We boarded our short flight to Goa and quickly found ourselves in the Dabolim airport having our visas checked. First hurdle complete! We were in! 
We caught a taxi all the way to the northern town of Anjuna known for its 1960s hippie-vibes and trance parties. The idea was to start here and head south. The taxi ride was interesting and it’s a surprise the driver knew where he was going but after about an hour of driving we arrived at a dishevelled and quiet building with name of our hostel on the outside. A little apprehensively we sent the taxi off and were left in a paddy field with no place to go but into the building. We were let in to a small lounge room which looked like it was being cleaned up from the remnants of a party the night before and we sat and rested our eyes until 8.30 when we were greeted by the receptionist and offered a much needed breakfast. 
After breakfast we had no option but to head out and explore as our rooms weren’t ready yet. We walked down to the beach from the hostel and a long to the “main centre”. It had a mirky air to it and the haze of tiredness didn’t help the situation. We were cornered by a young girl and boy around 11-18 who started to try to sell us items tempting us in by complimenting our skin tone referring to us as “white chickens”. There didn’t seem to be too much to entertain ourselves with so we decided to enter one of the only bar/restaurants to have a drink and plan our next move. 
We walked back to our hostel to find our rooms still weren’t ready and the lounge room was filled with loud music, smoke, 5 men and a bottle of whiskey. The only thing which interested us was sleep. So we closed our eyes and slept through the party. 
When we finally were allowed into our room we slept again for an hour before making the decision to move on. It seemed that Anjuna didn’t have much to offer but the wreckages of beach parties from the night before so we planned to head to Calangute for the night. 
When we arrived in Calangute the hostel we were aiming for looked like a building site and the taxi driver wasn’t sure where he was going so he dropped us off and we scrambled around looking for somewhere to stay. We settled on a small basic hotel but the hot water, a/c, wifi and private rooms were enough to satisfy us. We rented a moped and set off to explore Calangute and Baga. 
The contrast between Calangute and Baga, and Anjuna was outstanding. The hustle and bustle was something to embrace and the streets were filled with Indians from afar on their holidays. The experience was enhanced by the exhilaration from my first time on a moped on the busy streets of India. 
We headed to Baga beach which was heaving from Indians on holiday. We grabbed dinner at a beach side bar. Our first taste of Indian food! The famous Goan fish curry, butter masala, rice and naans. A whole day with little sleep and no food, it was happily welcomed and washed down with a litre of beer. We made our way back through the hectically busy, lit up streets of Baga and Calangute. Showered and lay down for a proper sleep after 28 hours of solid travel.