We finally arrived in India around 5am, stepping out into our first of many monsoon down pours. Piling our gear into a taxi, we at first thought we would never get to the hostel after becoming caught up in a parking lot traffic jam, surrounded by a cacophony of honking buses and taxis. Freeing us from the parking lot, the 90minute drive from the airport to Vagator beach took us past the capital and into a rural jungle, the journey slowed to dodge cows lying in the middle of the road. This was something we would learn was normal, even on highways, due to their sacred status.

Our hostel was surrounded by lush jungle and was quite basic but the staff were very friendly. The morning was spent relaxing, waiting for our beds to become ready for check-in. After a bit of confusion over which bunks were to be ours we decided to upgrade to a double private, which we discovered was down the road.

Our first afternoon in Goa was spent down at the near by bar where we soon met a local and our conversation turned to all things Indian. A couple of hours later we followed his recommendation and visited another local who had lived in Perth but was now running a yoga retreat. Sam, the yogi, welcomed us warmly offering delicious vegetarian snacks and beer, while we sat with other guests for an enjoyable, chatty evening. The past few exhausting days were finally starting to take their toll so we headed back to the hostel early, our first night in a bed since leaving Turkey.

The following day was spent relaxing around the hostel as well as wandering the surrounding area. The rain continued to come for most of the day, which was welcomed to allow us to become more acclimatised to the tropical heat. The downside to the constant moisture in the air was how long it was taking for our freshly washed clothes to dry. This was made worse by the constant power outages, due to us requiring a fan to speed up the drying process. Between showers we headed to the local travel agent to book our train ticket to Trivandrum. As it turned out, our train would be leaving on the Thursday instead of the Friday, cutting our stay in Goa short.

Having relaxed the day before, we boldly hired a scooter for a trip into Panjim, to see another side of Goa. The ride in along the thin roads required Jedi levels of concentration as other scooters, cars, buses and trucks, converged and overtook, us with the journey growing more hectic as more lanes were added. Arriving in Panjim, we were glad to get off the roads for a bit and ready to explore the city. After discovering the area we had parked offered very little worth exploring, we had lunch before getting back on the road. Slightly more seasoned and with full bellies, we took to the roads with more confidence, beeping like an Indian as we rashly overtook other traffic. We arrived back to the hostel just as the heavens opened, having enjoyed an often white-knuckled Indian experience.

Our final full day in Goa, we walked down the main road to the beach, accompanied by the hostel dog that’d taken us under his wing. The sea was extremely rough and the strong tide seemed to be churning in more rubbish than water.  Bored with the beach, Kayla decided to add some excitement by slipping arse up in the mud. This gave us a good excuse to head back to the hostel and out of the humidity. The journey took longer than expected after taking a wrong turn, hindered by the lack of any names for the small roads we were walking along but eventually we reappeared to clean up and have an early night.

We checked out early and waited in the hostel until 11am before catching a taxi to the Magdao train station for our 1:05pm train. This turned out to be delayed by 2 hours but finally arrived and we were escorted to our cabin. We had paid a little extra to go first class and so were able to enjoy our first bit of air conditioning along with food and bedding.

For the first part of our journey three other Indians who were on the way to a nearby town to inspect a construction site joined us offering us some interesting conversation. In the evening we were offered a more private room and so spent the remainder of our trip feeling very spoilt until we arrived at Trivandrum, 9am the next day.