Goa - Beach and Excursion

First stop after a morning at the pool was the nearby Calingute beach..which was only a ten minute walk, but we still took a hotel shuttle, which left us at the beach. Beach was surprisingly clean and lined with shacks where one could hire a lounger and an umbrella, essential for the day heat. The sea was a mysterious grey colour, not the blue you get in Spain and the Carribean and other places. 

I expect that the shacks which generally had a bar and a restaurant, ran a party in the evening and you could stay the night for a few rupees.

Most of them also had a few stray dogs perhaps adopted to protect the shack at night.

Anyway after a walk down the beach we headed back past an array of shops where we acquired much needed hat and cap and some suntan lotion. further along we got a bottle of Jacob Creek red and some fruit before braving the 500 metres walk to the hotel.

To try something different we thought we would try a hotel excursion. 5 hours and four places on the itenerary including on old Portuguese church now one of the world heritage sites, an old fort, a public beach and the sunset cruise!

The cruise turned out to be a nice surprise..

there were hundreds waiting in queue, next to a floating disaster of a boat. Somehow about a thousand people got on board and we were on the way. Us and a couple of others got engrossed in the sunset, while the other 996 got on with the party. There was a stage, and an MC introduced music and the whole boat rocked to Bhangra music.

First the kids, then couples, followed by the men and then the ladies.

Every one had a lot of fun..totally unexpected by us.

The sunset was nice too!

Goa

It was our lucky day..

As it happened we arrived at Goa airport without a hitch, flight on time and everything as planned. Then we hired a Air Conditioned cab to take us to the hotel, which was about an hour's drive. First we got given the wrong cab, which looked like it had seen better days, when after a few phone calls and threats from me, we discovered it was the right car, it sprung a leak in its brake fluid, and came to a dead halt only a Kilometer from the airport!

Me and Marisol below waiting for our taxi, notice my taxi voucher in my hand

me, the driver, the stricken car and the dark line of brake fluid along the white line on the road!

Which was lucky indeed..because we could have broken down after 20 kilometres which would have been more complicated..and as it happened within 5 minutes we had a much better car and made our way to the hotel! which is quite nice..and more on Goa later when we go exploring.

I am convinced Marisol was responsible for the taxi breaking down..she has this uncanny way of interfering with machines..specially when she does not like them..

Gurgaon near Delhi

So here we are in Gurgaon..the DELHI Airport was empty on a monday morning, and visas no problem. The prepaid taxi was a joke on wheels..next time must remember to get a limo..although its not far to Gurgaon. The town on the southeast edge of Delhi, is a mecca for new highrise buildings, expensive shopping malls and lots of big foreign companies have offices here...but there is still lots under construction and the streets are full of the dust from the encroaching Rajasthan desert..

Finding our home was a bit tricky as in this part of the world where the 'streete have no names'..fade to Clint Eastwood riding a horse imto the sunset..haha..After driving around for ages I finally spotted Dad's house. Nice new house, a major improvement on the previous house, which we had got used to over the last 50 years..

Now we start a major drive to catch up on all the family plus meet up with Deepi, Sangeeta and Popi who are all visiting from Sydney. Pammi and Chanda, who are looking after us so well , and whom we have not seen in 2 years..too long.

and the weather is lovely even if its impossible to walk around because there are few facilities for the walker.