It’s been a while since we last posted as we’ve been away in our favourite place in Goa and frankly we’ve been too busy enjoying ourselves to post a blog entry.  We’re back and getting used to the unseasonably cold weather which we thought we had cleverly planned to avoid!  Here’s a roundup of what we’ve been up to since early Jan.

We started with a lovely few days with Alex, Freddy and Luke in London.  Can’t get over how chilled Luke is – and how expertly the Dads have settled into their new roles.  The journey to Heathrow was event free (no strikes!!!!) and we were soon enjoying the treats in the Lounge.  The BA flight was very comfortable and the food at dinner was almost back to the way things were before BA started cost cutting. We were both excited about going back to Goa and soon got into party mode with a couple of drinks and a long sleep…..rock ‘n roll!  Despite a poor breakfast the flight was good, and it was on to the stage we really hate as we had to transit through Mumbai for our onward flight to Goa.

This is where the euphoria ended as it didn’t take long for India to frustrate the hell out of us with immigration being a total farce.  It was 7am and there were long queues everywhere for both foreign and Indian passport holders.  People were switching queues because there weren’t enough staff on duty and the long queues were hardly moving.  Then one of the officers would ‘go on break’ leaving a huge queue with no officer to process them.  Add to this was the toe-curling performance as each passenger took at least 10 minutes to process as pictures and fingerprints were taken.  An hour later and the frustration was starting to boil over.  People were getting very angry and at one point we really thought there was going to be a riot.  Eventually a ‘suit’ got the message that he could no longer ponce around doing nothing and he put some kind of order into the whole process.  It took us over 2hrs to get through and even then we had to shout at him to say we had a connecting flight before we were placed at the front of a new queue.  Only in India!  

On the bright side, at least we didn’t have to wait for the luggage as by this time the whole flights worth had been taken off and placed next to the belt.  Then it was the queue to get into the domestic departure hall, the check in desk and then the security scan but we made the gate in time for our made our connecting flight with Indigo. Hurrah! Then after a swift boarding process we sat on the tarmac for almost an hour because we were one flight attendant missing.  Only in India!

Our booked meal turned out to be a tin of either almonds or cashews and a coffee! On arrival at the now tatty Dabolim airport there was the usual scrum for taxis with guys wanting to charge twice the rate of the prepay taxi rank despite us pointing to the price chart on the wall.  We finally got to Benaulim and met our new landlord, Tony, as he showed us around the apartment in La Grace Resort.  It’s a mix between hotel and private apartments and we were on the first floor with an incredibly private apartment which at 1000R’s/night (£10) is extremely good value. We also have a proper thick mattress, new pillows, a water filter and Wifi – woo hoo!

Tony and Brenda had arranged for a table for 10 people at Tansy Restaurant which is now run by Karam and Rahul, formerly of C5.  What a welcome back, great company, great food and 30C.    Food and drink prices were only just a little higher, but still amazing value.  The food was one of the things we missed most about Goa and our first meal did not disappoint.  Most of favourite restaurants were still in operation, same old waiters and, generally, the world felt as if it was back to normal.

No sooner that we were back it was off to see Rahul the dentist for a check-up, quiz night on Wednesday with John and Suz (winners!), frequenting Rex’s beach shack, Sunday lunch at the much-acclaimed Farmhouse Restaurant (very disappointing and shan’t go there again in a hurry) and our first evening boat cruise of the trip. 

By now we were well and truly back in Goa mode and Connie organised a girl’s day out for High Tea at The Taj Exotica Hotel whilst some of ‘the boys’ went for beer, food and several games of pool at Blue Corner beach shack.  There was another day boat trip with those delicious giant prawns for lunch.

By now we had come to the conclusion that nothing much has changed here.  We had feared that the influx of domestic tourists during Covid would have changed things beyond recognition.  Yes, some restaurants have gone or changed, some new ones, new shops and new hotels including The Fairfield but generally the 3 years have seen very little change and that includes prices.

We continued to attend the weekly Wednesday quiz nights coming second and then first and then second.  The quiz was organised by DJ Paul to raise funds for the girl’s orphanage in the next village.  Of course, all winnings are donated and Paul slowly amassed a large amount of money which he and Connie went to present to the Manager.  Great fun nights for a great cause.

