India Travelogue Part 1: Goa

Eloise L
Dec 24, 2023
7 min read

When the idea of a group research trip to India was proposed, it sounded like a fun joking idea. Getting to go half way across the world as part of my PhD? Well, at some point this joke turned into a reality, and before I knew it I had a business visa and a return plane trip booked to India!

I wanted to remember this trip and it’s pretty different to my normal day-to-day life or travels so thought I would document it in written form. I ended up writing a lot, so this is part one of two; brace yourself. Here we go.

Background

The trip was for a research school in Bangalore and I was going with two other PhD students in my group. I don't take the decision to fly that far lightly given the carbon cost. But this was a once in a lifetime opportunity; it's not everyday that you get a paid trip to India. Plus I hadn't been outside of Europe in over 5 years.

Given how far we were travelling for this, and the fact that Bangalore is not known for being the most touristy city, we decided to book a short holiday prior to the conference. We decided on Goa, a coastal region in south India not too far (in India terms) from Bangalore. It’s also where the Indians go on holiday to relax (and party). This would also give us some time to relax and recover from any jet-lag.

I'll spare you the details of the bureaucracy of getting the visa etc. and skip straight to the fun parts.

Trip there

The trip started with a 17 hour journey door to door including a stopover in Doha, Qatar. The plane rides were long but not too awful given they were daytime flights. Doha airport was amazing, with a full botanical garden right inside the airport.

On arrival at Goa airport at 2am we stumbled around half asleep to find our taxi driver who drove us an hour through roads littered stray dogs, cattle and who knows what else. Eventually we arrived at a tiny dirt track road to be greeted by the guest house owner who showed us to our rooms (even though it was the middle of the night!).

I soon fell into bed, tuning out the white noise of the air conditioning necessary to cool me down in this heat and humidity.

Thursday (Day 1)

I hadn’t seen much on our arrival in the dark and had been in a bit of a daze. So it was an amazing experience opening the shutters to a sunny palm tree and pool paradise, despite my <6 hour sleep. I had my own little studio, with the boys (Henry and Connor) sharing another villa. I forced myself out of bed at 10am to catch the end of breakfast serving time. An amazing choice of breakfast all for free! I decided to be conservative and just have some of the local fresh fruit, some granola and a masala chai, which was all delicious. The local bread was also lovely. The boys opted for more local breakfasts but I needed to work my way up to them for my sensitive morning stomach that normally prefers sweet things. We were going to be careful with food and water to avoid the renowned Dehli Belly... But we trusted the owner, who’d grown up in the UK, that the filtered water was safe and all the fruit was washed with this water too.

We met the wife and the owner came over. He spouted long spiels about all sorts, he truly had no filter. But this knowledge was very helpful for us India newbies (“so white” in his words). He’s apparently ‘retired’, but he still seemed to be busy with all sorts of ventures, and was even off after our first morning on a business trip to the other side of India. He said his new dream is to be a standup comic so was testing it out on his guests like us first. Crazy guy!

We were staying in the town of Candolim. This is in north Goa, which is known for being busier and for party-goers compared to the pristine beaches of south Goa. However, given our short trip we thought it would be easier to stay nearer the airport and in a less rural area.

The villa complex where we were staying was very peaceful and serene. We had a relaxing first day by the pool before venturing off to explore our surroundings and get some late lunch. We saw the nearby beach, although this didn’t seem that appetising for a swim with big waves and currents, and some local street stalls.

We finished the day with dinner at a nearby recommended restaurant with local Goan food, followed by beers. I did have to adjust slightly to the spice level, but the food was tasty and astonishingly cheap for us Londoners (£3 for that whole big plate of food below!).

Friday (Day 2)

Originally intended as a 5km jog, we headed out after breakfast for a walk to the nearby fort. With dead ends and a few things we wanted to see, we actually ended up walking 11km and sightseeing over 4 hours in the midday heat… oops! I’m glad we turned the run into a walk as I’m not sure our bodies could have coped with running in 30+ degree weather, which felt even hotter with the humidity.

Walking was still hard work in the heat and stressful with all the cars; the roads are clearly not made for pedestrians, so we managed to call our taxi driver for a lift back.

