Looking forward......

We're so looking forward to going back to India again, to the warmth of the climate, the warmth of the people and the fascinating daily life in Varca, Goa which has become like a second home to us

The last post....

Well this is going to be the last post for this visit to Goa.
Friends have said what will you miss most and I think the birdsong in the morning when the sun rises over the palm trees, the congregation at the village church singing, peacocks runninng over the field,  the warm breezes that fill the evening air, waving to the local children who all shout "Hi" and wave back, talking to the local people who live in Varca village, and how they love to gossip!

 You always expect the unexpected, cows & pigs wandering across the roads, buffalo taking walks along the beach

Fishermen and their wonderful boats

Prices of fruit and veg, all very cheap, potatoes and carrots at 15p a kilo, and beautiful mango and pineapples at pennies.

I shall also miss our friends who return here year after year.  The are all rebooking so that we can enjoy the fun again next year.  There are some wonderful characters who lead busy lives back in the UK and let off steam when they get here.

I will also miss those wonderful early morning rides on the scooter, nothing on the back roads to the beach that stretches 35k, although I won't miss our "soft sand" incidents.

My bananas have not ripened, I can't believe that I have watched these for 8 weeks and they are still green!

India never fails to excite the senses, views, smells, some good, some pretty alarming but always interesting, and if you get the chance to come you won't be disappointed.

Trouble in paradise

I saw on yesterday's news that a young English woman had been killed in Canacona, not far from here.  Its a particularly beautiful area with the Netravali Wildlife Park and quiet beautiful beaches nearby.  Sadly there will always be drink & drugs wherever you go in our world.

We forget how vulnerable we can all be in such quiet beautiful places.  I walk for about an hour each morning along some extremely quiet stretches of beach, but have never felt unsafe.   I usually see Jean from Newcastle who walks for about three hours on her own, every day and stops for a chat.There are lots of single women who happily holiday here and find friends.  Oddly enough when you meet up with other Brits they usually want to talk about their experiences not only in Goa but all their visits to interesting sites and cities in India.  That's why so many keep coming back, its easy India here, not too much poverty and few beggars. However, we see a few local ones and I am happy to give them a few rupees, why wouldn't I, we have plenty in our world and they have so very little.  However, there are a lot of Russian visitors who do not have the same outlook on life.

I will also never understand those that say life is cheap in India.  The Indians certainly don't think so,
perhaps they mean there are no penalties for causing death, or unregulated working practices, but if you think back 50 years our countries had the same problems.  The Indian government now has a much better recycling system, with penalties, however the litter problems are still the same.

These two had been collecting water bottles from the bars along the beach, and I know from our trips on Indian rail everything is taken and recycled even down to the newspapers and meal trays.

This evening we have just seen a mass of people in the field at the back of us an its turned out to be an illegal bull fight

Hundreds of people turned up so we got the old binoculars out to see what was going on.  These are the sort of bulls, and today there was a white and a big black one, but the black one ran off before the match got started.  Even the ice cream boy turned up on his bike!  There were people running after the bulls in both directions and then we saw a fox with a big bushy tail - happy days!

Big fish to fry and sailing

We are getting into the last week of our wonderful visit to Goa and decided to go on another day out with our friends Kath & Bob.  The weather was a little cloudy which was great for a change.  I can honestly say we see very few clouds, but the months are passing and the heat and humidity  is building from now until the monsoon starts in June and continues until mid October, a bit like our British summer!

The views along the river are quite spectacular with many high flying Indians having homes here.

Our boat takes us out to sea to do a bit of dolphin spotting.  The boat boys get on their phones to the fishermen and ask if they've seen any this morning and where they might be.  After about ten minutes we were delighted by two pods of dolphins, one  pod were  small black ones, the others were grey with pink noses.  I take my photos with an iPhone so getting shots of such fast moving dolphins is a bit tricky, but today I was lucky.

