I really debated on including Goa in my itinerary. As I've said many times, beaches bore me quickly, yet I decided on four nights in India's beach state. The thing is, I desperately miss being a backpacker, and Goa is backpacker central with a party scene to match. This was also the only place we visited where I could wear shorts and tank tops without a second glance from locals, so that was a nice break from appropriate outfit planning.
What I had not anticipated was a pandemic outbreak in the middle of my trip which kinda killed the social scene. On the one hand, it was a bummer that the main thing I'd come to Goa for wasn't available, but on the other, it was a great place to be when things were shutting down since there wasn't any big sightseeing to do and we were able to just chill out and relax.
I was also looking forward to ending this trip in Mumbai, as Lewis lives there and really enjoys the city, but things were super weird in pandemic-land by the time we arrived. This blog is probably going to end up being more of an account of what it was like to travel in the time of Covid than it will be a destination guide, but here we go...
Day 8 (of overall trip) Arrival in Goa & Hilltop party
We landed in Goa on a Sunday afternoon which was intentional because the biggest trance party in the region at Hilltop near Vagator takes place every Sunday night. We had a driver pick us up from the airport and drive us north to the Vagator area where I had booked a hostel.
Hilltop
I haven't yet mentioned driving in India, which I actually thought was not quite as insane as other Asian countries I've visited but still insane by western standards. Obviously to start, there are cows everywhere, as they are sacred in India and just wander the streets without a care in the world. (Also note that you will not find beef meals anywhere. There's usually a vegetarian section on each menu and a non-veg section that includes only non-cow meats- mainly chicken.)
As crazy as the roads are, it's easy to assume that everyone is a terrible driver. After awhile though, I decided that actually they all must be GREAT drivers considering there are animals wandering the streets, motorbikes and tuk-tuks weaving between cars, and virtually no road laws, lights, or signs, yet I saw not a single accident (and Lewis who had been living there for six months said the same). Meanwhile we in the US have enforced speed limits, traffic lights, and clearly defined road lanes, yet last time I took a road trip I saw at least five totaled cars over the course of a few days.
Streets in Goa are also not as crazy as, for instance, Delhi
I really struggled with the hour long drive from the Goa airport though due to speed bumps being all over the place, which our driver seemed to enjoy zooming up to before abruptly halting on the brakes. He dropped us at the entrance to our hostel and we made plans for him to pick us up four days later to take us back to the airport.
The north and south of Goa are very different vibes, from what I've heard. The south is where you'll want to go if you're looking for luxury resorts, quiet beaches, and middle aged British tourists. The north is the place to go if you want to party.
I had chosen a hostel called The Bucket List due to its proximity to Hilltop and cool hippie looking setup.... but I almost wasn't let in. We went to the bar to check in and met Ash (who I think may have been an owner). Since I'd only been in India for a week, he asked if I had a health certificate (showing I didn't have Covid). He told us they were sending away travelers from certain countries and had just had to outbook a group of Italians. He ended up letting me stay which I think was due to a combination of the US not having many cases yet, Lewis having been living in the country, and the fact that we'd booked a private room instead of a dorm.
The private room I was not a huge fan of. The main point of staying in a hostel is to socialize, and that's much easier to do in dorms. Lewis hasn't always been a big fan of dorms which is why I booked a private, but at this hostel, the private rooms were in a separate building across the street which was more like an apartment complex. We were allowed to come hang in the hostel communal areas, but we weren't really staying on the premises, so it just felt like we had a cheap hotel. There was a balcony, kitchen, washer, and lots of space, but also the bed was ROCK SOLID. Like I genuinely thought we were sleeping on a slab of bare wood until I checked to see if there was a mattress.
This was the only night we really spent any time at the hostel bar. After checking in, we went to have some drinks and dinner. The Bucket List serves some decent local craft beer including an IPA, and at one point the bartender gave us all a round of Old Monk rum shots. It was a little quiet though and most of the other guests seemed like they were about 18 years old (I realize most hostel guests are not 31 but many of them do skew a bit older than teenagers).
