Back to Goa...
The train journey here was an absolute dream in comparison to the nightmare bus journey we had getting out of Goa. We were both happy to be returning back to Goa, particularly with it being the southern part we were visiting this time. We set up base in Palolem, staying in SUMMER by thehostelcrowd, which we both think has been our best hostel yet.
We arrived on Monday 4th February, and immediately signed up for the yoga class ran every morning, up at the rooftop yoga area conveniently right next to our room. A minimum donation of 200 rupees (~€2.50) per person for 90 minutes of the best yoga class we've ever had, at sunrise or sunset. Could be worse ways to start or end your day!
Being a month in now, and living off curries, a change from Indian food was well needed - a trip to Magic Italy, a restaurant ran by an Italian family, satisfied our cravings for some European food for the next while. Pizza was amazing, as was the handmade pasta.
Our first full night meant some more hostel shenanigans, as we signed up to the Arty Party night - free drinks, and paints provided, ourselves and Fionnuala+Jack decided to attempt a sunset pic Fui had taken in Sri Lanka. Who captured it better, you decide (definitely not us):
Next day, and our first major touristy thing to do in quite a while - a cooking class at Rahul's Cooking Classes, was kindly booked for the four artists by Fui. Absolutely 10/10, one of the most enjoyable things we've done on the trip, and the food we made was pretty much as good as any of the restaurants we've been to. Mushroom curry, paneer aloo, dal tadka, tangdi chicken, and rice+chapattis will be served at our first dinner party hosted when returning to Dublin!
A sunset on the beach, and a drink at our now favourite beach shack Roundcube, rounded off one of the best days we've had yet.
After settling in to life here in South Goa, we finally decided it was the right time to get ourselves a Moped, as the hostel had organised a group trip to Cabo da Rama, an old fort/church, with the most idyllic hidden beach behind it. It was on this adventure we met the lovely Danielle & Luana (pictured below), they are here doing yoga teacher training. Both inspired Dani to do it one day too!
Thankfully no crashes, nicks, or scathes, we all made it back in one piece - closest shave we had being the police trying to pull us over (we were informed by tour guide beforehand to just keep going if this happened). Unfortunately one of the group had missed out on the conversation at the start of the day, and pulled over. Rookie mistake. A 600 rupee fine was bargained down to a 300 rupee (~€3.75) bribe, and off we went to get some ice cream, before returning the bike before dark.
Not being used to driving mopeds can mean a pretty stressful day, so given Stu's nerves were shot, an early evening to finish off our last night seemed the sensible option. We'd a train to Gokarna to catch the next day. After moving to the nicest rooms in the hostel, deluxe private huts in front of the hostel's gym and beach volleyball court...
Nodding off to sleep in the comfy double bed shouldn't be too difficult, right? Wrong. Our last night being a Thursday, Tattwa is a small restaurant next to our hostel that hosts a DJ night that night. Curfew in south Goa is generally 11p.m., so with there being only an hour left of it (in bed by 10p.m. in Goa? For shame), we decided to quickly get ready and venture out to see what all the fuss was about. Great music, an insane crowd of dancers that had just finished a month long yoga teaching course, and a couple of drinks made us think we'd signed off on our south Goa stay in style, albeit a little too early. We soon after bumped into the friendly hostel manager, who persuaded us that Gokarna - our next stop, was not the place we wanted to spend our Thurs-Sunday, given the amount Palolem had to offer on those nights (Gokarna apparently has nothing on in the evenings!). So another change of plans, and south Goa for a few more nights was on the cards.
Friday is the biggest party night here, with a €10 entry fee to outdoor nightclub Leopard Valley, of which we of course partook. A bit more chilled out than the high intensity psytrance of north Goa, and another great setup, meant our best night out yet (this paragraph has reminded Stu of: Holly Carpenter's NYE 2016 Article - he can only hope we have achieved the same high standard of writing).
Few too many tequila shots led to our first missed yoga session, and Saturday was spent nursing ourselves back to health. A relaxed day, before the hostel again persuaded us (not that we need much persuasion) to join up for the hostel BBQ, again with drinks included. This was the pre-drinks before heading out to the silent disco on every Saturday, which Palolem is famous for. Two nights in a row caught up on us though, and we gave the silent disco a miss. Getting old!
Our original plan of staying three nights was now well and truly out the window, and one more booking meant we had our eighth night here at SUMMER. Having absolutely loved the place, we spent the last day checking out a few yoga schools for Dani, as she intends to return here next year to do her yoga teacher training course. Goodbye for now Goa, but we'll be back.
Having finally escaped Goa, we're on our way to get an overnight train to Alleppey (sorry Gokarna, maybe next time). This'll be a long journey bringing us down to the most southern state in India, Kerala. We're meeting back up with Fionnuala+Jack, and are looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. We imagine WiFi will be a bit harder to come by, so next update mightn't be for a while!
Big love, Dani & Stu,
Currently Listening to:
The train journey here was an absolute dream in comparison to the nightmare bus journey we had getting out of Goa. We were both happy to be returning back to Goa, particularly with it being the southern part we were visiting this time. We set up base in Palolem, staying in SUMMER by thehostelcrowd, which we both think has been our best hostel yet.
We arrived on Monday 4th February, and immediately signed up for the yoga class ran every morning, up at the rooftop yoga area conveniently right next to our room. A minimum donation of 200 rupees (~€2.50) per person for 90 minutes of the best yoga class we've ever had, at sunrise or sunset. Could be worse ways to start or end your day!
Being a month in now, and living off curries, a change from Indian food was well needed - a trip to Magic Italy, a restaurant ran by an Italian family, satisfied our cravings for some European food for the next while. Pizza was amazing, as was the handmade pasta.
Our first full night meant some more hostel shenanigans, as we signed up to the Arty Party night - free drinks, and paints provided, ourselves and Fionnuala+Jack decided to attempt a sunset pic Fui had taken in Sri Lanka. Who captured it better, you decide (definitely not us):
Next day, and our first major touristy thing to do in quite a while - a cooking class at Rahul's Cooking Classes, was kindly booked for the four artists by Fui. Absolutely 10/10, one of the most enjoyable things we've done on the trip, and the food we made was pretty much as good as any of the restaurants we've been to. Mushroom curry, paneer aloo, dal tadka, tangdi chicken, and rice+chapattis will be served at our first dinner party hosted when returning to Dublin!
Friday is the biggest party night here, with a €10 entry fee to outdoor nightclub Leopard Valley, of which we of course partook. A bit more chilled out than the high intensity psytrance of north Goa, and another great setup, meant our best night out yet (this paragraph has reminded Stu of: Holly Carpenter's NYE 2016 Article - he can only hope we have achieved the same high standard of writing).
Our original plan of staying three nights was now well and truly out the window, and one more booking meant we had our eighth night here at SUMMER. Having absolutely loved the place, we spent the last day checking out a few yoga schools for Dani, as she intends to return here next year to do her yoga teacher training course. Goodbye for now Goa, but we'll be back.
Having finally escaped Goa, we're on our way to get an overnight train to Alleppey (sorry Gokarna, maybe next time). This'll be a long journey bringing us down to the most southern state in India, Kerala. We're meeting back up with Fionnuala+Jack, and are looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. We imagine WiFi will be a bit harder to come by, so next update mightn't be for a while!
Big love, Dani & Stu,
Currently Listening to:
just read the Holly Carpenter "article". What a bimbo! Don't see the connection there.
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