A trip to Mapusa market

I slept through the night, which was a blessing! I had set the alarm for 7am as I was catching a bus to Mapusa this morning. I made myself a coffee and left at 7.45 to walk the 20 minutes to where Google Maps said the bus was due to leave from at 8.15. I had asked in the hotel, but nobody had any experience of using public buses, so they couldn't tell me if Maps was right or wrong. It turns out that it was wrong!! When I got to where Maps said the bus stop was, I asked a guy if I was in the right place. He told me that no buses went from there. I needed to be an hour's walk in the opposite direction!

As I was pondering what to do, the guy flagged down his friend who was driving past on a scooter and asked him to take me to the bus stop. I had a split second to make a decision. I have not been on a motorbike since I crashed my scooter in Paris when I was 16. I swore I never would. Mark and I lived in Vietnam for three years, where scooters were the main mode of transport, and I kept my promise - I never went on a bike! Today, I did! I was terrified, but I did it anyway! The guy got me to the bus stop in Mandrem just as the bus was arriving. He wouldn't take a penny from me. He simply waved me on my way. This is why I love travel so much! I am constantly challenging myself, and I am constantly blown away by the kindness of the people you meet along the way 😊.

The bus was, as expected, rammed, so I stood for all of the hour's journey to Mapusa. It was a bumpy journey, but there was no danger of falling over - we were too crammed in for that 😂. Some passengers were managing to sleep standing up!

When we arrived in Mapusa, I was immediately in the middle of a wonderful, noisy, busy, colourful, chaotic Indian city. I loved it! My only reason for going there was to visit the biggest market in Goa. It's open every day of the week, but Fridays are the busiest because that's when everyone from villages from miles around comes into town to sell their produce and stock up with what they need for the week.

The market wasn't difficult to find - the stalls spilled out into all the neighbouring streets. I didn't need to buy much. I just wandered around soaking up the atmosphere and chatting to people. Every other white face in the crowd belonged to a Russian tourist, or so it seemed. I had to keep telling people I wasn't Russian! Even a Russian woman asked me something and didn't seem to believe me when I said I didn't understand! 

I was at the market nice and early, so I was able to take some photos before it got too manically busy. I then went to try to get an Indian SIM card for Mark's phone. This proved too problematic for the guy in the shop. He had never done one for a foreigner before and didn't know how, but he was determined not to give up! I was in there for an hour while he kept getting timed out of the website. He spoiled four SIM cards without getting me connected. In the end, he had to admit defeat! I'll try again another day 😊.

After that, I explored more of the market before finding a local cafe, where I enjoyed Puri Bhaji and a coffee for breakfast, for the princely sum of 70 rupees (about 52p). I then went to track down a bus to get back to Mandrem. Of course, it was busy, and I stood for most of the way, but it is so worth it - 25 rupees, as opposed to 1400 rupees for a taxi!

Back at Maya, I chatted to Neha before going for a cooling swim. For dinner, I had some delicious savoury pastries followed by yoghurt and bananas. I bought everything in the market.Read more