Dengue fever and Chinkungunya are vector diseases and are currently on the rise on Goa, so it’s better to be safe than sorry – particularly if you are a walking McDonalds to mosquitoes. Goa still has a major rubbish problem so it’s a breeding ground for insects and disease, Calangute and Mapusa markets in the rain are like a Disney Park for Disease!
So I sorted out the mosquito issue really quickly by buying Good Knight (54 rupees) or Mortein plug-ins, which made my apartment and nights mosquito free. The mosquito ‘danger’ hours are between 4pm and 7pm, and thankfully all the windows in my apartment had velcroed net on them. Sitting outside in the evenings was made easier by lighting a mosquito coil and putting it on the veranda. However, I avoided lighting mosquito coils in the house or bedroom as the toxins they give out make sleeping a hallucinogenic nightmare. Being out and about wasn’t a problem as I always carried a Badger Anti-Bug Balm (see links below), it’s a natural citrus balm and mine has been on 4 trips to India with me and I can’t do without. I also took along some Deet free mosquito repellent roll-on and took along two Autan sprays. I hardly got bitten, so they definitely worked. I bought a supply of Paludrine/Avloclor anti-malaria tablets, I’ve used these before and have had no adverse side effects. I met many people who were taking no malarial precautions at all. I took many precautions and took my tablets for the first few months of my trip and pre/during monsoon.
http://www.badgerbalm.com/pc-21-2-anti-bug-balm.aspx
http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/autan_v_660.html
http://www.medicines2u.com/Travel--nd--First-Aid/Malaria/Paludrine-Avloclor-Travel-Pack-Anti-Malarial--112-Tablets.html
Goa Sunset
Goan Sunset
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
India: The Pound and the Fastest Growing Economy in the World
Trust me to choose to go on my big "Goa/India Trip" when the Pound plummetted to it's lowest value against the Rupee for years. When I first arrived in Goa I managed to exchange my money for 75 Rupees to the Pound. However, during my trip the Pound increasingly fell to as low as 61-62 Rupees, and with rising inflation in India, this didn't amount to much.
Yes, India is still relatively cheap if you haven't been to India before. However, I remember the days of the 80 rupee plus exchange rate and 5 years ago consumer products and petrol were cheaper.
Goa is one of the places in India that caters for Westerners on a large scale, hence it charges tourist prices which are comparable to the West. I was amazed to find that toiletries such as deodorant, shower gels, shampoos were more expensive than the UK. Western companies such as Unilever, Garnier, Dove, Colgate and L'Oreal are making big in-roads into the Indian market and charging sky high prices - in comparison to how much the average Indian earns. Shop wisely if you are going for a long time and don't get ripped off.
I definitley found that my pound didn't go far at times. If I'd gone everywhere by taxi I'd have been broke within three months (see my Taxis and Local Bus post). After exchanging the last of my Sterling, I had to use an ATM, sadly I got a lower exchange rate and was charged £2 for every transaction. Friends took travellers cheques, but had problems changing them. The worst exchange rate I got was at Delhi airport in April, I got 800 Rupees for £15!!
The best exchange rate in North Goa was to be found at a tailors in an alleyway by the disused petrol station on Calangute strip, he regularly offered 3-5 Rupees above everywhere else.
http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=INR&image.x=45&image.y=11
Yes, India is still relatively cheap if you haven't been to India before. However, I remember the days of the 80 rupee plus exchange rate and 5 years ago consumer products and petrol were cheaper.
Goa is one of the places in India that caters for Westerners on a large scale, hence it charges tourist prices which are comparable to the West. I was amazed to find that toiletries such as deodorant, shower gels, shampoos were more expensive than the UK. Western companies such as Unilever, Garnier, Dove, Colgate and L'Oreal are making big in-roads into the Indian market and charging sky high prices - in comparison to how much the average Indian earns. Shop wisely if you are going for a long time and don't get ripped off.
