Part One

Thursday 9 am taxi arrived at our house for a leisurely drive to East Midlands airport, arrived as check in opened, so no hanging about, we where able to transfer to departure area. We did some shopping in duty free for aftershave and perfume before retiring to the serviseair lounge for light refreshments prior to the flight at 2,20pm. Time slipped by as we talked to a charming couple from the Kidderminster area, and before we knew it we where making our way to the gate and airborne on our way non stop to Dabolim with First Choice. Outward with the help of tailwinds took 9 hours making for a very enjoyable and comfortable flight.

We landed at 5.15am and where through a fairly painless immigration queue and into the baggage hall by 5.50 am it must have been to early for the baggage boys as they where not if full gear and wreaking havoc with the alleged sorting of cases. After greeting Auquib who had arranged our taxi for us we reported to the First Choice rep that we had a taxi organised, no problem was the reply your welcome meeting is at 3pm, wont be there was my reply we have booked into a guest house see you in a fortnight, and with that we disappeared into the night. I thought that the melee outside of the airport with the baggage boys was less intense this year, I sill can't decide if it was down to the time of day or the fact that we where with picked up by locals.

The journey to our accommodation was uneventful, slowly dawn broke familiar sights started to materialise out of the gloom, traffic started to increase the odd toot of a horn, after we crossed the Mandovi river and made our way round the coastline to Candolim we passed the fish docks and got a sight of the rubbish and a lungful of the special aroma of fish and wood smoke that tells us we are back in Goa.

We arrived at the Lucia Beach Guest house at 7.30am before we had settled there was a cup of steaming coffee followed by a breakfast of fresh fruit salad and fried egg in Roti bread. Lucia returned from church and we spent the next couple of hours catching up on family news. About 9 am the guest in the next room emerged on to his veranda looking as if he had enjoyed a good night on the honeybee and we said hello to Gooner fan.

Unable to sleep we made our way across the dunes to the Baywatch shack and said hello to the boys and had an hour with them chatting away, the monsoon has done a tremendous amount of damage to the beach in that area again, although further down near the Taj the beach has naturally back filled from our last visit. The need for the river princess to be moved is getting desperate along that stretch of coastline as some of them will not have an area to pitch there shack soon.

We are never able to relax on the beach when we first arrive so as usual we walked up the coast from near kingfisher villa to the candolim beach road then cut inland and walked back along the main road. We where stopped many times by traders who recognised us and about 2pm we walked into Anchari Arts to see Crescey a Goan girl who we consider to be one of our dearest friends in Goa, after a cup of cinnamon and saffron tea and some of her home made banana bread, we arrived back at our room showered again and slept for about 3 hours.

In the evening we took the old P3 laptop we had promised Auquib at Anchari Arts on our previous visit, Crescey her sister Aquila and their mother all came to greet us, more tea and an hour later we left them and went for our evening meal, had a chilly fry and Rogan josh a the seashell, another tradition that seems to be forming, we had a couple of drinks and crawled very tired into bed at about 11.30pm

On the walk up the lane the Kashmir traders where all smiles again thinking that they where in with chance for the sale of jewellery with us this year, they where told in no uncertain terms that it was a "no jewellery" holiday this year so save your breath, it did not stop them asking. One guy at Greenworld Jewellery was beyond persistent, to the point of popping into say hello and touts us for business when we pop into us in Sheryl's Tiger Bar for a nightcap. As it is our habit when on holiday to pop into see Crescey and Auquib for a cup of tea on a regular basis and he is a rival of Greenworld we set him up big time towards the end of the holiday, we borrowed two big diamond rings and wore them in Sheryl's, in pops "Greenworld" and his face is a picture. Couple of days later Auquib tells us that Greenworld guy is fuming after we told him we had not bought off anybody, and the sporting a couple of grand's worth of jewellery. On a sad note whilst we there Meerhaj from rock bottom Stones had to shut up shop and go home for the funeral of his father, he had not returned when we left, whilst I never traded with him I enjoyed his banter and missed him.

