OK, here's my trip report - but be warned, it's really boring. We must be the only people to have had 10 full days in Goa and never seen the sea.
Still reading? OK then, here goes.
We flew from Manchester via Doha and Mumbai with Qatar. The flights were good but we had a 4 hour wait in Doha for our connection to Mumbai. We paid to use the Oryx lounge in Doha which was OK but they don't serve alcohol. Never mind, lots of water, juice and coffee later we got on another plane to Mumbai. We arrived at the airport at around 4am or so. We had our bags by 5am and set off to look for the transfer bus to the domestic terminal. After going outside and asking we got directed back into the terminal and we found the counter. We didn't have to wait long for the shuttle bus to set off and the journey takes about 15-20 minutes for some reason I thought the two terminals were miles apart. Our flight to Goa wasn't due to leave until 12.30pm there are no flights between 6am and midday. After a very sleepy 6 hour wait plus a delay we went to the boarding gate. Only in India would they have 2 flights departing at the same time, with the same airline, from the same departure gate.
Finally arrive in sunny Goa at around 3pm and our taxi is waiting we had the only slow taxi driver in Goa, yes there is one! We have rented a private apartment at the Prazeres for one week so we could get our apartment ready to move into. The Prazeres was fine, clean and with everything we needed but we only used it to sleep, shower and do the laundry - a washing machine was included and was a godsend as we were light on clothes to make room for apartment stuff.
I can't start a holiday until I have unpacked so this is done in record time and we get a taxi to Regal Park. We haven't seen the apartment since November and lots has been done in the meantime. We are really pleased with the furniture that has been fitted in the bedrooms and the kitchen has the framework of a carcass but that's all. But the plumbing for the sink needs to be moved from the corner to under the window and the connection for the washing machine needs to be moved so it's under the worktop instead of half way up the wall. Progress is halted for a day or two until the builder sort it.
Right, where's the food and drink I see you asking. The first night we met up with family and friends and ate at the Sharanam vegetarian restaurant. Neither of us is veggie but the food here is really tasty. I managed to stay awake for most of the evening. The second night we went to Coyote just round the corner from Teama bar. They do really good tandoori food and we went again in our second week. The following night we went to The Bistro, it's a Tuesday so got a table no problem. It's the second time we have been here and the food was excellent. I can't remember where we ate the other nights but Casa Seashell was a real disappointment despite being packed. We liked Pisa Roma on the beach road, nice lasagne. Fisherman's Cove is usually good and we generally stopped here for a drink at lunchtime and a bit of watching Candolim go by. We were talked into trying Foxy's on Highland Beach road but the food was a real disappointment although we enjoyed the music.
The first week involved a lot of early starts and organising. Monday - phoned the electrical shop and asked when they would be delivering the items we ordered in November "didn't know you were in India, it will be there between 4pm and 5pm". 3.30pm it arrived. Also went to the cane shop in Porvorim to pay the balance on the balcony furniture. "When do you want it delivered, it's all here." Within half an hour it's loaded on the van which is outside and it's at the apartment before we get back. The furniture men are finishing off the bedrooms so they let them in.
Tuesday the men arrived to install the a/c. The washing machine man and water purifier man also turned up but had to send them away until after the kitchen is fitted. We took a taxi to Panjim with our furniture man to choose our kitchen tiles for the second time because the ones we picked in November are now out of stock. We order something similar which will have to do. The furniture man loses his car keys somewhere between his workshop, the tile shop or going back to the taxi. We see an advert in the local paper a day or two later asking if anyone has found them. I don't think he every got those keys back.
Have you any idea how difficult it is to buy a bottle of gas in India? In the UK you can buy the stuff at any petrol station. In India you have to register first then wait 56 days and then you can only get your gas if the man who gives out the red books is in the shop, his assistant can't do it because it's not his job. We registered in November but it took 3 trips to the gas shop to catch the man with the red books.
Round about Wednesday (I lose track a bit, I meant to make notes but didn't) the granite for the worktops arrived. The slabs spend the next 3 days in the (unplanted) flower bed near the entrance to our block awaiting installation. The builders want it moved because they want to plant the flower bed. By the end of the week the apartment is full of granite dust but we have worktops, they did a good job and I love the way they have fitted it around the window too, mitred corners and all.
Our first meal in our new home was a Domino's pizza for lunch, delivered courtesy of Bosco at Happy Haven shop on Highland Beach Road.