Next it was time for a posh Sunday Brunch at the local new Fairfield by Marriot Hotel.  £18 gave us as much delicious food as we could eat and as much as you could drink.  We knew we had been in India for a while now as we got really excited by having 3 different types of lettuce and olives on the salad bar! Free flow alcohol including Jacobs Creek Ozzie wine, a huge array of deserts which Cheryl and Suz worked their way through diligently, and it goes without saying, great company.  It was so good we had booked to go again the following week.

John and Suz had picked up on Facebook an organised trip to the temple town of Udupi and asked if we wanted to go.  We have been to Udupi a couple of times before but we quickly said ‘yes’, hey it’ll make a change.  We were taken to the railway station in Margao to catch a 2^nd class train to Udupi, journey time about 5hrs. We had an excellent hotel for two nights which had a very good restaurant and bar.  Our sightseeing was to be crammed into one day, 15hrs of full on touristy stuff which included a beautiful walk to an ancient fort, a tea factory, a Jain Temple and much more. We finished off back in Udupi to see the evening procession of chariots around the main temple.  The whole day was amazing if not knackering, but it was well worth the trip.  Next day we were back on the train early in the morning for the journey home.

On the return journey we met Penny and Steve who were staying in North Goa, Candolim.  They had booked a boat trip with one of our local boat companies along with a small bus load of their friends.  They had also decided to come to Benaulim on a recce for a possible stay next season.  We quickly agreed that Suz would find them a place to stay and that we would organise a booking on the boat for a few people plus a taxi to get everyone to Betty’s Boats.  It all went fantastically, and we’ll probably be meeting up with them in the near future because Penny’s mum lives in Honiton, a twenty minute drive from Seaton!

Most of our time was spent just lazing on the beach, chatting to old friends, reading books and enjoying all the random things that make Goa and India such an interesting place to visit. We ate out every night as the food is so good, it was an opportunity to socialise and with a meal for two including drinks costing an average of £15, why would you bother cooking?

By now we were in serious Sunday Brunch mode.  We had another few visits to The Fairfield plus a visit to The Alila Diwa in Majorda.  This was a fabulous hotel with a magnificent infinity swimming pool which meant it was great for a treat visit as it was a more expensive plus needed a taxi ride to get there.

With two weeks to go before the journey home we were on countdown.  We took a taxi to Martin’s Corner for an excellent lunch of delicious Goan food before taking the 2hr walk back to Benaulim along the beach.   Our last quiz resulted in victory for our team, it was a fantastic evening with lots more money being raised for the girl’s orphanage.  Dinner at Tansy for lots of people to say ‘goodbye’ to John and Suz and then a final visit to the Fairfield for brunch, well that was the plan until we found out it was not doing brunch because the place was being taken over for a wedding.  We were gutted as we really wanted to have a bit of a blow out before we headed home.  Fortunately, Sue, Francesca, Alan and Tim came to the rescue.  Sue found out that weren’t going and said ‘we’re going to The Alila Diwa, why don’t you come with us?’  Result!

A few more days on the beach, flight to Mumbai, and funny 1hr taxi drive using google maps as the driver had no idea where our hotel was.  The hotel turned out to be excellent and included a drive to the international airport the next morning.  The flight to Heathrow was very pleasant, immigration took less than 5 minutes via the E-gates and as we only had our cabin suitcases with us we were soon on the new Lizzie Line heading for some family time with The Mortons.   We were not, however, prepared for the Arctic conditions! 

Luke is still a chilled and happy little soul and we had a lovely time with the boys.  Neil had a great afternoon out with Freddy who managed to get him a ticket to see Arsenal vs Bournemouth at The Emirates. Neil had one of the best pies and a few beers before being treated to an exciting match with a goal scored in the first 9.1 seconds and the winner in the last kick of the match.

Despite setting off in plenty of time for the train home (no strikes again!!!) public transport in London let us down and with time rapidly running out we had to resort to getting off the bus and flagging a taxi.  One nail biting journey later we ran into Waterloo and made the train with just 2 minutes to spare.  It’s good to be back – but can someone do something about the weather?  brrrrrrrr

Here’s the big news.  We’re cutting our trip short, yes, no more Christmas Day on the beach (first in 11 years), no more lazing on a sunbed and no more sundowners.  We will explain later, but first a round up of the latest goings on from Goa. 

