Neither Sam nor I slept well the night before. I was in a lot of pain in my ribs and there was a huge Indian man in our room who snores louder than anyone I had ever heard before. For that reason, we slept in for a while this morning and it was difficult to get up up. We wolfed down breakfast quickly before it finished and decided to stay in Palolem for a little while longer. We tried to book another night in our dorm but it was fully booked so we booked into a double room which turned out to be a blessing as it was only 100rupees more and nice to have our own space away from the snoring giant. 

We didn’t do too much this day and the lack of sleep got us feeling a bit under the weather. We had lunch on the beach and came back to our new air conditioned room of luxury and had a long nap. We decided that the next day we would head out and explore. 
The hostel manager had planned to give out free beer to everyone because the hostel was full (a rare thing during low season) so I left Sam resting in bed to go meet some more people. We drank a few beers on the balcony and headed out together around 20 of us all from Europe. 
We headed to a nice restaurant which sold cheese, not uncommon in India but usually it is dried up cottage cheese or paneer. This was good French, Swiss, Greek and British cheese and we all relished in it, particularly the French girl with us. 
I headed back and climbed into bed feeling exhausted. 

The blackout blinds in the room had destroyed all sense of time for us and we were pleased that breakfast ran until midday when we found that we didn’t wake until 10.30am. We treated ourselves to pancakes and waffles and Sam had a quick dip in the pool. Anyone that knows me would know that the pool is my second home and where I feel most comfortable but unfortunately, due to my wounds, there would be no swimming for me.  

We had heard that the South was a lot more relaxed and not much to do so we decided that if I needed more time to recover, it would be best to do so down there and then to work our way back up to where the action is once I felt better. 
We flagged a taxi but were told that a taxi to Palolem would cost us 3500Rupees which was too much so the taxi driver directed us to the bus stop and we decided to take the bus down south. 3 buses over 3 hours cost us 100Rupees and was a pleasant way to travel.
We arrived in Palolem and immediately the vibe was extremely different. It was a lot quieter and there were less Indian tourists but a lot more western travellers could be found. We didn’t really know where to go so we walked in the direction that seemed best; to the beach! 
We stopped in a busy cafe and had a beer and some food just to get our bearings. The view of the beach was incredible but the weather let it down. Grey clouds started to set in and the rain began. There was a group of girls in the cafe who looked like travellers so I asked them where they were staying and they named a cheap hostel which was fairly busy and this seemed like a good place to go. So we grabbed our big bags and walked the 10 minute walk, through the rain to the hostel. 
We arrived at hostel Summer (a partner hostel of hostel Prison, we had almost stayed in in Anjuna). It had a good vibe and there were a bunch of people there. 450Rupees a night, hot showers, free breakfast; we couldn’t complain! 
In the dorm room was a chatty Glaswegian girl and two German guys and it was nice to have some company of fellow travellers, something we had been lacking. We settled in, got our laundry done and chilled. 
We were invited to dinner with the group in our room but we weren’t hungry so we just drank beer! While sitting in the small restaurant we could hear the fireworks and music of a passing parade celebrating the Ganesha Chaturthi.  During Ganesha Chaturthi Hindi people pray to the elephant-headed God, Ganesha (the god of new beginnings), to ask that all future endeavours shall be completed without obstacle.This is something I can definitely relate and maybe now my future path will go without obstacle?? 

The procession passed with a clay model of Ganesha in the back of a van and a temporary shrine to honour him. It was an odd sight seeing a small procession of people blowing up firecrackers and dancing to trance music in honour of a god. The procession made its way to the beach where the clay model was immersed in the sea and Ganesha would lay there slowly disintigrating for the next few days. 

We decided to head down to the beach to chill on the beach with a few beers but on the walk down it started to rain. Monsoon season in India isn’t the best time to come, but hey, that’s why it’s cheap! We headed to the bar we were in earlier and played some pool and drank some more beers. We also met some other guys from Australia and Wales and it was nice to have a chilled vibe totally different from the North of Goa. We grabbed a few more beers and headed back to the hostel to sit on the balcony. And we definitely felt content with life. 

