Well done on making such a quick start on your report Sares! Now I'm off to see the post you made earlier about the day late in Gatwick!( off on holiday myself when you posted it!)

Impressions, food and Markets

We decided at the start that we were going to have a relaxing holiday which mean't chilling round the pool soaking up the sun, taking in the culture and trying lots of food. We didn't go on any trips but just took each day as it came and explored when we wanted.

So a run down on the restaurants we tried and everything else!

Our favourite restaurants were -
Sublime - Thanks to whoever mentioned it on here before we went good choice Lovely setting, friendly owner and well presented delicious food!
Hibiscus - Very, very good Chinese and again friendly owners, they also did a good breakfast!
J&A's - Good Italian food
A Reverie - The best of the lot, beautiful restaurant and the nicest food we had all holiday definetly recommend this one, although apparently they are moving next year, not sure where.
All Spice - As recommend by everyone on here, we were not disappointed we had breakfast, lunch and dinner here and all were yummy!

The ok -
East meets West - Unfortantley we were not impressed by this place, looks great but curry was poor, tasted a bit like Tomato soup!!
Kim Faa - Chinese in Baga was good but not quite up to Hibiscus standards!
Midas Touch - The saying goes Jack of all trades, master of none! Too much choice, was nothing special
Poco Loco - Poor Mexican food!

We experienced Baga beach a couple of times, we are not really beach people but we had a good few days there with the boys from The Bistro, great friendly shack we had a great lunch there of Tandoori Shark and Red Mullet.

After a few days of catching up on sleep (The flight really takes it out of you!) and adjusting to the heat which made you feel tired all the time we decided to give the nightlife a bit of a go and made our way down to Mambos. We walked in there and basically walked straight back out, the atmosphere reminded me of a dodgy club stuck in a seedy area somewhere in the UK, dark, dingy and horrible toilets! Had one drink and decided to try a place we had walked past a couple of days before On The Rocks, just round the corner from Mambos. This place is great completly different atmosphere from Mambos and Titos, it has gazebos with low leather seating and table service leading up to a air conditioned bar/club, nice crowd, great selection of music from 80s to house, it has only been open since March. We tried Titos too later in the holiday, was ok nothing special but a bit better then Mambos, we also did the party on the beach which was a good experience!

We went to Mackies Market which was right next to our hotel on the Saurday evening, spent lots of money on bags (ended up bringing 6 back!), flip flops, spices, green tea, sunglasses and lots more, this was my first experience at bartering at first I found it hard as I felt like I was taking the mick a bit but I was told by everyone to at least cut them down by half of what they originally asked for! After a bit of practise I became a bit of a dab hand and picked up a few bargins at Anjuna Market as well.

Marinha Dourada is an excellent hotel and I highly recommend this place to anyone, we meet plenty of returners!

Our impressions of Goa, beautiful, friendly and laid back. However slightly spoiled by some tacky english influences for example bland food and Indian bands covering british songs sounding like kareoke. At times parts of Goa reminded you of the Costa del sol (Dare I say it!) or Blackpool minus the bad weather, which is a great shame. We hoped to go to Goa and experience traditional Indian culture and ended up slightly disappointed.

Overall we had a great holiday and it was an interesting experience, I don't think we will go back (but never say never) this is purely because we like to go somewhere different each year so we can experience a different part of the world each time!

Thanks to everyone for all the advice and tips on here, will be posting some pics up in the album later today for all to view. I am sure I will also remeber more things to tell you so will post as my memory comes back!

Rembered something else already!

I forgot to say we had the great opportunity of watching a Bollywood film being filmed at The Marinha Dourada, we manged to get really close to the action and watch. Apparenty it was a comedy and was quite a famous actor, I have some pics and will pop them up with the others!

Hi Sares great reading your report. Brings back wonderful memories of Baga and the marinha Dourada. Hopefully you will change your mind and return one day, we have booked for Feb 2007.