This year has seen one major difference to previous trips.  Over the years we’ve come to know lots of people who are possibly not coming back, ever.  It seems that several regulars are suffering the usual ailments associated with old age…….bad backs, the Big C and dodgy tickers.  Then, to cap it all, Tony and Brenda had to fly off to Thailand at short notice as Tony’s brother was taken seriously ill.  We wouldn’t say it’s depressing as life moves on and nothing stays the same. 

It was time for a boat trip accompanied by Connie, Hugh, Fred ‘n Betty and Yvonne ‘n John.  What a lovely day, nice breeze, a couple of dolphins did eventually come and see us and the food:  king prawns to start, kingfish for main and fruit salad swimming in Honeybee (local brandy) were delicious.  You can’t knock a 5hr boat trip with fabulous scenery, wildlife, unlimited beers and spirits with superb food and all for £12……maybe we should go again?

For a first, at least as far as we can remember, we had rain in December……shock, horror!  It wasn’t much but yet another cyclone out in the Arabian Sea brought us some rain and a few cloudy days.  It just gave a nice cool spell and didn’t stop us going into the pool.  We don’t care what Trumpy says, the world’s climate is changing and it’s changing fast.

Talking of politics……the UK had an election on December 12^th.  It’s not the first time we’ve been away from home for polling day.  We were marooned in Thailand in 2010 owing to that pesky ash cloud and remembered watching the BBC election results program whilst having our morning tea.  This time we thought it would be good to have breakfast out and watch the results coming in on a big screen.  We were hoping to have a few people join us but, as the exit polls suggested there would be only one result, most people went to the beach.  Being 5.5 hours ahead of the UK we got some of the very earliest results.   We now have a Government with teeth for the first time in more than 10 years.  Things can finally happen instead of the endless torture of being held in limbo with a constipated parliament unable to pass a motion.  Worth celebrating with a Kingfisher at 10.00am!

We used to be indecisive…….

Time to explain why we’ve decided to go back early this year.  You may have picked up from previous entries that things just haven’t been the same this year in Benaulim.  There’s usually something every year in Goa which annoys or irritates but not enough to outweigh the positives.  So, what’s so different this year, we hear you say?  It’s the major event for us this year, and it’s the fact we bought a house.  It keeps calling to us to get back to make it into our home.  

We thought we could spend our time in Goa looking over the floor plans, take our time over deciding what we really wanted to do with the help of some internet research, email the changes back to the UK and wait for the next version of plans to be sent back for approval.  It was almost a good plan until we realised just how sh*te the internet infrastructure has become in India (the worlds next superpower my ar*e!!!!!).  The internet had two speeds – slow and stop.  Guess you all remember the original dial up internet?  Do you remember trying to upload email attachments?   Do you love watching that turning circle just turning and turning?  Yup, as enjoyable as pulling teeth without anesthetic.  

The uncomfortable weather didn’t help as some days it wasn’t pleasant to go out to take a break when the internet was playing up.  Some of you will be aware of Neil’s attention span (what attention span?) and boredom threshold (how low can you go?). You will quickly work out that it didn’t take long for us to reach the conclusion that we needed to cut our losses and go home.  We would have liked to stay until just after New Year, but our only options to change flights were before Christmas or only a week before our planned return.  

Last days

Decision made and flights rebooked we concentrated on doing all the things we enjoy and the weeks slipped by fast.  We had dinner with old friends Jeff and Mary and worked out a routine to fit in all our favourite restaurants.  Aditya and Priti invited us to their home along with other neighbours Caroline and Jude for a wonderful evening of dinner and drinks on their terrace which overlooks the pool.  We brought a Christmas pudding as a present and Aditya used his newly found woodworking skills to make us a lovely tea light holder for our new house.

Derek and Cathy discovered that the Hyatt was once again doing Sunday Brunch.  Yes, this is the Hyatt where, a couple of years ago, Neil did the classic prat fall after consuming a few too many sherbets whilst climbing into a tuk tuk for the journey home.  That event produced a nasty cut to his head as he hit the floor, and he promised no repeats!!   We had a wonderful day with Hugh and Connie and Derek and Cathy.  The food was endless and delicious, the Australian wines a bonus after Indian wines and the Indian bubbly surprisingly good.  The location was right on the beach and to cap it all we had no further prat falls from anyone!

