Category: Goa: Beach Time and Reflections

After three very relaxing weeks at Candolim Beach, Goa, we departed to Mumbai on January 3rd. When we first arrived in Candolim we were a little concerned about the crowds but we quickly came to really like the vibe, the food, the people and the location and the cost of living was very reasonable. We did pretty much nothing the whole time except relax on the beach at our favourite beach hut, “Ganesh Beach Hut”. We had great chicken chili and veg noodles for many lunches, sipped on sweet lime sodas and caught major rays getting us almost as brown as the locals. The town of Candolim is very hectic, the traffic chaotic but is filled with great little restaurant/bars and the food was always delicious. The town has everything you need or want. We had great Moroccan food for Christmas dinner and had a blast New Years Eve down on the beach. All-in all, a really great time. Some final pics…

Where’s oopik?

Ganesh Shack

The beach

Behind the scenes

Debbie, our favourite shp keeper

Our dail fruit lady

Road back to our hotel

Scooter art?

After our 2 days on and 1 day off strategy of hanging out at the beach for 3+ hours over the past couple of weeks, today, a day off to sleep in (7:30 am), drink 3 cups of Nescafe with a touch of sugar, have our breakfast consisting of Alpha Oats Mix, no sugar added with added sliced bananas, yogurt (if not liquidy and runny), local very well washed oranges and Topicana fruit juice, it is our day to get our teeth scaled and cleaned at the local dentist. There is a booming dentist industry here. The Docs are well-educated and certified and the cost is 1,000 rupees, $20.00 CAD, probably $160.00-$200.00 at home. 😬

We now have nice shiny white teeth and our plan for later in the day was to take a cab to the Saturday Night Market in Apora, Goa, about 6 clicks from our place. A must see market/bazaar in Northern Goa. The other “must see” market is Anjuna Beach Market held Wednesday afternoons. We went to the Anjuna Market back in 2006??. It was great, I bought a hippie shirt that didn’t fit, we had a beer listening to some music and headed back to our place in the south so why the “what to do?

After a very relaxing day, blinding the on coming pedestrian traffic with our shimmering teeth we debated about going to the market. All of India has so far essentially been a market in our travels to date. You can put together a tourist oriented market (both Anjuna and Apora) and market it to the tourists. It is great fun but we were feeling a little hesitant in going because it would probably be the same, no, would be the same.

It’s interesting when you are travelling. You think you have to see everything and it is impossible to do and yet you feel “travellers guilt” if you think you missed something important so we did what was important to us.  We talked and chatted like we always do and made up a story to tell our taxi driver why we couldn’t make it to the market. Joyce has Delhi Belly! but as it turns out, he forgot about us so I went for beers and ordered take away to bring back while Joyce chilled out watching the 759+ channels on offer.

We have our next 7 days booked in Mumbai and Delhi once we leave here on the 3rd. 3 nights Mumbai and 4 nights Delhi and then we have a major planning job to do to cover the north of India within the next 6-8 weeks. It is very challenging to find accommodation and transportation options. Travelling is relaxing but can also be very stressful if your itinerary isn’t planned out for you. Thus is winging it and we are definitely not complaining….

” A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving”. Leu Tzu

“The traveller sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see”  Gilbert Chesterman

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page”. Saint Augustine

So we’re going to celebrate New Years here in Candolim Beach, Goa. We’re not sure what we’ll do but we are looking forward to heading to the north of India to explore and boldly go where thousands have gone before and hope to have some lively blog posts and pics coming soon.

Happy New Year to everyone! We are so appreciative of you visiting our site.

Thank you.

Grant and Joyce

There are over 1,326,841,506 people living in India. Think about that. And India is about 1/3 the size of Canada with a population of about 36,000,000.  A song from Pink Floyd “And Nobody’s Home” complains about “13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from”. Well we have Tata TV (a very well-known Indian conglomerate) with probably 750 channels to choose from and the choices are essentially unlimited. It is without doubt the widest selection of entertainment I have ever seen on a TV menu screen. Most are in Hindi and many are very similar but there is an obvious innocence in the acting, singing, dancing etc. that is so prevalent. It is so entertaining. The game shows and movies and serials bring you back to the days in the 70’s and 80’s when life was real, comedy was comedy, people weren’t offended and you were allowed to laugh at the daily foibles of life.  Indian TV is very entertaining.

