My heart goes out to you Danny, it must o been very traumatic for you, And Lester may just found it so hard to believe because we don`t want to think these things happen in a place we love to go, but unfortunately it happens everywhere hopefully not as bad as our Danny went through. Danny i really hope this awful experience goes quickly to the back of your mind. and i one thank you for telling us.

God Bless You

Pip
x

I had bought some old gold bits with me to have a cross made in Goa, so today was the day to go and get things priced, just outside opalmar was a jewelers, just up from pedros, I told him I wanted the gold melted down and a cross made with a stone in the middle of the cross, he weighed the gold but left to one side my old onyx ring, after a chat in hindu to his brother he told me it was £350 to do all the work, for all you new people going to goa I can tell you that £350 is a little expensive, I asked how much without the stone,£60, so the stone was £290, yes said he as I was leaving, I'll be back when I have been and checked the prices in the other jewelers in benaulim, I went accross the car park to funnys and saw a lot of sandbags on the beach, they were to build bunkers with gun turrets, over the next few weeks while I was there I saw armed soldiers every day, a gun boat came up and down dayly and a helicopter with armed soldiers flew over every day, funny told me that they could not have any parties over xmas and new year, no music and no fieworks, I could not see that happening( but it did) from Dec the 20th untill the 5th of Jan no nothing on the beach, and on xmas eve morning they told funny that he could not have a barbie, he had already bought all the stuff including a suckling pig, he was right upset.
While having my brekkie a kitten came into the shack, the boys told me that it had been dumped there that morning, it was only weeks old and obviously not long of this life, after trying a little milk in my hand and drip feeding through a straw, we decided to ring the animal rescue, the two people I know help with animal rescue were friends of ours, a couple who Lynn was very fond of, they are also h'ters, but they couldn't do anything for at least 3 days, in which time the kitten would be dead, I arranged to meet my friends on the sunday, now funny had fetched a dog of the beach that had 8 puppies, they were about 10 days old, so we decided to put the kitten in with the pups, we put the kitten on to one of the mothers teats and it suckled and the dog let it, when after 4 days animal rescue came for the kitten the dog went daft trying to protect the kitten, now there are a lot of pictures of the kitten feeding of a dog knocking about, I decided to walk up to leanoras, about 6 or 7 shacks up the beach, but I couldn't do it in one walk so stopped at Domniks shack and found out that the soldiers had a sort of barracks on domniks car park, there was about a dozen soldiers, which I thought was a bit over the top for a terrorist attack on the beach, carrying on to leanoras there were now more people that had met us last year, so it was nice to meet old friends and Wendy said that she had booked us in on xmas night at the steak house in colva and there would be 8 of us, so something to look forward to,I walked back down the lane thinking that firmer ground would be easier walking, it wasn't, I am on holiday, with nowere to go and nothing to see, taxi everywere, no chance, as I walked back down to the beach, i saw the solution to my problem, and with apologies to all on here who will say I am barmy, I hired a scooter for 3 weeks at 150 rupees a day, I am disabled, blind in my right eye, no licence at all for a bike and no insurance, it was the best thing I could have done, I had a great time, seeing back lanes you would never see, the seat lifted and my stick could fold down and fit into it, great stuff, after a short ride to get used to things, I drove past the jewelers who waived me down, and as a special friend who can have his special afternoon prices he will make my cross for £25, I told him I would think about itt and come back to him on monday, that night as I lay in bed, it was midnight, and I thought somethings going on outside, out I go and there were about 20 young men who had started a fire in the grounds almost outside me room, I asked the security gaurd what was going on, boys from Mumbai, picnick, a picnick at midnight on private land, get rid of them mr securityman please, you get rid of them he said as he went to his shelter for a kip, now I'm worried again, a recurring thing through out my holiday, I sat and watched them, they were like worker ants running around collecting wood for thier fire, suddenlly there was a couple of these young men standing by my little terrace, I am sorry the one chap said, are we disturbing you?no I said I was just going to bed, would you like to join us for a smoke they asked, I declined and went to bed ashamed that I had tried to get them thrown off, I found later it was the only place they could go without being harassed by the army and the police

Like everyone here Danny I am shocked and stunned by what I have read. So shocked and stunned I don't even have the words to express how I feel. Sadly too, I am not surprised by what you reported. Take good care of yourself Danny and thank you for being brave and telling us what happened.

The rest of your report is sounding interesting too so I look forward to reading more of your exploits, just hope that you didn't experience any repercussions during the remainder of your time in Goa and riding a scooter didn't land you up in the hospital ( although marginally better than a jail I should imagine)!

Thank you Danny and I wish you all the best in 2009.

Fizzy

I love reading your report danny I find when I log in the first thing I do is go looking to see have you wrote anymore

Thats a much nicer read than the last few
Did the kitten stay with the dogs then?

What was the stone you wanted in the cross?

Thank you ladies.
Mardon, The kitten was taken away to the rescue center, were I am told it died a couple of days before my return to England, it was worth a try but it had a poor start to life and obviously couldn't cope, the stone I wanted was not a £290 diamond, but I will tell you more within the next couple of days, depending on how my fingers get on in this cold spell.

I'm the same IC, I don't think I have ever logged on as much as I have in the last few days waiting for the next instalments, please don't keep us waiting too long Danny.