We walked over to Hilltop around 6 PM or so which only took about 5 minutes from our hostel. Hilltop was super cool. It was all red dirt and LED lit palm trees with neon painted trunks. There was a trance DJ onstage and a bar where we grabbed some drinks. I stuck with beer because the hostel bartenders had said it's not uncommon to get spiked at Hilltop... although maybe that's the way to go. At least half the people there were for sure on drugs which also explains how they were enjoying the music. I mean, some EDM is ok, but you cannot convince me that trance is danceable whatsoever.
Since we couldn't figure out how to bounce around to the electronic sounds, we found a nice palm tree to sit up against with our beers. A sweet dog trotted over to us and immediately curled up across our laps and fell asleep, so it was a pretty successful night actually. I'm super glad we had a chance to check out Hilltop (at what we were told was the last party before shutdown), but I think it would have been more fun with a group of friends or, like, some MDMA.
Day 9 Vagator Beach & W Goa
I slept until noon the following day and woke up feeling terrible. I had been pretty tipsy the previous night but my stomach had started going downhill at Hilltop and still wasn't right for a few more days, so this was definitely more of a bug than a hangover. Lewis was even worse, and I'm blaming the packed meals our Udaipur hotel gave us for breakfast the day we left.
I managed to drag myself out of the room and we stopped at a place called Jaws for lunch along the road to the beach. I ordered an omelette for something bland to settle my stomach and then a hot and sour soup because I just love spicy food and that's what I crave even when I'm sick. This was one of the spiciest and best soups I have ever had and it actually made me feel a million times better.
We had a very chilled out afternoon laying out on some recliners at the rocky, cliff-enclosed Vagator Beach. It was a little crowded and definitely the least scenic beach we visited in Goa, but I had a cocktail and a book so I was happy enough. It was also fun to watch cows strolling around the sand. (As a side note, I also was thrilled to finally see cats all around Goa after not having seen a single one during the first week of our trip.)
That evening, Lewis took me to the W Goa, a ridiculously fancy resort hotel where he had done some cocktail trainings in the past. It was completely deserted due to the virus, not a soul in the main bar, spa was closed, and they took our temperatures before letting us in.
The W Goa is a complex so massive that you needed a golf cart to get to the different areas, and we passed the fancy hotel bungalows along the way to another of their bars called the Rock Pool. This one has a lit up pool and cushioned teepees you can sit in with your drinks.
After some cocktails there, we hopped back in the golf cart to visit their Asian restaurant, Spice Traders. I had some of the best veg sushi of my life- enoki mushroom rolls and kimchi cream cheese rolls- and I would totally recommend dinner here.
Day 10 Explore Panaji
The following morning after lunch at a cool cafe called Baba Al Rhum, we rented a motorbike and took off to do some exploring.
We headed about 40 minutes south to the capital of Goa, Panjim (or Panaji). It was also face-meltingly hot that day, so less than 10 minutes after parking the bike, we were seeking shelter in a cafe for cold water and ceiling fans.
We gathered our strength and headed back out after cooling off. There is a lot of colonial influence in Goa from the Portuguese which is very evident in the architecture, especially in this area called Fontainhaus. There are also two sets of fun stairs to see- the rainbow stairs and the peacock stairs.
Our bike was parked outside of a pretty bright white church called Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Christianity also seemed more prevalent in Goa), and after some photos there we drove over to Miramar Beach. It was larger and nicer than Vagator for sure, but there was a lot of trash littering the shore, and overall I've just seen nicer beaches in other parts of the world than in Goa.
Finally we hit up a park called the Campal Gardens which had nice landscaped paths, statues, and boats by the water.
I should also mention that gambling is only legal in two states in India, one of which is Goa, but it is only allowed in offshore vessels, so there are huge casino boats out on the water near Panaji.
On our way back up, we stopped at a fancy hotel Vivante to get some cocktails, and we were literally the only two people sitting in the hotel restaurant during main dinner hours. It was super evident that tourists were clearing out of India... which didn't stop the waiters from taking a half hour to bring us our cocktails though.
Side note- there is a popular local alcohol in Goa called feni. I had tried the cashew feni with soda water at a bar we stopped by after Hilltop and thought it was disgusting, but then I ordered this amazing cocktail at Vivante that had coconut feni, coconut water, honey, and vanilla ice cream, and that was fantastic, so maybe it's just best used in mixed drinks versus straight (or coconut>cashew).