By the middle of the Saturday I decided that I was going to visit Panjim on Monday to see an attorney and have my name changed by deed poll from Ian to either "taxi", "tut tut" or "Rick Shaw" and my wife's name changed to "maybe tomorrow"

John at Mama Cecelia's beach café where we spent many hours test driving his sun beds had the perfect solution change you name to "Scooter"

At about 200 roops a day plus petrol it cost me about £40 quid for the fortnight and has to be the best entertainment we have ever had on holiday. (More later)

Our first of many days at the Mama shack, Deepak had laid our towels while we enjoyed a sweet lassi, we strolled down to our beds thinking how quite, not a trader in sight we arranged our thing, books sun lotions and removed my watch. Before my bum hit the sun bed I had been offered a sarong, two punnets of strawberries, peanuts galore and asked to sponsor deaf lad from st Anthony's orphanage, we both agreed that this was the goa we love (and when asleep and are woken up we hate) Lunch was a chicken biriyani each in the shack, on my final day I had a Kashmiri biriyani (Wow) fruit and spices, apple orange and something like glace cherries, we had butter chicken, xacuti, samosas, pakoras everything was prepared fresh and tasting gorgeous.

John has tiled the beach and kitchen area of his shack so everything remains clean, he has a flushing toilet. Pots are washed in a separate area to the kitchen prep, he has a pool table, library provides clean towels, if any one fancy's a day there PM me and I will give you his phone number, he will even send his driver to fetch and return you free of charge!

Upon returning from the beach Lucia had prepared some tea for us as a surprise, It is what they had for their evening meal, Curry (made with chicken liver) cabbage with mustard seeds and jeera rice, it tasted absolutely wonderful. We visited Ingo's market for our first time ever, markets are places we tend to avoid on holidays, what an assault on the senses that turned out to be, music a hundred different sounds, colours of every shade and hue on the goods for sale, the aroma of spices and fresh food for sale, Joseph came with us and acted as our guide, we all ate a massalla dhosa washed down with a bottle of kings, we planned to return the following week but ended up on a trip to Karnataka instead, Ingo's will be a place we visit many times in years to come.

Sunday we said our goodbyes to Gooner fan who had to return home, we had decided to go to the end of the world (shack) at Mandrem beach off we tottled on our scooter, not really sure where we want to be apart from up north, we followed the coast road keeping the sun on our left shoulder and weaved in and out the back roads, filling up with petrol from plastic water bottles at the roadside shops then being given the hard sell to buy something, as it turned out we needed a couple of towels, paid 450 roops for the pair, don't know if I got ripped or not but everyone was happy. For someone who is as well built as me and Mrs mad a scooter is a very cosy place, roads in goa are not surfaced to the same high standard as the UK so we bounced along merrily giving the suspension a good run for its money, the rumble strips that are so well camouflaged at junctions provided immense sources of amusement every time we discovered a new one. Anyone who saw us and heard the shrieks of laughter from Mrs mad on pillion must have thought she was high on fenny. We had a peaceful 4-5 hours on the beach, the food was average tasting although the speed of service and the waiters confusion with orders was hilarious. It's a piece of beach that's certainly worth visiting to get away from the bigger resorts, we had to cross a rickety bridge to get to the beach, not for the faint hearted, the hand rails provide excellent support until about half way across then all of a sudden they aren't secure at the other end, it nearly threw me off balance and unleashed a torrent of abuse from mrs mad that has my ears ringing two weeks later.

On our way back to the beach we had seen the sign for Chef Souymens kitchen on the way back we pulled in and booked a table for 8 pm that evening. We showered and changed and set off on our two wheeled rolls Royce to Souymens kitchen, I am glad we did as by 8.30 the restaurant was full and drop in customers had no chance of a table, (thanks for that tip Gooner fan) Looking at the menu and by goan prices it is dearer than most places we have eaten, by the end of the meal I would have thanked them if the had made me pay double!

