Toronto to Goa - A Journey

I have been living in Canada by myself for a little over a year now. I went to Canada as soon as I finished my graduation. This post is about my trip back home.

A little info about my home town now. I was born and brought up in Goa, India. For those who have not heard of Goa, it is a small coastal state in India. About an hour's flight from Mumbai, it is one of the most beautiful places in the country with friendly people, great atmosphere and awesome weather throughout the year! 

Since I had been living in Canada by myself for over a year, I was very excited when I finally got the chance to visit home. I could not wait for the day when I would finally leave. The idea of meeting up with my family and friends after such a long time got me all pumped! 

Chapter One - Overweight

The beginning of my trip though, was marred with mishaps. First of all, the airline that I was travelling with deemed my hand luggage overweight. Since I did not know exactly how much was the weight limit for the hand luggage (I know I should have looked it up), I put in about as much stuff, papers mostly, that I could in my hand luggage assuming that it would never go overweight. Big Mistake! The staff at the airline told me I could transfer some of the things from my hand luggage to the checked in bags which, ironically, were way underweight. Now herein lies the problem.. I had got my checked in bags secure strapped just before I reached the check in counter. In order to transfer my luggage I would have to break those straps, which I could not do by hand (that being the point of the straps). And I did not have any sharp object in my hand luggage ( it was an airport after all!). So after an embarrassing 20 minutes of trying to stuff things in the corners of my bags in front of the airline staff and other travellers, I decided to ask some people standing next to me if they had any sharp objects on them. Apparently they had overweight baggage too and were in the process of transferring stuff from one bag to the other. But as my luck would have it they did not have any sharp object with them. Dissapointed, I went my back to trying to break the straps with my hand. I tried to use keys, but that did not help much. And just when I had lost all hope, this guy from the same group whom I asked before came up to me and said that he could try burning the straps with his lighter. I must say, I have never been so happy to see a lighter before! It was a God sent. Within 5 minutes, the straps came off and I got about transferring my luggage. With my bags all checked in I moved to the departure area, I could not help but wonder that if my trip started of  this way, what would the rest of my trip be like?? After some waiting we were en route to Brussels which was the first stop my flight made before going to India. My co-passengers on the flight were a German couple who were really nice and did not talk much, which, was good for me as got to watch a couple of movies in flight.

Chapter Two - Stranded!

We landed at Brussels early in the morning. As soon as we reached the departure terminal at the Brussels airport we were told that our flight has been delayed by an hour. This meant that we now had to wait at the airport for 4 hours instead of 3. We were given coupons to eat at the airport. I would have loved to shop at the duty free but, I, sadly did not have any Euros on me. While I was waiting at the airport, this Asian girl came up to me and started talking to me. Her English was terrible. She could not even read her food coupon and had no idea what it was for. After I explained to her what it is for, she got herself some food and then decided to have a chat with me. I don't remember what we conversed about, but I don't think I understood most of it. After some time the boarding call was announced was my flight. I bid my Asian friend goodbye and prepared for boarding. The next leg of my journey was a 16 hour flight to Mumbai. I got ready for a long and really boring flight. I did have plans to chat up with one of the air hostesses or maybe even a fellow passenger, but that didn't really work out..

Chapter Three - It Happens Only in India....

Since there are no direct flights to Goa, my first stop in India was Mumbai. My flight was supposed to land in Mumbai at 10.45 in the night but due to congestion at the airport, the plane was hovering above the airport for a long time (flights inevitably always get delayed at the Mumbai airport). The plane landed at 12 in the night. After we got down we were asked to get our bags and go for the customs check before moving on to our respective domestic flights.

