Margao - November 4th

It is an early start this morning for the train to Goa.  We are awake at 04:30 to check out at 05:20, to be in CST for 06:00 to get the 06:55 train.  CST is as busy as ever, even at this early hour, but unlike with the commuter trains, finding our long distance train, and our seats, is actually quite easy.  The names of all the passengers and their seat numbers is printed out and pasted to the side of each carriage.  Not only is this a long distance train, it is a long train, with 24 carriages.  A bit more than our last train.

Our bearth is quite good, there is more space than on the Istanbul train, and unlike that train there is a buffet car.  Not that you have to get out of your seat, there are guys selling tea, coffee and all sorts of snacks constantly walking up and down the aisle.  As we leave Mumbai and have our breakfast, we meet our compartment companions, two not very talkative German ladies.  We all nap for a couple of hours, and then it is the just seeing out the rest of the journey with a variety of reading, eating, and looking out the window.

We arrive at the northern end of Goa on time at about 17:30, when it is still bright, and our German companions depart for their resort.  But we are planning on going further south, to a resort called Palolem.  However for some reason, the trains, which have been reliable untila  now, suddenly fail us and it takes two hours to get to Margao, the last stop, instead of one.  Because it is now very dark, we decide to stay in a hotel here overnight, before continuing on to the beach in the morning.  We actually arrange all this on the train during one of the stops thanks to the Lonely Planet and our local iPhone.

Staying in Margao looks like a good decision, because as well as a pretty good hotel (it looks dodgy from the outside but the room is as good as in Mumbai for half the price), we also find a really good local restaurant recommended by LP as well, where we have a good meal surrounded by a lot of curious locals wondering how we found this place (it is off the beaten track).