Would like to see the no smoking rule applied in restaurants. Amazes me that people manage here at home not to smoke in restaurants but don't seem to be able to step outside for a quick smoke when in Goa.

I hope they do. It really annoys me when I am trying to eat a meal with my family and someone on the next table decides to light up. It is a very selfish thing to do IMO.

My 7 year old son hates it too, and starts making a scene by saying quite loudly 'that smoke is disgusting'. This is the one time where i let him make a scene, just to make the smokers aware that my son does not want his lungs full of their smoke!

Sorry, i know it seems like i 'hate' smokers, i don't honestly

I hope they do. It really annoys me when I am trying to eat a meal with my family and someone on the next table decides to light up. It is a very selfish thing to do IMO.

My 7 year old son hates it too, and starts making a scene by saying quite loudly 'that smoke is disgusting'. This is the one time where i let him make a scene, just to make the smokers aware that my son does not want his lungs full of their smoke!

Sorry, i know it seems like i 'hate' smokers, i don't honestly

Agree entirely but The smoking lobby will be on shortly to tell us why should breathe their rubbish in.

Papa

The smoking ban already exists in Goa and has for a few years, although not strictly enforced restaurants and bar owners have been fined.
I do agree about not smoking in enclosed restaurants, but the vast majority of restaurants are outside so the chances of passive smoking is minimal, it would be more likeley that the fumes from the increase of traffic in North Goa would do more harm.
To ban smoking on the beach in my opinion seems a bit extreme and if strictly enforced would lead to a loss in revenue for the shack/restaurant owners, so not everybody is going to be happy, so where do the Goan authorities draw the line ? Answers on a post card please
Now where is my packet of No6

I am not against smoking on the beaches, but in restaurants I am totally against smoking. Surely it is not too much to expect smokers to do what they have to do back in the UK, to go outside and smoke. I asked two people last year not to smoke while I was eating and to their credit they did stub the cigarettes out, and they did not take offence. Surely it is a matter or common courtesy to others.

Agreed Dave but was this restaurant inside or out in the open? I think smoking and non smoking areas in outside restaurants would be the solution, but could the goans organise this.

Even the nanny state we live in has not banned smoking on pavement cafes or beer gardens , so like i said previously where do you draw the line ?

Steve

Poolside sunbeds are often so close that you can't but help get the whiff of smoke when someone lights up next to you. When you occupied the sunbed first it's annoying when a chain smoker takes up residence next to you.
I feel sorry for smokers for being unable to kick an extremely addictive habit, it took me years to do it ( yes I know, ex smokers are the most anti but that's probably because we are annoyed with our old selves that we ever did) I know being on holiday isn't the easiest time to give up but going home might be. Don't stock up on cheap ciggies. Take advantage of having been in a plane for 10 hours without a fag. You are almost through your first day of giving up !
Incidentally, I used to smoke B&H which I believe are about £6 a packet now or the equivalent of an annual months holiday in Goa for two people

Dave,

I too am free from the terrible addiction to tobacco.

I also am astonished at the cost of cigarettes.

I think as an ex smoker you find the smell even more offensive.

I hate being on my sunbed at the shack and someone lights up near me. They think that because it is in the open air you cannot smell it.

I could say more but better not.

Smoking outside is ok, but why do so many smokers think it is alright to stub their fags out in the sand and leave the butts there

Bad news for smokers......Good news for everyone else

Noggin do not get to carried away.

We are talking about Goa.

Papa

I have nothing against smokers (I used to smoke myself) - I don't mind anyone smoking at all as long as it's not in food preparation areas or in a restaurant! How would you like someone preparing your food whilst they were smoking, exhaling smoke all over your food? It's just the same when a member of waiting staff brings over your newly prepared food to your table walking through cigarette smoke and I hate anyone lighting up near me when I'm eating - I don't like the smell, it's very rude and I didn't do that when I smoked - I either went outside, lit up after I left the restaurant or went into a designated area. Sorry, rant over!

Believe it or not there are some considerate smokers about I wouldn't dream of lighting up in a restaurant or anywhere else in fact if there are people eating. If we are sitting outside a bar and there are people at the next table who are not smoking I will usually ask if they mind if I smoke. I do smoke on the beach but The shacks I use do not have the sunbeds laid out so you are on top of each other, I am very conscious of wind direction do try to make sure my smoke is not annoying anyone. As for cig ends on the beach that is one of my bugbears we used to take an ashtray down from the shack only to have the shacklads empty it onto the beach!! Now I have a little tin with a lid and i dispose of it myself.

If smoking was banned and it was upheld on Goas beaches well it would be adios from me not because I can't go all day without one I do anyway at work but that is through choice, as daft as it may sound but one of things I look forward to is lying on the beach fag in one hand good book in another and the sun beating down you

Well said nejulie!! same here!!

I have to say that whenever i have seen a smoker light up in a restaurant in Goa, i have kindly asked them if they could consider other people who are eating and drinking, and they have said sorry and gone outside.

The post that i made earlier about smoking, this was my experience in Tenerife at the beginning of the year.

It seems to me the moral of this thread is to give some consideration to other diners if you are a smoker in a restaurant, i can live with that it's just common courtesy really.
But back to the issue of the Goan authorities banning smoking on Mirimar Beach will it work ? I doubt it , the business's that service the beach will suffer with loss of revenue.
Why can't they do something useful instead like getting rid of the River Princess and keeping the beaches clean and free from hawkers, now that would entice people to Goa and enhance its reputation.

Steve

We are not all bad you know (promise) I am a smoker and I do honestly enjoy it - when I don't I will give up! Over the years I have cut down (due to increasing cost) so now only smoke about 5 or 6 a day and I go outside when I want one at home (through choice). I certianly wouldn't smoke inside in a restaurant and would hope I had enough common sense to judge when was unacceptable to light up. My cigarette butts are always collecetd off the beach when I leave.

I would like to point out though that there are plenty of other antisocial/unpleaseant things that people do other than smoking! Loud stereos/body odour/talking with mouths full/screaming children etc etc I could go on. None of us are perfect and a bit of tolerance (along with common sense) goes a long way! I hope that they don't ban it on the beach - where does the nonsense stop?

I don't smoke and I don't like smoke whafting by when I'm eating or drinking. Most people show some consideration and it's not really a problem. What I dislike more than smoke are the zealots who are out to ban smoking, drinking, sugar, salt, crisps, sweets and just about everything else that people enjoy. These people drive me nuts! Stop dragging them on TV to spout off at us!!

Living your life entails taking risks - let people decide which risks they're happy with and leave 'em alone to get on with it.

One thing I love about Goa is the freewheeling lifestyle where we're not hemmed in by rules and regulations (okay-they're there but nobody takes any notice of them!). Non smoking beaches sounds like something dreamed up by the health fascists and I really don't think it sits well with the Goan "live and let live" approach. As somebody has said - this is Goa so it won't happen anyway but I guess some bureaucrat in Panjim gets to tick a box....

End of rant

Roma

I think your point is a valid one about banning everything but in all seriousness I never heard of anybody getting cancer from smelling somebody else's crips.

Smoking and it's risks to both participant and those around them differ widly from banning things we perceive to enjoy. My vice is food but my over exuberance will not harm others in such a direct way as passive smoking can and does.

I do think that smokers are picked on and should have the right to smoke but for me this should never have precedence over what the person around them would choose and what law dictates.

I had a terrible time in Goa both in restaurants and balconies below our room.

I don't know how I will react if when I ask a person to stop smoking in a restaurant and they carry on, like I have experienced, as I am just out of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and I most probably will not take no for an answer.