Gone with the wind

Travel to Goa, first days and things seem different this time

We needed to be at the airport no later than 8am so rather than get up at silly o’clock we paid the princely sum of £30, yes that’s £30, for a very comfortable bed in a blissfully quiet room in the Premier Inn. This is Heathrow and we were a captive audience, so we were prepared to have to pay heavily for both food and drinks. Not so! The food was of a very good standard, not expensive, beers about high street London prices and a bottle of quaffable wine for less than £15. What a start to the trip.

We chose the brisk walk in the chilly morning air to the next bus stop for the service for Terminal 5 and within 20 minutes we were there. It also turned out to be a free Heathrow Airport bus….Result! (rubs hands together Fagan style). Check in was slick and came with a twist. The guy at the check in desk surprised Neil by congratulating him on 20 years of being an BA Executive Club Member. He also confirmed that ‘no, Sir, it does not come with a free upgrade to First Class.’ Hey, don’t ask don’t get!

We shot through security and made it the lounge. Recent experiences of BA lounges haven’t been particularly great, but our good fortune continued. It was quiet, plenty of seating and once we found ‘the main man’ we were handed a glass of bubbly each. Yes, we know, it’s 8am but it has to be done.

Boarding was seamless and we were greeted by some extremely friendly and cheery cabin crew who were very keen to supply us with more of the fizzy stuff, twice actually, plus yet another ‘congratulations Mr. Dyke’.

The flight out to Mumbai went smoothly after an initial section of turbulence. Food and drinks very good and whilst Cheryl enjoyed a couple of films Neil got stuck into quite an assortment of music genres. A few hours sleep before it was time for an Indian breakfast snack, landing, speedy immigration and baggage collection.

This is where the fun stopped

We knew it would as there is absolutely no way that you can make the journey from London to Goa without going through a quite tiresome period between flights. Some people would find their plane arriving early in Mumbai very appealing. All it did for us was extend the time we had to sit around waiting for our connecting flight 5 hours later. No swanky lounge here so it was a case of grin and bear it. However, it was made a tad more pleasant by the always happy to please BA cabin crew who had stocked us up with beers, wine and snacks before we left the plane.

Anyway, time to check in, board the flight and settle down to 45 minutes of listening to an obnoxious screaming brat sat around 5 rows behind us. Indians are usually very tolerant of whingeing sprogs. However, even our fellow domestic passengers seemed amazed at the volume of the wailing and gnashing of teeth that could emanate from such a small person who was actually old enough to be told ‘enough, no more’!

Fortunately, the flight was short which is more than we can say about the time taken to deliver our bags to arrivals. Goa airport is quite small with around 4 luggage belts. There were no other planes arriving so we were the only ones waiting for our cases. It took more than 1hr for us and everyone else to collect our belongings. India, the next world super power!!

We arrived in Benaulim around 8am and nothing seemed to have changed. We got the keys from security to what we had previously considered to be our home. After all, this had been the place we spent 3 months a year for the last few years – the longest time we ever stayed anywhere since we began travelling. Now we have a real one where we’ll spend much longer, and we were missing it already.

Feeling really tired after the long journey we set about getting unpacked, the podder man came around on his bike squeezing his hooter so we bought some delicious bread known locally as bakri. It makes such fabulous crunchy toast that deserves lashings of butter…….mmmmm……so good with a cup of tea.

That morning we shopped for essentials, caught up with John and Yvonne who had been here around a week and started to catch up with friends and locals. It seemed to be a constant session of handshaking and hugging and ‘hi, how are you’? and ‘When did you arrive’?

Our first dinner was in Hideout – a warm welcome from the staff we’ve known for years and excellent curry with beers and G&Ts for under £15. Rubs hands together again?

Early days

The day after we arrived turned out to be the start of Cyclone Kyarr. It brought heavy rain and strong winds and made us very glad that we arrived the day before as the landing, if there was one, would have been very dodgy. People working down on the beach putting up shacks took video of twisters and the heavy seas. Sadly, some of those shacks that had stolen a march on the others by erecting them before the licences were issued got totally trashed by the strong winds and had to start again.

