A trip to Goa, India approx 1998 as I reminisce I was quite the adventurous soul. I had wanted to go somewhere different as a last minute vacation. A friend had mentioned Goa, as she’d been there with her husband for a vacation a couple before. To be honest I’d never heard of the place, I looked on the map – seemed far enough. My friend also said she got a late deal via Teletext, I’d never used Teletext to book a holiday – in fact I’d only once booked a holiday before and that consisted of a flight to Paris (but that’s another story). So that evening I went home and searched through the windows of Teletext Holidays. I found a cheap deal to my surprise. It was around £240, included the 11+ hour flight and hotel – surely this can’t be right I told myself. After spending a few hours looking at alternatives I decided to go ahead and book it, be brave and adventurous I told myself. The flight companies and hotels had already made their money and I gained a bargain holiday, the holiday was covered by ATOL so what could go wrong. I thought the worst that could happen was that I get a call in a day or two from a travel agent telling me there had been some huge mistake and the fares were actually double or something similar, but no such call came.
I went back to work and told my friend and she was firstly shocked that I was going alone, and secondly that the trip was in a mere 10 days times. ‘What about your injections.?” she asked. “Injections, what injections.?” I replied. Rule number one when booking a trip, do your research. Her only other advice for me was that she remembered that she was constantly approached by beggars – whilst walking, shopping, sunbathing she said everywhere. I was young, I’d never travelled further than Europe so how was I to know. I quickly found out from my doctor that I needed a couple of injections and a two week course of Malaria tablets. “But I’m leaving in 9 days.” I shrieked at my doctor. I started taking the Malaria tablets that day and hoped I’d be okay. It didn’t cross my mind one bit that I should be fearful about going to India as a young girl all alone. The week leading up to the trip was a bit of a blur really, this would be my first long haul flight and excitement surpassed nerves. Back then I couldn’t do that much research on the hotel as I had to rely of the three images on the Teletext website, but my optimism was enough to keep me excited about my journey into the unknown. So what did I know about India, not much really at that time, I knew I liked Indian food that seemed to be enough to make me want to continue on my journey.
I remember stepping off the plane and this wave of heat came over me like nothing that I’d experience before. The stench in the air was HOT, like a dusty Orange heat that’s the only way I can describe it. Walking into the airport terminal was a huge culture shock, it seemed choatic and yet somehow orderly. The nationals were queuing on one side and passing through very quickly, and the tourists joined a long queue filing through very slowly. When i finally reached outside of the customs checkpoint and collected my bag, it occurred to me that I had no idea how I was getting to the hotel. Silly you might think, but i did recall seeing on the small print in my booking that hotel transfers were included. I decided to just grab my large case and follow the other tourists heading outside. Phew – I was lucky I spotted a sign with my hotel name. As we walked onto the street there were small buses and young boys (around 10-12 years old) started grabbing my suitcase. Sheer panic came over me, “NO, NO” I shouted. Then I watched as they grabbed other peoples suitcases and put then in the bus luggage store. I reluctantly let go of my suitcase and eventually got onto the bus. The journey was around 50 mins and was like nothing that I’d ever experienced before – as the bus drove along the busy road, the motorcycles and other cars would honk their horns at each other. They seemed to be saying “get out of the way” to each other, but they were all going in the same direction and at fast speed. This was crazy I remember thinking. I looked out of the window as we passed some shocking sights, shacks that people obviously called home. Some with no roofs, just sheets of plastic as protection. I was someone who grown up in a concrete city, so sights such as this was a first for me.
Eventually the choas of the motorway ceased a little and we arrived at some of the hotels, mine was a small resort which was just off a busy road. It was around 2pm in the afternoon so there were still lots of people around. I was happy that I didn’t arrive in the middle of the night. I dropped my bags off and went straight to one of the local shops to buy some water and mosquito rings. I lit the rings as soon as I got back to my room; TOP TIP – if you don’t want to get biten do this straight away. The strong smell of the ring filled the room, but I knew it would keep the mosquitos out – so all the locals told me. I took a shower to wash off the day and went exploring. I always like to get my bearings when I arrive somewhere alone and always whilst it is still light outdoors. I purchased some items from the small grocery store and then headed back to the hotel to eat dinner and settle down for the night. The resort seemed to be full of couples and none of them seemed very friendly. The women would see a girl on her own and didn’t smile, probably not wanting to be friendly in case they felt obliged to say join them. The food was delicious for the first couple of days I would eat Tandoori Prawns at least twice a day, before I pushed myself to being more creative with my food choices. I would always eat cooked dishes, never eating the salads (due to being washed in tap water). I didn’t want to spoil my short vacation with an upset tummy.
The morning after I arrived I ventured out and wondered along the main road. Most people in the stores would turn and look at me as I went by, as each day passed they would all wave and say hello with big smiles on their faces. Within 20 seconds of walking down the main street at least 20 shop owners would all wave and shout out ‘Hello’ as I went by, they were so friendly. I later discovered that initially they would all stare because I had dark skin but curly hair, they told me that was unusual for them, as usually they would see Indian girls with dark skin had straight hair, so they found it fascinating. The street beggars did approach me everywhere, whether I was on the street walking or just laying down sunbathing it was constant but I was prepared for it so I knew how to handle it.
The main road was parallel to the beach, to get to the sea I would have to walk through the back of the shops which would take you to the back of some residential houses. I felt safe until I heard a dog barking louder and louder and approaching me, suddenly you get a fear come over you that one of these dogs may be wild and have Rabies. Luckily, the owner appeared and shouted for the dog to come back into their yard. I walked another 5 mins and there it was, the beautiful Blue sea and lovely sand. I hadn’t made any plans of what to do when I got to Goa, so I figured I would just go with whatever each day threw at me. I stopped at one of the beach hut restaurants and sat to have lunch and tried some honey Rum (very strong). I decided it may be wise to only have one of those a day. Soon after I lay on the beach and sunbathed, I was lucky and made friends with a Finnish guy and we then spent the next few days travelling around and sightseeing. We visited some excursions – monkey park, waterfalls, major Sunday market and also found ourselves in a small town off-the-beaten-track with not a single other tourist in sight. Me with my curly hair and him a very tall guy with no hair – quite the sight it seemed. It’s experiences like that that really do humble you.
There was another occasion as I walked alone on the beach at night heading back to my hotel, I was almost attacked by four other dogs. TIP – do not walk along the beach at night as there is always a chance you may get spotted by stray dogs – I’ll share this Stray dogs post) They were running towards me from one of the restaurants and I started to make my way into the sea as there was nowhere else to run to. The people in the restaurant started to stand up and a couple of the shack owners ran towards the dog shouting at them to come back. That was the first and last time I walked on the beach at night.
As I look back, I realise things are very different today and some things that you were able to do then as a single girl probably wouldn’t be advisable now. Ie. walking alone on beach at 9pm at night, venturing to countries that you’ve done very little research on beforehand. But experiencing all those things shaped me as a person, and given me the confidence to venture to unfamiliar places and experience different cultures with the same confidence that I walk around with in my hometown.
Other than the dogs incident, a random beach flasher and feeling a bit uneasy about a couple of men who acted suspiciously (following me and my friend) as we watched the sunset a short distance away from the beach.
The whole experience was really positive, whenever you travel a bit further afield so long as you have your wits about you it is usually possible to avoid unpleasant situations before they happen. Making friends with the locals also made me feel that I had people looking out for me when I needed it. Due to this trip taking place well before I had my smartphone, I wasn’t able to share my own pics on this post.