We flew from Heathrow to Dabolim via Mumbai on Thursday with Kingfisher all the way, all legs departed on time and the plane was clean seating spacious for economy. This had to be the best flight we have ever had, a choice of menu options metal cutlery to eat with, complimentary alcoholic and soft drinks it was an experience we would be happy to repeat.

Immigration in and out of Mumbai is a very simple affair compared to the bunfight we have experienced in the past at Dabolim and with the way they deal with your cases it was stress free transfer.

Ashok met us at the airport in his new (to him) Toyota Innova and transferred us smoothly to our Guest house accommodation at the bottom end of Candolim. Joseph Lucia and there son Lawrence where waiting for us and in no time at all we where on our balcony with a coffee in hand (I do mean coffee) and the good lady setting fire to her face & sending smoke signals to the lads in the shack that we had arrived.

We spent a couple of days in Baywatch shack, the beach at that end is awful in an awful condition with the giant sand bags, but with the elevated position the shack now finds itself in we found we looked over the devastation at our feet just ignored it and relaxed.

On the Monday afternoon we flew to Jaipur with Spicejet to start our golden triangle tour, met at the airport by our driver Rhanni who stayed with us till the Saturday when he dropped us of at Delhi domestic terminal for our flight back to Goa. Some of you are probably thinking by now why fly to Goa then do your trip and fly back to GOA. We felt we did not want to lug our suitcases about and we wanted two days to get over the flight and chill before we started sight seeing, at the end of the day its what suited us and the small extra cost seemed immaterial.

Jaipur was a very colourful city, we visited all the usual sites had countless hand thrust in front of us selling souvenirs and kids begging all to be met with a polite no thank you. In the evening we had a drive around the city to view the lights on the public buildings and see the street life. Our hotel was very clean tastefully decorated in the Jaipur painted style

Wednesday we where driven to Fatehpur Sikri a beautiful fort with a mosque next door in an area surrounded by what I would describe as typical Indian poverty , afterwards we made our way to Agra for our over night stop, the reception in the hotel having to be the best part of our night in this hotel!

Agra has got be one of the dirtiest city's we have ever been to, litter every where, buffalo dung chips being produced by hand at the side of the road stagnant pools of water and filth, get the picture?

First thing Thursday morning we visited the Agra fort on our way out one of the ever present hawkers decided he was going to sell me one his marble elephants, down the ramp to the car it went like this

Him; Elephant 20, 20, 20.
Me: No thank you
Him 10, 10, 10.
Our guide, something in Hindi quite curt

Next thing I feel something near the patch pocket on the leg of my shorts, I automatically swept my hand back to move what ever was trying to get in my pocket the elephant hit the floor and skittered between a couple of monkeys, our driver had seen what was going on and was there with the car, we jumped in and drove away while the hawker was trying to retrieve the elephant from a couple of unhappy monkeys. It turns out 20, 20, 20 meant Pounds Dollars or Euros as a starting point for haggling.

Taj Mahal, I can't put into words its beauty all I would say if you get the chance to go do so. Perhaps you will sit open mouthed like we did. We bought photographs of the one of guys there he did all the usual poses including the one on the Lady Di seat, I also had my good SLR canon with me and the photographer was only to happy to play with my modern expensive camera as opposed to his old fashioned film SLR, as a result I got some cracking digital photographs taken by someone who knew all about picture composition and we now have a canvas print on the wall at as a that cost us peanuts which was my ulterior motive all along.

Delhi the traffic was crazy, we went to the Jama Masjid Mosque first thing, it was Friday and prayers, we abided by everything they asked us to do with regards our dress photographs and shoes, we wandered around what I would have to say is a none to impressive building after some of the others we had seen over the preceding days. Having finished photographing one of them had to come and demand to see the licence for my other camera which turned out to be the flash gun he had watched me take off my camera and put in my pocket, he started getting animated and I started arguing with him, I decided that I had seen enough Mughal architecture for one trip, the guide who had been watching what was going on went into a panic when I said forget the Red Fort where can you take us instead.

He took us to a Hindu Temple called Swaminarayan Akshardham, carved from sandstone in just 5 years it only opened in 2005 even so it has to be one of the most amazing sight we have ever seen, Google it and see for yourself, better still ask to go there if you are in Delhi, for me it would be a must for anyone visiting Delhi we spent two hours there and could have spent all day, the Gajendra plinth is amazing it's a carving of elephants depicting Hindu values.

We also unplanned dropped in on the Lotus temple another must see IMHO we sat in total silence for 15 minutes and just soaked up the tranquillity.

We chose to drive between cities on this tour to witness some of real Indian life by the roadside rather than by train or in a group by minibus, and I have to say we did witness things, In Delhi Jaipur and Agra as well on the road in between we saw things you struggle to describe in words, I have been reviewing the 800+ photos I have taken since I came back and at some point I will try and upload them and provide a link, it is proving difficult to make an objective choice.

http://s405.photobucket.com/albums/pp13 ...=slideshow

The guides we where provided with provided us with an excellent commentary of the monuments, I probably tipped them far to much, for us this trip was a special event to mark 30 years of marriage so an extra couple of hundred roops for their services it seemed nothing. The driver who was amazing even in the madness of Delhi never ever made us feel unsafe with his driving we gave the biggest tip of all, compared to the taxi drivers in Goa he earned his tip.

Back in Goa we camped on the same beds at the same shack for the remaining two weeks sunbathing and reading. In the 24 days we where away I read 8 books, most of them where just bubblegum for the eyes but we came back totally chilled.

We ate at a variety of places but for anyone going we would recommend the Sheetal and ask for young Raj to serve you, his style and attention to detail will get him a job in a big hotel, Mind you if you want to be served by a natural comic ask for sunny.

Top nosh was another place we ate more than once very good food as well as service.

We attended two Carvery meetings and met all the usual suspects and a few we had not met before

We arrived back at Heathrow and up to this point every aspect of the holiday and gone without a hitch, unfortunately the alternator on my car had developed a problem 5 miles before we dropped it off at the Car park so by the time we returned home the car was well and truly dead. Our planned nights sleep at a travel lodge was shelved as we slept in the back of the breakdown company's transport vehicle as it whisked us up the A1 to Lincolnshire.

Goa is changing, yes the Russians are annoying but only if you let them. We spent time on a beach that every one says is beyond salvation but found a strange beauty about the way the waves crashed over the sand bags who knows what the future of that stretch of beach will be.

We will return to Goa again, maybe sooner than planned