THE BEACHES, SHACKS, JET LAG AND FEELINGS ABOUT THE BEGGARS AND HAWKERS - PART THREE.
The sky was the most amazing blue; there were no clouds at alland the tempreture was about 95-100 degrees. We walked into a large car park where rickshaw drivers were trying to get 100 rupees for taking a couple back to Royal Palms, Hubby and I decided to earwig"¦"¦
"It's 100 ruppees, sir" said the rickshaw driver. "On 'yer bike mate, I paid 30 ruppees all holiday" said the man. "Oh" the rickshaw driver did that wobble of the head from side to side "Okay then 30 ruppees".
HINT: never accept the first price! Find what you deem as acceptable and be prepared to walk away.
As you walk through the car park there are a few beach shacks to your left, Johncy's is the biggest and the South HT Meet up is supposed to happen, (It never did). But I was there and got the royal urine taken out of by my family every Sunday! After that Coco's Shack is next (try the stuffed Squid with Prawns and Garlic) Yummy stuff! Then another 2 or 3 shacks never tried them though.
We sat at Johncy's and ordered Orange Juice (fresh) for the kids, sweet lime soda's for me and hubby, egg & chips, Beef in oyster sauce, mussels in oyster sauce & King prawns & chips. "how many King Prawns would you like madam? One ? two?" said the waiter (wobbling his head as they do). I hesitated thinking Cor! That's a bit stingy and it must of showed on my face because he said " No, no madam don't imagine" and ran off with a smile on his face.
15 minutes passed, various waiters came up pinched my little girls' cheek and asked her name and laughed when we told them ( I thought it a bit strange, but decided to leave it.
Our waiter "Bobby" came back with a tray of shellfish, The King Prawns were at least 25 cm long! "ermmm I'll have one I said". The menu specifies no price for certain fish as it depends on the size, I knew I should have asked the price but "SUSEGAD" means the Goan way of Life or taking it easy.
Our meals came out and they were lovely the crunchiest meatiest KP's I've ever tasted, every body ate and then we asked for the bill - 795 ruppees! That's just £10 for a meal for four. I'm going to like it here, I thought.
BENAULIM BEACH
A little busy as you get on to beach but walk a little way to the left and it gets quieter and quieter, the next beach along is Varca (where all the 5 * resorts are).
There are a number of beach sellers who would like you to have a look at their "Cheap Rubbish" as they like to call it. DON'T DO IT"¦ unless you want 12-15 sellers around you trying to get money out of you, if you ignore them they just sit on your sun bed until you either buy or tell them to go away. Half the stuff falls to bits anyway (but what are holidays for if not for buying tacky rubbish?). And how can you remember every seller's name anyway "remember me it's Primadonna", "my name is Mena" " Don't you buy off anyone else, they sell rubbish, mine is good".
Try using "MaccaNacca" it means "I don't want to buy" in Konkani, I found out about this on my return home so didn't get chance to try it out. A good word we found to use was "JOW" it means go away, it's best used on the beggars on the beach.
(Rob may tell me off here, but everyone is entitled to an opinion) There should be no beggars on the beach, Goa as a state is very rich in comparison to the rest of India, Goan nationals/residents have to pay to send their children to school, out of state Indians who come in to Goa for the tourist season get education for their children for free (so I'm told). There are a lot of alcoholics in Goa; it must be the local Fenny! What I found out was that alcoholic parents send their kids out begging for money or even dangerously walking tightropes for the tourists, these are not professionally trained (like we would all like to think in our little safe worlds) but have been forced to do it from an early age. The first 2 weeks, I tried to feed any beggar that came up to me putting their hand to their mouth for food, as soon as they realised I wanted to feed them and not give them money they sauntered off.
Benaulim beach is lovely and clean, my little girl and I spent hours chasing crabs into their holes and trying to make them forget where they lived. The star fish are very pretty too. Some tourists from Tibet were absolutely amazed at my daughters bucket and spade and sat making sandcastles and giggling.
The sea itself is about 80 degrees it can be quite rough and my 15 yr son loved crashing into the waves. The under current is strong and it's not recommended to go out further than waist height. There are dolphin trips available, The odd jet-ski and body boards available to hire. It gets very busy with locals on Sundays and bank holidays and some may stare or try to take photographs of you girls in your bikini's but just get the nearest bloke to go and threaten them with the police and watch them beg the offended lady's forgiveness!
Walk right for about 20 minutes on the beach and you get to Colva, it's a lot busier, lots more shacks and water sports, there is a fab Ice-cream parlour called Baskin 31 Robins in Colva too.
Walk left for 45 minutes and you come to Varca Beach, fewer shacks, nicer food, 5* hotels and the beach is sparse, and so clean. It's one of my favourites.
We were jet-lagged (all though with the excitement of being there, we didn't realise it). We went back to the hotel and climbed our mountain of stairs ready for a kip.
A great big Kingsize foam mattress was now lying on the floor of the living room with a clean sheet thrown over it. The Sofa bed was pulled out and made up. The table and chairs were still there. We couldn't walk in the room, we couldn't get in the fridge. We couldn't complain again surely! Yes, we could but it could wait until tomorrow, time to sleep we had been up for over 36 hours.
COMPLAINTS, EXCURSIONS, COOKING LESSONS, AND MEDICAL EXPERIENCES - PART FOUR to follow
. Fab review!!
