Goa

We had planned to take an overnight bus from Hospet, a bigger and much less lovely town outside of Hampi, to Goa province. We had carved out a few days here, at the end of our trip, for a beach vacation. A single overnight bus was headed west from Karnataka and then would make the run up the coast in Goa, stopping at several towns along the way. We were originally planning to go all the way north to Arambol, but after chatting with another couple sharing our bunk space, we were convinced to stop first in the south, at Palolem. A miserable handful of bruising and dusty hours later, the bus screeched to a halt and we were bundled out into a cold and pitch-dark night. It was 4:30am, and we were somewhere on the side of the road.

The couple who had convinced us to come to Palolem mentioned that a beachside bar was open 24-7 so we grabbed a ride there and parked ourselves at a table with our packs and some juice, and some nice German folks, waiting for the sun to rise. Ben went down to the water to make sure we were really at the beach, and then made friends with the young Indian guys working the bar; I tried to keep my eyes open. Finally at long last the sky began to lighten and we walked down the beach looking for just the right place to stay for a few nights. We found it in the nice family who ran the Co-co Huts and rooms where we paid $5 a night for a tiny shack of woven mats and mosquito netting up on stilts above the sand, and surrounded by palm trees. It was perfect.We had beautiful sunsets (of course), and romantic fresh seafood meals on the beach.Ben played pick up volleyball everywhere we went...& just in case we forgot we were in India:We spent a day on buses traversing Goa province before settling in at Arambol for our last few days of paradise. Pierce and Hannah met back up with us so we could spend two last days together, celebrating the vagabond life :)