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Published: January 7th 2007
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Hello everyone, its time that we shared with you some of our tales from the fantastic two weeks we just spent in Goa over Christmas. In fact it was so good and there are so many photos to put up that it is going to take the form of a festive mini-series.
Episode One: Four Go Mad in Goa
Guest staring: Caz and Mark!
Yep they flew out to Goa in the middle of December for a couple of weeks in the sun and to help us celebrate christmas. They arrived with backpacks full of mysterious brightly coloured parcels from home - not for us though of course - and ready for some sunshine beach action. Despite all the excitment of looking forward to meeting up and the many emails that had been flying back and forth in order to organise this trip the actual holiday started a little more slowly. Having arrived in Goa the previous day we rushed up to the airport to meet their flight whilst they dawdled through immigration. To be fair they were perhaps only just becoming accoustomed to the Indian Q 'system' (where priority goes to those with the sharpest elbows) or
perhaps they were just on 'island time' and they were taking things easy. Of course Goa isn't an island but a small state on the west coast of India but time definatly moves a little slower here. In the end I think it was our taxi driver who was the most anxious about Caz and Marks apparent no-show and he seemed convinced that they had caught a different flight. He did however kindly agree to hold up a sign saying 'Mr Mark and Miss Caz' that we had made (yes and decorated) so that we could recognise each other after 11 months apart and was delighted when we finally spotted them. It was AMAZING to see them both after such a long time away and we knew that it was going to be a fantastic couple of weeks as we bundled into the taxi and headed north to the beach of Mandrem.
Being a fantastic person Caz had booked us into 'Rivercat Villa' an amazing house next to the river and the beach at Mandrem beach. This explains the 'river' bit then and the catness must refer to all the gorgeous animals that roam the house, including a couple
of incredibly cute labrador puppies. The house is large and round and our bedrooms were connected by a balcony that runs all the way around the outside of the building. All the rooms are different and full of amazing (and some not quite so amazing) pieces of art - they give a discount to struggling artists apparently, we were tempted to show them the sign we made, next time perhaps. Hammocks hang from every corner and there are a couple of different roof terraces to lounge about on, just what we needed. Rinoo and Mary are the hosts of the Rivercat and once they had shown us about we caught up over a few bottles of Kingfisher - this was to be a bit of a theme of the holiday - and fish with potatos. After lunch we had a sit on the beach and went to a local resturant to try some Feni, the local Goan spirit (fire water?) which is made from either coconut or cashew nut, both equally potent. That first evening we headed out to Ingo's Market, a massive weekly flea market to stock up on holiday essentials such as sunglasses, bags and magic tricks. When
we were waiting at the bar for some drinks to have with our dhal, chapattis and assorted delicious curries Caz bumped into a friend from London so the world really is a small, but wonderful, place.
Caz and Mark were a little jet lagged the next day so we let them snooze and headed down to the beach. This didn't last long though as the sun was shining and the sea so beautiful that it was too good to miss so I had to go and get them to check it out. I don't think they minded though and we spent the day lounging in the sun on the beach. The beach at Mandrem is one of the quieter Goan beaches, and in fact despite the hype of Goa being over run with tourists over Christmas and new year the places that we ended up all seemed to have just about the right number of people. The day before we arrived the Isreali government issued a warning to its citezens to stay away from Goa so perhaps this kept a few people away and the resorts were less busy than usual. Just up the coast from Mandrem is the
busier and more famous Arambol which we went to check out one day after one (of many) missions to the ATM, the beach was much dirtier and built up though so Mandrem rocks. As there are fewer people in Mandrem it means that the sales people are perhaps a little bit persistant but we picked up some nice things from them during our stay - the sell sarongs and jewlery and things like that oh and they do henna and manicures- and most of them were really nice local women who would stop to chat even when they knew we weren't buying. Or perhaps it was because they could usually persuade one of us to buy something.. OR perhaps it was Marks attempts at Hindi that kept them coming back for more?
Every wednesday in Anjuna there is a flea market next to the beach so on Tuesday we went to this central Goan beach to look for somewhere to stay. Our taxi drivers first choice was full and so was nearly everything else on the beach so leaving Tom and Mark to their masala tea Caz and i spent a fruitless hour walking along the beach before bumping
into a lady who had a number rooms just behind the main road. This was a bit of a find consiering everywhere else was booked and it was so close to Christmas, and best of all she had lots of different kinds of rooms to choose from and at different prices which is always handy. Anjuna is a long beach with lots of bars and resturants along the beachfront and not much else - what more do you need?. Anjuna along with the rest of Goa was hotting up for Christmas and the christmas decorations were coming out in force. A little different from the tinsel and christmas trees of the UK, paper starts and nativity scenes were the order of the day and fireworks feature pretty prominantly too. It was at Anjuna that we saw some of the most amazing sunsets - although every beach in Goa looks west and they were all fantastic. We walked to the top of the cliffs at one end to watch the sunset one evening and watched the birds and the paragliders charging around the skies. They landed near the beach bars so we followed them down and drank big girly cocktails with
the long haired hippies of Anjuna. That night ended up in one of Goas nightclubs which was suprisingly (ok almost completly) empty and despite the girls-get-in-free policy was mainly full of large groups of Indian men but we ourselves a good time.
The flea market was busy and full of many beautiul and some bizzare things. It became a bit of a scrum at the end with people frantcally trying to sell as much as possible before they leave for the night so Caz and Mark picked up some bargains before watching another fantastic sun set from the beach. I don't think there can be anywhere in India as chilled out as Goa and combined with the lovely weather and the beautiful beaches it is a fantastic beach holiday destinaton. There is more to Goa than beaches of course and the villages and surrounding countryside are really pretty and everything is a really interesting mixture of Indian and Portugese culture. Of course there are lots of tourists in Goa, many of them Indians who come to celebrate christmas - or possibly stare at the crazy westerners on the beach - best of all everyone is having fun.
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Caz
non-member comment
finally.....
a travel blog that I don't just feel really jelous looking at! It was amazing, you're re-telling of it is pretty great too, I will write something soon though, promise..... x x