After approximately 24 hours combined on the road, we entered Goa, welcomed by warm and humid weather, lush vegetation, and, of course, the massive multilingual ‘WELCOME TO’ signs every Indian state has. We headed towards the Southern part of the state, often described as the ‘least touristy’ area in Goa. This is a bit of a misnomer- all of Goa is pretty much tourist saturated, but from what we heard the Southern part would be more of a rustic beach escape, as opposed to the beach cities which are more popular in the other areas. The plan was to head down to the beach for a night, pack up in the morning and head north, which would include catching Goa’s version of Carnival in Panaji.

Goa was about 500 miles away, which, in States time is about 6 to 7 hours of driving, or about half that if you’re my father. Because of this, we planned on a short detour to some Mosque ruins, and then a direct drive to Goa. Leaving around 6:30 am that day, it seemed we’d be in Goa in time for a late dinner.

Driving out of Hyderabad was incredibly slow. Traffic in the outer areas of the city was fairly intense, even early in the morning. As soon as you’re even a little out of the city, you can sense an immediate change: the level of poverty was far greater just a short distance away, the tall buildings completely disappearing and being replaced by huts and shacks of varying construction materials. The poor road conditions and many vehicles kept us for a couple of hours before we started to get a good speed going.