There & Back Again

Goa has been the relief and reward for the preceding three weeks of hauling ourselves around the country; although it’s conceded little in the way of exciting, enlightening adventures with which to fill the pages of a travel journal. For the past two weeks I’ve spent the days lounging on the beach, scooting around the coast on mopeds through emerald jungles and whiled away the evenings in the company of the Idex group and many bottles of disgustingly cheap (but far from disgusting) bottles of rum in Balton’s ‘reggae’ beach shack on the tranquil golden sands of Utorda beach. After descending from the depressing chill of the mountains to the heavenly thirty degree sweats of the Southern beaches we’ve eaten like kings for the price of paupers and lapped up the rays—I really can’t account for where the time’s gone.

In contrast to the let-down that was Christmas, we saw in the new year partying to German techno and fireworks on the beach of Arambol, dancing and drinking through the night with a cast of aged hippies and drugged-up ravers, capturing a couple of hours kip on the sand as the first dawn of 2012 burned down on the final stragglers and entranced, drug-addled party animals still standing. It was rather a unique way to spend the night (as opposed to in a cramped overpriced bar in Manchester) where you can nonchalantly buy Class A drugs off your waiter (”Yeah I’ll have two beers, a gram of coke and a couple of tabs of acid please”). Suffice to say we were all pretty exhausted the following day.

After the rest of our group departed for their various destinations last Thursday, be it returning home or to continue their backpacking adventures, Faye and I remained in Goa till this morning before flying up to the crowded ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ city of Mumbai—the final leg of our travels in the subcontinent. In a couple of days time I’ll be embarking on my three-stop journey back to Manchester; Faye moves on to Singapore for the next stage in her year-long adventure. Besides wanting to experience Mumbai anyway, it’ll be nice to delve back in the hectic heart of India before escaping bck to the civility and civilisation of the UK as opposed to returning straight home from the beach. However, I can’t help but feel we’ve leaped from the frying pan, into the fire!