Flew Kingfisher via Mumbai, all flights both ways were on time and comfortable plus it is so much easier and quicker doing immigration at Mumbai rather than at ‘diabolical' airport.
We stayed in a privately rented apartment at Highland Beach which was great with the added bonus of mozzie nets all round, deep comfortable mattresses and a washing machine. I was amazed at how huge the HB resort is now compared to the last time I stayed there about 11 years ago. The choice of pools was very good and after several exploratory ‘walk abouts' we eventually managed to find all seven of them! Our favourite was pool number 4, nice and quiet, it also warmed up quite quickly as it was only small.
Our first day at the beach we went to Bonos shack which is the cleanest, poshest beach shack I have ever seen. The loos were incredible unfortunately their prices on some things were twice the price of some of the other shacks so we didn't go there again - we were both on a bit of a budget this year. We spent most beach days at Claudinas beach shack where the food and service are excellent, very cheap with satisfactory loos. Alex, Anthony, Martin and the lads looked after us well.
We went to three HT meets at the Carvery on Wednesdays and three Bluesmania nights on Sundays at Jambalaya. We met lots of lovely people from both sites, many of whom we met last year and lots of new people this year. Everyone is so friendly and helpful and it is great to go on holiday and know that we can have a good social life instead of being just the two of us.
We had a super day out ‘crab' fishing which mr & mrs samtheboater arranged for us. Also on the trip were mrs dragon & son, mr & mrs corrinelynn and lynnb. Unfortunately mr dragon was unable to join us as he was unwell. It was real good fun, with excellent company and mrs dragon landed the biggest crab which I will post the photo of at some point.
Besides the crabbing trip we went to Mandrem Beach. Old Goa, Mapusa market, Mackies Market and a boat trip dolphin spotting. Other than that we had a really lazy holiday which was lovely and restful. It's such a shame that the journey home knocks that ‘chilled' feeling out.
We went to two quiz nights at the carvery, run by mr dragon, which were also good fun and thank you to fellow team members - sorry the brain wasn't in gear, too many honeybees!
As well as the Carvery and Jambalya we ate at the following restaurants: Mango Grove, Roma Pisa, Soumyens, Tuscany Garden, Capricorn and the Chinese on the corner of beach road which for the life of me I can't remember what is was called. Didn't have a bad meal anywhere but the cheapest was Mangro Gove - incredibly good value, the most expensive was Soumyens - worth every penny though as the fillet steak was tender and juicy.
All in all it was a wonderful trip and I can't ever see us getting disillusioned with Goa, 5 times so far and I still want to go back again.
I'd like to add a special thanks to the special people we met there who made our time so enjoyable.
Looking forward to seeing everyone again. 
