When we were halfway across the river, everyone gave up their hard-won seats and moved towards the exit doors Not twigging why, I stuck to my seat. I finally located our driver, nonchalantly sipping his Thums Up Cola, who told me that the bridge had collapsed, and the ferry had taken its place.I waited an hour and a half for the next ferry. I decided to ask him what we were waiting for, but he was asleep. I rushed off the bus and saw all the other passengers floating across the river on a ferry.

While I congratulated myself on knowing this was not the bus-changing part of the journey, Panjim, everyone else got off the bus, bar one man He must be heading for Panjim too, I thought. (I am not sure what the Blessed Virgin would have made of his window sticker: "Love for sale - 100% discount".)The bus soon came to a halt at a river. The vehicle was the size of a Bedford Rascal, and with about 50 people crammed in, I found my right cheek pressed against a weeping Virgin Mary, part of the driver's personal mini-shrine. I clambered out and a beggar in a skimpy lungi came over to congratulate me. I was just struggling to escape his demands for money when, over his shoulder, I saw the bus trundle off.A couple of hours later, another bus arrived Carefully avoiding the hole, I boarded it. I set off in the morning sun to catch the bus at a nearby crossroads A bus soon rolled up to the makeshift stop.

Squinting to read the bus's destination, I forgot to look where I was going and promptly disappeared down a 4ft hole. As my rear hit the bottom, sending up a puff of dust which made my disappearance all the more mysterious, I heard shrieks and cackles from the young and old assembled at the stop. I had read that the journey from Benaulim to Old Goa would be charming and, more importantly in India, pretty straightforward, with just one bus change at Panjim. DURING A recent trip to India, I decided I wanted to see the 15th- century Portuguese ecclesiastical architecture in Old Goa. All the places mentioned are linked by Tokyo's marvellously efficient network of trains and subways. There is plenty of information in English, the trains are squeaky clean, and run from 5.30am to midnight.