Griffs in Goa

 We woke up this morning at 7.00 and went for a walk down to Varca and back. It took about an hour. The sky was very grey and there was the threat of rain in the air. We had breakfast at the shack and we were back at our apartment for 9.30. Our Goan neighbour explained that she had been up since 2.00 a.m because of a power cut early in the morning in her block of apartments, yesterday they did not have any water. Such are the trials and tribulations of living in Goa!! 

This will probably be my last post to the ‘grifsingoa’ blog. I have enjoyed writing it but at times it has been a little frustrating due to the vagaries of Goa’s power supply. I would like to think that the blog has truly reflected my thoughts, aspirations and disappointments – I hope it has but I am not quite sure that my literary skills are accomplished enough to express myself fully. Despite this, I feel that there has been enough information to get a feel for life in Goa from a Westerner’s perspective.

We came here in December full of enthusiasm, hope and guarded expectation that this may be the place that we would like to live. But sadly, our ‘Goan Dream’, in reality has turned out to be not exactly a nightmare but more of a restless sleep. We are very disappointed but not disheartened, it has made us realise that for all it’s faults, the UK has a standard of living and government which is enviable across the world.

The UK weather which dominates conversation is, in part, one of the main reasons people like us wish to decamp and move to sunnier climes. Yes, we are fed up with the rat-race, the traffic and the obsessive target driven bullshit and it is dreadfully painful to every UK citizen. But the rat race in the UK is far better than the daily grind of just trying to survive which exists here for so many of our fellow human beings.

We will come back to Goa but always as tourists. We had a little dream that we could live here. We cannot. Even if we did, we would be isolated, always treated as strangers and I think quite lonely. We would truly miss family and friends in the UK. However, taking account of everything I have just written, I know that after a couple of weeks back in the UK, I will be wishing I was back here again, baking in chaotic, corrupt but very beautiful Goa.

Monday 19th March

Make sure you have a thorough knowledge of the area and that you buy in a good location. It is no good buying in a place which has no shops or restaurants.

Buying here is all about expectations. Some buyers have been promised and expect a year on year increase in the value of their purchase. Some have bought just because they love Goa and are quite prepared to have it for their sole use for two weeks to six months of the year and have it locked, shuttered and unused for the rest of the time. Others have bought purely with the idea of letting it out to gain income from the western holiday trade. This I think is the most problematic and probably the most stressful option if not done through an agent or an established tour company, both of which will seriously deplete your income.

Letting your property depends on successful marketing and giving any potential client the as much correct information about the property and the location as possible e.g.  full rental costs and what that includes, cost of taxi from airport, distance from beach, nearest pharmacy, restaurants, buses, etc.

Decide who would most be attracted to your property. All tourists have different expectations. Some want air-conditioning, some don’t, some want apartments with all mod-cons, washing machine, microwave etc., and are prepared to pay top rates for this and will probably never use them. Others are quite happy with the most basic amenities. Be prepared for a lot of work if you want a good return. The internet is a good medium to advertise if you have the skills needed to create your own website. If you are just going to let it to family and friends then expect low returns. It all depends on how much you think you can charge. There a lot of places here that charge 2200/- (just over 25 pounds) a night and remain empty more than half the season, yet those that charge 500/- (6 pounds) are constantly full. People that stay here on a long term basis expect and get a reduction in the rate. 

Finally, think about who you could trust to enter your apartment on a regular basis to clean it, laundry will have to be changed so you will need a maid and who you could use to carry out repairs. Breakages and repairs are an inevitability, particularly in bathrooms. The standard of materials and workmanship can be quite erratic. 

One piece of advice I have been given is to ignore the housing market and invest in the Indian stock market whiich is growing at 8% per annum.

Monday 12th March

This is an editorial comment headline in the English Goan Newspaper ‘The Herald’  in response to an article a few days ago when two Indian Supreme court judges called for people in office who were found guilty of corruption ‘to be hung from lamposts’. 

This is a verbatim response from ‘The Herald’ just to give you a flavour of the debate here. It is written in a rather comic, convoluted English but stick with it if you can.

‘Thrash Them: Should Goa follow the advice put forward by Supreme Court Justices S B Sinha and M Katju that people who hold public office and are corrupt should be hanged from street lamps. Considering that corruption is an integral part of Goan public life and nothing happens if some palm is greased or some favour accorded to some politician, then perhaps this advice, which may sound drastic, be the cure for the states woes. Yes, while hanging from street lamps may take Goa back to the dark ages, some stringent remedies are needed to remove Goa of this scourge which is affecting way of life. Agreed hanging is a bit drastic and not possible in Goa but something needs to be done to stop this. The reason it has reached endemic proportions and no one party should be excused from this scourge because a finger can be pointed to many officials and ministers. Be it permission to hold rave parties, awarding contracts for festivals and even getting land sales passed, something has to be passed under the table and this has to stop. While hanging can be out of the question, who knows frustration may reach such a level that a public thrashing may be on the cards.’

  Whatever the papers say life continues its daily grind as normal for the local Goan people. We were woken this morning at around 7.30 am by the sound of men chopping down a coconut tree in grounds of the small-holding behind us. Hard work in this heat and they were still at it 10.30am. The house is a big square building surrounded by 50 or so coconut trees and a few papaya and banana trees. There are chickens and pigs running free. Somedays there is a lot of excited screaming and shouting emanating from elderly women who live in the house when the chickens decide to walk up the back steps to the kitchen and invade the house. While the tree was getting chopped up, two other men were untangling and repairing a fishing net on a very large unravelled blue tarpaulin. More hot work!! The only sounds from the garden except for the rhythmic axes on the tree is the monotonous ‘croaking’ of a Green Barbet high up in the canopy and a Magpie Robin blasting us with its tuneful virtuosity while sitting on a barbed wired fence in front of our kitchen. At the front of our apartment, one of our neighbours is cleaning her car, another smartly dressed takes her equally well-attired small son to church while her young Hindu maid, sits looking bored and lonely on the second floor balcony waiting for their return.

On Thursday night we were gate-crashed by a load of uninvited visitors. The spare bathroom and the lounge were the main areas of invasion. We sprayed vigourously with the very toxic HIT cockroach spray and quickly vacated the apartment to go for dinner. When we returned a few hours later 400 to 500 winged corpses lay strewn across the floor.

Lin left on Friday and we spent most of the day at the apartment. The excessive Merlot Port wine and the Honeybee brandy I had consumed the previous evening had its usual numbing effect. Late in the afternoon we went to Colva to return my newly bought glasses for repair again! We also had to pick up a replacement pair of sunglasses for Theresa as the first pair were faulty. I won’t bore you with my purchase but as usual it has involved many returns and disappointments to the Agnelo’s Optics shop.

After Colva we returned to Benaulim and went to the beach at about 4.00p.m where we met a lady called Debbie (who hails originally from Ashton under Lyne). She has been working in India for the VSO for the last two years for the princely sum of 8,000/-  (94.00) a month. She is passionate about the people and the country and has just got a new post working with an HIV charity which is based in Chennai. We had a very interesting discussion about India, its politics and left the beach at about 8.30 p.m to have dinner at the Meridian.

Lin, who is now staying with us, went off to meet her parents this morning. They are staying in Colva. We decided to go to the Gois shack on Sernabatim beach between Colva and Benaulim. The waves were very big around midday and it looks as though the previous nightime high tide had been really high – I wonder if it was anything to do with the lunar eclipse. I was never any good at physics (probably not aided by the dreadful Ivan Greenslade) who taught me. I always remember him shouting at me in class, “You are a cow boy, what are you?” And I had to reply to the amusement of the rest of the class that “I was a Cowboy sir”. Grammar school in the sixties – I didn’t learn a damn thing!!!

