Goa is nuts. So many beaches, so many churches. Scooting around evading the Police. ALL night new years beach parties with full open bar at Mandrem Village. Why not? It's Goa Only.
I'm in Calangute/Baga, 10 minutes scoot to Titos. That's the party scene. Also checked out Goan Trance at Curlies on Anjuna beach. Shiva Valley style. Going to extend my stay for a couple more days.
Anyone who's really my friend will travel to Goa with me when I return next year, and the year after, and the year after that. It' great for groups and mixed company.
Showing posts with label goa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goa. Show all posts
Friday, January 2, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
Pre Trip: Western Union & Goa NYE '08
What do they have in common you might ask? Well, for the first time in my life I wired money and I used Western Union. And it was scary. I have a vague impression of western union ads from the 80s and 90s, and I remember really liking them. Fast forward to November 19, 2008. You don't really see Western Union ads anymore, but they did a good job branding so I think of them after I've finally booked new years accommodations on Calangute beach, the epicenter of Goa's beach life. It's a small place (only 6 guest rooms), run by a local couple Max & Jessica. They offered the best rate I could find on the whole 2 mile stretch of beach. It's a 5 minutes walk to the beach and they're asking 3000 rs/night for a double (that's about $60). Even that seemed expensive to me, and by average Indian standards it is, but we're talking Goa's highest of high seasons here! After doing some research, I discovered that the going rate for rooms in other, larger hotels are anywhere from $200-650/night and even higher for the most luxurous accomodations! India! Where I've never paid a dime for hotels because I've always stayed with family. Guru, I say to myself, we're not in Bangalore anymore.
So back to Western Union. The couple running the hotel (it's really classified as a B&B, but don't tell Ravi) requests that I send the full amount for the 4 nights I'm booking via wire, I was skeptical so I called them up to ask them personally, and see if they take credit cards. They don't have a credit card machine and of course, they asked me to wire the money via Western Union. Now I start to think of Nigerian lost relatives and deposed military leader email scams. But that's me getting paranoid, I look up the local Western Union and find there's one on the other side of my town. On the WE website I find that wiring money to india costs $30+, and you can use credit card, however, it's only $10 for amounts under $1000 at the WE location itself (cash only though) and it sends the money instantly to hundreds of thousands of WE locations worldwide. 320,000 locations to be exact. If you clicked on the 80s commercial with "George" from Seinfeld in it, you'll notice they said 15,000 locations. Now that's growth. And growth means a Harvard Business Case Study.
So I get the cash from an ATM and drive over to my local WE agent. Turns out standalone WE's don't really exist. The location was a "Cash and Go" payday lending, check cashing service. Just then I recall that there was a WE agent on the corner of 16th and Valencia in the Mission District in San Francisco. Lot's of immigrants send money back home, I thought to myself. I remember hearing a stat on NPR, something like $2.2 Billion dollars was sent back home to Mexico from US relatives in August 2007. They're called "remittances". The other thing about these payday loan come wire service facilities is that they're located in the relativey shadier areas of any town. In Tracy, CA that's on 11th St. and Tracy Blvd. In Dublin, it's the northwest side. So forth and so on... When I approached the counter, I saw two female clerks sitting behind a thick glass barrier, but ready to conduct business.
I wired the money to the inn-keepers at Goa and quickly emailed the inn-keepers the pass code they needed to receive the money on their end. And that's when they officially confirmed my reservation in Goa! Hoo-ray!
So back to Western Union. The couple running the hotel (it's really classified as a B&B, but don't tell Ravi) requests that I send the full amount for the 4 nights I'm booking via wire, I was skeptical so I called them up to ask them personally, and see if they take credit cards. They don't have a credit card machine and of course, they asked me to wire the money via Western Union. Now I start to think of Nigerian lost relatives and deposed military leader email scams. But that's me getting paranoid, I look up the local Western Union and find there's one on the other side of my town. On the WE website I find that wiring money to india costs $30+, and you can use credit card, however, it's only $10 for amounts under $1000 at the WE location itself (cash only though) and it sends the money instantly to hundreds of thousands of WE locations worldwide. 320,000 locations to be exact. If you clicked on the 80s commercial with "George" from Seinfeld in it, you'll notice they said 15,000 locations. Now that's growth. And growth means a Harvard Business Case Study.