We followed that with one final boat trip, this time on our own.  Boat trips are great fun as you do tend to chat with friends.  However, this means that you tend to miss the wonderful surroundings.  This time we wanted to be alone to just ‘enjoy’.  We were not disappointed.

Time was running out so we took every opportunity to see the sunset and have a few sundowners before our last few Vindaloos at Jacks Corner.  Then we discovered that, just in time, our favourite pizza joint, Luna, was about to open.  There were the usual ‘first night opening’ challenges but we have become used to Luna providing what we call entertainment whilst others might call it frustration.

Wednesday 18^th finally came, time to leave and head to Delhi for our flight home next day.  It’s been an unusual trip this year not least of all because we decided to head home early.  Benaulim has changed so we will not be back next year, the first time in around 8 years but as we often say, life moves on, and we have other priorities in our lives now plus new places to visit and maybe a few places to re-visit.  We have a few ideas of what we might do but they are ‘on a need to know basis’!  Suffice it to say, Goa has been good to us when we didn’t have a house to live in but it’s time to move on.

The journey home went well and we emerged into Angel Tube Station to be greeted by a rousing chorus of Ding Dong Merrily on High by a group of extremely good carol singers. 

Merry Christmas Everyone.

As usual it took us quite a while to get over the journey from the UK.  It’s a combination of the journey duration, the heat and the horrific humidity which leaves us washed out.  We know that November is one of the hottest months here but the last 2 to 3 years have been ultra-hot and humid.  We had already decided before we got here that this would be our last trip to Goa before Christmas preferring to come instead in January.  The weather we experienced on arrival just cemented our thoughts that this is not a pleasant time to be here. 

It hasn’t been an insurmountable problem.  The cyclones meant that the shacks were not open and, as we had floor plans to look at for the house, changes to consider and decisions to be made, spending the time indoors under a fan just made more sense.  It’s very sad for the shack owners that have such a short window in which to make a living.  Combined with the bad weather and the incompetent Goan licencing authorities many of the shacks were still not completed by the start of December…..unheard of in the past.

We’ve continued to use the pool and spend less time on the beach this trip.  The weight loss has continued at a slower pace as more people arrive.  It would have been more but when a large bottle of kingfisher costs just over a £1 and a large G&T costs the same it does make the routine less effective than it should be.  It’s also a very sociable place so it’s very difficult to go out for dinner and not meet someone a have a ‘cheeky one’ with!

Talking of ‘cheeky one’, this phrase originated from Tony, AKA Tony and Brenda.  They contacted us to say that this year they were arriving late into Mumbai which would have meant arriving in Benaulim in the early hours, not a good time to wake up your landlord.  No problem we said, don’t stay in Mumbai, it’s very expensive plus you’ll have taxis to pay for.  Get the late flight and we’ll leave the key under the mat and you can stay with us.  So, we had some unplanned visitors for a couple of nights whilst they cleaned their own place plus Tony bought a bottle of Honeybee for that bedtime ‘cheeky one’!  It was great to have them stay.

The climate hasn’t stopped us doing lots of the usual things that make this place such a treat to be in.  Sundowners to watch the sunset with a few friends followed by a visit to Jack’s Corner for the best vindaloo in town.  We have too many good restaurants to visit making it very difficult sometimes to walk past as the friendly waiters call out ‘good evening sir, hello madam, how are you?’

We took a bus ride into Margao to visit the dentist, the bank, the optician and to do some shopping that you can’t really do in Benaulim.  The bus fares have gone up, outrageous, 50%, making the 20 minutes ride in the bus that hasn’t seen a service in the last 20 years cost a whole 15p each.  We’ve been coming to Goa for around 15 years and Margao is still a noisy, dusty dump of a town!  Nothing seems to have changed which in some ways is actually quite quaint.  Whilst waiting for the bus back you can still buy oranges from the hawkers walking up and down or nip into a grubby establishment to buy delicious samosas for 10p.  You can get your shoes and bags mended by the old cobblers sitting on the floor in the shade and using their feet to hold things whilst they stitch with their hands….all absolutely timeless.  Romanticism apart, it’s still a shithole!

