Carnival

just a few pics of carnival in Margao yesterday,hot 38c and crowded but spectacular

Always something new going on.....

Aint life grand. 

 We were awoken this morning by the sound of singing coming across the fields from St Sebastian’s church.   It was beautiful to hear the melodious singing.  The congregations are very much bigger than in our churches, and being an old Portuguese state Goan churches which are Roman Catholic are usually packed.  The singing was followed by some stirring music played by a band, and then the firecrackers were let off, not sure what relevance that has to the service, but there you go.

Varca Church where there are 5 services on a Sunday and the church holds about 300 people

and its always packed

Yesterday we were up in the village buying our weekend supplies, gin, beer, eggs, potatoes, chicken and some okra. 

Prices as follows

Gin £2 bottle

Beer Kingfisher, 60p pint

Potatoes 30p kilo

Eggs 45p dozen

Chicken, slight problem with himselfs request, we got 8 chicken breast instead of two for £3

Okra 60p kilo

Bananas 5p each

Cheap eh?

  When we came out of the supermarket there were hundreds of motor bikes and scooters roaring up the road behind two very big fighting bulls that were moving at about 30 mph on the wrong side of the road!  I hate to think what would have happened to anyone driving on the other side of the road as that lot approached.  As far as we have heard there were no accidents – it’s a miracle, mind you, we often wonder which is the right side of the road as so many drive just in the middle, as do we!

 

 Fighting Bull being taken for a walk in our field

So, himself has done a bit of cooking last night, chicken breasts in a port reduction with creamed potato and okra.  The meal was topped off  with a Goan bread and butter pudding, using mango, pineapple and grapes cooked by me and served with Crème Brule ice cream – yummy. We’ve been here for five weeks and are starting to get a bit curried out! 

Angie goes to Goa

When we realised Angie was coming to stay out here we thought we had better get some sort of itinerary ready for her.

Its always difficult to know how much to do, as jet lag, travelling and getting here all tire you out.

She arrived at Dabolim Airport 6.30 in the morning and was greeted by our friendly taxi driver Albert.  Angie said what a lovely man he was, telling her all about life in Goa on the forty minute drive.  She hadn’t gone to sleep overnight and when she started on the drive she couldn’t sleep because everything was so different. 

 Albert is a particularly good driver and we have never had any worries with his speed or passing abilities, but with narrow roads and all sorts of stuff on them, from push bikes, two wheelers, lorries, goats, cows and camels pulling carts, there are always a few “moments”.

We gave Angie 4 hours sleep, not really enough, but bless her heart, she was raring to go, but just a relaxing day on the beach was planned.  She was stunned how clean the beach and sea were, and how warm the sea  is, blood temperature.  She was also surprised that the Indians go into the sea in their clothes.  Most of India has never been to the beach, only the rich ones.  So ladies are in their stunning saris and the men roll their trouser legs up to take to the waters.  There is much whooping and whaling, and the very brave men go down to their underpants to brave the crashing white waves.  Quite a sight as you might guess.

Angie didn’t make dinner so slept from about 7pm to 8 am the following morning

Sunday we had a steady day again, different beach and himself went off to a lodge meeting in Ponda about an hour and a half away by Albert's Taxi.  He was fully suited and booted and said that he drank 6 litres of water during the evening, where he gave a speech as a visiting foreigner to the Grand Master of India, quite a privilege to do.

While he was away, Angie and I walked back from the beach and went out in the evening for dinner.  We had a lovely meal at Misha’s and she was amazed you can get a meal for two with drinks for about £8

Monday we went to the market and I wonder how the Indians will cope in 5 years when everyone wants a car instead of a two wheeler.  Theres no where to park now.  We bought tiger prawns, salad and fruit for a wonderful supper.

Tuesday we went to the beach and then to Pedros for a reggae night which was brilliant fun and super food.  The dancing is always interesting!!

Wednesday we went on the boat trip along the River Sal, seeing local fishing boats, some gorgeous houses, huge fruit bats and a trip into the bay to look for Dolphins, sadly they were all absent.

Thursday was Angies last day, she said goodbye to lots of our friends, she had her last dips into the Arabian Sea and dinner out before Albert took her to the Airport at 1.30 am on Friday morning.

Angie's Visit & more

Surprise surprise, we've seen a cloud! It's unusual out here but it went overcast , but only for a minute. I'm having a few probs with the internet out here so will try later to upload
Ttfn

Hello again

What a lovely way to spend a Wednesday with a cruise down the river

Our friend Angie arrived last Saturday for a weeks holiday during half term.  Its quite a long way to come for a week but I know that she thinks its worth it.