I definitley found that my pound didn't go far at times. If I'd gone everywhere by taxi I'd have been broke within three months (see my Taxis and Local Bus post). After exchanging the last of my Sterling, I had to use an ATM, sadly I got a lower exchange rate and was charged £2 for every transaction. Friends took travellers cheques, but had problems changing them. The worst exchange rate I got was at Delhi airport in April, I got 800 Rupees for £15!!
The best exchange rate in North Goa was to be found at a tailors in an alleyway by the disused petrol station on Calangute strip, he regularly offered 3-5 Rupees above everywhere else.
http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=INR&image.x=45&image.y=11
Ants, cockroaches and other beasts
India is full of beasts, I came across so many during my stay that I had to learn to get used to them. I soon learnt that the best investment I would make during my stay was to buy Hit and Mortein cockroach sprays (approx 80 rupees). I wish I could have been more Buddhist like about killing things, but believe me when you see a huge cockroach running like a racehorse towards your bedroom just before you go to bed, you’d invest in sprays too (despite the chemical overload and the poison warnings). I was hugely disappointed Mortein don’t do a handbag sized can! I also discovered cockroach chalk, you draw a few lines around drains, windows or under doors where cockroaches are managing to squeeze themselves in, they walk in it and soon die. I was also surprised to learn on this visit that cockroaches can fly and they look like ridiculous flying sausages, and I'm sure they make a hissing/sniffing noise. I also discovered that cockroaches may be the only animal scientists think will survive a nuclear attack, but that’s only if they land upright, if they landed on their backs they couldn't get back up – they are useless, dirty, surprisingly fast creatures. I didn't have as close an encounter as friends who found roaches crawling up their legs/backs as they lay in bed ... urghhhh! As monsoon drew nearer the weirder the beasts that appeared were so I sprayed each room daily to kill whatever may have been lurking around – my motto was “If it has more than 4 legs ... spray it”.
I sorted out the mosquito issue really quickly by buying Good Knight (54 rupees) or Mortein plug ins, so my apartment and my nights were mosquito free. The mosquito ‘danger’ hours are between 4pm and 7pm, and thankfully all the windows in my apartment had velcroed net on them. Sitting outside in the evenings was made easier by lighting a mosquito coil and putting it on the veranda. I avoided lighting mosquito coils in the house or bedroom as the toxins they give out make sleeping a hallucinogenic nightmare. Being out and about wasn’t a problem as I always carried a Badger Anti-Bug Balm (see links below), it’s a natural citrus balm and mine has been on 4 trips to India with me and I can’t do without. I also took along some Deet free mosquito repellent roll-on and took along two Autan sprays. I hardly got bitten, so they definitely worked. I took anti-malaria tablets, I bought a supply of Paludrine/Avloclor tablets as I’ve used these before and have had no adverse side effects. I only took mine for the first few months of my trip and pre/during monsoon. Dengue fever and Chinkungunya are vector diseases and are currently on the rise on Goa, so it’s better to be safe than sorry – particularly if you are a walking McDonalds to mosquitoes. Goa still has a major rubbish problem so it’s a breeding ground for insects and disease and Calangute and Mapusa markets in the rain are like a Disney Park for Disease!
I got used to seeing rats as big as Jack Russells, especially in Mapusa and Calangute markets, I lived with lovely harmless little lizards in my apartment that ate mosquitoes, and got chased around my bathroom by a huge spider (which I hit with a Coke bottle until it's legs flew off). I had a very close encounter with a rat at a friend’s new Portuguese style house which has a gap between the walls and the roof, the rat fell off the rafters onto my legs in the middle of the night – I woke up yelling and I then stayed awake until dawn! Flies are everywhere, and I soon got used to eating food they’d landed on and weirdly I wasn't as precious about them in India as I am at home, I had no adverse effects from eating food flies had been around. However, the biggest pest I encountered during my time in Goa was the smallest ... ants! I hate them, I really do. They come in large, medium and small sizes and the smallest is the absolute worst. They got everywhere, my handbag and even my underwear (yes, I had ants in my pants!). They have an amazing ability to sniff out food, especially sugar, from a mile away and they formed orderly queues across my work surface. Cooking became a battle, I’d unwrap something, turn around and within seconds the food would be infested with teeny ants. I poured boiling water into a tea cup one day and just before I drank it I saw tea leaves floating on the top, which turned out to be bloody boiled ants! I’ve probably eaten more than a few - I'll class it as protein. I have to admit that my daily battles with ants did result in me killing thousands in increasingly bizarre ways (which I won’t type about for fear of a ‘Stop Cruelty Against Ants’ group hassling me).