 There are masses of fish in the Arabian sea,  Early yesterday morning when the sea was unusually calm, we had a long swim and found ourselves out in the middle of a big shoal of fish.  There were sea eagles diving in all around us and we rather hoped that the dolphins might make an early morning visit for breakfast, but sadly not.

Back to the boat and fishing trip, the sun burnt through the cloud by about eleven and people were pulling fish aboard and look at this one that I caught!  How I will get this in a 7 inch frying pan is going to be a bit of a problem - tricky...its a King fish.

Actually, it was cut into steaks and we had it along with Tiger prawns, veg curry & rice for lunch.

Another super day out with Kath and Bob, our neighbours here in Goa.

Holi

The Hindu Festival of Holi has arrived!
Holi is the Hindu Spring festival celebrated throughout India and is also known as the festival of colours, or the festival of love.  It signifies the victory of good over evil, when people meet, play, laugh, and forgive and forget broken relationships.

It also signifies chaos and mayhem amongst young Hindus who plaster you with paint of many colours.

Oddly enough we were having a lunchtime snack with Dave & Ali and John & Linda when a dozen or so young Indians ran into the restaurant area and tried to hold us to ransom, threatening pink paint or 10 rupees.  John being an accountant stood up and said it was St Patrick's day tomorrow (not quite) and everyone had to pay 10 rupees to him as his name was Patrick. ;) Well you could have heard a pin drop, but good to their word they all coughed up 10 rupees each and John collected it.  After we all had a dousing in the dreaded pink paint anyway he gave them their money back.  You'd never guess hes and ex accountant.

One of the things that surprised me today was a close call with a Mongoose.  There are quite a few about apparently, but it shot across the pathway over someones cooking fire and was swiftly followed by a few pans that were thrown at it and a lot of shouting.  At least they keep the snakes down!! 

They've gone - bananas

Ever since I found out that there are about 110 different types of bananas, I've always been fascinated by them.  In the UK we only get the long ones from the Caribbean, but here they come in all shapes, sizes and tastes.  Some are wonderfully sweet, others not so.

About six weeks ago while on our travels, I spotted some bananas that were just bursting from the pod, and I've been watching them ever since as they've grown.  The trouble is this morning on the way along the path we met John & Linda who have also spotted the bananas, and they say the owner of the field says they belong to the hotel over the wall, but could John have a taste and see what they're like?!

Himself has had to get his cooking head on again, always one for a challenge, he decided to make some banana fritters, which I have to say were more than nice!  He served them with a honey glaze and a large dollop of vanilla ice cream - lush!  I'll keep you posted on the ripening fruits......

 Tomorrow we have more friends departing.  Inga & Fez have been here since December as their home in Toronto is pretty cold.  Even in March its still -12.  We have been out to dinner with them quite a few times and they are great company,  They met in England when they were youngsters, Fez had left Dehli and Inga had left Germany and got married in London.

In December they bought family back to India for Christmas.  Fez told me today that when they go back to Dehli en route to Toronto, they want to stop off to see if his old school is still there.  I had a quick Google and there it was the Anglo Arabic School near the Red Fort.

The school was established in 1690, making it one of the oldest in India, by Ghazuiddin Khan the deccan commander general of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

 We had a last meal with Inga & Fez, and Bob and Kath, our next door neighbours.  Himself is gradually driving Kath & Bob mad with the aromas coming from our kitchen.

Newsflash:  just heard "yes, yes, yes, get in there!" from our neighbours balcony, I only hope they're
watching the Manchester city match!!

Trees, bees and butterflies

Today I noticed a tree with long green pods on, I’ve never seen them before, basically because we are usually home by now and the pods have never ripened for us to see. 

It turns out that they are cotton trees and when the pods ripen and then burst open they are full of cotton wool!

Cotton Pods

We have also seen a lot more birds than usual, Sea Eagles, Kites, Egrets, wonderful Kingfishers that are the size of a rook back home.  They look brown when still, but when they fly the underside of the wings are a brilliant Kingfisher Blue

We see lots of butterflies of different colours that are the size of small birds, they float around on the breeze.