“A Fine Balance” is the title of a novel by Rohintom Misty, a Canadian author and winner of the “Giller Prize” and nominated for the “Booker Prize”. Joyce and I both read the novel during the year leading up to our trip. It is an amazing novel that captures the cruelty, corruption and dignity of India that has surrounded us thus far in our journey through this country of contrasts. We highly recommend this novel.

“The human face has limited space. If you fill it with laughter there will be no room for crying”

Chaos, comedy and sensory overload have filled our days and we’re at the beach! The smells can be overwhelming at times, the air is sometimes hazy with cooking smoke, curry and car exhaust but the theatre that is India is a show we are so happy and fortunate to participate in.

OMG! Just listened to “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Clause is coming to town” from the live band playing across the street.

Go back 7 or 8 years, Joyce and I are in Kampala, Uganda, we found a nice bar, local band and ready to hear some good roots music. The first set is great. We’re happy. Found a good local music scene. The next set, bring on the bands girlfriends who can’t sing if their life depended on it and they sing Christmas carols. History repeats.

We’ve been here 5 days now and are feeling at home in our apartment that we basically did all of the cleaning thereof (another story) and are checking out restaurants for a Christmas meal to see if it is turkey, tikka or tandoori. The weather has been great, not too humid, nice breezes and probably around 28-30 degrees. Aside from a couple of expensive taxi rides to try to send some parcels home from DHL and then India Post, the cost of living here is very reasonable. Beer, 650 ml bottle ranges from CAD $1.80 to $2.80. Lunch with soup, sandwich, appy, 2L of water and a couple of pop with tip is about $12.00 for two. This is at the beach. Dinner is less away from the beach. A 3-4 course meal of rice/veg noodles, curry dish, chicken dish and chapati is about the same, maybe a touch more. Add in beer at $2.00 CAD, say 5 beer and you leave full and tipsy for less than $25.00. Not too bad in my books.

This blog isn’t a “how to” travel guide but realistically speaking, if you are done with the backpacking, dorm accommodation, shared bathroom experience you might have done in your 20’s, then seriously plan on about $150.00 per day per couple. A reasonable clean hotel room will run $35.00-65.00 per night. Expenses add up quickly and they are expenses you don’t generally plan for. How much is it to travel from point “A” to “B” never mind how much to take auto rickshaws, tuk tuks or taxis from point “a” to “b” in your destination? Not necessarily cheap. Tips, beggars, water (especially water) and toilet paper add up. So, although India on $5.00 a day (revised to $25 a day) is still probably possible, we’ll pass. Give me the bed bug infested, diarrhea splashed bathrooms? Sorry. Been there done that.

After another 8 hour, 340 km journey by car through open plains and lush jungle forest we descended into the state of Goa and are now parked here in Candolim Beach for the next three weeks. Total road distance from our starting point in Chennai is just under 1,900 km’s with many hours of often white knuckle speed bump infested holy cow (and goat) road blocks, highway construction diversions, pot holes, dogs, some squashed, a few “oh no’s!” from Joyce in the back seat seeing the inevitable head on collisions that we were about to be in and ultimately an amazing drive through the east, south central, central and the west of southern India. All in all four states; Tamil Nadu, Puducheri, Karnataka and Goa.

We have a nice apartment here in Candolim however the area isn’t quite our style but it will do for the next 3 weeks and we’re sure we’ll make it a nice relaxing time. The beach is clean and very long and is strewn with sun beds and temporary thatch and bamboo/wood built restaurants with lots of very overweight tourists primarily from Russia and the UK and about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We paid a Christmas/New Year premium so we ain’t going nowhere until the 3rd of January when we may head a little south or a little north for a little more chillin. There is a huge Goa Reggae Sunfest happening in the north of Goa mid January at Ajuna Beach (major old hippie hang out) so we might just stick around for a bit or we’ll start making our way to the north to explore four more states; Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. If we really feel adventurous after all of this then maybe we’ll try ro venture into Pakistan. We shall see. It’s called “winging it” and so far, so good.