Varca Beach

Just 200 yards from our apartment is Varca beach. The beach runs some 20 miles with just a few shacks/bars selling all sorts of southern Goan food. Goa is not like the rest of India, not so much poverty or crime, the people are really friendly and will go out of their way to help you. It was previously Portuguese and many of the residents have dual citizenship making work in Europe relatively easy. 

We spent most of the day here meeting up with friends John & Denise who stay every year for a couple of months in the Club Mahindra.  We come here because the Internet access is particularly good. We think it's good in Honeybourne but super fast broadband is up to 59 mb on the beach and 3G everywhere. Everyone in India has a mobile phone, an old girl shuffled along the beach saw me, and thought blondie will be a soft touch, asked for a small donation, when  I refused she got her phone out to check her mail! By the way I'm not tight but its not the done thing to give money and the the bar owner says she will ring all her mates who "will plague the life out of you madam" - technology eh?

Beach is full of wildlife, Lots of wading birds, a sea eagle who finished off the slower crabs on the shoreline and grey herons and egrets, which I wasn't quick enough to catch. A herd of cows and a buffalo also come along to graze on the lush grass in front of the Zuri hotel, the security guards have a bit of a strop and the tourists all take pictures!

We had to do a bit more shopping for the weekend; the supermarket is small but rammed with everything you need.

Next door the veg co-op sells its produce for pennies. The traders never give you change, just a few sweets or an extra few carrots. If you can't see the price list it's all about 20p a kilo for just about everything you would get from the fruit & veg dept in Tesco, but fresher.

As its the weekend and we're just going to spend it sitting in the sun, watching the world go by or sipping a G & T with a good book, I won't be blogging til next week so enjoy your weekend, we intend to ️:) xx 

Quiet time and the opticians

We decided to pop into Margoa this morning to get some new glasses for me, and three repair jobs for himself. "Comagain" our taxi driver ( well something like that anyway) had to get some petrol, and those of you with good eyesight will see it's just 54 rupees (54p) a litre.

I took my prescription into Lawrence & Mayo and whilst choosing some glasses, we girls can't decide can we, himself showed the technician 3 pairs, one he sat on, beyond economic repair according to spec savers, two fallen apart, and all were repaired f o c cleaned and with new cases. 

We had to send an important letter to the UK and the post office manager gave us the envelope wrote out our postcode from memory and charged us £10 for swift delivery within 2 days - we wait and see!

Back to the beach, sand kept beautifully clean by the blue ladies who walk miles picking up seaweed, litter etc which is picked up by the bin men in the afternoon. On the way back we walk along a country track and a black Goan Porker ran across the path into the field, it's very rural here. To get his attention I whistled and the damn thing must have thought we were going to feed him. I ran like hell, himself will never make a good burglar, the pig nearly caught him up, oh how we laughed. Think this calls for a gin & tonic

Gorgeous Goa

It's been a busy few days but we're here again in glorious Goa. We left Chennai a little lare our taxi was running behind time so we hailed a small cab.

As you can see it was a tad cramped in the cab but we got to the airport and our two flights were faultless and got fed free on both., and arrived on time in our extra leg room seats.

Albert our taxi driver picked us up and whisked us back to our lovely apartment telling us lots of news from last year.

Rush hour on the beach was just a herd of cows.

It's incredibly quiet here there have been 995 flights from Russia cancelled, 40,000 cancelled holidays - great for us but pretty tragic for the hotels and bar trade. The Indians are very worried - so are the Cowboys lol. 

So what's not to like here, a Bostin cup of tea, 30c sunshine, clean beaches, fab food, the sea like a freshly drawn bath with sea minerals - pure bliss!. Meeting up with six friends from last year for supper  to catch up on the goss.

Sunday - birthday

Thank you family and friends for the lovely cards and presents, some had me in tears, some made me laugh hysterically, Gay  & Di I'll get you back!       

  Himself at breakfast, curry already?

We had a fun day, out shopping at the mall this morning, 50% off in the M & S sale, yes really, and it's half the price of the UK,

Bought lots of things, then went off  for a very late lunch at the GRT Grand where we ate far too much. Lots of really spicy curries and vegetarian dishes 💨 prawn tandoori and lush desserts.

Tomorrow we fly ✈️to Goa and have no idea about wifi and when or if we will get our Indian SIM cards Monday/Tuesday, so if you don't hear from us, no news is no worries.

Note for Ken, have a new tour guide with a telepathic connection with other drivers and only takes 14 photos when asked to take 1 😎

Note to Jack & Ollie and The Boy, loved the pictures, thought of you all when the Villa Liverpool match came on the big screen by the pool last night it looked cold there, we were in our shorts  with a cold beer 🍺🍺 😎😎😎 xx

Arrived safely

We arrived in Dubai Emerates hub, what a place that is, and had time for a quck glass of cider.  Himself said to sip it slowly, it cost an arm and a leg I guess, but agricultural champagne is very refreshing.  We boarded our flight to Chennai to find that the crying baby had followed us, so little sleep was had. Food and service was excellent the stewardess even took baby for a wander!. Our hotel is half an hour from the airport and the taxi ddriver took several bookings on his iphone 6 whilst dodging the traffic. Were round the corner from Egmore Station, and tried to get our Indian sim cards updated, but alas too late on Friday.

We did however buy two new watches after mine threw a wobbly and wouldnt set and himself forgot his???? A tad tacky but for 3.50 for the two who cares

Off for a swim now, its just cooling down to 24c at 4.46 pm see you on my birthday xx

Here's the plan....

Our beach in Goa

Just a few days to go til we fly to India so for our lovely family & friends who are more worried about it than we are, here is our itinerary
16th Jan  Birmingham Emirates - Dubai - Chennai (Madras) Ramada Hotel
18th Jan My birthday in Chennai !!
19th Jan Chennai - Goa staying for three weeks at Sea Coast
9th Feb  JetKonnect - Goa - Mumbai - Jet Airways Mumbai - Jaipur Flute Boutique Hotel
12th Feb SpiceJet Jaipur - New Delhi - Varanasi Hotel Buddha
15th Feb Indigo Air Varanasi - Mumbai Yogi Executive Hotel
18th Feb Air India Mumbai - Aurangabad Hotel Windsor Castle??!!
21st Feb Mumbai - Goa
15th March SpiceJet Goa - Chennai
16th March Emirates - Dubai - Birmingham 

Indian Adventure 2015

Counting down the days to our new adventure