India is a bit like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it, and fortunately Angie now has the bug.  She loves the place and is definitely coming back.

She's a real game girl.  Everything we've chucked at her she has taken with relish, even to riding pillion with himself down to the beach.  We take it in shifts and Rich drops one off ready for the pool while the other starts walking!

So we have taken her to all our usual haunts, round the indoor market in Margao where she saw sights she has never seen before, to the fish market, that was an assault on the senses, if ever you needed one in India, a day on a cruise with lunch thrown in on the River Sal and out to sea dolphin spotting, so we've been quite busy

Fish market where we bought a kg of Tiger prawns for £6.50 then we had to get chef to cook them!

Kingfish Lunch and how they were earlier

Guess who caught these? No he's not that good!

Back to reality

After a lovely four days at the spa we have come back to our apartment and met up with our friends again.

The weather has been particularly hot for this time of the year and the Goan weather dept tells us in the Goan Times that it is 4c higher than usual, and has reached the heady height of 38c.
We generally use three different beach shacks, where there are restaurant and loo facilities as well as the usual sunchairs and parasols.  But we have decided to stick to Glorio's as its slightly higher on the beach and is surrounded by palms and other trees which give us much needed shade.

Denise & John in Jones corner with Vishnoo giving a foot massage

We have seen a lot more people here as with windy conditions and parasols blowing inside out, the trees are a definate draw.

The dogs have also been running into the sea to cool down.
We also found out that the Indian gentleman from London, had a brain tumour which he knew about and must have had a seizure before dying in the sea.

Sorry not the best picture but you can see the Vipers top right

There was a lot of shouting this afternoon when the bar boys found a couple of vipers sitting on 20 eggs within about 10 feet of the path to the beach.  We all dashed round to have a look, they were nesting under some riggly tin.  I guess they were shocked   to see us lot when the boys lifted the tin to show them to us.  We asked what would happen to them and the boys said they would bag them up and throw them in  the field - yikes!  Hindu religion doesnt allow them to kill anything.
I shall be looking out for them now ......

Mayfair Hideaway Spa

Its always nice to have a bit of a change, and we'd booked a four day spa break over Valentines Day instead of going city hopping as in previous years.
The Mayfair Hideaway Spa is tucked away between the Sal River, surrounded by palm trees and Betul a tiny village.
The hotel very kindly sent a car for us, so no worries about finding the place

The Spa has wonderful statues of elephants as you cross the bridge to the entrance, and all the walkways throughout the hotel area have pretty coloured starfish and animal ceramics set into the path, and at the very edge there are rows of turtles. 

 We were shown to our room which was beautifully furnished with a huge bed and lovely deep mattress.  Anyone who has ever been to India will understand that the mattresses can be a tad on the hard side, this was just so comfy!

The view from the window was fabulous overlooking the river estuary going out to sea

with swaying palms just in front 

 The bathroom was very lush too with an extremely deep bath, shower etc.

There was a Hindu Shrine and the bell tolled every so often for people to come to prayer  As you walked to the pool you had to go through the Mermaid corridor where there were dozens of paintings of beautiful mermaids

There was always something lovely to look at, every time you walked the paths

The infinity pool was so inviting, and while we were there hardly anyone used it. So our own pool for a few days!

The formal rooms were also very interesting there was the lighthouse room where you could browse books and DVD's, but whose got time for films when your actually in a setting like this one

Every room seemed to have a unique theme to it, even the bar had a huge aquarium to watch

The restaurant was also first class, we took breakfast here, lunch by the pool and evenings in the restaurant or on the pool deck for Valentines Night

And, as we got engaged 47 years ago on Valentines Day, they even gave us red roses and chocolates in our room and a lovely cake at Dinner.  We shared it with a couple who had been married just a week and were having their honeymoon in Goa.  They live in Delhi and had never been here before, so it seemed a nice gesture to give them some of our cake, and to be honest we couldn't have eaten it all anyway!

We both decided to have a massage, it was funny really, we had our massages in the same room, with a Thai guy doing his Lordships and a small but extremely strong Thai girl giving me mine.  I have to say I booked a Swedish massage for himself, and an Aromatherapy one for me, but I think I ended up having a Swedish massage too.  My legs and back have never been stretched and pulled like that before and the grunts and groans from the next massage table weren't exactly sounds of pleasure!! He said he felt as though he'd been through a spin cycle in a washing machine.  Needless to say we both slept like logs but it took a while to ease ourselves out of bed in the morning.

Sad, bad day

Its hard to believe a beautiful stretch of beach like this can be tinged with sorrow
We've had some very rough seas over the last few days, probably something to do with the full moon, the lunar eclipse and several planets all being in line at the moment

The day before we found two turtles dead on the shore, one fully grown and the other not quite as big, obviously washed in by the huge rollers that hit the beach.
Yesterday the sea was much calmer, but Sanjeed one of the bar boys was just walking along to the beach bar when he saw a body in the sea.
As it was before 9am the coastguards were not on duty so he shouted for help and Chris ran down to help give CPR and mouth to mouth resuscitation.  The coastguards and lifeguards came to help, but after 40 minutes he was pronounced dead.  He was thought to be an Indian from London.   All this had a devastating effect on the bar boys and all of the Brits & Canadians who use Glorio's beach shack.  The lifeguards think he had a heart attack, but after some careful deliberations, we think he might have been stung by a shoal of jellyfish ( I counted 27 washed up on the beach) and maybe went into anaphylactic shock before drowning, as he had water in his lungs.  So a sombre day.

We are going  to the Mayfair Hideaway Spa tomorrow for four days for a bit of pampering, so no blogging until next Wednesday.  I hear its snowing in the UK ha ha ha ha ha :)

Food for thought

As you all probably know I'm married to a man who is absolutely passionate about food.  He's certainly not one of those who eats to live, he lives to eat, and for me thats not a bad thing!
When we planned our trip himself decided we ought to bring the two things we really always miss with us, smoked bacon and cheddar cheese, both items that are more or less impossible to get here.
I have to say he has a serious rationing system in place, so we when the time comes to get smoked bacon we really appreciate it.
The cooking facilities in our apartment are pretty good for this part of the world, I know friends who only have a halogen ring to cook on, which when your a chef is extreemely frustrating.  Not only do normal pans not work on them, you have to juggle cooking items to get the food cooked all at the same time.

 Please note pans in India dont always have handles, good job we bought an oven cloth with us

Yesterday we had a lovely breakfast of smoked bacon, poached eggs and toast which was nice.

Today himself decided he was so impressed with the menu at Dinhas in Benaulim, that we would go there for a late breakfast.  Not only was there ground filter coffee on the menu, but lots of lovely other things to try,  This morning he went for the creamy porridge with fresh grated coconut and honey, and having seen another diners breaky I went for the creamy porridge with banana and golden syrup!  Please dont tell Dr Shackley! ha ha ha,

I must just tell you about last nights fiasco.  We were having our first Gin & Tonic as the sun is setting over the field, picture the scene, peace, tranquillity , peacocks roaming, pigs shuffling, egrets finding the insects, a buffalo being taken to the watering hole, dogs walking, the boys playing football on the distant pitch.  Sounds pretty idyllic doesn't it ?  Then at the far end of the field a group of church goers congregate at the religious monument (too far away to get a decent picture) they sing and pray then one bright soul lets off firecrackers?? Why?? The mayhem that happened was as follows, seven peacocks took flight, the pigs and dogs shot off in different directions, the buffalo stampeded through the footballers, complete with his owner trailing on the rope behind him, absolute mayhem!  Oh how we laughed.

You couldn't make it up!

Every morning I go for a really good walk to improve my fitness, I try to do a bit more every day, but Goa has eventually got me.  I didn't realise at first but I found myself ambling along without a care in the world, the speed walking has definitely gone out the window.  Himself has also started to amble along with me too, he's got a bad back and feels that it might improve if he keeps mobile.

I love the writing on the wall at Dinas

We went down to Glorios Beach Shack yesterday and found that there was a marquee with tables and chairs over the road to the beach.  You'd never get away with building a marquee over a public road in the UK but I dont suppose it matters that much here.  We rode the bike through it!!  Apparently it was for Vernon's Confirmation,

C

Today we caught up with old friends Steve and Ann, it was wonderful to see them again, they were very worried about me last year.  We had a couple of pre-luncheon beers and caught up twelve months news.

We spent the day at the beach with lunch at Mamas Kitchen, Prawn Noodles for me and Chicken soup for himself.

We popped up to the shops for some essential supplies, having been here a couple of weeks himself is desperate to cook, and after Steve mentioned he had Bangers and Mash on the plane he went for a shufty through the freezers at Home Supplies.  I'm not sure what Chicken sausages are like but if they're served with Bubble and Squeak and Port gravy, I'm really not going to complain.

We got back to our apartment and were having our early evening G & T when  two boys of about 8 or 9 walked over to the watering hole with a duck on a string?  They threw the duck in, it was then we realised it was probably a cormorant - it puts a whole new slant on going fishing.