So I get the cash from an ATM and drive over to my local WE agent. Turns out standalone WE's don't really exist. The location was a "Cash and Go" payday lending, check cashing service. Just then I recall that there was a WE agent on the corner of 16th and Valencia in the Mission District in San Francisco. Lot's of immigrants send money back home, I thought to myself. I remember hearing a stat on NPR, something like $2.2 Billion dollars was sent back home to Mexico from US relatives in August 2007. They're called "remittances". The other thing about these payday loan come wire service facilities is that they're located in the relativey shadier areas of any town. In Tracy, CA that's on 11th St. and Tracy Blvd. In Dublin, it's the northwest side. So forth and so on... When I approached the counter, I saw two female clerks sitting behind a thick glass barrier, but ready to conduct business.
I wired the money to the inn-keepers at Goa and quickly emailed the inn-keepers the pass code they needed to receive the money on their end. And that's when they officially confirmed my reservation in Goa! Hoo-ray!
Pre Trip: The Context*** of it All
I'm leaving the country in 4 days. I hope to visit 5 countries over 48 days. The first 20 days will be devoted to South East Asia; my home base will be Singapore. The latter half of the trip will be 28 days in India. It's an ambitious trip for several reasons: (other than the obvious ones of duration and mileage**)
1) I'm rather oblivious. While I've been to India 9 or 10 times since I was a wee babe, I've usually always had everything taken care of in terms of itinerary, flights, etc. My mom and dad always planned our family trips and we never strayed to far away from Bangalore, save for a couple of visits to Bombay which I hardly remember. My most recent visit to India was in the summer of 2003, where I spent 3 months living in the Domlur neighborhood of Bangalore as a Stanford Asia Technology Initiative Fellow working for a biotech company in the area; AKA, we partied a lot, but I didn't leave my comfort zone in South India. I haven't quite spearheaded my own international trip until very recently when I attended my friends wedding in Peru. The other places I've visited are the Bahamas (cruise), Canada (for like 5 hours), and Tokyo, Japan (Lions Club Exchange Program).
2) I'm somewhat lazy. I quit my cushy advertising gig at Google a little over 6 months ago, and I've decided not to work again... for as long as possible. Good luck in this economy right? Actually, things weren't looking so bleak back in May, but I may be in dire straits upon my return to the states. We'll just have to see! So travelling during my self-imposed sabbatical seems to make the most sense. The catch is that I've procrastinated on almost every aspect organizing my Asia trip. I pretty much decided to make this trip a year ago, but only booked my ticket last month (October 1st to be exact). I used miles so maybe it wasn't such a huge deal, but if I had been bargain hunting, earlier ticket purchase would've been better! On a positive note, just yesterday I wired the deposit for the Goa beach hotel we're staying at for New Years. But folks, that's all I've contributed towards my 48 days: a 4 night stay in Goa. 1/12th of my trip planning complete, check! Only 11/12ths to go.
3a) I'm not a fan of flying. Nuff said.
3b) I always get sick in India. And let's just say it always involves copious water-loss. Double nuff said. Crossing my fingers. Trying to make a deal with the patron saint of Protozoa.
4) I've never really traveled alone (and I'm somewhat paralyzed with fear). And I'm not traveling alone for parts of this trip, but there will be times when I'll be totally on my own in a foreign land, perhaps with a tour group, but perhaps not! I anticipate solo travel in Thailand and Cambodia and certain legs of my India journey. Just missing out on that extra brain scares me a bit because you can never have too many extra brains to help you decipher maps, languages, customs, or expat style party stratagem. I know, I should have said "strategery", but it's been played out.
If you've gotten this far, thanks! I hope you enjoy my onslaught of posts. And I hope I can actually keep up with the foreign correspondence from internet cafes in Asia. This past August I learned first hand that Peru had funny Spanish keyboards that screwed me up while IMing. Japan's keyboards are a menace to society. India should have US friendly keyboards since everyone who can use a computer probably speaks a decent amount of English. SE Asia, I have no clue.
I said earlier that I'm not traveling alone for parts of my trip and I wanted to provide details. I'm flying out on the SFO-Changi, Singapore leg with my college buddy and bandmate, Ravi. On Nov 26th we'll separate while I stay in SE Asia and he continues to India. In mid December we'll be crashing a wedding in Pune, doing toursity stuff in Rajasthan, a rolling the dice for a wild card Indian destination (Darjeeling, Darjeeling, Darjeeling! please!) Oh and how can I forget, the impetus for this whole Asia tour: New Years in Goa. Let's just say that it started with a young man's dream and a summer of 2006, travel article in the San Jose Mercury. And by that I mean I read a cool article in the newspaper 2.5 years ago and have wanted to visit Goa ever since. That's with Ravi, for the rest of my trip I'll be meeting up with family in places like Singapore and Bangalore. There's also a chance I'll be catching up with old Stanford friends in SE Asia.