We had camembert soufflé and prawns in rum and lemon sauce for starters, tuna cooked in orange served on caramelised onions and fillet steak served with a liver pate sauce main course followed by chocolate mousse and butterscotch Brule, the combination of flavours and subtlety was unbelievable, I only had a couple of soft drink as I was driving, in goa, in the dark they are mad B***ers in daylight so I needed my wits about me, Mrs mad had a couple of vodka and dry martinis, the bill was about 2500 roops not cheap by Goan standards but worth every penny (roops) took our bike back to our digs and retired to Sheryl's tiger bar for a couple of G&Ts

Monday morning we went for a look around Panjim unbeknown to us they where on the fourth day of a bin collectors strike, certain areas of the city, particular odour that was not pleasant, in fact we turned one corner and the stench was that bad it was like being hit in the face by a lump of laterite, Or as my mate Bones put it, it would knock a fly of a bucket of s***. We beat a hasty retreat back to the beach at Mama Cecilia's; we did call in via Coco beach but decided not to stay.

Monday & Tuesday therefore where spent fending off the sellers at Mama Cecilia's shack in the day, to be fair they are far less intense than other parts of the beach, john will see off anyone who he deems to persistent, we tried very hard to eat sensibly, and failing miserably as soon as you saw the variety on the menu, we ordered ourselves new specs from Romano's and they arrived on time without any fuss or mistakes, unlike our last attempt to buy them there. On our way back from Calangute we spotted Daytripper open, we booked the tuskers and tigers trip on the recommendations of a report on this forum (More about this later) on these evenings we ate at the curry house near kingfishers meal very good apart from my fish tikka spoiled by to much horseradish in the marinade (imho) and foxes behind fisherman's cove, highland beach. Had stroganoff and butter chicken, compared to previous years where we have raved about the food tonight's offering was very poor.

Wednesday its another trip on our two wheeled rolls Royce, we headed for Queri (kerri) beach at the northern tip of Goa stopping for a soft drink on the way, we had a pleasant day in the Dolphin shack, no sellers, only two men offering massages on a stretch of beach about a 2 miles long, 40 beds (tops) and 6 shacks at one end and the same at the other, as near deserted as you going to get.

There where very few dogs around at all at queri beach even less, although on an amusing note our shack had a goat that would come and make friends if you let it. Starting to get the hang of these roads and speed bumps although I did find that the roads did more for returning my (farmers) back into position than a liberal application of preparation H has ever done.

Thursday was a repetition of the day at Mama Cecelia's, and the evening spent organising our surplus luggage charge at super tailors in Candolim, we been using him for three years now, Suill is a good bloke and he gives us what we think a fair price, I ordered 10 shirts for work a new suit, a dinner shirt for my forthcoming graduation ball, Mrs mad has a leather duffle coat in a good quality leather, a jacket and Indian style suit and scarf, we also had 4 shirts and 3 blouses made for friends at work.

We ate at a Tibetan restaurant called Himalaya; on the right near the Taj I had vegetarian thalli with soup and a steamed momo Mrs mad had a chicken xacuti with couple of drinks it was under 600 roops, later that night we spoke to a guy in Sheryl's tiger bar, he has been working his way through the menu over the last three weeks, he said their bill for five people with a drink was under 1100 roops, if you are thinking of eating their go early as all the tables where fill by 8pm

Friday we spent at the Baywatch shack, a light snack for lunch, we did not fancy an evening meal so we bought cheese and crackers in Newton's and st on the veranda drinking vodka in planning on having an early night in preparation for our three day trip to Udupi and the elephants and tigers.

During our holiday we spent many hours with Joseph and Lucia watching the sunset from our balcony, they are such a loving couple and make you feel as your one of the family, this is reflected in the fact that they have to turn bookings away, they are already fully booked until the end of Feb. 2009 yours truly booking included in that.

That's the end of our first week, it may seem a ramble but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it, I will write up the second week and the trip to Karnataka In a couple of days time. Part one has taken up 2709 words, who knows if part two will take as long.

GM 06
Ian