Christmas in Agonda

Our seabird overnight sleeper bus journey from Mysore to Canacona started off rather pleasantly. On the exterior the bus itself looked a tad rundown but on the interior me and Allison had ourselves a nice double bed where we thought we would be able to just chill and relax for our ten hour journey.

But chilling and relaxing wasn't on the agenda. The bus basically turned out to be a parcel delivery vehicle that also transported passengers so not only did we have to pick up passengers but stopping for long periods in the middle of nowhere to load the bus was commonplace. Long parts of the journey felt like the bus was off roading as we kept going over bump after bump. Then there was the winding mountain pass where Allison's nerves started to get the better of her. It was at this point we figured out that there was no advantage to laying flat on a sleeper service and would have probably been better off on a semi sleeper as when the bus went round a left turn we would both roll to the right, a sharp right turn, we'd roll left. Left, right, left, right we rolled. A major consolation to me was that if we had crashed laying flat my feet and legs would take the brunt of the impact and not my head and face. Crash, bang, broken ankle and leg, not broken skull n brain. There was another consolation, because of the constant stopping our ten hour journey turned into a thirteen hour journey which under normal circumstances would have really pissed us off but this meant we arrived in Canacona at 06:30 am instead of 03:30 am. The chances of getting a lift to Agonda at that hour would have been almost impossible.

We arrived at Fatimas guesthouse after an increased rickshaw ride fare that neither of us were prepared to argue over as we were too tired from our extended journey.
Fatimas for me was like a home away from home, I'd spent a month staying here last year whilst doing my Sampoorna yoga teacher training. It was one of the cheapest places to stay in Agonda and as we were on a budget (not necessarily a tight budget) it was good for what we needed, a bed to sleep in, or so I thought. Now there are some really nice beach huts right on the beach facing the sea here in Agonda, beautiful in fact, so Allison naturally wanted to take a look. Our first morning was spent looking at other accommodation. The majority of this other accommodation is over quadruple the price of ours but it is the festive season so why not splash out? But its also the first month of our one year away so we have to be a bit careful. So now we're involved in a Mexican stand off. Basic Fatimas or plush beach hut? I amazingly came out on top this time round, I don't know how but I did. If it was the end of our journey and cash flow wasn't an issue, no Mexican stand off would have occurred and we would have splashed out and stayed at H2O facing the ocean.

On our second day here I'd decided we should hire a scooter as its the easiest way to get around and visit the different beaches, restaurants and take in the sights.
The sequence of hiring a bike here is quite strange in regard to the way you would do it back home. You ask someone, anyone that you want to hire a scooter, now they either have a bike or no someone that has one. This guy Chetnan had one, we discussed the price, £2.50 per day, he gave me the keys, I took his mobile number, then rode away. No money, no ID, no passport, no nothing?

It was the eve before Christmas. We rode a scooter down to Palolem in the afternoon and had a nice Pizza in the restaurant Magic Italy.
When the evening came we had established ourselves at a table by the Cuba beach huts. Allison always out for a bargain had noted that they have happy hour between 6-8pm. What better way to watch the sun set than with two Caprioska's  for £1.80, bargain!

We remained at Cuba for dinner and both took delight in getting the waiter (unbeknown to him) to continuously repeat crispy Squid as he kept pronouncing it crip-sy Squid and for some reason it sounded hilarious.
After dinner we went for a stroll, we purchased a fire lantern on the main strip and headed to the beach. I held the lantern whilst Allison tried to light the fire lighter that was held in place by some metal wire underneath. Her trying took too long for this impatient man, so knowing I could do a better job and actually ignite the lighter we swapped rolls after some persuasive words. I held the fire lighter and 'plop', I had managed to pull it off the wire and it fell straight into the sand, getting absolutely covered. Not only that but when it had finally cooled off enough to put it back in place on the wire, Allison mentioned I hadn't even pulled open the lantern enough for it to fly. She opened the lantern fully and it swiftly sailed into the night sky. My delight in watching the beautiful lantern float up into the air was marred by my unmanliness to actually figure out why earlier the lantern was nosediving and not flying.
After our maiden voyage we stopped off at Simrose beach huts to listen to some entertainment. An Indian guy was singing cover versions of Christmas songs. Both our personal favourite became his Shaking Stevens number 'Merry Christmas Everyone'. He wasn't a bad singer and to our joy he would add a letter to certain words which would make the song more amusing, so for instance 'every' would become 'wevery'. "Merry Christmas Wevery one", "Children playing (change the H to a W) Wav-ing fun".

His rendition of Wappy birthday that he sang for someone was the last straw and we left to head back to Fatimas.  

It was strange being away at Christmas. I'm not a big fan of being away from blighty during the festive season but thought now I'm older it won't be such an issue. I was wrong, I had no Christmas spirit, in this heat it didn't feel like Christmas, I needed some cold weather, an open fire and a dodgy jumper to put me in the spirit of things. Watching endless adverts on TV and a definite over expenditure on food and alcohol would also have helped with my bereft of Christmas atmos.
I awoke on Christmas morning feeling like today is just like any other day. Tommy's little belly was rumbling and needed feeding. Allison wasn't getting ready fast enough for Tommy, so Tommy threw a tantrum. Throwing my toys out the pram due to feeling hungry wasn't necessarily the best thing to do on Christmas day but don't we all revert back to being kids at Christmas? Allison's thoughts of a nice breakfast on Christmas morning were swiftly eradicated by my mood and when I also chose the wrong place to eat. Her omelette was filled with loads of melted cheese and had the effect of making her feel sick, my pesto panini were two ordinary white bread rolls filled with pesto. The day wasn't improving and I had to take responsibility for my actions. A nice trip on the scooter to turtle beach to make amends was in order. I've not known Allison to get travel sickness but being on the back of the scooter with the constant twists and turns and the cheesy omelette sloshing around in her belly only amplified her feelings of nausea. At least she managed to forgive me for a while as we took a nice stroll along the gorgeous beach.

A selfie in the sun with our Christmas hats. (She may be smiling but at this point I had only been partially forgiven)

Turtle beach 

A couple of days after the hungry belly incident we were on the beach at Agonda and I asked Allison what she was reading on her Ipad, "an article about emotional immaturity" she replied, "so you are doing some self development" I responded, as I don't know anyone who's emotionally immature I thought. "Emotional immaturity in men, Tom". I had been told! The realisation of me behaving like a nob wasn't a new concept to me, being a nob had happened on numerous occasions but I couldn't use the normal excuse of being stressed or feeling tired as we were in paradise without any worries and I hadn't worked nights in nearly a month, although if I'm honest I hadn't slept well for a couple of nights.

Boxing day turned out to be a better day for both of us. I managed to keep little Tommy in check, the toys stayed in the pram and my adult self reigned supreme. After the disappointment of breakfast on Christmas day I took Allison on the back of the scooter, sans nausea to have breakfast at Space Goa where she had a delicious smoked salmon with scrambled eggs. I was redeeming myself from the previous days hiccup.

The next stop on the scooter was cola beach.

After that we visited Cabo de Rama which is an old fort a little bit further north along the coast. We wandered round the site taking in the Banyan trees, views and practising some yoga postures in precarious positions.

Allison and the Banyan tree

A view from the fort

Striking a crow pose atop the battlements.

On the 27th we basically decided that we weren't going to do a lot and spend the day relaxing on the beach. We had dropped the scooter off the evening before so had no plans whatsoever.
We chilled out at the H2O restaurant as it made Allison feel like we were partially staying there. At lunch I broke my vegetarianism which I was trying to sustain the whole time I was in India apart from a bit of fish now and again by eating some chicken. I didn't like the chicken very much, probably because it didn't have campylobacter and my body can't process a good healthy chicken. You don't really need to eat meat here as the majority of the dishes are vegetarian and taste better than their meat counterparts anyway.
In the evening we went for a meal at the roadhouse bar which is at the north end of Agonda beach. It is owned and run by a group of Nepalese guys who are doing their first season here.

We had a plate full of seafood which included a whole tuna, prawns, king prawns and squid. Everything was great about the evening but the only thing I regret is sharing two bucket mojitos and not just having the one.

The 28th was all about another day of relaxation, hangover minimising and the fruit bat tree. There are a couple of trees at the north end of Agonda beach which are covered with sleeping fruit bats and come dusk they start to slowly wake up, start screeching at each other and then take to the sky's in search of mangoes, bananas and other fruits.

If you are ever here it is well worth paying a visit to see the bats as they start to awaken and go off on their nightly hunt for food.