Downtime and Down Dogging in Goa

India is considered to be the land of yoga, so where better to take some time out of our regular travel schedule to invest in mind, body and spirit refreshment on a yoga retreat in Goa.

The 11-hour overnight train journey from Kochi to Goa journey passed reasonably quickly. We had opted for the 2AC sleeper option – two-tier bunks with airconditioning. On one side they have 4 bunks in one bay, and the other just 2. You can’t select your bunks so it is luck of the draw whether you end up in the 4 bunk bay meaning that you are potentially sharing with unknown passengers. We found our allocated berth in a bay of 4 with 2 Indian passengers already asleep on the other side to us, which felt a little awkward to start with as we fumbled around waiting for our bedding to be bought to us as we tried not to disturb them. I opted for the top bunk of our two bunks, which involved a less than elegant clamber up a small ladder with a couple of handholds to hoist yourself up. Of course, I then needed to clamber out again several times throughout the night to use the loo. That last-minute juice at the station tasted good but not such a great idea.

At some point during the night, our fellow passengers got off at their station. Surprisingly I had not realized as hadn’t felt like I was sleeping well on the rock-hard bunk and with the air conditioning temperature set to turbo freeze. I was trying to avoid using the blanket that had been offered to me. I didn’t have too much confidence about how clean it was, so had wrapped myself up in sheets instead and was thankful I had bought my hoodie with me in anticipation of it being cold. Ironic seeing as the outside air temperature was 30 degrees.

This was going to be our longest stay in one location having chosen to stay at a yoga retreat for a 7-day yoga holiday. Earth Yoga Village in Palolem is tucked away along an ocean inlet with access only by foot at low tide or by small boat at high tide. It looks idyllic, isolated against a backdrop of jungle and small cliffs. When we arrived for check-in it was low tide and still possible to wade across. We met one of the yoga instructors coming out who guided us through the best route to avoid some incredibly sharp submerged rocks. We were to discover later in the week quite how treacherous these were.

Earth Yoga Village is a yoga teacher training facility offering 200- and 300- hours teaching training. They also offer yoga holidays with a requirement to stay for a minimum of one week, and a programme called Conscious Living programme which provides an introduction to eco-living and full access to the yoga classes in return for helping out in the resort. As an eco-resort, the accommodation is basic in timber-framed chalets and outdoor bathrooms enclosed at the side but with the roof open to the elements. Our chalet was modest but cute with a large double bed and some simple furniture. The bed was completely enclosed by a mosquito net, essential as we were soon to discover they appeared in their hundreds particularly at dawn and dusk. During our stay, we had regular wildlife visits as we watched monkeys swing in the trees outside along with several frogs inside.

Our “holiday” had what appeared to be a fairly ruthless schedule, with the first class of the day, meditation, starting at 6.15 am for one and a half hours. Not being a morning person, I thought I would really struggle with these early starts but got through the week without missing one. It helped that it was still dark when they started, so was able to pretty much fall out of bed, put on my gym gear and do very little else to my face or hair. The downside was lying still while the mosquitos were at their most active, so I resorted to taking a shawl to cover myself hoping it would give the mozzies less flesh to choose from. These sessions included both guided and free meditation. Both Bryan and I suffer from monkey brain at the best of times, but we tried hard to stay focused and get the most out of them. We clearly have monkey backsides too as we found it challenging to sit in one position, cross-legged on the floor for an hour and a half. In one guided session we were asked to imagine a rainbow and then focus one by one on each of the colours of the rainbow, imagining them coming towards us and then surrounding us. My brain was determined not to play ball. If I was told to think of the colour yellow, I would see a vivid pink, or some other random colour, or none at all. The harder I tried, the more elusive it seemed. At the end of the session, there was a short opportunity to journal. I decided to try sketch journaling rather than writing just for something different. My drawing skills as pretty poor, but it was quite fun trying to document my thoughts in images, not words and looking back gives a good indication of what my brain was focusing on instead of meditation!

Following the meditation, and after a short tea break, there was a morning circle, or what I sarcastically called the “morning love-in” fearing that it was all going to be a bit touchy-feely for my liking. It was intended as a way to create positive energy at the start of the day though so I thought I should at least try and embrace it. It started with everyone wishing each other a good morning, with plenty of hugging thrown in. Covid-19 was not seen as too big a deal at this stage but there was concern voiced that the physical contact was probably not a good idea and a few people chose to sit it out. We would then sit in a circle and take part in a short ice-breaker activity, such as turn to your neighbour and find 3 things in common. We then went around the circle responding to a “what’s up” statement saying how you were feeling that day. Bear in mind that it was still only 7.30 am and no one had eaten breakfast yet so most of the responses were that people were tired or hungry, but some of the yoga students would also share their feelings about being overwhelmed or stressed. I guess that was the point, to give people the chance to give just a glimpse of what was on their mind so that others could then reach out and respond to it later in the day.