Every morning when I go on my walk I have taken on the roll of starfish guardian.  So many of them get washed in by the waves and when you pick them out of the sand they are still wriggling in your hands.  If your not quick the birds come down and peck them, so I wade out to give them a second chance. 

 

A place to stay for Ken & Gay

Oh, and for Di & Dave too. Hear you are coming to India for an assault on the senses:)

On our way over the sand dunes to one particular beach we pass this beautiful residence.  We hadn't been to this beach for four or five days and the gent in the hat said he'd missed us!   We didn't realise that we were being clocked in and out.
We had a particularly protracted conversation with the owner of this glorious property, he spoke only good morning English.  He kept showing us his neck, we said it looked okay to us,  but he kept mumbling stuff to us so in the end we just wandered off.

The Honeybourne Four, this is a place that locally is used by Cocks & Kings hahaha

  Later we found out from hatman that it was rice cooking in the big pot on the fire.  Staff meals for the lifeguards apparently, but who knows, I'm not eating rice today just in case.

We have chatted to a local Hindu family, they live in a room along the beach path that is about as big as our garden shed, they are wonderful.  Always clean, with just one tap to use for all the four "houses" happy and contented with their lot.

We always say Hi to the kids and the biggest of the two boys with the pearl necklace(?) always blows his whistle and I whistle back, just a game but its a connection between two totally different worlds.  Today we took them some crayons, colouring books, writing books,  pencils, sharpener and ruler for pre-school.  I think giving money is a bit crass and at least the kids get something useful.

I think its the season when the Indians fire the land because today we were a bit shocked to find a fire very close to the bike- yikes!

Hospital Visit

 The Rajagiri Victor hospital is only ten minutes away from our apartment.  It has state of the art Spiral CT and 1.5 Tesla MRI, 4 well equipped state of the art Operating theatres with Laminar air flow, just two more than Worcester Royal.
Richard used their services last year when he had two blocked ears, which were pumped out in half an hour.  As I have had a series of mishaps, collapsed lung, ruptured spleen and pneumonia  after my major surgery last year I decided I would spend a day having an Executive Preventative Health Care Package.  When I telephoned for an appointment they said I could come in three days time as I would need to be alcohol free for that time and would need to fast for 12 hours.

Albert picked me up early, 7.15 am as the traffic is busy in the city.

 I arrived at the hospital at 7.45 am, the first early morning I've had for jonks, and no coffee either to get me started.  I think I could live without a drink but not without a good cup of coffee

I registered, took my samples and then went for a blood test.  They do a  full blood, liver function, uric acid, serum reatinine, calcium lipid profile, cholestrol, blood group typing.   Urine analysis, stool test, PAP Smear test,ECG, Cardio Stress Test, Complete Abdominal and Pelvic Scan, Chest X ray, full physical test and consultation with a physician.  Gyno consultation, and results talked through with your Consultant at the end.

My tests ended at about 1.30pm and my appointment with my consultant was at 3.45 by which time all the results were in.

I met up with a couple from Portsmouth, a couple from Scotland and a lady from Sussex who were all having health checks.  It was a really nice bunch to be with, we had a lot of laughs, especially when the boys in the group had drunk their litre of water all in one go before the bladder scan and couldn't go to the loo :)

We all had tales to tell of our wonderful NHS and were all out here in India, a so called third world county having a brilliant health check for 3500 rupees about £43.00.  We were treated with dignity and respect and given our breakfast of one cheese sandwich one tomato sandwich , crust cut off and a cup of tea (ahhh still no coffee)  After breakfast we had another blood test two hours later to see how our bodies handled the food intake.

As I had time to spare I decided to go to a local Spa and had a manicure and pedicure while I waited and as I was a bit hungry I nipped to a cake shop near the hospital for a nice chocky brownie

I got back for my appointment with my Consultant who went through the pages of test results and also gave me my ECG read outs, X-rays etc and he said that all was well apart from slightly raised cholesterol which is amazingly good news for me