Hmmm, what do I say about my first day and night in Goa? For some people I feel like I need to give the most optimistic view of the last twenty-four hours. If nothing more than alleve their concerns about me. Having said that though, I haven’t heard from anyone who is asking what it’s like here, so I guess I can tell it like it actually is. :)

The Flight:

First, let me say that I’ve taken probably somewhere near 50 flights in the last seven years, so although it will probably sound like I’m complaining, I’m actually not. I’m recounting the experience and although it has a negative, ‘spin’ it is just part of the traveling experience. It was  three and a half hour flight from Dubai to Goa and the plane left the airport about 11pm. Not bad, as it would give me some time to sleep before we landed, and except for a day flight, it was the best option. I sat down and almost immediately a small child in the row in front of me starts crying, and I should add that we’re talking the shrieking kind of crying. He cried something like 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off the entire flight. Not to be outdone, some children sitting in the row behind me would occasionally feel the urge to kick the back of my seat, if nothing more to make sure that I didn’t get any sleep. The guy next to me was suffering too, at one point, during the ‘seat kicking’ he leaned forward and put his head in his hands. When we landed in Goa I was burnt out tired. It was about 3:15 and I think I slept for about 30 minutes.

At the Airport:

It couldn’t have been easier going through the airport in Goa. In fact there was a woman that worked there that actually did much of the work for me. I was out of the airport looking for a taxi in less than thirty minutes, and about 15 were minutes waiting for my checked bags to show up in the carousel. I arrived at my apartment at about 5 in the morning. I was scheduled to pick up the keys at 7am. This was going to be a problem since my taxi driver dropped my bags in between two apartment buildings, and I didn’t know which was mine. I sat on my backpack for about ten minutes before I decided to explore a little. It turns out that one of the apartment buildings is abandoned, creepy kind of abandoned too.

My Day:

I found the apartment building and it had a lobby of sorts, nothing special just some benches and a deserted desk, so I stretched out on one of the benches to get some needed sleep. I was woken up at a little after 7 by a guy who wanted to show me the apartment. As I’ve posted before, I rented an apartment in Goa for about $300 per month, utilities paid. I gratefully accepted the key and after a few minutes of fumbling around with the tv remote I fell asleep on the couch. I was woken up by knocking on the door, I have no idea what time it was, but it was the guy who let me in with some toilet paper and a bottle of water. At this point I decided to go for a walk to see the beach. I’ll talk about the beach later… Anyway, I get back to apartment and for whatever reason I fall asleep again on the couch. I’m woken up again by knocking on the door, this time it’s the actual manager asking me questions and generally trying to be nice. I have to admit that I was half asleep and was a little bit annoyed that I was answering questions in my current state. It’s all good though and she leaves. I decide to go out and find a grocery store and have dinner. It’s about 6 now and I’m starting to get hungry. I get back roughly an hour later and within an hour hit the bed for a full nights sleep.

My Night:

I’m in bed and asleep by about 9pm local time, makes it about 7:30 Dubai time. Then the nightmare begins, bugs. I wake up and my legs are itching, which my guess is mosquitoes. Sucks, but livable. I get under the covers to avoid them, then I wake up to something crawling on my leg and I squish it. I still don’t know what it was, but the feeling of the body mass as I pushed it away is still fresh in my mind. I couldn’t get the squished bug out of my mind, was it a spider??? So I got up at about 5am and headed into the other room to play on the computer. I notice that I got two bites on my thumb that have a similarity to bed bug bites… That is one thing that I can’t deal with, fortunately for now I’m not convinced it is bedbugs, but I’m heading to a larger town later on to pick up a supply of bug sprays.