Phew, that was long! Cheers!
** notice "cost" is not included in this "obvious list" that's summarized by the wise words of Jermaine Dupree, "Money ain't a thang."
*** did I really provide enough context here? maybe I'll host a poll asking people if they had any understanding of my motivations for world-travel based on this first post...
1) I'm rather oblivious. While I've been to India 9 or 10 times since I was a wee babe, I've usually always had everything taken care of in terms of itinerary, flights, etc. My mom and dad always planned our family trips and we never strayed to far away from Bangalore, save for a couple of visits to Bombay which I hardly remember. My most recent visit to India was in the summer of 2003, where I spent 3 months living in the Domlur neighborhood of Bangalore as a Stanford Asia Technology Initiative Fellow working for a biotech company in the area; AKA, we partied a lot, but I didn't leave my comfort zone in South India. I haven't quite spearheaded my own international trip until very recently when I attended my friends wedding in Peru. The other places I've visited are the Bahamas (cruise), Canada (for like 5 hours), and Tokyo, Japan (Lions Club Exchange Program).
2) I'm somewhat lazy. I quit my cushy advertising gig at Google a little over 6 months ago, and I've decided not to work again... for as long as possible. Good luck in this economy right? Actually, things weren't looking so bleak back in May, but I may be in dire straits upon my return to the states. We'll just have to see! So travelling during my self-imposed sabbatical seems to make the most sense. The catch is that I've procrastinated on almost every aspect organizing my Asia trip. I pretty much decided to make this trip a year ago, but only booked my ticket last month (October 1st to be exact). I used miles so maybe it wasn't such a huge deal, but if I had been bargain hunting, earlier ticket purchase would've been better! On a positive note, just yesterday I wired the deposit for the Goa beach hotel we're staying at for New Years. But folks, that's all I've contributed towards my 48 days: a 4 night stay in Goa. 1/12th of my trip planning complete, check! Only 11/12ths to go.
3a) I'm not a fan of flying. Nuff said.
3b) I always get sick in India. And let's just say it always involves copious water-loss. Double nuff said. Crossing my fingers. Trying to make a deal with the patron saint of Protozoa.
4) I've never really traveled alone (and I'm somewhat paralyzed with fear). And I'm not traveling alone for parts of this trip, but there will be times when I'll be totally on my own in a foreign land, perhaps with a tour group, but perhaps not! I anticipate solo travel in Thailand and Cambodia and certain legs of my India journey. Just missing out on that extra brain scares me a bit because you can never have too many extra brains to help you decipher maps, languages, customs, or expat style party stratagem. I know, I should have said "strategery", but it's been played out.
If you've gotten this far, thanks! I hope you enjoy my onslaught of posts. And I hope I can actually keep up with the foreign correspondence from internet cafes in Asia. This past August I learned first hand that Peru had funny Spanish keyboards that screwed me up while IMing. Japan's keyboards are a menace to society. India should have US friendly keyboards since everyone who can use a computer probably speaks a decent amount of English. SE Asia, I have no clue.
I said earlier that I'm not traveling alone for parts of my trip and I wanted to provide details. I'm flying out on the SFO-Changi, Singapore leg with my college buddy and bandmate, Ravi. On Nov 26th we'll separate while I stay in SE Asia and he continues to India. In mid December we'll be crashing a wedding in Pune, doing toursity stuff in Rajasthan, a rolling the dice for a wild card Indian destination (Darjeeling, Darjeeling, Darjeeling! please!) Oh and how can I forget, the impetus for this whole Asia tour: New Years in Goa. Let's just say that it started with a young man's dream and a summer of 2006, travel article in the San Jose Mercury. And by that I mean I read a cool article in the newspaper 2.5 years ago and have wanted to visit Goa ever since. That's with Ravi, for the rest of my trip I'll be meeting up with family in places like Singapore and Bangalore. There's also a chance I'll be catching up with old Stanford friends in SE Asia.
Phew, that was long! Cheers!
** notice "cost" is not included in this "obvious list" that's summarized by the wise words of Jermaine Dupree, "Money ain't a thang."
*** did I really provide enough context here? maybe I'll host a poll asking people if they had any understanding of my motivations for world-travel based on this first post...
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