An English man, a Brazillian man, a Swedish man and an Indian walk into a bar....

.....No this is not the start of a joke this was one of the most random but brilliant nights ive ever had. All started by meeting a Swedish man born in Iran and it then quickly escalated as we met a Brazillian married to a Swiss girl and we then go to the local hotspot in Paloeum Beach 'Cocktails and Dreams'. Much beer flowed and the highlights of the night were a little Indian 'self claimed biggest man in Paloeum' wearing a trilby dancing 'Bollywood' style and grabing stray dogs and dancing with them. A 50 + year old British hippie who has been in India for 12 years painting a sleeping Japanease guys face in blue paint. The Japanease guy scratched his face and was truely shocked to find blue paint on his hand and even more shocked when he looked in the mirror to see he was a smurf! We were the most random bunch of nationalities as usually people stick with their own. Meeting all these people from around the world makes you realise how ignorant English people are as we mainly speak one language where most if not all Europeans speak many types.

Not all has been good, people back home even myself have complained about major companies outsourcing their helpdesks to Mumbai or Delhi but if you dont know when they set these up English people go out there and teach them what to do. I have now experienced an Indian helpdesk that has not been trained by anyone with a brain and I can tell you it was about as useful as Ann Frank's drum kit!

I treked yesterday to the otherside of the beach to see the Goan sunset from the rocks which was an amazing sight. See pictures. I have decided to try and stay a bit longer here but am trying to negotiate a better price for a room. 2 weeks in India is a very long time in terms of learning curve as they often offer prices 5 or 10x what it should normally be which is why I have come up with my top 5 tips to haggling in India:

1. Never say you are from England. I tend to say Somewhere in Eastern Europe and if they spot your Passport when you check in just say you have Dual nationality.




2. When asked how many times in India never say first time.




3. When asked how long in India never say 1st week etc




4. Laugh at their first offer




5. Cant think of a 5th tip.

I have also found a book store that is fairly well stocked, you may or may not know that I am travelling very light so I have room for one book and one guide so I was quite pleased to see this book shop however I tried to find the 'Where's Wally' book but I could'nt find it. Well played Wally well played!

I have been enjoying watching and playing cricket on the beach with the local street sellers. There is nothing more relaxing than eating fresh coconut and pineapple whilst watching cricket on the beach.

I hope everyone is jealous because you should be it is paradise here. Speaking to the 50 year old hippie I think he will have troubles when he goes back to England. Not being a national he needs to keep renewing his visa and to do this you need to be outside the country and thus he has the nice big Pakistan stamp in his passport, I told him he may as well convert to islam.

As I am staying in Goa until the duration I dont think there will be many more blogs unless something happens but stay tuned because in November I will be hitting Kuala Lumpor and Vietnam.

Till next time

Chris