Hot and Sweaty at Miramar Beach
We were picked up after breakfast and transported to Mumbai Airport for our flight to Goa. Goa gets a lot of press over here being referred to as 'The Westerners' Paradise' and the 'Loveliest Place on Earth'. We wondered how those two titles went together.
A number of people at school told us how much we would enjoy it so we were being suffocated by other people's expectations. We were flying Jet Airways, another budget airline in India. The Airport experience, spoken about at length in other blogs, was as smooth as a Kevin Rudd pre-election speech.
The big surprise came when we boarded the plane. It was fitted with personal entertainment systems offering Movies, Videos etc. The choice of movies was up to date and quite extensive, the disappointment was that the flight was only one hour. I used the time profitably catching up with some Jethro Tull greats followed up with Vince Gill - what a combination.
We landed, collected our luggage and were greeted by the representative from the 'Whispering Palms Resort' - boy, doesn't that sound good! Our image of Goa was beaches, shops and flat coastal strip. We imagined being able to drive from beach to beach (there are in excess of 25 beaches) viewing the beautiful water.
In truth it is one of the most mountainous regions we have seen, especially so close to the water. It reminded us a lot of the coastline of the Italian Riviera where you go up the mountain then down the mountain to get to the next beach. Goa was not as bad as this but getting from place to place was time consuming and generally involved a car being driven by a would-be rally driver who owns the road.
Our drive to 'The Whispering Palms' involved a lot of whispering - prayers actually, that we would not crash head on with a bus as our driver chose to pass other buses on blind corners. It was 60 minutes of white knuckle adventure. There was a lot of horn blowing, a lot of brakes, and a lot of drivers who did not know half as much about driving as our man. He got us there and we did appreciate stepping out of the car into the Hotel foyer.
It is a lovely place and will be our home for the next four days. Our plan is to rest and relax - not get involved with too much sightseeing etc. The package we booked under gives us a half day tour of Goa tomorrow (Saturday) so we will see what that reveals. We are given breakfast and dinner vouchers (you can exchange dinner for lunch if you like). Meals run on Indian time so lunch doesn't begin until 1:00 pm (our friend Jenny Guyatt would be right at home here) and dinner starts from 8:00 pm.
The place is pretty self contained with a swimming pool, sauna, gym, and organised things on most days for all ages to participate in. We have Dinner - it is a buffet every night which is pretty much exclusively Indian food or you can order a-la-carte (which provides a variety of Chinese and Continental dishes) and pay. We are in India so we go the buffet and find a variety of things that are acceptable to our ever-changing palate.
We awake refreshed and head off down the track to the beach. No togs today just a bit of exploration to see what is around but we do expect to have a swim in the Arabian Sea at some stage of our stay here. IW had a sleep in so it was a bit later than normal and the temperature was high and the sand was very hot. Prior to getting onto the beach you have to cross a tract of red sand and judging by its temperature it is full of sun hungry minerals.
I desperately try to be Australian and walk barefooted but before long turn into a pommy tourist with my footwear on. NOTE TO DAUGHTERS - No, I was not wearing socks with my sandals. We make the sand on the beach which is actually yellow, and eventually the water's edge, where footwear is removed and we paddle as we walk up the beach. The water is incredibly warm (yes, that did surprise us). The biggest surprise however was the presence of Life Guards in the biggest Life Guard beach station we had ever seen.
Not sure why this surprised us but it did. They had their red and yellow flags and their 'danger signs'. It was almost like being back home. We walked for about 40 minutes up the beach encountering small groups of people swimming (in their clothes) and eventually encountering the Goa water vendors peddling everything from para-sailing to jet-ski rides.
We retraced our steps and returned to 'Whispering Palms' for a sit around the pool a light lunch before commencing our tour at 2:00 pm.
We gathered in the foyer and enquired when we would be back. The reply was a quick "You will be back for tea." The alarm bells went off and further questioning revealed that we would be back for tea - at 9:00 pm. The tour departed promptly and for the next seven hours we visited:
- A Temple (drr!)
- A couple of Churches
- The obligatory shops that were sponsoring the afternoon
- Miramar beach to watch the sunset with 20,000 of our close friends
- And finished with a one hour boat cruise up the river.
It was a delightful time. There were nine other people with us - a mum and dad with their daughter and three young couples on their honeymoon. We had some great conversation with them and they shared with us about their marriages - all arranged by their parents. This was something we had heard about but to have time to talk to three couples about how it worked for them and to see their commitment to each other was quite refreshing.
We arrived home almost on the dot of 9:00 pm and headed to the dining room with a couple of our new friends. We spent a pleasant hour at the Indian Buffet with Ankur and Zunkhnu then headed off for a well earned sleep.
Talk about Sunday being a day of rest! We only left the room for meals and spent the day sleeping, watching movies, playing computer games and writing stories. Didn't see anyone, didn't talk to anyone.
Monday dawned and we knew this was the day for the Arabian Sea swim. We had breakfast and headed to the beach. Much to our shock, as we crossed the red sand we saw red flags. How can the beach be closed on such a great day? We surveyed up and down and couldn't see any signs of danger but no-one was swimming.
We walked down the beach in the opposite direction to Saturday and about 200 metres down the beach passed another red flag. We then saw people swimming in front of a group of three lifesavers who were sitting under their palm leaf shelter with the red and yellow flags on the sand in front of them. We kept going to finish our walk and on the way back IW went to ask why the beach was closed.
"Oh no, it is fine to swim here but it is very dangerous where the red flag is." The red flag was 10 metres away. We did not ask why the flags for swimming were not up. We were quickly in the water and had a good time avoiding the viscious shore dumpers. The water was quite warm so it was not a super refreshing swim but we had done it.
We emerged and continued home where we showered all the sand off at the pool shower and dived in for a cool down. The pool was a little warmer than the ocean so we were soon out, towelled off and headed back to the room for a rest.
We had arranged to meet some Indian people we met in Brisbane before we left. The husband is studying for a PhD in Oz and after a 7 month stint in Oz, his wife and children have now returned to their home in Goa. We caught a taxi to their house and spent several hours chatting and eating the delicious Indian tiffen (snacks) she had for us.
It was then back to our hotel for dinner where IW managed to get in a spot of Karaoke singing at the evening entertainment. After the standing ovation we returned to our room to pack and make ready for a 6:00 am departure to the airport with the driver from hell. We would be back 'home' at CSI Jessie Moses Matriculation and Senior Secondary School by 10:00 am tomorrow morning.
All in all it was a great, relaxing time. Goa did not live up to the expectations we had prior to going. It was quite dirty, which was surprising with the incredible number of tourists who visit it every year. It is time consuming to get anywhere and this was the low season. We would really hate to see it in high season. The roads are extremely narrow and quite dangerous in places when vehicles pass. Even though people say it is 'The Westerners' Paradise' and the 'Loveliest Place on Earth', we probably would not put it on a list of places we would want to return to.
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