Donna
XX

Me too, blimey Danny this is so much different from the Heritage Hotel I bet. I am so sorry you have had such a bad time, will be thinking of Lynn this weekend.

Sue

Danny this part of your report is much better. Brilliant reading, very interesting. What a shame for the little kitten but you did all you could, and as you say it had a bad start in life.
Looking forward to the next instalment

I have sat here and imagined you having a good laugh on your bike and seeing things that fly past when you take a taxi!

How I wish I had got one now!

I have been reading this from the start but didn't post on here before as i am so very upset that all this happened to you Danny, and didn't know what words to say, so please accept my apologies.

Anyway, I have come on here tonight and you have made me laugh Danny about the scooter, your disabilities, and having no insurance - and you just thought 'what the heck'. Sounds like you had a great time riding about and good luck to you as well.
Sorry to hear the kitten died but at least you helped as much as you could.

Now I can't wait for the next part, hurry up Danny - and tell us more about your scooter rides

I haven't been on for a few days and just catching up on your thread. What a shame about the kitten but how lovely for the dog to be so protective
One word we could never use for your report- boring

I must confess that reading your previous problems I was surprised (very) that you decided to hire a scooter, knowing it to be completely illegal, dangerous etc.

Bordering on the insane but hey !

Hi Dan, im similar to Silver Angel in that i have been reading this post from the beginning and also as a new HTer felt a bit silly posting when i dont really know many people here but i just wanted to say that i think you are a phenomenally brave man, not only to have dealt with all that has happened to you at a time when you are supposed to be relaxing but also with the grief of losing your wife as well!

i think its also amazing that you hired a motorbike - brilliant stuff!!!!

thank you for being so brave, enough to write everything that you have and being so honest!

xx

Welcome Pixie83 one rule of HT is that you are not allowed to :-

felt a bit silly posting when i dont really know many people here

I know how difficult it is to take the first step when everyone seems to know each other but please remember we were all 'newbies' at one stage - even me

M aybe not boring up to now but it's about to go down hill( except for xmas day).
Most of the rest of my holiday followed the same pattern, up for brekkie at funnys, a ride around the lanes of south Goa, afternoon snack at leanoras and back for a shower and then a kip, before going to one of the shacks for an evening meal, pretty much the same as everybody else, I got the following morning after the midnight picknic to find a lot of workers collecting all the spare wood from around the coconut grove and burning it on a quite large bonfire, whats going on I ask, no more picknics came the reply, some one had already complained.
After brekkie it's on my bike and I was off, wonderful, up to colva to look for the touristy things I had been asked for as gifts, as there was no colva market while i am there I have to shop on the side of the road, it's going to take more than one visit to get the price down, it is the weekend before xmas and there is hardly any one here, all the holiday I never met a Russian, last year we were over run with Russians, this year, none, after a ride round it is back to Benaulim to talk about my cross, I took my gold bits back to the jeweller, he weighed it again( not the onyx ring,and told me £25, what about the onyx ring pal, you want that ring don't you?, he smiled and done that thing with his head that I hae never been able to work out, but I took it for a yes, so after much bartering, the £350 he wanted for making me cross came down to, a cross with 2 stones and a chain down to £20, and it is very nice to, back to my room, shower,cold, a kip and down to funnys to have my meal, mutton rogan josh, with cheese naan, and watch the football, as I looked around our table, there was, Christian and partner, Adam and Jo, Bob, Baz,Ralph a Danish teacher, who is also now my new penfriend,a new guy I will call Tom, a new couple I will call Kev and mrs b, mrs b had 2 children, one daughter 18 and one who was 3, over the next 2 weeks of my holiday I was to find out abouy hard drinking( no I didn't join in) also to join us was shitthoo and his partner on the beach, a man they all called paki, because they reckon he looked more pakistani than Indian, 2 nice lads who I thought were very greedy, or good business men,it was decided that night that we were going on a boat trip to the island after xmas, 8 of us were down to go, but again something to look forward to, I left at about 11.30, I sat outside listening to the hussle bussle going on at pedros, then up struck some loud music of the carpark, some one had bought some loud speakers onto the car park, the police could do nothing about some one playing thier car music set up, so it was going to be a noisy night,they played brown girl in the ring by bony m, and when it finished they played it again, and again and again, when I went to bed and thought I have got to find somewere else to sleep they had played brown girl in the ring 25 times, I used to like bony m but that night I could have killed them

such a good report danny keep it coming where exactly did you stay which area ? anita woody

John woody.
I stayed down south in Benaulim, It's an area that we have liked for some time.
Pixiw 83.
thank you for your kind words, I hope you enjoy this forum as much as I do, and of course a welcome to you.
Del 949.
I totally agree with you, madness really, but I had a great time, smoking is now illegal in Goa, but thousands break that law every day, and although I could possibly be a danger to other people, we are all breaking the law of a country that we are visiters to, my maximum speed at any time was 30 miles per hour and that was on empty main roads, 20 to 25 miles an hour around the lanes, Carl Fogarty walks faster than that, I know exactly were you are coming from Del, but as I will say later I got to see places that I couldn't see in a Taxi, and cheaper, i've done all the tourist things so this was different, and very enjoyable.