!

Breakfast on arrival, fruit from Mumbai, clothes came straight off

Our Hut

Our view

We found a small little bay just over the rocks from Palolem beach and set up home here for a few days. We have some Indians some English, some German and some Austrian other staying on same beach and we play Jenga together in the evenings - a new version called TEMPLE JENGA - is a bit wilder - you set the blocks up on edge in offset squares - its much more fun and much faster turn over. If you loose you get to write your name on a looser brick.

Clare with Sanju, Cookie and Bobby - why won't Indians smile in photos?

slightly more of a smile?

Clare and her 'friend' Sanju....

Our train from Mumbai to Goa was an adventure!
...... We went to the station to get the train out to Goa at 10.15 pm - a night train - only find the ticket I thought I had brought on-line was a waiting list ticket. I was aware that these existed so thought I had been careful to avoid them but it had slipped my notice. I was also unfamiliar with what to do about it. Our names were on any list normally pinned up on train doors before departure and its lovely and reassuring, to see your name upon the list - but rather unnerving when your name is not on the list too, I find and does not bode well. I looked everywhere for CHIEF TC. I had been told he would sort us out. Eventually the train leaving time came so we found ourselves a spot between carriages and sat on our bags waiting for the CHIEF TC to come and help us out - he didnt come - so I searched the very full train for him. Turns out the tickets had been cancelled and my money refunded, according to his list. He shooed me out of 2nd class air conditioned carriage where I had found him - very nice, and told me we could stay on train but - no seats. Very nice that we werent thrown off but you wouldn't believe where we had to spend the night! You know those loos people talk about on trains in India? They smell and are covered in stains and normally you would wear wellies and rubber gloves to go anywhere near? Well we slept on the floor right outside two of these along with 5 classy looking chaps, who were much better prepared for their night in hell. They had brought newspaper to sit on, one had some cardboard, another removed a cream coloured cotton sleeping bag into which he climbed and settled on his newspaper, another a very slinky shiny blanket - he wrapped himself

 in this and passed out. Clare and I looked at each other and part of me died inside at the thought of the night spent in this place - we had no choice at this stage though! The train really was full, overfull in fact - it was a holiday and everyone was off to the beach for the weekend. 

The night was long and filthy, we did end up lying on the floor - which I would have normally had had a problem walking on, let alone sleeping on! But I had sat considering this situation early on in the night and I had a feeling as tiredness came over me that my resolve to sit upright on my ruck sack all night may weaken! But morning I was rolling all over the stinking place with a chap snoring rather too close to my left ear. Clare listened hopefully to Dharma talks from Gaia House for a while, hoping to Zen out but she too had collapsed by 3am and was snoring peacefully almost in the urinal. 

I have now put all clothing, blankets, shoes and body though a serious wash - we have survived to tell the tale! TB or Hepatitis may develop at a later stage I suppose. 

I was being a bit of a princess about this, I can see that! Why could I not buy myself a seat for the night?! Why didn't anyone realise this was too much for me - coudn't they tell I was an old woman from a different culture?! And my friend too - much older and really not up for a night in filth down on the floor with the limbless beggars! Why didn't they give up their sleeper for me?! Anyway by the end of the night I had come off my high horse and felt at home on the floor with the chaps on newspaper, sort of. Lots of people slept on the floor of that train and it looks like lots of people travelled free for over a 1000 miles like we did too!