http://www.digitalgoa.com/tag_article.php?id=79
I sorted out the mosquito issue really quickly by buying Good Knight (54 rupees) or Mortein plug ins, so my apartment and my nights were mosquito free. The mosquito ‘danger’ hours are between 4pm and 7pm, and thankfully all the windows in my apartment had velcroed net on them. Sitting outside in the evenings was made easier by lighting a mosquito coil and putting it on the veranda. I avoided lighting mosquito coils in the house or bedroom as the toxins they give out make sleeping a hallucinogenic nightmare. Being out and about wasn’t a problem as I always carried a Badger Anti-Bug Balm (see links below), it’s a natural citrus balm and mine has been on 4 trips to India with me and I can’t do without. I also took along some Deet free mosquito repellent roll-on and took along two Autan sprays. I hardly got bitten, so they definitely worked. I took anti-malaria tablets, I bought a supply of Paludrine/Avloclor tablets as I’ve used these before and have had no adverse side effects. I only took mine for the first few months of my trip and pre/during monsoon. Dengue fever and Chinkungunya are vector diseases and are currently on the rise on Goa, so it’s better to be safe than sorry – particularly if you are a walking McDonalds to mosquitoes. Goa still has a major rubbish problem so it’s a breeding ground for insects and disease and Calangute and Mapusa markets in the rain are like a Disney Park for Disease!
I got used to seeing rats as big as Jack Russells, especially in Mapusa and Calangute markets, I lived with lovely harmless little lizards in my apartment that ate mosquitoes, and got chased around my bathroom by a huge spider (which I hit with a Coke bottle until it's legs flew off). I had a very close encounter with a rat at a friend’s new Portuguese style house which has a gap between the walls and the roof, the rat fell off the rafters onto my legs in the middle of the night – I woke up yelling and I then stayed awake until dawn! Flies are everywhere, and I soon got used to eating food they’d landed on and weirdly I wasn't as precious about them in India as I am at home, I had no adverse effects from eating food flies had been around. However, the biggest pest I encountered during my time in Goa was the smallest ... ants! I hate them, I really do. They come in large, medium and small sizes and the smallest is the absolute worst. They got everywhere, my handbag and even my underwear (yes, I had ants in my pants!). They have an amazing ability to sniff out food, especially sugar, from a mile away and they formed orderly queues across my work surface. Cooking became a battle, I’d unwrap something, turn around and within seconds the food would be infested with teeny ants. I poured boiling water into a tea cup one day and just before I drank it I saw tea leaves floating on the top, which turned out to be bloody boiled ants! I’ve probably eaten more than a few - I'll class it as protein. I have to admit that my daily battles with ants did result in me killing thousands in increasingly bizarre ways (which I won’t type about for fear of a ‘Stop Cruelty Against Ants’ group hassling me).
