India: Colourful, cheap and chaotic

Following on from What to know before you go, more about the trip itself! We went to Goa, via Mumbai, though the only bit of Mumbai we saw was the airport as we had an international transfer.

Mumbai airport panicked us a bit as we had thought India would be cheap - turns out it is, it's just the airport that has inflated prices.

If you want to feel secure at the airport, well you will - or you'll get irritated - with the number of checks going on to catch your flight. At the transfer point, we had to put our hand luggage through the scanner, get it stamped and then be frisked after the scanner - pretty typical - but getting on the plane is even worse.

In the space of three metres we had our tickets and hand luggage checked a mere four times... followed by a further five checks between the gate and the plane. Extreme!

Another thing that's extreme are the roads. Whilst the fares are ridiculously reasonable - it cost us 1,000 rupees (£16) to travel the 45km to the hotel - the driving is ridiculous.

How we survived without being in a car incident where a person/car/scooter/tuk-tuk wasn't hit, I will never know.

Still, it was absolutely stunning when we got there. We were staying in-between Baga and Arpora at the Resorte Marinha Dourada, a cheap and cheerful hotel.

A bottle of 500ml Pepsi will set you back 15 rupees (17p) from your room minibar, whilst a bottle of Kingfisher costs 20 rupees (25p). It's probably why you'll find a lot of Brits at this hotel, and whilst the hotel food wasn't amazing, it was cheap and perfect for lunch.

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