Agonda, Goa

Our main purpose here was really just to chill out and relax before we hit Mumbai and then going home. Of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s beautiful and we can top up our tans to make everyone jealous right before Christmas!! Our arrival was interesting. We got here in the dark - I mean pitch dark 5am on the bus from Bangalore. There was nothing here just a bus stop with a couple of men hanging around in it. They were tuk tuk drivers but the money they wanted to take us the rest of the way to the beach was astronomical so we declined and said we would rather hang around in the bust stop for 4 hours!! ha ha! Anyway at 6ish a cafe opened across the street and a good cup of chai later we decided to head out again to see what we could do about transport. Just as we left the cafe at 7am, a bus stopped right outside it and said where you going? we replied Agonda beach and he said hop on! perfect. 20 rupees for the 2 of us and we were on our way again :-) The bus driver stopped along this country lane about 10km later and pointed us in the right direction. We strode out down this country lane edged with palm trees and soon came to the town. We say town but there is hardly anything here and it was all shut as it was so early. We found a beach side place we could get some tea and breakfast and Jody headed off up the beach looking for the place Bryan had found on the internet beforehand. She came back an hour later saying basically everything along one end of the beach was either rubbish or still closed as its early season here, including the place we had in mind. So Bryan trudged off in the opposite direction and soon came up trumps with SimRose beach huts for £12 a night. More than we wanted to pay but still within budget. Right on the beach with a lovely restaurant. Just perfect.... Most mornings here Bryan tried to get back into his fitness regime and did a 5k run, then headed next door for 1 1/2 hours of yoga. Mad! Then as the waves were so good here, he decided to buy a body board. It was good fun and Bryan really seemed to get the knack of it (i’m sure he had done it before but wasn’t letting on) but as expected, Jody struggled a bit and she finally gave up on it covered in bruises. It was fun while it lasted though. We borrowed a moped one day and made a trip to next town on as we needed cash and there was no ATM in Agonda. Palolem was an lively little town and we stumbled upon a restaurant named Magic Italy. As Jody especially was really off Indian food right then, it seemed like a good idea. And what a good idea it was, the food was to die for. It was run by proper Italians using proper italian food and the olives and pesto were wonderful. such a welcome change from curry! Most mornings we take breakfast in the little restaurant in our beach settlement (can’t really call it a hotel or a resort) and sit there looking out to sea - watching the fishing boats and when we are lucky - the dolphins. It is fantastic to watch them jumping about in the water and playing with each other. We think they also come there to eat judging by the number of fishing boats hanging around most of the time too. We have had quite a god internet connection at Simrose so it was a good opportunity to catch up with our parents on skype as they are all looking forward to having us home in just over a week or so. We enjoyed the town of Paolelem so much we decided to hire a bike and go again another day. This time though we went for the evening. We had heard on the grapevine there was a disco with a difference there. A silent disco. ??? Yes silent. The idea is all the music is played through headphones which you wear, and you can tune into one of 3 different tracks being played at any one time - 3 different genres of music all at once! sounds like a novel idea and one we wanted to check out. Unfortunately, once we had eaten our meal - back to Magic Italy for pesto pasta again... then we felt sleepy and decided to head back to Agonda. It’s a shame but we never got to see all the weird people dancing to different rhythms in the same club Simrose Beach Huts Room rating: 7/10 - a mozzi net & the best views for months Location: 10/10 - what more could we ask for Staff: 7/10 - Always trying to help - most are Nepali! Value for Money: 8/10 - £12 a night - what do you think??? Other comments: basic accommodation but how much time do you really want to spend in your room here? great bar and restaurant one of the best in this area. Stay again? when-ever you want Overall area experience: 9/10 - just what we needed to relax before setting off to Mumbai - then home