http://www.digitalgoa.com/tag_article.php?id=79
Hair Fall
About six weeks into my stay I noticed that my hair was falling out when I washed and brushed it. I'm not talking about the odd hair, but the plug in the shower was constantly blocked with hair and my hairbrush was full. I'd not really paid much attention to the glossy advertisements by well known Western cosmetic firms on TV for the many "hair fall" products advertised by Bollywood stars, but now I started paying attention. Eight weeks into my stay I was soon pulling complete curls out of my hair when I washed it, and I was in tears. Thankfully I have very thick hair, so I knew I wouldn't be bald when I flew home in three months time. So I rang Neomis hairdressers in Calangute and booked an appointment, they recommended a head massage and a L'Oreal hairfall product. The head massage was done by a guy, and that experience was the only time I let an Indian man touch me in five months! However, it didn't stop the hair fall, so I spoke to my Indian friends who told me they had the same problem which they think is related to the water quality and the heat, they recommended I oil my hair. I found a very good Himalaya shampoo and hair oil and every night I oiled my hair, and sometimes left it for 2 days (I admit it). The heat makes your scalp sweat alot and the water quality isn't good, whether this affects the hair roots I don't know. The sun and water quality also made my hair tangle more, so brushing my hair trying to detangle didn't help. The hair wasn't snapping, it was coming out at the roots. So I resorted to oiling my hair and washing it very carefully without scrunching or pulling it too hard, it always dried naturally. Sadly my hair fall didn't stop and even a week after returning home my hair is still falling out, but not as much. I have regrowth coming through, whole curls have fallen out and are returning, my hair was all one length and I hope it will be again. I've been told to take multi-vitamins and eat nuts and vegetables and will see what happens.
http://store.himalayahealthcare.com/haircare/hair-care.htm
http://store.himalayahealthcare.com/haircare/hair-care.htm
Indian Men ... sexual harassment and hassle
Where do I start ... every day during my 5 months in Goa I was hassled by men, both Goan and Indian, and in May I was assaulted/groped by a drunk Indian man on a packed bus to Calangute (and no-one came to help me as I fought him off). Sadly, most Indian men think that a lone white female in Goa wants sex. This attitude isn't helped by a recent influx of Russian prostitutes wearing teeny bikinis who approach men on the beach (8,000 rupees for full sex - one approached my married Sikh friend). Now some women/tourists may welcome and feel flattered by the endless male attention, and some women do go to Goa for sex. However, I found it sinister, annoying, at times frightening, downright sexist and predatory.
Calangute and Baga, North Goa are now the hubs for domestic tourism and thousands now flock to the beach. On a weekend you'll witness groups of Bombay Businessmen running drunkenly into the sea in their see-through underpants or cruising the beach to stare/photograph Western tourists in their bikinis. I could make a fortune selling cheap swimming shorts to drunken Indians (I'm copyrighting that idea). Large groups of men with moustaches carrying plastic bags drink until they can't stand, in Goa alcohol is cheap and readily available and alot of Indian states are dry. So they drink themselves silly, lie in the surf until a weedy lifeguard saves them, drunkenly parasail and pile onto 'bananas' and scream like girls, then they wander the beach looking at the unobtainable white women wearing bikinis - it's all part of the Goan experience. The introduction of the camera phone has made blatantly photographing females 100% easier, so expect to be photographed, stared at and cruised at close proximity - one day in Baga a man came so close to me sitting on a lounger I thought he was going to jump on me! I discovered that photographing females without permission is an offence under Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code under State law, in Palolem I shouted at some men to delete my photograph or I'd call the police, hopefully me and my flabby bits aren't being used for porn in half of India. I was also propositioned and approached on the beach, the beach shack owners kept people away from customers. However, I also found out that some beach shack workers may take unflattering photographs of customers sunbathing and pass them round. A Kashmiri jeweller selling his wares on the beach regularly invited himself to sit on my lounger and said he wanted "to do the sex" with me - naturally, I politely declined. When the beach shacks disappeared the local dogs I befriended with biscuits guarded me and chased drunken Bombay Businessmen down the beach snapping at their heels.
It's easy to say "ignore the hassle", but after five months of it I had to look after myself, I wouldn't put up with it in London! Taxi drivers should know better, but right up until my final day I was hassled and asked if I wanted a taxi in very strange ways, taxi drivers don't seem to understand that calling a potential customer "baby" or "darling" may cause offence and the last thing you'd do is get in a taxi with someone who follows you down the road whistling at you like your a dog. Men also stopped alongside me on motorbikes as I walked down the road and asked me if I wanted a "ride on the back of my bike", my standard reply would be "do you think I'm stupid, what would your wife say?" or "what, so you can drive me off and rape me!". Don't think that these men are just being nice and friendly, they rarely do it to local women, their poor wives would be furious!