At 8 am there was the first yoga session lasting for an hour and a half. Each day was a different style of yoga – Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin and run by recently qualified yoga teachers who have completed their training at the village. These sessions were held in one of 3 shalas, roofed but otherwise open to the elements – and mosquitos. Did I mention there were lots of mosquitos? We had been concerned before we arrived that we would struggle to keep up with the quantity and level of yoga. Though we do a yoga session most mornings, even when travelling, we have tended to stick to a 30-minute limit and selecting beginner level videos to follow. We surprised ourselves that we coped pretty well. The sessions were well structured including warmup and cool down yoga asanas so the sessions started and finished quite gently. Each day we ended up doing a total of 3 hours yoga and managed to get through it all.

Finally, at 10 am, it was time for breakfast, but not before a handholding circle to show gratitude for the food. All the food in the village was vegan and served buffet style. There was a good variety and some interesting dishes throughout our stay. All meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner were included in our yoga holiday package. We were each responsible for doing our own washing up afterwards in an outdoor washing up area. The washing water began to resemble vegetable soup after a little while as there seemed to be a reluctance on the part of anyone to actually change the water, but it was definitely environmentally beneficial for the water supply!

After breakfast, there was a break most days until lunch at 2 pm, and then a further break before the hour and a half evening yoga at 5 pm followed by dinner at 7.30 pm.

During our time off we would often take a walk along the nearby Palolem Beach. It had a chilled out laid back vibe, with a long and wide beach edged with beachside cafes and accommodation. There is a small village one street back from the beach with shop after shop selling clothing, bags and souvenirs. Unlike Mahabalipuram, where we were pestered constantly by jewellery sellers, the Goan beaches were relatively hassle-free. In our free time each day, we would walk along Palolem beach or a couple of kilometres further on to Patnam Beach. We would break our journey with a swim or stop for a cold drink. There was also a good selection of vegan restaurants and we tried several during our stay.

The festival of colour, Holi, was celebrated during our stay in Goa. We walked to Patnem beach and back that day and there was an especially lively, friendly atmosphere with “Happy Holi” greetings from people we passed on the way and a few stopping to daub us with the colourful powder paint. That evening, Earth Yoga Village had its own Holi party. We had fun going crazy throwing the coloured organic paints followed by a rinse off in the sea.

We had planned the trip so we would be celebrating my birthday while at Earth Yoga Village. It turned out to be a fun and relaxing day and a great way to celebrate getting a year older. Following our regular daily mediation and yoga session, the gratitude circle that led into breakfast each day included a round of Happy Birthday being sung to me, and I was presented with a chocolate birthday cake – a vegan version made with beetroot. After breakfast we walked up to Patnem beach to relax and swim, followed by a delicious lunch before heading back for afternoon yoga and dinner. That evening we ventured out for celebration cocktails on the beach with some friends from Earth Yoga Village. There is a nightly curfew at the Yoga Village at 11 pm. We had taken full advantage of the 2 for 1 cocktail offer and this resulted in us missing the curfew and meant we were returning to the village at high tide, with no boat available to get us back to the other side. Undeterred, and feeling invincible due to our high body alcohol content, we set off in the waist-deep water, giggling as we went, trying to avoid the sharp rocks we had been warned about. We, of course, managed to stumble onto the biggest pile of the sharpest rocks and emerged the other side with cut and bloody feet. Thankfully the alcohol must have numbed the pain! There was further giggling as we managed to outsmart the number code on the gate padlock – and I finally got to bed another year older and clearly no wiser!

We left Earth Yoga Village feeling rejuvenated. 6 days of 3 hours yoga a day was great to help improve our overall flexibility and sense of well-being. We made a pact to try some form of retreat once a year. But for now, it felt like we were heading out to reconnect with the real world and back to the hustle and bustle that we expect of India. We headed into town to get a bus for Panaji (or Panjim) to spend a few days enjoying the Goa’s capital city.

On our first night in Panaji we headed out for something to eat, and in the process stumbled upon the Shigmo Festival which is one of the major festivals of the Hindu Community. This parade of various folk dances and floats was a riot of colours, music and dance. The route extends over several kilometres and we were fortunate to be able to walk alongside and experience the celebrations. We discovered later that the festival had been bought forward to run it before an anticipated clampdown on large gatherings due to the concern about COVID-19 that was now growing. After following and watching the parade for a couple of hours, we headed to Cafe Mojo which has self-serve beer pumps on the tables which we thought would be a fun experience. It was empty when we arrived, and we were told the table pumps were not operational and also that this was their last night open as they had received a government directive advising that all pubs were being forced to close the following day until the 31st March due to Coronavirus. We settled for some other liquid refreshment options and began our first serious conversation about COVID-19 as we began to appreciate its impact was no longer something that was just happening elsewhere.

