Goa re visited

I  don't remember much of Goa from my first trip except for the crayfish on the beach sitting at a wooden table and looking out at the sea.

It was here that I had a major argument with the people on the Top Deck Tour. They wanted to sit on the beach get stoned out of their heads and do little else. Spending the next ten years of my life in an Indian jail for drug offenses was not on my bucket list and I told them so.  A taxi driver heard the heated exchanged and said : "You have very problem." He invited me into the taxi took me to the churches and the sites and the problem was solved.

Second time round it was very different.

 The map below shows the places that I plan visit this time.

1. Paroda Village
2. Loutolim
3. Ponda Town
4. Dona Paula
5. Carmona
6. Agonda Beach
7. Fatorpa
8. Benualim

How it all began

I was last in India in 1977.  Yes, that's right, 43 years ago. It was coming close to the end of the tour with Top Deck travel and the bus stopped on a lonely road. The sun was setting. The sky was a golden red. I asked myself if I would ever return to this country and my inner voice replied: "Yes, but not for a long time."

After an absence of 43 years, I am going back. This time with more plan and purpose and with greater organisation. I plan to start in Goa with a five-day visit before flying on to New Zealand, where I am originally from, and then to return to India on March 29th and go a three-week tour of the Himalayas with Rishikesh Day Tours, but my tour will be a lot longer than a day.

So here is my travel itinerary in the Himalayas:

India Pilgrimage Tours

But let me remember why I first went to India and how I got there. I am not really sure why I wanted to go so much. I was 23 at the time and hadn't been out of New Zealand without my parents. It may have had something to do with learning Transcendental Meditation with the Maharahi Mahesh Yogi crowd but I was upset with them always asking for more and more money and more and more courses to reach enlightenment which was certainly not happening. I needed to make the trip and I made it.