Back in our area, we hit up Curlies on Anjuna Beach for dinner. This is meant to be a main party bar in Goa and I'd expect would have normally been packed and rowdy, but it was so dead (not to mention, this was on St. Patrick's Day). They had balcony seating as well as tables on the beach, and we grabbed one up top. It was lucky there were kittens to distract us because while Lewis got his pizza in about 10 minutes, I was still waiting for a paneer tikka starter 45 minutes later. All while I had to look at a dance floor pumping with flashing lights and music but not a single person on it. Depressing.
Day 11 Chapora Fort & Anjuna Flea Market
Goa is very hippie and therefore very veggie friendly, and I got Lewis to go with me to a vegan cafe called Bean Me Up for breakfast (mainly by mistaking it for a vegetarian cafe until we arrived, oh well!).
We still had the motorbike for the day, and we parked at the bottom of Chapora Fort afterwards. It was only a 5-10 minute walk from the parking area to the top, but once again it was sweltering and we were struggling a little in the heat.
You could see Vagator from the top as well as a beach called Morjim on the other side popular with Russians. I also just liked the aesthetic of crumbling rock walls with dirt floor and scattered plants... just had to strategically photograph around the trash.
We stopped for an iced coffee at a cafe and a quick cool down in our room's AC before continuing on to the Anjuna Flea Market which takes place every Wednesday along the roads near the beach. It was actually pretty spacious with the wide roads and chill with mainly hippie tourists shopping, not at all chaotic like many Asian markets. You still need to haggle or you're going to get ripped off, but to be honest I never quite figured out the conversion between rupees and dollars for this trip, so I deferred to Lewis for a lot of help.
I managed to get the entirety of my souvenir shopping and gift buying done here over the course of a couple hours, and we spent our last evening in Goa relaxing with some cocktails on Anjuna Beach and grabbing dinner at a funky diner-style hotel restaurant called Food Chord near our hostel.
Also, I had been receiving an increasing number of messages from people at home concerned about whether or not I'd be able to fly back at this point, and that night my mom had messaged to tell me the US-Canada border was closing. My flight back home was meant to go through Toronto, so I immediately went onto United's website to switch to a flight the same night through Newark instead (change fees waived, fare difference of just $7 to pay). It was lucky I did because basically all flights from Canada to the US I checked for the next week, including the one I was meant to be on, ended up cancelled. Day 12 Arrive in Mumbai
After returning to Jaws the next morning to have their hot and sour soup one last time and being devastated to find out they don't serve soup for breakfast (thankfully their idli sambar- squishy bread you dip in curries- and chili cheese toast were a nice consolation prize), we headed back to the airport to fly to Mumbai. The Goa airport at midday was noticeably uncrowded, which Lewis said was unusual for this tourist spot. There was definitely a weird evacuation vibe.
Since I haven't spoken much about flying in India yet either, one thing to note is that men and women have separate security lines (this is something you will also see at any tourist attraction with security). The men get patted down by male staff out in the open, while women are exclusively checked by female staff in private enclosed booths... something I thought was very considerate for women in a country where sexual harassment and assault is a common problem.
The female security side with enclosed pat down booths
One other odd thing is that some airports have transitioned to being "silent airports," including Mumbai. There are no announcements or music over any kind of speaker systems. The staff at your gate will just yell out when it's time to board- no microphones or amplified sound.
Landing in Mumbai is shocking for an entirely different reason though- you descend right over the city's massive slums. I looked out the window the first time we were landing there and my jaw dropped at all of the stacked shanty houses. Huge blocks of them. The view was more extreme on the other side of the plane than the side I was sitting on this time, but I managed to get a few shots below.
Mumbai is a very good example of the stark contrast in wealth and caste in India. It holds the largest slum in the country (and one of the largest in Asia overall) yet also houses expensive hotels and apartments owned by Bollywood stars (one of which was right around the corner from Lewis's apartment and where there were always groups of Indians hovering outside hoping for celeb sightings).