The inclement weather lasted 4 to 5 days but, hey, it’s warm rain!! A week later Cyclone Maha arrived and delivered cloud and some rain but without the intensity of Kyarr. It was actually quite pleasant, the clouds kept the temperature down to a manageable 30-31C and the rain was sporadic.

On our arrival Neil started to explore the possibilities of watching the Rugby World Cup. He quickly discovered that Brilliant Bar had a large TV and the right channel so our first Saturday we sat down at lunchtime to watch England destroy New Zealand. Then on Sunday it was back to give our support to Wales in their endeavor to make it an all British final. Sadly, it was not to be as South Africa did to Wales what England had done to The Kiwis the day before. They had no answer to the power and sheer aggression of the SA pack.

It has become traditional where we stay, in Micon Development, that some of the western yummy mummies bring together many of the little kids from around to celebrate Halloween. We love to participate and were given signs to put on our walls to show the kids that we’re open for a trick or treat. The mums also provide bags of sweets and pens to hand out. It’s great fun, some of the kids are so small and the mums put together some amazing outfits using their imagination and skills. It’s really good fun for the kids and must teach them so much as they help mum put their costumes together.

We had an invite to a small party to celebrate Diwali. Karam, the owner of C5 restaurant, is Nepali and wanted us to share in his celebration. He closed the restaurant for the afternoon and served up some excellent traditional Nepali treats. He refused to let us pay for our food so we did at least make sure we paid for our beers and gins. It was a really great way to continue our start back in Benaulim.

The following weekend we got together again to watch Wales play in the 3^rd place play off. Once again, it was bad news for them as NZ were just too powerful. Next day was the final, there was a big crowd in Brilliant considering it was so early in the season, and we came together to watch England capitulate to an awesome South African performance. England had no chance and no excuse. We were crumpled.

Something’s not quite right

Slowly we began to realise that there was one fundamental difference in Benaulim. Every season for as long as have been coming here itinerant workers from Karnataka make the long journey to Goa to sell tourist tat. Whilst we don’t like their constant ‘yes, shopping madam’ or ‘Come see my shop’ they provide colour on the main street through the village. Some of them wear the traditional clothing of the Lamani Tribe which is quite stunning. We don’t like to take photos of them as we see it as imposing, but you can see from the library photos just how beautiful the costumes are.

We arrived early in the morning, so on our first day we weren’t surprised to see the roadside stalls hadn’t set out their colourful wares. When this continued for a few days we thought it was just early season and they would set up soon. Anyway, The Lamani were missing and the main street looked like a depressing shanty town as all their roadside shacks were just covered in blue tarps.

After a few days we began to get some sort of picture on the dispute between The Lamani people and the local Goans. We’re not sure who or what is behind it but, in a nutshell, The Lamani people are no longer welcome in Benaulim. It appears that it’s only happening in Benaulim, not throughout Goa so we don’t think we’ll ever get to the bottom of it.

Suffice it to say, it makes the street look very sad and many people coming to this village for the first time will probably not come back so, long term, we think this might backfire on the locals. Many people think that The Goans are lovely people, very friendly and extremely helpful. We agree, there are some just like that. However, over the years we’ve come to think that there is a nasty undercurrent and a number are hotheaded, greedy and only nice to you if you are giving them money for something. Francis, our favourite shack owner, has also been shafted this season and people he called friends and distant family have connived to stuff him.

Hey ho, we’ll just get on with our lives here, enjoy the excellent food, the beach will become beautiful again when the shacks are up, and old friends arrive daily making life here very, very good. We’re back in the pool on a daily basis, Cheryl swimming over 500m a day and Neil around 800m. It’s hot here so along with the exercise and the suppressed appetite the scales are beginning to go in the right direction. It is a great place, you get to drink beer, eat delicious healthy freshly cooked food and salads and still lose weight……can it get any better?

Cheryl & Neil Our Story