We woke up to a knocking on the door from our landlady. We had to return the moped and the lady was demanding the key. We were a little worried there may have been damage to it but if there was, we were not found out. 
My body had definitely been feeling better. And needless to say we were not going on the tour we had booked the day before. This was probably the least of our worries as waking up I was beginning to feel the pain. The abrasions to my knee and my arms looked bad superficially and gave me a burning sensation but my ribs and and side felt bruised. We decided the best idea would be to head to the hospital and to spend the day in a nice hotel. We said earlier on in the trip that we would spend some money to have a night in a nice hotel when we really needed it. Today we really needed it. 

We packed up and left and grabbed a taxi to a hotel we had seen the day before. It was 5* luxury with a pool and fitness suite, DVDs, crisp linen and everything else we needed. For £25/pp it was expensive for India but still a bargain. 
We dropped our bags off and headed to the hospital. It was a strange experience but an interesting one. I was seen to in a room with another man crying in pain and it made my injuries seem so much better. The nurse didn’t have the best bed side manner to say the least and I was smeared on my wounds with “red medicine”. No other explanation was given. The doctor came and in an ordered for me to get anti-inflammatories and the nurse, in her slow way, obliged. The most helpful of them all was the chemist who explained to me what the drugs were for and how they could help me. And the process in total came to 500Rupees (around £5). 
We went back to the hotel and treated ourselves to some dinner and settled in to watch some movies. It was nice to take advantage of the service and the concern given to us. We slept all through the night rejuvenating ourselves. 

We could not wake up! An alarm set at 7, I
8 and 9 wouldn’t do anything. It was only the hotel owner waking us up with a knock on the door at 9.30 that woke us up. 

Jet lag had got the best of us. We weren’t sure what to do so we decided to drive up to Baga beach to see if we could find any dive shop. The only shop we could find told us that diving was done. We were out of season and had come at the wrong time. We knew this already but we hoped it wasn’t true. So we booked a trip for tomorrow to go on a water sports adventure. 
We ended up driving to Candolim. About 4 kms south of where we’re staying to have lunch. Tandoori chicken with garlic naan. Probably one of the best meals I have had in my life. We enjoyed it and played cards. After we went down to the beach to swim but were called in by the lifeguard because it was too rough so we just enjoyed the view. We decided instead to drive up to Aguada prison and fort to see what it had to offer. 
It was an old 16th century fort built by the Portuguese to defend the bay from the Dutch. It was fairly impressive and our first look at colonial Goa. The view of the surrounding Bay Area was stunning despite the ominous clouds coming in to signify the rains were about to come. 

We hopped onto our bike and headed back to the hotel to shower, get changed and head out to one of the many bars Baga had to offer. We checked out Titos, an obvious Goan favourite as even the main road signs were pointing towards it. We sampled some of the Goan seafood with Shrimp curry and a couple of frozen margaritas. 
We moved on down the strip of bars to one which drew us in by the sounds of wailing singers indulging in karaoke. We arrived took a seat and within moments handed in a request for a song. When it came to our turn to sing, I can’t say we were appreciated by the crowd. But that didn’t stop us. We met a group of young girls from Mumbai and two young entrepreneurial Indians and danced the night away. 
When it came to leave we got onto our moped and I was eager to drive home and prove my driving skills I had learnt that day. It had been raining and I (a little too eagerly) pulled down on the accelerator. I don’t remember too much but we were lying on the floor with the bike on top of us and a crowd of people circled around us in concern. We were lucky to be with Rahul and his friend as he escorted us back to our hotel with Sam driving at the front. 
Back in the hotel we decided that we needed to disinfect my wounds so I washed myself off in the shower and Sam grabbed the only antiseptic we had, alcohol gel. If you have ever put 99% alcohol on your open wounds, you might have a small idea of the pain I felt thereafter. Screaming out in pain, my body went into shock and I began to shiver. Sam managed to grab a first aid kit from a man across the road from our hotel and she bandaged me up with an antiseptic pad. I promptly fell asleep bundle up in a blanket.