Sex with white women is almost a holy grail amongst Indian men, they think we are dirtier and easier, and even the nicest of men can't help propositioning you (I was asked for a one night stand at a wedding party!). Doesn't matter how old you are, how fat or thin you are or how much of your body you cover up - they'll give you a go. Alot of Goans told me these men must have been 'outsiders', but sadly myself and other hassled British women found Goan men just as guilty. My sister said that I am probably known in Calangute as the "f*ck off" woman - probably! I was always careful, moreso after being groped on the bus, I did have some polite replies which were "have some respect, would you say that to your mother/sister", "please go away, I don't want to talk to you" and I even wore a fake engagement ring and made up an imaginary husband!
Calangute and Baga, North Goa are now the hubs for domestic tourism and thousands now flock to the beach. On a weekend you'll witness groups of Bombay Businessmen running drunkenly into the sea in their see-through underpants or cruising the beach to stare/photograph Western tourists in their bikinis. I could make a fortune selling cheap swimming shorts to drunken Indians (I'm copyrighting that idea). Large groups of men with moustaches carrying plastic bags drink until they can't stand, in Goa alcohol is cheap and readily available and alot of Indian states are dry. So they drink themselves silly, lie in the surf until a weedy lifeguard saves them, drunkenly parasail and pile onto 'bananas' and scream like girls, then they wander the beach looking at the unobtainable white women wearing bikinis - it's all part of the Goan experience. The introduction of the camera phone has made blatantly photographing females 100% easier, so expect to be photographed, stared at and cruised at close proximity - one day in Baga a man came so close to me sitting on a lounger I thought he was going to jump on me! I discovered that photographing females without permission is an offence under Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code under State law, in Palolem I shouted at some men to delete my photograph or I'd call the police, hopefully me and my flabby bits aren't being used for porn in half of India. I was also propositioned and approached on the beach, the beach shack owners kept people away from customers. However, I also found out that some beach shack workers may take unflattering photographs of customers sunbathing and pass them round. A Kashmiri jeweller selling his wares on the beach regularly invited himself to sit on my lounger and said he wanted "to do the sex" with me - naturally, I politely declined. When the beach shacks disappeared the local dogs I befriended with biscuits guarded me and chased drunken Bombay Businessmen down the beach snapping at their heels.
It's easy to say "ignore the hassle", but after five months of it I had to look after myself, I wouldn't put up with it in London! Taxi drivers should know better, but right up until my final day I was hassled and asked if I wanted a taxi in very strange ways, taxi drivers don't seem to understand that calling a potential customer "baby" or "darling" may cause offence and the last thing you'd do is get in a taxi with someone who follows you down the road whistling at you like your a dog. Men also stopped alongside me on motorbikes as I walked down the road and asked me if I wanted a "ride on the back of my bike", my standard reply would be "do you think I'm stupid, what would your wife say?" or "what, so you can drive me off and rape me!". Don't think that these men are just being nice and friendly, they rarely do it to local women, their poor wives would be furious!
Sex with white women is almost a holy grail amongst Indian men, they think we are dirtier and easier, and even the nicest of men can't help propositioning you (I was asked for a one night stand at a wedding party!). Doesn't matter how old you are, how fat or thin you are or how much of your body you cover up - they'll give you a go. Alot of Goans told me these men must have been 'outsiders', but sadly myself and other hassled British women found Goan men just as guilty. My sister said that I am probably known in Calangute as the "f*ck off" woman - probably! I was always careful, moreso after being groped on the bus, I did have some polite replies which were "have some respect, would you say that to your mother/sister", "please go away, I don't want to talk to you" and I even wore a fake engagement ring and made up an imaginary husband!
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