Dharavi Slums
Street where Lewis's apartment building is located
Lewis lives in a nice modest apartment building, smaller than his huge Delhi flat but cuter and cozier with nice views of the palm trees out the windows. He and his flatmates are assigned a driver (Mo) which is common for expats in India, and he arrives in the morning and sits downstairs all day in case they need to go anywhere. There's also security staff outside the elevators and a very sweet housekeeper (Mabel) who comes a few times a week to clean and cook meals for them (another common service in India).
View from the flat
One of Lewis's two roommates had been meant to leave India mid-April, but due to the coronavirus situation, he had rebooked his flights to leave that weekend. He'd then spoken to the Irish embassy, however, and they told him to get out as quickly as possible (this was four days before he was meant to leave), and so he'd taken off to Ireland the night before we got back to Mumbai. His other roommate, a Scottish guy named Jordan, was debating whether or not to leave as well, and he ended up going home a few weeks after I left.
Most restaurants and bars were already closed in Mumbai at this point, but some hotels were still open, so that night Lewis and Jordan took me to a fancy hotel they were familiar with, Soho, and got us access to the exclusive VIP rooftop bar since the staff knew them from trainings. Photos weren't allowed up there, but Lewis managed to secretly snap one by the pool.
Please ignore my humidity hair and reused jumpsuit
We also stopped on another private floor that reminded me of a 70s lounge bar, then had dinner and drinks on the ground floor with the common folk. I was sure to appreciate all of it knowing full well these would be the last days I would be eating out at a restaurant for an indefinite amount of time. Day 13 Dharavi Slums & Zero Latency VR
I woke up on Friday with alarming messages from my mother and another friend of mine who was in the Maldives mentioning that the US had gone on level 4 travel alert (citizens return home immediately). At this point, my flight was scheduled for the following night, so I was willing to risk it, but I felt the stress for my friend in the Maldives who was still meant to be there for over another week. She ended up holding out a few more days before rebooking, had massive troubles finding flights as both her original and one she had rebooked were cancelled or going to be impossible to take due to layovers in the UAE which was completely closing its borders, and ended up having to pay for an entirely separate airline as her only option home.
At this point, there was no sightseeing to be done in Mumbai, but we did try. We had Mo drive us out to a large city park (closed), tried to see some outdoor caves (gates closed), hopped the gates anyway and were promptly reprimanded by a security guard, and finally parked outside the Dharavi slums and found a large overhead walkway that allowed us to take a look.
I had really wanted to do a slum tour as I think it's important to see how other people live around the world and proceeds are donated back to the slums, but tour companies were not allowed to operate at the moment under penalty by the government. Lewis had taken one recently though and was told that most of the people in the slums are men who don't permanently live there but come to the city for periods of time to work and make money to bring back to their families. Apparently "slum wives" are also common (aka mistresses).
Just seeing the slums from the walkway though was eye-opening. These shanty houses were just stacked one on top of the other with trash piled up on the roofs, there was a river that was literally so packed with garbage you couldn't even see water, and intersecting all of it were narrow streets with the shops operating on the ground level and living quarters above. I'm glad we found a safe way to see them, but we were warned to definitely NOT try wandering the slums on our own- definitely sign up with a tour if you'd like a closer look.
Trash river
We had mainly driven around for two hours aimlessly, but one very dystopian takeaway from that were the Covid billboards lining both sides of the highway (and local roads), one right after the other. They were bare white boards with stark red font warning about coronavirus, "we can stop Covid-19", graphics of people shaking hands with slashes through them, and notes about distancing and covering your mouth. It looked like something you'd wake up to find in a post-apocalyptic world after the population has been wiped out and go, "What the fuck happened here?"
There was at least one entertainment business still operating- Zero Latency, a virtual reality experience that Lewis had done before and wanted to take me to. Jordan came along as well as three of their French friends, so we had a good group for it.
This was super cool! I swear I didn't just time travel here from the 80s and know that VR tech has been around for a considerable amount of time now, but actually stepping inside a game always blows my mind and it was even cooler to do it with 5 others at the same time.
Once we put on the headsets we couldn't hear anything but each other on the microphones and see each other's avatars in the game, and sensors would beep if we got too close to another player or the walls. The first game we played was called Singularity involving us fighting robots on a space station (graphics reminded me a bit of Mass Effect) and was the better of the two in my opinion, and the second was us fighting zombies in a city setting. The trippiest part was how real it felt walking along planks above sheer drops or going uphill/downhill despite knowing that we were actually just walking in circles around an empty square room the entire time. We had a blast and I'm glad the place was still operating at the time.