We celebrated Cheryl’s birthday with a trip to Martin’s Corner with John and Yvonne.  Margarita for Cheryl and a beer tower for John and Neil.  Excellent Goan food some of which we can’t find anywhere else including tongue roast.  To round it off, Cheryl and Yvonne managed to consume a large portion of chocolate brownie & ice cream each.  Bill paid, it was then a delightful 90 minute walk back along the beach. 

We had forgotten how beautiful this stretch of the coast was.  It’s very quiet with hardly any shacks and you can see enormous expanses of deserted sands.  Benaulim used to have some quiet stretches like this when we first came to Goa on normal holidays around 15 years ago. 

Sadly, this has all changed now with barely 5 metres between shacks from one beach head to another.  It’s wall to wall sunbeds and some shacks have started pumping out the music – despite a noticeable fall in tourist numbers.

We strolled back to Benaulim just in time for a sundowner, how convenient was that?  The birthday finished with a trip to Savios for a light dinner of homemade liver pate, crispy roti and a bottle of Cabernet.  We did sleep well.

Travel to Goa, first days and things seem different this time

We needed to be at the airport no later than 8am so rather than get up at silly o’clock we paid the princely sum of £30, yes that’s £30, for a very comfortable bed in a blissfully quiet room in the Premier Inn.   This is Heathrow and we were a captive audience, so we were prepared to have to pay heavily for both food and drinks.  Not so!  The food was of a very good standard, not expensive, beers about high street London prices and a bottle of quaffable wine for less than £15.  What a start to the trip.

We chose the brisk walk in the chilly morning air to the next bus stop for the service for Terminal 5 and within 20 minutes we were there.  It also turned out to be a free Heathrow Airport bus….Result!  (rubs hands together Fagan style).  Check in was slick and came with a twist.  The guy at the check in desk surprised Neil by congratulating him on 20 years of being an BA Executive Club Member.  He also confirmed that ‘no, Sir,  it does not come with a free upgrade to First Class.’  Hey, don’t ask don’t get! 

We shot through security and made it the lounge.  Recent experiences of BA lounges haven’t been particularly great, but our good fortune continued.  It was quiet, plenty of seating and once we found ‘the main man’ we were handed a glass of bubbly each.  Yes, we know, it’s 8am but it has to be done. 

Boarding was seamless and we were greeted by some extremely friendly and cheery cabin crew who were very keen to supply us with more of the fizzy stuff, twice actually, plus yet another ‘congratulations Mr. Dyke’. 

The flight out to Mumbai went smoothly after an initial section of turbulence.  Food and drinks very good and whilst Cheryl enjoyed a couple of films Neil got stuck into quite an assortment of music genres. A few hours sleep before it was time for an Indian breakfast snack, landing, speedy immigration and baggage collection.

This is where the fun stopped

We knew it would as there is absolutely no way that you can make the journey from London to Goa without going through a quite tiresome period between flights.  Some people would find their plane arriving early in Mumbai very appealing.  All it did for us was extend the time we had to sit around waiting for our connecting flight 5 hours later.  No swanky lounge here so it was a case of grin and bear it.  However, it was made a tad more pleasant by the always happy to please BA cabin crew who had stocked us up with beers, wine and snacks before we left the plane. 

Anyway, time to check in, board the flight and settle down to 45 minutes of listening to an obnoxious screaming brat sat around 5 rows behind us.  Indians are usually very tolerant of whingeing sprogs.  However, even our fellow domestic passengers seemed amazed at the volume of the wailing and gnashing of teeth that could emanate from such a small person who was actually old enough to be told ‘enough, no more’! 

Fortunately, the flight was short which is more than we can say about the time taken to deliver our bags to arrivals.  Goa airport is quite small with around 4 luggage belts.  There were no other planes arriving so we were the only ones waiting for our cases.  It took more than 1hr for us and everyone else to collect our belongings.  India, the next world super power!! 

We arrived in Benaulim around 8am and nothing seemed to have changed.  We got the keys from security to what we had previously considered to be our home.  After all, this had been the place we spent 3 months a year for the last few years – the longest time we ever stayed anywhere since we began travelling.  Now we have a real one where we’ll spend much longer, and we were missing it already.