Today I met a guy from Yorkshire who has been living out here for seven years, who has married a Goan lady and who has a young son. He is a Physical Training instructor and teaches Yoga at all the big 4 & 5 star hotels, such as the Taj Exotica and the Radisson. I am fully aware that some of my blogs have been a bit of a ‘rant’ about how downright dishonest things can be here. His assessment of the situation confirms my own personal observations. The PT instructor is having a home built here, mainly for his Goan son to have some roots here. He would not advise anyone to buy here. Even though he is married to a Goan, he still has to play the demeaning, infuriating and relentless game of bribery and corruption to get anything done. He is keeping a diary/folder of all the riduculous and corrupt things that have happened to him here with the intention of writing a book.

We have been hassled quite a bit today by Hindu women who wanted donations for their carnival to celebrate the ‘Holi’ festival of colour. Their carnival seems just to consist of throwing coloured water over everyone. Lin got ‘pinked’. There are no carnival floats and all the money they collect pays for the food and drink for the party in their houses. As usual, someone else pays.

Tuesday 6th March

We all had a fitful sleep last night, yesterday was cloudy, windy and very humid. It is forecast to be 39 degrees and I fear it is going to be even stickier today. It is funny how ones perspective on the weather quickly changes. At home in the UK, I would look out of the window and search for any sign of blue appearing in the typically leaden northern sky. Here, I look from our kitchen window and yearn for any inclination of a breeze in the papaya and coconut trees in the neighbouring gardens.

March 31st

Picked up my scooter today. We have hired it for a month, the cost 4200/- (50.00), it is worth it now as walking any distance in this heat is getting pretty unbearable unless you are by the sea. The scooter, an old Honda Kinetic, was not the one that I had previously agreed to have. They had rented out my scooter for more money, so consequently, I have to go back tomorrow night to pick up the very much newer and more roadworthy Honda Activa. When I asked why they did not do as they agreed there was the usual blank expression with lots of head wobbling that only the Indians can do. They even cheekily asked me if I would like to round it up to 4500/-!!! I declined. Everyone here thinks tourists are walking charity donors.

We stayed on the beach late and watched a beautiful sunset set off by the most cloud we have seen since we left the UK. Then home, stayed in and drank a rather nice bottle of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon that we mysteriously found in our fridge.

Thursday 1st March
Our friends, Den and Lin left here on Tuesday at 2.00 p.m and arrived back in the UK on Wednesday at approximately 8.00 p.m, nearly 30 hours – well done Air France!
Returning to the theme of last Monday’s blog regarding double standards and women. I read today that according to the United Nations there are 7 million people in India with HIV/AIDS ans the latest report from the recent National Family Health survey only 57% of women have heard of AIDS compared with 80% of men.There are two main factors for this, firstly, only 54% of women are literate (compared to 76% of men). Secondly, rural men visit prostitutes when working away from home in urban areas. There is a huge stigma attached to the disease and they will not discuss it even though they are quite prepared to transfer it to their wives on their return home. I have no information on the literacy rates or prevelance of AIDS in Goa. I am sure that the literacy rates are much higher here as it is relatively a wealthy state compared to the likes of Bihar or Uttarakhand.

Some interesting headlines in yesterday’s paper.

‘GOODY DONATES ‘DIRTY MONEY’ TO POOR’ – (reference to Jade Goody) from the ghastly Big Brother show.
‘MURDER CONVICT STONES JUDGE IN COURT’ – Double murderer concealed a rock in court then threw it and hit and injured the judge while he was passing a guilty verdict.
‘HUBBY SELLS WIFE’S KIDNEY TO BUY TRACTOR’ – a very sad but not too uncommon tale from Pakistan. A man badly beat his wife so much that she had to have an abortion. He then took his wife ‘to hospital in Bahawalpur on the pretext of treatment’, where she was operated on by doctors who allegdely deprived her of one of her kidneys with the connivance of her husband. He used the money from the sale of the kidney to buy a tractor.