We hit up the Four Seasons up the road for some drinks on their rooftop which had beautiful views of the city. It was my last visit to a bar for months and I made sure to take it all in! We were supposed to go to dinner after, but Lewis had ordered six generous appetizers for the tables to "hold us over" and nobody was still hungry afterwards (except Lewis).
Day 14 Waterfront Walk & Relax (because nothing is open)
I didn't even bother trying to come up with things to do on my last day. Mumbai was closed, and the prime minister put the entire country on lockdown two days later. We went to a really cute restaurant called The Bagel Shop for breakfast, and despite them being out of variety bagel options, this portobello mushroom with spinach, onions, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and chili garlic cream cheese was amaaazing even on a plain bagel.
The rest of the day was spent taking a brief walk down the waterfront, binging Netflix, drinking whiskey, and ordering in one last huge Indian meal before it was time to head to the airport.
I was beyond relieved to be getting on one of the last flights available to get home. Mumbai's airport was completely closed the next day as a trial run while the city shut down, and on Monday, the country went on lockdown completely.
My flight was completely packed. I waited 45 minutes for the bag drop line, then was sent into a panic when they called my name at the gate to tell me someone had to escort me back to go through my luggage. They thought I had power banks (portable chargers) in there despite me swearing up and down that I did not. The flight was already boarding, and this United employee walked me all the way across the airport, up and down two elevators, and back through a security hallway to the suspicious baggage room.
Mumbai Airport
They asked me again if I had power banks and I said no. They threw my suitcase through the x-ray, pointed out two squares, and asked what they were. I said not power banks. They had me open my suitcase, I started tossing makeup palettes, toiletries, everything at them to examine, and then they pulled out the items in question and asked me what they were while I stared in shame. "Uhh, oh... those are power banks." Lewis had insisted on giving me these Ballantines whiskey promotional power banks to take home and I had completely forgotten about them. For fuck's sake.
I took those stupid power banks and half ran (as well as I could with my United escort at my side) back to the gate where they were announcing final call. There was then weirdly a second security line past the gate which I've never seen before, and I was so happy to finally settle down in my window seat for the 15 hour duration of my flight back to Newark.
I slept like shit, but I made it back onto US soil. Walking into Newark was EERIE. One of the country's busiest airport hubs and it was absolutely empty. There was not a soul in sight as we disembarked aside from our fellow passengers. Empty gates, closed shops, dead silence. Last time I came through Newark, I missed my connection because the immigration line was so long. This time we were the only plane there and I was through in less than 10 minutes. They barely asked me questions and there were zero health checks.
Shots I snapped at Newark on March 22, 2020
We were all yelled at in the bag drop line for crowding at the drop point (after the machine had jammed two times). "The virus!" this attendant was crying out to us, as if we hadn't all just spent 15 hours crammed into a single pressurized tube eating, sleeping, and practically sitting on top of each other. Whatever diseases any of us had, we were sharing them at that point.
I was relieved to see my bag after the last minute power bank debacle in Mumbai, and the customs guy didn't even glance at my slip as he ushered us all through. My connecting flight was in Terminal A, and a bunch of us followed instructions to leave the airport and take the shuttle bus there only to find out that Terminal A was shut down. They sent us back to Terminal C where we had to go through security again and follow special signs leading us to a specific shuttle straight to our gates (at one point yet again getting yelled at for standing too close to the Indian family that I had literally just sat next to for the full duration of an overnight flight).
Cleveland was equally empty and it was strange that I basically came back to an entirely different world than the one I had left two weeks ago. I worked for four days (barely, as nobody was booking travel) before being furloughed- going on three months now- and spent two months barely leaving my house and not physically touching a single human being until I finally got restless enough to leave on a road trip.
That's an entirely different topic though, so it's time to finally wrap up on India. Putting the crazy circumstances of the final week aside, this is a country I would love to see more of one day, and I feel beyond fortunate I made it on this trip in at the literal last possible moment having no idea when international travel will now be feasible again. Here's hoping it's soon.
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