We have been asked to keep Thursday & Friday free to do the legal stuff so we have our photos taken in the morning and at 3pm we go and sign our papers and put our fingerprints on our sales deed. We also paid the stamp duty which we only remembered we needed a couple of weeks before the holiday. Friday morning we go to the registrars in Mapusa to register the property. They only need a print of the right thumb this time. In 10 days time we will get our sales deeds. After registration we go to the market and buy some salad (45 rps for a huge bag of stuff) and spices. We also bought some prawns but once we brought out of the fridge ready to cook they smelled funny so we didn't eat them. We will probably try Panjim fish market next time. Friday we were really tired, it's been a long day and a long week, we spend our first night in our apartment and move the rest of our stuff from the Prazeres the following day.
We only have one Saturday in Goa and have never been to Ingo's. We wandered round and had some food but we had had enough after an hour but we told our taxi driver to pick us up at 11.30 and his phone was engaged so we couldn't leave any earlier. We had another wander around and found a stall that sold bottles of wine so we parked ourselves on a wall and did some sight seeing and there are some sights.
To be honest we prefer Mackie's - we must be getting old.Sunday, a day of rest. I spend a couple of hours by the pool chatting to fellow residents, this is the life.
Monday the tilers came and Tuesday we went to Panjim to look at light fittings and bathroom fittings, didn't buy anything but had a nice lunch at a pure veg restaurant attached to a hotel whose name I forget.
Wednesday was spent packing things away as the furniture men still have a lot of work to do on the kitchen. A friend who lives close by is keeping an eye on things for us until it's done. We are spending our last day in Mumbai as we have an early flight on the Friday so just need to pack enough for overnight and the flight back. It's fantastic knowing for certain that you won't be overweight when your cases go on the scales at the airport.
Thursday we get the Indian airlines flight to Mumbai and our hotel has arranged a car to pick us up. Because we have such an early flight the following day we have decided to stay in the Juhu beach area because it's near the airport. We stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel which wasn't too expensive by Mumbai standards, I've added my review to the Hotels section. We dropped our cases off and walked to THE BEACH!!! Whoo Hoo it's our 12th day in India and the Arabian sea at last.
No sunbeds or beach shacks here. We had a walk up the beach to the sound of aircraft passing overhead (I told you it was close to the airport). No hassle from people wanting you to use their sunbeds or buy sarongs but a few people asking for money for no good reason - they didn't get any.We had a look at the beachfront stalls selling strange foods but decided we weren't brave enough to eat any as some of it looked like it had been there a while and there were lots of flies. We decided to sit down, have a drink (non alcoholic) and watch the sea for a while. A young lad who worked at the café comes up and starts chatting. Within 5 minutes he has given us his name, address, phone number and an invitation to his wedding in January.
Juhu isn't really an area for sight seeing and we had already decided against getting a taxi to the south of the city as we had been told it takes around an hour and a half because of the traffic, with hindsight we wish we had but there's always next time. We visited a shopping centre but didn't buy anything and had an indifferent lunch in it's coffee shop. We asked a tuk tuk driver to take us to a shop to buy some sweets for mum in law as she is partial to Bombay Halva which you can't get anywhere else. Mission accomplished and back to the hotel. The driver has been with us for half an hour including waiting and the fare is 40 rps.
We had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant strangely called Mahesh Lunch Home. The food and service were superb with a bill to match - nearly 3000 rps, our most expensive meal in India. But it was worth it and as usual we ordered far too much so it was our own fault.
The return journey was good but uneventful. We had a 6 hour wait at Doha during which my stinker of a cold came out which lasted for the rest of the week. They don't sell tissues at Doha airport so had to pinch lots of loo roll on which to blow my nose.
I can understand why a lot of people would choose not to return to Goa as there are many places in the world that are cleaner, less hassle, better organised and higher standard of hotels. Because we didn't have a beach holiday we can't comment on the shacks or the sellers this year but the garbage and traffic problems are as bad as ever. We eventually hope to be long-termers and hope that retirement isn't too far away for us so we will definitely be back, after all, we are committed now.
A word of warning though, we did have a few holidaymakers look around our development, I think with a view to buying. Please don't part with your money unless you are Indian or of Indian origin. There are many people who will tell you that there are no problems with buying, it's not true and it's getting worse. We were only able to register our property because we have PIO cards and without them we would not have purchased.
Sorry to have rambled on a bit, I told you it was boring. Thanks for reading.
