I left Goa on 06/02/12 and when I arrived home in the UK, my sister wanted me to come back with her for a month, I was well within the 2 month rule, but I printed off a form and sent it to the Indian High Commission in Aldwych, and to my great surprise I got a re-entry permit. We arrived here at 06.45 on 02/02/12 I had only been out of India for just over 3 weeks. We travelled with Jet airways, I have to admit that I will not travel with them again, I will have to be desperate to do so, it wasen't the airline, they were OK, it was the attitude of the staff, I felt as though they were doing me a favour, to allow me to be on there plane. Try getting a cup of coffee or a can of coke and you are asking for the world. Then after arriving in Mumbai and clearing customs, there were no staff any where, I eventually found a jet airways man, who insisted in taking over our trolly, pushing it to where we needed to be, and demanded a pound, he was told very politely (not) exactly where to go , I have been to India too many times to be treated as an idiot.

When we arrived in Candolim, we had not booked anywhere, but a friend of ours, had told us of a local man that has 6 apartments, one of which had been empty for 6 weeks, we arranged to see it, it is in the Alor Grande, overlooking the swimming pool, air conditioning, Sattalitte TV, one bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, he wanted 900 rps a night, which a few months ago would have been cheap, but as there are very few tourists this year, I got it for 500rps a night, as I told him, an apartment empty is an apartment earning no money, I can go anywhere down the road and get it for cheaper, he accepted my offer.
Candolim is very, very quiet, a lot of the resturants haven't even bothered opening, but a lot are putting notices up that they will start serving alcohol at 12am tonight (Sunday) it seems that everyone are having balcony parties, with booze bought days ago. At 2 oclock this afternoon I walked down the centre of candolim on the main road, and apart from a few buses and cows there was no traffic, it was lovely, but not so much for the local business owners, a lot of them didn't even bother opening, because it wasen't worth the bother, they gave there staff the day off ( with no pay). It really felt as though you were in the old Candolim, when you could cross the road, with out taking your life into your own hands, and clutching onto your St Christopher medallion ( I know he has been made redundant) hoping to get to the other side unscathed.

Even in just the three weeks I have been away, coming back, I have noticed a lot of differences, a lot of the clothes shacks, have started putting prices on there clothes, so instead of starting off on a stupid inflated price you are only arguing over 50rps which is nothing if you really want the product. The taxi and tuk tuk drivers are more willing to negotiate, instead of 150rps to get to calungute I was offerred a tuk tuk ride to calangute this afternoon for 80rps, just 3 weeks ago they would not come below 150rps, this election, has done a lot of damage to the tourist trade, i am not into politics at all, but any one with a bit of common sense would know that restricting the sale of booze, and the times of any resturant opening times would have a great impact on the trade of the votors, whom they are seeking the vote of.

I came well prepared this time my son bought me a used lap top from ebay it cost 36 quid, he checked it over and made sure that everything was ok, every other time i have been to India, I have always popped into internet cafe's, but the last time I was here, everyone on my email contact list received hundreds of emails purporting to come from me, stating, that I was in India, Indonisia, Turkey, cyprus, or any other country you could think of, saying I had been mugged, or raped, or arrested, or had lost my passport and I was in custody in any such country, and I needed money transferred by western union to be released, my hubby is not really computer illterate, nor are my elderly parents, it took me ages to persuade them that i was sat on a beach, i was not sat in a prison cell. so this time I have a chuck away laptop, for 36 quid it gives me a bit of peace of mind knowing no one can intercept my emails.

This post will have to be done in stages as my machine is now over heating it has been on most of the day i will have to let it cool down for an hour or so. Iwill write some more tomorrow (Sunday)