Part 4
Ok, so it's Thursday, and today we are off on a trip called "All in one day"
booked with daytrippers.
Get the bus about 09.00 and drive for about an hour via Panjim and out on the road towards Ponda.
First stop a Hindu temple, saw the priest (didn't look much older than Ben) and took a few photo's. Next stop a local village where we are given some snacks, sort of potatoe cake deep fried, quite good really! And some chai, yuk! for someone who likes sugar in tea, i'm sure it would be Ok, but this had about 19 sugars in it!
Off we go again this time to a small primary school where the kids sing us a couple of songs (picture of Ben in Gallery Goa/Family) and we all make donation towards school (don't mind that at all).
Then to a cashew processing plant and see all the local women (probably working for peanuts) shelling and sorting/grading the nuts for export and sale, very interesting place!

Next stop The Spice Plantation.
Another elephant ride, then Ben had the opportunity to wash an elephant, which promtly proceeded to then wash him!
Lunch foolowed and we got to eat varios dishes such as chicken xacuti off banana leaves..very nice.
Remember some women complaining that she couldn't eat that sort of stuff, so i told her in no uncertain terms that she "should have gone to Blackpool"!
After that we tried the local Feni, which was quite nice, Ben had 2 shots and 10 mins later we had to wake him up!
Had tour of spice plantation and saw all the different spices growing, all in all a very good day out!

That evening we wandered down to Tony.s Place to meet up with anyone there but there were no free tables, so we waited outside for 15 mins or so. Then Simone (Sim1) turned up and introduced herself and we decided that as there was no room at Tony's we would go accross the road to Casa Sea Shell.
Ok place to eat and have a few drinks.

Only Friday and Saturday to go, and i'll finish them off over the next couple of days.......

The photos are great
Lovely report!

OK, final bit from me!
Last two days were spent on beach, so not a lot to tell, other than were we went in the evenings.
Fri. went to Stonehouse, sat upstairs in a nice little area and had a very good tandoori mixed grill, whilst watching bats whiz round and occasionally dive bomb us.
Went into Sports bar on way back to hotel, seemed OK to me, bit expensive, (Cobra and OJ 175R's) but what really niggled me is that Ben wanted a game fo pool, and i had to pay for a half hour 120R's even though we only wanted one game!

Sat.
Decided we wanted to go to Ingo's market so thought we would tie in in with a visit to All Spice as we had heard so many great reports. It was ok, had to wait quite a long time for food (nearly 50 mins between starter and main, and others who came in after us ate before us!) maybe we caught them on an off night, i would go back to try it again, but IMO it was not as good as EAST MEETS WEST.
Ingo's..... crazy place and some very strange people!! had a good hours wander and bought a couple of pressies, had fun haggling, altogether an interesting experiance!

That's it... up the following morning at 4am for flight back to Gatwick, good flight, good first taste of Goa, interesting place Candolim, nice little budget hotel, The Silver Sands....

Will def go back to Goa next Feb, probably again only for a week as that was fine for us, as for where in Goa, I don't know i would rule out Candolim, but am now a bit more "street wise" of what to expect.

Will pop some more photo's in Gallery as and when and will try to upload some video (if i can work out how)
Thanks to all for your advice, enjoy your holiday, all of you lucky ones still to go. (nice to meet you Sim1)

Cheers, J.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us , really enjoyed it

Enjoyed your review.

I can't believe that we were so close and never met.

I had my wristband on all the time.

Maybe next year, eh Chris? Didn't really look out for wristbands, forgot!!
We probably sat next to each other in Bobby's without even knowing.
Hope hubby is on the mend.

J.

Nice report Julian.

That was great thanks very much.

Yeah thanks for sharing

Glad you enjoyed your hols Julian. Thanks for the nice report
GFF xx

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Forgot to add that during our 7 days neither of us suffered from any upset stomach's at all. Obviously picked the right places to eat!!

J.

Dont like to say this Julian but I normally find any kind of upset tummy I get always happens once ive been in Goa for about 7 days. So anything dodgy will occur in the second week, only my personal findings of course, but the first week I am normally fine. But taking the acidipholus tablets I am normally ok for most of the two weeks now.

Thanks Gemma, i'll bere that in mind for next year.

They are good tablets Julian and work for lots of people. Hope to see you next year in Goa.

What do the acidipholus tablets do and where do you get them?
my hubbie always gets an upset tummy,blames maleria tablets so got some malarone this time,but anything else worth taking i'm getting him!!!
Ta Chicks

Enjoyed your report,Julian - Thanks.

Hi,
You can get Acidophillus tablets from Holland and Barrett, they are like the pro biotic yoghurt, it says on the pot;
"Acidophillus provides an additonal scource of beneficial bacteria naturally found in healthy digestive systems. Typically chosen when travelling overseas, or when taking antibiotics"
They come in two flavours strawberry and blueberry and are half price at the moment. (I think they were £4 for 100 tablets, they do need to be refrigerated when opened.
Worth a try !!!!!

Regards Trina

just got back from goa a couple of days ago, i did actually type quite a long report from baga beach on my last day..i cant seem to find it? was it moved or did i press the wrong button? im happy to re write it,because i think its very useful to people going out...oh if anyone is imminently going out, say tonight or tomorrow id have to say, please pack some jumpers cardies, i was freezing at night!

Ashwolves, this is the only post I can find of yours from Baga Beach http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=114768

Kath HT Admin