We had a late lunch at a Cafe Chocolati next to the accommodation, where we ate 3 times over the holiday. Not super authentic food, but they get a shoutout for their great toasted sandwiches, much needed after the exertion of the morning (Connor would also like to mention their good milkshakes). After an afternoon rest, we headed out to a Friday night market in Vagator. It wasn’t quite as I had expected as it was fairly small and had more hippie westerners stalls than local people. (On that note, generally Goa was mostly full of other Indians on holiday and we actually saw very few other Europeans so this market was an exception to the rule.)

I did manage to get myself a cheap ring as a souvenir as I realised I don’t actually own any other rings. Without much else to explore, we headed to a nearby beach for walk in the dark and a drink at an overpriced beachfront restaurant to play cards.

Saturday (Day 3)

For our third and last full day in Goa, we booked our taxi driver for a sightseeing daytrip to Old Goa and the Shree Mangesh Hindu temple. Goa is fairly different to the rest of India in that it was actually colonised by the Portuguese for a long period of time, and therefore has a fair bit of Christian history. It was quite an interesting sight to see churches in India! Old Goa (Velha Goa is its proper name, see my Portuguese learning is coming in handy in surprising situations!) has quite a number of churches still standing and is actually a UNESCO world heritage site. One of the most famous is the church of Basilica of Bom Jesus, whose grandiosity felt pretty on par to many large cathedrals/ churches I’ve seen in Europe.

To contrast the religions, we travelled on further through the twisty roads to a Hindu temple. This was pretty special as I’ve never entered or even seen a Hindu temple before. I don’t have any photos out of respect of the no photography rules, but I can say that the shrine was very beautiful. Though, it was pretty strange to read the rules of the temple (see rule no. 4..!)

After another afternoon siesta, we headed out for our last night to see what Goa is really famous for: its nightlife. We got dropped off in Baga where the concentration of nightclubs and beach shacks are. We didn’t intend on any extravagant nights in club, but we thought we’d see what all the fuss was about. And boy was it busy.

But first, we needed some dinner for our last night in Goa. Searching on google maps for one of the only 4+ star rated restaurants in the area, we found a nice restaurant with a vast range of food (3.5 stars may seem ok by UK standards, but if that’s the rating Indian people give it then we might not find it as safe food-wise..!). On entering, we were greeted by Joe, an Elvis looking Indian owner of “Your highness” restaurant. And indeed, we were treated like royalty with almost too much hospitably, of constantly checking if everything was alright and cleaning our table! I decided this restaurant seemed pretty safe and chose to eat a whole Goan fish, caught freshly that morning and cooked in a stone oven. This was a little pricier than other meals we’d had but it was worth it to try this local cuisine; I thought it was delicious and a nice change from all the curries.

I haven’t even told you that there was also live music in this restaurant! We chose a table further away from this as it was rather loud and we wanted to hear each other. But after finished out meal and a couple drinks in, we were convinced by Indian Elvis to get up and dance to music (although sadly, Elvis did not join in). The performer was playing nice guitar and singing both pop music and traditional Goan music. I decided to embrace it, and we all had a little dance to the local music (but I’ll spare you the videos of our moves for another time…!).

After this great start to the night, we made our way to the most famous street in Goa

Walked down busiest street in Goa with lots of nightclubs, called Tito’s Lane (named after the most famous nightclub on the street called Tito’s which has been running since the 1970s). This was indeed overwhelmingly busy. Powering on past all the neon signs, we made it to the beach and decided to have one last drink at a beach bar before heading back for the night. However, a little girl who appeared no more than 4 years old and seemed to be begging for money decided to cling to us and even attach herself to my leg. It was a little upsetting. We eventually managed to shake her off but the situation felt a little sad.

After taking in the sights of the night beach, we tried to get ahold of our taxi driver. But with a miscommunication it turned out he was unable to pick us up so we were stranded… Luckily we found another driver who didn’t rip us off and we made it back safely.

Sunday (Day 4)

The next day our flight was in the early afternoon so needed to leave mid-morning. But there was just enough time after eating our last breakfast feast to dip our toes in the Arabian Sea. The waves were again unapetising for a swim but I’m glad I can now say I at least had a quick paddle.

We were soon at the airport, off to Bangalore to start the "work" part of our trip.