Goa

Goa

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It was a great relief to find that the hostel I picked in Panjim was as good as the reviews on the web site I use had suggested.

It is called the Old Quarter Hostel, because (surprise, surprise) it is located in the old quarter of Panjim. It is one of the new breed of hostels that are popping up in India. A number of mainly young entrepreneurs are establishing these businesses. If George Bush is reading this, entrepreneur is a French word for people that start businesses.

A Very Good Hostel

The Old Quarter a good example of a good hostel. It is located on the in the centre of the most interesting part of the town. It is where the Portuguese colonialists settled along with ‘Old Goa’ which is about 20 klms away. The colonial architecture is interesting. The building in the hostel is housed has been gutted and the interior is specifically built for purpose. This includes, modern bathrooms and toilets with very good plumbing that works.

The rooms are a mixture of bunk and private rooms. They have fans and air-conditioners. There are large lockers and plenty of power points which take most plugs (except those silly over engineered UK plugs – but wo cares). These are essential features for travellers.

The common area includes a long table power points which can be accessed from the table. The Wifi can be accessed throughout the building. It is not particularly good, but that is not the fault of the hostel. The internet is only as good as what the providers can provide (a lesson the Malcom Turnbull needs to learn). There are also a number of lounge chairs and couches, again with nearby power points.

There is a café next to the reception. This serves reasonable coffee include cappuccinos and expresso coffee. It also serves a standard breakfast which is included in the tariff or optional extra breakfasts and snacks. The quality of the food is good. The place appears to have high hygienic standards.

The staff are very professional and helpful in providing advice on travel and sightseeing.

The Usual Eclectic Bunch of Travellers

As with most hostels there was a mixed group of guests of varying ages and nationalities. I am certainly no ‘Robinson Crusoe’ when comes to being a ‘senior’ traveller. There are lots of us staying places like this.

Two Blokes agree that Putin is an Arsehole

On the second night I shared the room with a bloke from the Ukraine and bloke from Malaysia. Naturally, the shooting down of the Malaysian Airline over the Ukraine was discussed.
They both agreed that it is almost certain that the Russians were almost certainly responsible for the disaster and that Vladimir is an arsehole

Tony Who?

I told them that Tony Abbott said he was going to ‘shirt front’ Putin of the the shooting down of the pane at the G20 Conference in Brisbane in November 2014.
The bloke from the Ukraine had not heard of Tony Abbott.
The bloke from Malaysia had heard the he had “been expelled from Government” I liked that sound of that.

I thought that I may have to had tried to explain the meaning of the term ‘shirt front’. They clearly had no interest in what Abbott had said and the conversation moved on.
I think there is a lesson for all Australians in that.

Tacky Beach

Late the next day I decided to head for the beach. Gao is known for its beaches. I took the local bus from Panjim to Calangute

The ride was interesting. It seemed that no matter how far you travelled the fare was INDR 10 or INDR 20 id you were no a local.

The road follows the coast. There are beaches to the left and string of shops, bars and ‘resorts’ along the road.

Once in Calangute I headed to the beach. There is sand and the ocean. There were also a number of cows. Most of the people on the beach were fully clothed. There were some people in the water. None were swimming.

There is a large number of bars along the beach. This is seems to be the main reason for being on the beach.

That was the beach done. I headed back into the town. There are a lots of shops. They seem to selling one of three things: T shirts, swim wear – principally bikinis, and tattoos. The Tattoo shops seem the think that being ‘hygienic’ gives then a distinctive offering.

I stopped off in bar for a drink. There were a couple of women drinking beer and speaking Dutch. There aren’t many really unattractive Dutch women in the world. These were two of the limited number. A bloke with a very distinctive Yorkshire accent arrived and started chatting to the Dutch women. They clearly knew each other.

Back to Panjim

The ride back to Panjim seemed to takes much longer than the ride up.
The bus dropped me off at the ferry that crossed the river to Panjim. It is mystery way this ferry operates given the there is a bridge (the one I crossed to get to the beach) less than 500 metres away. The ferry was chaotic. Check out the Flickr video.

Nice Restaurants

There are a lot of good restaurants in Panjim. I had some excellent meals washed down with very cold Kingfisher Larger.

Windows 10

On my third day my Surface Tablet started being particularly slow. I decided to reinstall Windows 10. How silly am I. It took nearly all day.

Old Goa

The next day, I took the bus out to Old Goa.
This town was settled by the Portuguese back in the 1600’s. They still governed the state of Goa up until the 1960’s. That is something I didn’t know until now. I thought all of India became independent after partition in 1947.

Flying to KL

My flight to KL left at 9.00 p.m.

When I checked in I was told that my seat “would not recline”. I was asked if would like to “pay extra for a declining seat?”. I ignored the question.
When I got on the plane I found that the seat was in the least row and indeed, it did not recline. There were plenty of other seats.

I simple got up and took one of those.

Flickr Link

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Garmin Link

When their site works

Train to Goa

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Victoria Station

I bought my train ticket from Mumbai in Jodhpur.

To buy Indian Rail tickets on-line you are required to have an account. I was led to believe that to open an account you have to have an Indian phone number and an Indian credit card. If you don’t have an account, you have to use travel agents to buy tickets on your behalf.

Given the above, I have been using travel agents to buy tickets. This involves the payment of a commission. It also means that you are beholden to them with respect to class and seat selection. More particularly it makes it difficult to buy tickets in advance.

My ticket from Mumbai to Gao was in AC 3. This is an Air Conditioned 3rd Class Sleeper. The agent in Jodhpur had told me that all the ist and 2nd Class tickets were sold and typically they are booked months in advance. The train was scheduled to leave at 7.10 from the main railway station which used to be called Victoria Station. It now has an Indian name, but is still known as Victoria Station.

I took a taxi from the hotel to the station. There doesn’t appear to be a correlation between the distance travelled and the fare in Indian taxis unless you use Uber of Ola. Maybe there is reason that Indian Taxis and Tuk Tuk drivers are running a campaign against these online booking services.

English Girl Cracks the System

It is said that Victoria Station is the busiest railway station in the world. I suspect whoever says that is probably right.

I found my train fairly easily. I then found my carriage. There was a sheet of paper pasted to the side of the train detailing the names of the passengers and our seats.

It was a while before the train we due to leave. I went for a walk up platform. I got into a conversation with an English family from Essex (“you know what I mean”). They were mum and dad and son with his girlfriend. The girlfriend, I guessed to be 21 years old at most, had organised the holiday for the family.

They were travelling 1st Class. I asked her how she booked that tickets. She told me that bought them on line over two months ago in England. I asked her how she opened an Indian Rail Account. She told me that she just made up an Indian Mobile phone number and used her UK credit card.

The benefit of being young and assuming that you can everything on line.

The Train Journey

The train line initially heads north as you leave Mumbai. It is a seriously big city. There are a lot of slums on the side of the track. I guess this one of the few places where land is available.

As the track turns south the you are in the countryside. It is lush, a stark contrast to Rajasthan where I had come from 3 days ago.

I had heard that this is one of the great rail journeys. It is interesting, however I would not give it that description. The carriage was very cold at some times in the trip. At one point I was forced to huddle under a blanket. It was a bit surreal get that it was at least 30c outside.

There was a constant parade of vendors selling food and drinks on the train.
It also noticed that when we stopped, vendors appeared on the platforms with fruit and other food and drinks. They seemed to be heading for other carriages that I assumed to be the ‘non air conditioned’ carriages.

The World’s Worst Hotel

The train stopped in Mandgoan. This is about 30 klms from Panjim which was my final destination in Goa.

I had thought that the train may be delayed and I was not keen on trying to take a bus of taxis the last few kilometers at mid night or later. Given that, I booked a hotel using Expedia.

The Hotel was called ‘Grand Liz’. This is a highly evocative name with lots of promise. The description sounded good on the site and it wasn’t cheap.

When I got out of the station I went to the tax booth and ordered a taxi for the short ride to the hotel. When I said I want to go to the ‘Grand Liz’ the bloked looked at me as if to say “are you sure?”.

The address of the hotel was ‘Old Main Road’. This turned out be a dodgy back street. The taxis driver had to show me the entrance to the hotel. It was very poorly lit. I missed the lift and walked up the step to the second floor.

There was a woman sitting at the reception desk. I told her that I had a reservation. She appeared not to understand what I was saying. In fact, she seemed to be disabled in some way. That is sad but she should be in this role.

After a minute or so a young bloke arrived. He was looking intently at his phone. He then asked me if I was “Mr Thomas”. I said I was. He showed me what appeared to my reservation on his phone. I asked him where the manager was. He told me “my owner is in Mumbai”.

Clearly the owner is trying the run this place remotely.

I had had visions of being able to watch the Rugby World Cup while having a beer. What a joke that turned out to be. My expectations were now to sleep at that was all. I got the final score via Facebook using my phone and the Indian SIM I bought in Jodhpur.

The sheets were dirty, the mattress was as hard as a rock. There was no hot water. In short, the place was just a shocker.

I left the hotel with 10 minutes of waking up in the morning. I was so put off that I forgot to take a photograph.

Taxis to Panjim

I thought about taking a local bus to Panjim. As I walked to the bus station I was accosted by the usual procession of taxis drivers. In the end I relented at look a taxis.

It was a quick drive into Panjim. I ended up navigating to the Old Quarter Hostel using my mobile phone.

The hostel is really good.

Flickr Link
https://flic.kr/s/aHskk52vjm