Goa- the reason travel plans are cancelled!

hello again after a while,

We arrived here in Goa two weeks ago now. Initially intending on only staying a week and then heading down to Kerala- the sun, cocktails and AT LAST fellow English speakers kept us totally hypnotised here!

Not too much to report in the last two weeks, Im quite happy to say that all energy and urge to be productive vanished upon arrival!

We are staying in a bamboo hut on stilts on Palolem beach facing out to the sea, it is gorgeous here, very peaceful and chilled out. Its amazing to hear the waves crashing in as you drift off to sleep and then again as you wake up.

(Although, Jo developed a fierce worry that there would be another Tsunami as some nights the waves sounded huge and really close, I didn't really do much to calm her nerves, and it wasn't until last night i realised i should really stop winding her up as I will be here on my own!!)

The first two days here were very overcast and a bit breezy, we were absolutely gutted as had been really banking on working up those tans, so on the third day when the sun came out there was no stopping us!
In true Cat style not doing things by halves, i got TOTALLY burnt on the backs of my legs and decided to go in after a few hours. That night i was so knackered i slept from 7pm-8am, and when i got up to go to the bathroom in the morning, i fainted! My head richocheing off the wall and then the toilet. Just before i passed out i had unlocked the door as i could feel myself getting faint, so at least Jo could come in and rescue me!! Could have been so embarassing if it had happened 2 mins earlier mid flow!! Have had a stinking great big bruise on my bum for the last two weeks which has looked Quelle attractive on the beach with all the beautiful people!! The next few days were spent cooped up alone in the beach hut with my Ipod, and also as a pure glutton to pain, in the beauty salon trying out the Indian way to shape your eyebrows called threading. This involves a reel of cotton which they twist and somehow it takes off your hair, results were good but I can now definately vouch for the beauty is pain theory!!

But for those who have been on holiday before with me, you will all be pleased to know I am well in the lead on the brownest feet competition. Its ALL about the feet!!

We've gone to the same bar most nights as its the only one with a 24hr drinking licence, altough despite how much we'd been looking forward to a good old drink up, have hardly gone that crazy at all! Met some guys from the UK who are club reps in Zante throughout the summer and then meet here every winter for their own holiday- they were funny the first night, then the jokes and the egos got very annoying!
I also forgot to mention, we received an email from Simone, the most deisgner 'genuine backpacker' ever asking us about our Goa plans dates etc, and we both decided it would be best to just ignore....

Met a lovely guy in our local bar 'cafe del mar' called rice man, well thats obviously not his name but thats what everybody calls him, as he writes peoples names on a grain of rice and sells them, I have met him before but he doesn't remember me! Every night we go in and he basically just sits with us all night, at first we thought it was quite sweet, but then when he started inviting us to church with him we decided it was probably best to discourage him as much as possible!

Jo's birthday was on the 29th, so we went out for a 'quiet' meal the night before and were kept amused in the bar by this 4yr old Indian boy called Uday, his parents ended up coming over to sit with us apologising that he had been bothering us for the past hour, not that we minded, kept us away from the two fugly monsters sat next door who kept trying to spark up conversations!! His dad was called Adit, and had studied at university in York, his mum Manisha originally from Kerala, and they were accompanied by Neil, Adits uni friend from the UK. We all ended up staying up drinkin til about 6am, toasted Jo's birthday with a bottle of champers (only the best sweetie!)and i have been invited to go and stay with Manisha and Adit at their house in Hyderabad when Jo goes home! Manisha has promised she will teach me yoga as she runs classes, take me shopping and also to see a Bollywood movie!

The actual day of Jo's birthday we woke up at about 9.30- through habit i guess, both feeling worse for wear and headed up to the opposite end of the beach for a Ayurvedic massage. This was amazing, if a little rough! We then followed up by having a late lunch and took a fishing boat out to a secluded island here called Butterfly beach. (Helen you will remember this from our last trip!) It was so peaceful, at some points we were the only people on the beach! On the way out there you are supposed to spot a million Dolphins, but only one made a very brief appearance! (although i didnt actually mind as Fungi the resident dolphin in Dingle, Kerry kind of scarred me for life... long story!) Rice man organised a chocolate cake for Jo as well which was a very welcome suprise for her! The whole trip everyone has been pronoucing Jo's name as 'chai' which also means tea, as for some reason Indians can't seem to pronounce J's, so the cake said happy birthday Chai which was really funny, but i do appreciate that is one of those you had to be there stories!!!

We have chilled for most of the week, on Saturday night we visited the night market in Arpora on the other side of Goa. Took us 3 hours to get there, and 2 to get home! Hoping to purchase loads of bargains, I think Jo's thriftyness has started to rub off on me as i couldnt spend money for the want of trying!

To our surpise, we nearly bumped straight into..... guess who.... Simone walking along the main street! Now I can't stop feeling so guilty about ignoring her email, although cant quite figure out why she's here as her flight back to the US was on the 30th Nov?? Now planning to lay low for the last few days!

Jo left here this evening, my plans for the next few weeks are pretty vague but am planning on a mini tour of South India before Laura arrives out to me on the 17th December!

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