Travel Blog Posts
1st - 28th February 2011 - Birthday Bonanza and Keralan Adventures
Published: July 1st 2011Asia » India » Goa » Varca
February 28th 2011
They had waited and wished it for so long, they could hardly believe that it was true. Bathed in sunlight, the angels descended from heaven, or rather Tanya, Jonesy, Jacqui, Yvonne and Mahmoud descended into Goa airport. Aaaahhhh, now this was going to be interesting. After settling the visitors into their neighbouring apartments, we had no choice but to go down to the beach for sunset cocktails which, as you can imagine, was a very staid affair! Of course, the main reason for everyone coming to Goa was to see lovely me and a side event was the 40th (sorry Tanya) birthday of my sister Tanya. When asked what she would like to do, Tanya had said that she didn’t mind too much as long as it involved cocktails and the beach. A crack team of ... read more
January 31st 2011
There were several events of note in January…so read on and you will know what they are…. Firstly then, to the El Shaddai minibus which had been kindly donated by a local business man. Of course, in India it is not possible just to handover the aforementioned minibus, there has to be an inauguration ceremony. This involves many local dignitaries (including Goa’s Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat, no less) sitting on a stage receiving bunches of flowers and giving speeches in front of an audience of local supporters of the shelter and several bus loads of street children. At these functions there is a huge kudos to being one of the dignitaries on the stage. I can imagine that at some functions, it must get to the point where there more people on the stage than in ... read more
December 31st 2010
As you may be aware, Paul has taken to making sausages which I think is very cool (I think it may be because I am one of the main recipients!). Instead of explaining all the fun we have had making them, I have....made a video - yeah! Please enjoy Tin Min Doc 3. Over the first couple of weeks in December, we had some jolly times with Matt and Michelle. By jolly I of course mean starting off sensibly at 19:30 before realising it is midnight and staggering home. Same old story. Except with a couple of differences as we actually did some proper stuff too! Paul and I enjoy going to the fish market to purvey and purchase whatever looks good. However, every now and then we would talk about getting up early to go ... read more
1st - 30th November 2010 - Friends and other animals
Published: December 17th 2010Asia » India » Goa » Varca
November 30th 2010
We’ve met a lot of people throughout our travels and have had a great time sharing stories and experiences but there was one couple we met in Vietnam who were travelling around Asia skiing. Skiing? In Asia? Yes, skiing. That is, Spending the Kids Inheritance. I think that is great concept and we spent a lot of time telling other people on our travels about this great couple who were doing just that! Why am I telling you that? Well, the aforementioned couple, Elaine and Graham came on holiday to Goa I know that all of us felt the same thing before we met up as we had actually only spent a few days together in Vietnam previously. What if we don’t get on? We had previously bonded over potentially toxic beer and overpriced wine ... read more
October 31st 2010
You know when you get to security at an airport, you mentally double check that you have all your 100ml liquids in a plastic bag. You take out your laptop and place it in the tray along with your mobile phone, keys and anything else in your pocket. You might have to take off your belt and/or shoes. You walk through the security arch, it doesn’t go off – yeah! Then you wait patiently for your bag and belongings to come through the x-ray, thinking excellent, despite the earlier traffic problems, I’ll still have time to visit duty free, maybe get a bottle of gin and some chocolate. My bag comes through, along with the laptop, phone etc. The bag that follows comes out of the x-ray machine. Oh. It seems to be going back ... read more
October 5th 2010
“Oh please please Zoë, please can we have an epic 5 month blog all in one go? Please?” Oh. OK then. If you must. Here it is….. So as you are aware from the previous blog entry, Paul and I basically did nothing but sweat for the months of May and June so I must admit it was a bit of a relief to find ourselves in the air conditioned loveliness of Dabolim airport after the ubiquitous white knuckle cab ride to get there. Bare in mind, I am now a seasoned Indian taxi cab user but even I was slightly scared that our cab driver didn’t think that there was any point using his window wipers as the all the street lights went out as the monsoon broke and we were driving at 40 mph ... read more
May 15th 2010
At the beginning of the year, the Indian government changed the visa rules for tourists - to whit, that you had to stay out of India for 2 months before you can apply for a new tourist visa. This is fair enough from a government point of view as it stops people obtaining back to back visas and living in a country on a tourist visa (ahem). This gave us some serious food for thought as we wanted to live here full time and using the tourist visa is really the only way we can do this (don’t even ask about trying to gain residency here, it is next to impossible). So we have been boring all our visitors (sorry everyone) with our postulations and constant mind changing about what we are going to do and ... read more
30th March - 15th April 2010 - 5000kms, 10 days of luxury
Published: May 18th 2010Asia » India » Rajasthan
April 15th 2010
It’s holiday time once more. After being in India for nearly a year, the Corcoran’s realise they have been rubbish at visiting other states in the country. So, we pack our trusty rucksacks and go on an adventure….only this time, we have cheated slightly and booked it all through a travel agent and are going to be escorted all the way and stay in 5* hotels - hurray!! We were looking forward to our Northern Indian adventure and tales of Maharaja’s palaces. We fly from Goa to Delhi where we are duly greeted by our tour representative. Please note, this is no mean feat as there have been several occasions where the Corcoran’s were supposed to be greeted at airports by a nice man holding a sign with their names on only to be disappointed by ... read more
March 29th 2010
We have been taking it easy, dear readers which makes for a slim blog entry this time, so we thought we would take this opportunity to share some observations about life in India. Mobile phone usage Mobile phones are widely used by the majority of people in India. The concept is quite simple. When you call the number of the mobile phone, the callee answers and you, the caller starts talking. Not so here. You receive a call on your mobile phone the conversation goes along these lines: Zoë’s mobile phone rings. She answers. Zoë: Hello? Caller: (silence) Zoë: Hello? Caller: (silence) Zoë Yes? Caller: Hello? Zoë: Yes? Hello? Caller: Hello? Zoë: Tell me Caller: Hello? Zoë: Who would you like to speak to? Caller: Huh? Zoë: Do you speak English? Caller: Yes. Zoë: ... read more
March 15th 2010
We spend the first two days of March doing………absolutely nothing, except watch TV and eat the selection of delicious potato snacks brought for us by Tanya and Jonesy (merci beaucoup) and, believe it or not, finishing off the delicious dairy milk brought to us by Jacqui Hull. They do have dairy milk here but they put something in the chocolate so it has a higher melting point (something to do with it being so hot here apparently) so it tastes disgusting. This accounts for the enormous restraint shown by the Corcoran’s who still have some of the aforementioned English chocolate left (ordinarily we would have scoffed the lot in about half an hour!). And so, to the arrival of my brother Rory and his wife Tracey who we greet at Goa’s Dabolim airport. While Paul rides ... read more
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