Crab Murder and Police Fines

On Monday Paula and I took a taxi to the country side in the middle of the Goan coast and the guesthouse we'd booked online turned out to be perfect - cheap, clean, polite and helpful staff, quiet location, balcony, TV, a cheap restaurant with really tasty food plus there was a little puppy that they'd rescued from the street. We planned our exit strategy out of India, the country we want to go to next is Myanmar (Burma) and it isn't as easy to get to as other countries in South East Asia because it has only recently welcomed tourists due to a history of human rights violations and a military dictatorship.

The Goan countryside.

Our travel arrangements meant we had nine days in this part of Goa before leaving India for good so we rented mopeds and decided to explore the Goan coast. The moped owner asked whether we knew how to ride the bikes, we sensed he wouldn't let us have them if we didn't so I confidentially told him we had driven them many times; this wasn't strictly true, I'd driven my first moped only a few weeks back but I didn't think it would be a problem until he gave us the bikes and I realised they were much more powerful than what I was used to. We practised on them and Paula went flying off into some bushes three times - we were both annoyed that I didn't have my camera on me to capture her in a bush with a moped on top of her! I wasn't much better because I kept pressing the horn instead of the brake; this obviously posed safety problems...but at least it made me blend it with all the the hornaholics here in India! Once we'd got to grips with them we visited different beaches every day and spent hours walking barefoot along the sand, swimming or sunbathing.

Varka beach.

Watch out for the jellyfish!

Sunset.

Paula without the bike on top of her for once!

Trying to stay modest by swimming in my clothes like the Indians do!

I stupidly put one of these shells (thinking it was empty) in my backpack a few weeks ago and it made my stuff stink of fish...now I know why: I murdered a crab.

One day we went in the sea and whilst I was swimming I became caught in a massive fishing net! My toes were tangled in the holes and I flapped around like crazed dolphin trying to escape; once I was free I thought I was safe until I spotted hundreds of jelly fish in the water all around my legs! Somehow I managed to swim away without being stung - it's a miracle I survived that particular dip in the ocean! A little while later a young Indian couple waved at us from the shore and the next thing we knew they got in the water, fully clothed, and came towards us. We started chatting to them and they told us they were on their honeymoon and described their wedding to us; there we were in our bikinis bobbing up and down on the waves in the Arabian Sea learning about Punjabi marriage traditions - it was surreal!

Punjabi women wear lots of bangles and toe rings for forty days after marriage because it is believed to stimulate the reproductive system.

Later that day we decided to sunbath - it was so relaxing as there was hardly anyone around and the breeze from the sea was keeping us cool under the powerful sun. Just as we were falling asleep we were woken by a stray beach dog that was yelping psychotically right next to us and sticking its bum up in the air (the 'downward dog' position in yoga springs to mind). He was shortly joined by two other dogs; we were scared because I'd made friends with a German man in Mumbai who'd later gone on to be bitten by a dog causing his trip to be cancelled for fear he had rabies! We jumped up and kept our distance but they were making themselves comfortable amongst our stuff; a passing Indian family noticed the commotion and came to help us, the man grabbed our stuff and told us to move down the beach. After the rescue he asked if he could take a photo of us in our bikinis with his wife and son...!

Rescue from canine ambush! 

I've just noticed that one of the dogs was still lurking around when we took this awkward photo!

Even cows need a bath.

The next day we decided to brave the main roads and embarked on a 90min journey to a beach in the south of Goa. The roads were steep and winding and we were going ridiculously fast downhill and round hairpin bends. Whilst we were sunbathing I noticed a letchy man in his 50s (and in his speedos) taking numerous 'secret' photos of us, he then asked us to come over to his hut for drinks, we politely declined and the next thing we knew he came over and sat on my sun lounger with his bum right in my face! We didn't feel comfortable at all whilst he asked where we were from, Paula told him she was from Chile and he looked puzzled so she said "If you don't know where Chile is then you cannot talk to us" as a ploy to get him to go away. An hour later he came back and proudly announced that he now knew Chile was in South America after calling his son who'd told him and he asked if he could come and sit with us now that he knew?!

Agonda Beach.

On our way home we were pulled over by police and fined for not having international licences however we managed to barter the 'fine' down to half the price. I took a photo of the policeman to put on my blog but he noticed and snatched my camera from me and started shouting at me in front of all the people who had stopped to see what was going on. I really thought he was going to smash it on the ground but instead he angrily made me delete it in front of him before we drove off screaming with laughter!