As I went in for my immigration check, there came this hoard of labourers probably working in the middle east who were visiting home. These people could not care less for standing in a queue, they began pushing into each other, all eagerly awaiting their turn, as if the immigration officer was handing out money! This really pissed me off. Being in Canada for a year I had gotten used to the idea of standing in a proper queue, and maintaining my distance from the people in front of me and behind me. I decided to stand my ground, no matter what the person behind me said. Of course with 50 people pushing into me, that did not work out too well for me. After an agonising 15 minutes of being pushed around in the line I made it to the counter. At the counter was one person with the officer. I was behind awaiting my turn and there was another person standing behind me. After about 5 minutes the guy behind me started losing his patience and began telling me to push into the guy in front of me so that the officer would hurry up. This, was when I decided I would make my stand. I would not cross the yellow line until my turn came up! The guy behind me kept urging me to go forward and no matter what I said I could not get through to him. Finally the immigration officer was done with the guy in front of me and it was my turn. Of course, the guy behind me followed me to the counter keeping a hair's distance, more like as if he was a free package along with me and he stayed there all throughout the next 10 minutes of my immigration check... 

When I was done with my immigration check I quickly moved to claim my luggage and get it through customs.  Unluckily for me, my bags were the last to come so I spent another half hour waiting for my bags to come, wondering all the while if my bags were misplaced. After I got my bags I went in for the customs check. Just before I was going to put my bags in the scanner, one of the attendants putting the bags in asked me if I had any electronic item, I told him I had a camera, (in retrospect I believe he meant new items and I realise I did not need to tell him about the camera) He asked me where I was coming from and I told him Canada. To that, he just looked at me and told to give 20 pounds to the customs officer. I did not understand what he meant by that, so I just moved on. As I reached the area to transfer my luggage to the domestic flight, to my horror I see the attendant come running behind me asking me if I paid. Still not understanding what he meant, I told him no one asked me for any money. He got very agitated by that and started telling me about how he spoke to the customs officer for me. At that point of time with all the flight time, immigration nonsense and waiting for the luggage I was very irritated. I did not know what the guy was talking about and I could not care less. I took my wallet out and I gave him 20 dollars. Now, I know that I paid him a bribe for him getting the customs officer to allow me to pass with my camera. What's more, I know that carrying one camera is perfectly alright and I did not need to pay anyone anything. I will regret giving away those 20 dollars for a long time...

After I had finished transferring my luggage to my domestic flight for Goa I went to the domestic terminal to wait for my flight leaving at 5.45 in the morning which was nearly 4 hours away. While I was waiting I decided to call home and tell my parents that I had arrived in Mumbai safely and would be reaching Goa on time. When I tried to switch my phone on, to my shock I realise that my local SIM card had been deactivated because I had not used it for a year (I did not know it would be deactivated if i did not use it). Thankfully the ground staff at the airport were really helpful when I told them of the situation and one of the staff members lent me his phone to make the call. After that, as I was waiting for my flight, I met this Indian boy from London who was travelling with his family. Somehow I knew, even before I asked, that he was English (Yes! I am pretty sure his accent gave him away). Since he was around the same age as me, we bonded instantly and started discussing as to how London was different from Canada and how India was different from both. We had a great conversation until the boarding for my flight was announced. After bidding him and his family goodbye I boarded my flight and waited for my 45 minute journey to Goa to begin. I was a little sad that I did not get the window seat, (despite the annoying idea of asking somebody to move every time I have to dispose bodily fluids, I still love the window seat!) but extremely exited by the idea of being so close to Goa (I had been travelling for about 24 hours by now).

Chapter Four - Amchem Goa!

As we neared the airport I looked out and saw that it was raining pretty heavily (as it does in the monsoons). Then I saw the greenery all around and the rain just made it all look so much more beautiful! By contrast, I hated the rains when I lived in Goa; they just made around so much more difficult. After we landed I got off the plane and ran across the tarmac to the terminal, trying to avoid getting wet in the rain (actually I was more worried about my phone getting wet). As I was waiting for my baggage to come out I saw my brother standing outside waiting for me. Luckily this time I did not have to wait too long for my luggage. While I was waiting, I heard a few people conversing in Konkani (Its the regional language of Goa) and suddenly I felt at home (Though I can barely converse in it).  I picked up my luggage, put it in a trolley and walked out into the rain...Goa!! I was finally here...