Goa advice sought urgently!

flyinyereye wrote:

When you reach Margao, the "regular" exit from the station (Platform 1) will
lead you to an area where taxis wait. There is even a "prepaid" booth there.
Don't use it, or the taxis on that side! The prices are all artificially
elevated through a taxi mafia. You will pay a minimum of Rs50 just to go
half a kilometre, and they won't bargain to a more realistic price.

For ****'s sake, man--50 rupes is less than 6 pence. 'Bargain'? What
would 'a more realistic price' be? Rs40? Rs30? Are you going to give
yourself an ulcer trying to save two gaddamned pence?!?

flyinyereye wrote:

When you reach Margao, the "regular" exit from the station (Platform 1) will
lead you to an area where taxis wait. There is even a "prepaid" booth there.
Don't use it, or the taxis on that side! The prices are all artificially
elevated through a taxi mafia. You will pay a minimum of Rs50 just to go
half a kilometre, and they won't bargain to a more realistic price.

For ****'s sake, man--50 rupes is less than 6 pence. 'Bargain'? What
would 'a more realistic price' be? Rs40? Rs30? Are you going to give
yourself an ulcer trying to save two gaddamned pence?!?

RPG wrote:

In what currency? There are about 80 INR to 1 GBP, so if the claim is that
50 INR = 0.06 GBP, this does not compute.

Oops. Eyes not fully open, I misread the decimal. 50 INR = .60 GBP.
Thanks for pointing that out.

cheers,

Henry

RPG wrote:

In what currency? There are about 80 INR to 1 GBP, so if the claim is that
50 INR = 0.06 GBP, this does not compute.

Oops. Eyes not fully open, I misread the decimal. 50 INR = .60 GBP.
Thanks for pointing that out.

cheers,

Henry

"Newbie" wrote in message
...
I understand from your other posts that you ar eplanning the same trip?
How long? Have you decided upon your hotel(s)?

I'll be in India for three months, Mumbai - Maharashtra - Goa - Karnataka
and maybe Kerala, so all around the south west of India.

Sounds like I'll be doing a rather different trip to you as I'll be staying
in the $10/night style of accommodations. I have only chosen one hotel where
I'll stay after first arriving in Mumbai. After that I'll just take a look
at hotel rooms and decide as I go. Even for $10 (Rs.500) you can get a
reasonably clean room with it's own hot & cold bathroom and cable TV. No
swimming pool at that price tho!

In the north, it sounds like Calangute is overtouristed and not recommended,
althugh I have so much time I'll probably just try each place and stay as
long as I like it.

Colva, Majorda, Benaulim, Agonda, Patnem and Colomb all sound worth checking
out. I think they are all in South Goa.

If you haven't already, have a look and maybe ask your question at
www.indiamike.com as there are a friendly group of Indiaphiles who know all
there is to know. If you're specific about the type of hotel you want then
they should be able to help you.

The monsoon ends in September so there'll likely still be some rain about.
There'll be no shortage of accommodation and you should be able to haggle
the rate right down as the shoulder season doesn't begin until October.

I've been researching my little heart out, so I hope this helps.

"Newbie" wrote in message
...
flyinyereye wrote:

And thank you flyinyereye for your helpful posts too.

Indeed, very much so! For some reason your previous posts did not
show up at my server, but I could find them with google.

Sorry, I wondered why you appeared to ignore me!

I've just posted another message so I hope you can see that - or for that
matter, this one. ;-)

flyinyereye wrote:
Sorry, I wondered why you appeared to ignore me!
I've just posted another message so I hope you can see that - or for that
matter, this one. ;-)

I was able to see both of them within minutes. I have no clue why your
earlier messages didn't stick to my server.