Within days, as the crisis began to escalate, came the announcement that no new tourist visa for India would be issued and the visas of those people not yet in the country would be cancelled. Visas of those tourists in the country would, in theory, remain valid. Our plan was to sail to Galle, Sri Lanka for the next stage of our journey in mid-April. Our crew, Peter, who was due to fly in from the UK had already had to cancel his flight. if we chose to continue to Sri Lanka there were some other considerations. Because there is no yacht marina at Galle we would be based at the Naval Harbour, where we had taken the boat briefly back in 2009 and where the facilities for the boat are much more limited than in Kochi. So, if we did get to Sri Lanka and were then forced to leave Aroha, she would be far less secure than in India. The other options open to us were that we could try and get an extension to our current Indian visas due to expire mid-April and hunker down on the boat in India, or leave the boat there and head to the UK or New Zealand to wait out the crisis there.

There were pros and cons for each option, and we continued to have conversations over the next few days. We still had a few days left to enjoy Panaji and then a couple of days in Bengaluru before heading back to Kochi. We were staying in a fantastic hostel in Panaji old town of Fountainhas which is the Portuguese/Latin quarter full of beautiful colonial buildings. We took a short ride bus to old Goa and spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around the many historical sights there.

With few tourist options open in main Panaji, we enjoyed walking along the Corniche that looks out onto the various Casino boats moored there. On one of these walks, we discovered the Campal Gardens, a large riverside park with well-maintained gardens and sculptures to wander around. We also spent an enjoyable afternoon in Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts. This centre had a number of galleries with local artists work and a great courtyard cafe. One fun discovery close to our hotel was a small dive bar, Joseph’s Bar, that had started life as a watch repair shop. It has to be one of the smallest bars we have ever been in but was a great find with welcoming staff.

The final destination on this trip was Bangaluru and we needed to get from Panaji to the main train station which was about an hour out of town. Over the last few days, we had started to see more and more people wearing facemasks, but this was especially noticeable in the bus station. By chance, we had decided to bring our masks on this trip. These were masks I had ordered from the UK months before we left Dubai as a precaution against the high pollution, we expected to find in many of the big Indian Cities. I had ordered them from the UK from Cambridge Masks – high-grade N99. I had never considered that we would be using them as a precaution against a viral pandemic but was extremely glad to have them. We quickly discovered how incredibly hot you get wearing them and how difficult it is to make yourself understood trying to speak with them on. We knew that buses to the train station left every 15minutes, or when full, and for the express bus, you needed to buy a ticket at the counter before getting on. Yet when we approached the counter, the ticket seller initially refused to sell us a ticket. He said that all tickets were sold, and he had no idea when the next bus was due. Waving us away, we wandered over to the other bay of non-express buses accepting we would have to take the long route but were sent back from there being told that we needed to get the express bus. Now we were confused and frustrated. As I looked back to the Express counter, I caught the ticket seller’s eye. He initially looked away but then waved us back across and, with no other discussion, asked for the money for the bus ticket. He had now decided that there were buses after all and that the one standing next to us the whole time was not in fact sold out. Had he been trying to stop us “foreigners” from getting on the bus thinking we were carrying COVID? We will never know, but it was a bizarre thing to happen and was the start of us beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable travelling.

Once on the train, we had a further experience that made us consider we were now being viewed as a risk. We were again in a four-bunk arrangement. When our fellow passenger got on and saw us the two of us already in the bay, he was instantly hostile. Though he said nothing to us directly, it wasn’t long until he was asking the conductor if he could be moved to another bay – which was refused. Maybe we were starting to get paranoid, but this behaviour was not what we were used to. Until now, our experience of meeting Indians while travelling was that they were extremely friendly and keen to engage in conversation. It was a long train journey and we were thankful to reach Bengaluru where we headed straight to our hotel. As we checked in there was yet another sign that things were changing rapidly as we were asked for a health clearance certificate to show we were not contagious and told we could not check-in without it. Quite where or how we were meant to get this certificate was beyond us, but we patiently explained that we had been travelling in India only for the past 4 months and did not have any certificate. After a call to the management, the receptionist was given the ok and let us check-in.

It was then that we discovered that the Indian Tourism Ministry had made a decision to close all museums and monuments around the country. The tourism industry had effectively shut down. Staying longer in Bengaluru was no longer an option and we knew it was time to get back to the boat. A few hours later we had cancelled our train ticket back to Kochi and replaced it with a domestic flight leaving the following afternoon. We considered this was the quickest and safest option to get us back before any further restrictions kicked in. With nothing else to do and a quick google search later, we found a Vegan restaurant, the Yogisthaan Cafe, just 10 minutes’ walk from the hotel and headed there to enjoy some good food in a quiet, peaceful setting before heading back to the hotel with no intention of venturing out again. We spent the next day killing time in the hotel before getting lunch in the Yogisthaan cafe again before heading to the airport and returning to Kochi. That was all we got to see of Bengaluru! That was on the 19th of March. Just 5 days before the full lockdown in India started.

Looking back now it is incredible how quickly the situation escalated but we were incredibly fortunate to have been able to finish our travels on a high. Goa was a brilliant experience and one that will remain one of our favourite travel experiences. Though I expect travel will never quite be the same again, I hope that when we do get to venture back out again we are able to fully appreciate how fortunate we are to have the freedom to experience all that travel gives us and recognise that it is a privilege to be able to do so.

Where we stayed: