By the time we headed out it was later than we thought and everywhere looked closed. We asked for directions from a nice lady and when we said we were just looking at getting a beer she said she would serve us one before bed.

This was Moira’s place “La Manna”, the cleanest place we have been by far on this trip! We sat, drank, and chatted with Moira and her friend, the beer here is the cheapest we’ve found at only 35Rs for a 300ml bottle. When we looked at the menu we saw that there was a “Full English Breakfast” including real British bacon, we knew we’d be sampling one of those!

We found another place nearby called the “Paradise Hotel” which has a bar and club that’s run by a couple of gay fellas. Again the place was really clean, the bar was really nice and the staff very friendly but it was just like being in Blackpool, it was full of drunken Brits and Indians and typical nasty Blackpool style music, we had not been ready for this! We didn’t stay out too long as the traveling finally caught up with us and after all tomorrow was New Years Eve so we wanted to be rested and on form.

The next morning we hit the streets and found it remarkably clean compared with what we’d grown use to, no street stalls or cows, this was not India! We walked down the shop-lined streets and soon came across Domino’s, Addidas, Rockport and a whole host of other names we recognised. Heading towards Calangute beach the row of shops continued along with bars like the “Red lion” and “Hard rock cafe”……had we gone to Spain? There was nothing Indian about this place. As we reached the beach it was packed with white and red, sun burnt Brits and Russians drinking beer, we sat in one of the many beach bars and spent a few hours drinking G&T’s watching New Years Eve unfold before us.

After a while we went back to the room and changed then returned out to the beach for the rest of the night. We hadn’t been back at the beach long when we found ourselves surrounded by Indian lads that all wanted pictures taken with us. They were also keen to find out our opinions on a few things and after we’d discussed the differences between India and the UK, we went bar hopping. One lad seemed hell bent on getting us to try Chicken Lollipops? They were ace, he got us hooked and we haven’t been able to find them since. The New Year was seen in with a flurry of fireworks and bonfires all on the beach with thousands of people. Surprisingly though most people seemed to be Indian tourists and it wasn’t long after midnight that the majority had dispersed and left the beach. Not us though we were going to make the most of the night and determined to see the sunrise, we trooped on into the early hours. The evening progressed and so we had more drinks, the whole night coming to an end in a bar with some Americans, Canadians and a couple of Indian guys having a dance off, not very successfully as the Canadian guy in particular was smashed!

The bar closed and we headed back down the beach from Baga where we had ended up, to Calangute beach where we were staying. On the way we saw a crazy looking dude with dreadlocks and we ended up stopping and having a chat, his name was Baxi, an Englishman who had come to India but was having difficulty with his bank letting him withdraw money abroad. He was an interesting guy to talk to so we ended up talking for ages until it came light. Kelly had fallen asleep so I woke her up, we gave Baxi some cigs and headed back to the hotel.

After a few more days of living the high life in Goa we were ready for some more hardcore traveling with everything that goes with it, we decided on going to a beach North of Calangute called Arambol. This was a place that we had been told was full of hippies and had less bars and clubs than Calangute and Baga, more like India as we knew it! We thought it was more us and enjoyed it much more than Calangute, it had such a laid back atmosphere and the accommodation was cheap! This was a place where we could come on holiday and relax for a couple of weeks yet not what we were looking for. We wanted it dirtier and smellier so after a few days we decided it was time to get ourselves to Hampi.