Feeling really tired after the long journey we set about getting unpacked, the podder man came around on his bike squeezing his hooter so we bought some delicious bread known locally as bakri.   It makes such fabulous crunchy toast that deserves lashings of butter…….mmmmm……so good with a cup of tea.

That morning we shopped for essentials, caught up with John and Yvonne who had been here around a week and started to catch up with friends and locals.  It seemed to be a constant session of handshaking and hugging and ‘hi, how are you’? and ‘When did you arrive’?

Our first dinner was in Hideout – a warm welcome from the staff we’ve known for years and excellent curry with beers and G&Ts for under £15.  Rubs hands together again?  

Early days

The day after we arrived turned out to be the start of Cyclone Kyarr.  It brought heavy rain and strong winds and made us very glad that we arrived the day before as the landing, if there was one, would have been very dodgy.  People working down on the beach putting up shacks took video of twisters and the heavy seas.  Sadly, some of those shacks that had stolen a march on the others by erecting them before the licences were issued got totally trashed by the strong winds and had to start again. 

The inclement weather lasted 4 to 5 days but, hey, it’s warm rain!!  A week later Cyclone Maha arrived and delivered cloud and some rain but without the intensity of Kyarr.  It was actually quite pleasant, the clouds kept the temperature down to a manageable 30-31C and the rain was sporadic.

On our arrival Neil started to explore the possibilities of watching the Rugby World Cup.  He quickly discovered that Brilliant Bar had a large TV and the right channel so our first Saturday we sat down at lunchtime to watch England destroy New Zealand.  Then on Sunday it was back to give our support to Wales in their endeavor to make it an all British final.  Sadly, it was not to be as South Africa did to Wales what England had done to The Kiwis the day before.  They had no answer to the power and sheer aggression of the SA pack.

It has become traditional where we stay, in Micon Development, that some of the western yummy mummies bring together many of the little kids from around to celebrate Halloween.  We love to participate and were given signs to put on our walls to show the kids that we’re open for a trick or treat.  The mums also provide bags of sweets and pens to hand out.  It’s great fun, some of the kids are so small and the mums put together some amazing outfits using their imagination and skills.  It’s really good fun for the kids and must teach them so much as they help mum put their costumes together. 

We had an invite to a small party to celebrate Diwali.  Karam, the owner of C5 restaurant, is Nepali and wanted us to share in his celebration.  He closed the restaurant for the afternoon and served up some excellent traditional Nepali treats.  He refused to let us pay for our food so we did at least make sure we paid for our beers and gins.  It was a really great way to continue our start back in Benaulim.

The following weekend we got together again to watch Wales play in the 3^rd place play off.  Once again, it was bad news for them as NZ were just too powerful.  Next day was the final, there was a big crowd in Brilliant considering it was so early in the season, and we came together to watch England capitulate to an awesome South African performance.  England had no chance and no excuse.  We were crumpled.

Something’s not quite right

Slowly we began to realise that there was one fundamental difference in Benaulim.  Every season for as long as have been coming here itinerant workers from Karnataka make the long journey to Goa to sell tourist tat.  Whilst we don’t like their constant ‘yes, shopping madam’ or ‘Come see my shop’ they provide colour on the main street through the village.  Some of them wear the traditional clothing of the Lamani Tribe which is quite stunning.  We don’t like to take photos of them as we see it as imposing, but you can see from the library photos just how beautiful the costumes are.

We arrived early in the morning, so on our first day we weren’t surprised to see the roadside stalls hadn’t set out their colourful wares.  When this continued for a few days we thought it was just early season and they would set up soon.  Anyway, The Lamani were missing and the main street looked like a depressing shanty town as all their roadside shacks were just covered in blue tarps.

After a few days we began to get some sort of picture on the dispute between The Lamani people and the local Goans.  We’re not sure who or what is behind it but, in a nutshell, The Lamani people are no longer welcome in Benaulim.  It appears that it’s only happening in Benaulim, not throughout Goa so we don’t think we’ll ever get to the bottom of it. 

Suffice it to say, it makes the street look very sad and many people coming to this village for the first time will probably not come back so, long term, we think this might backfire on the locals.  Many people think that The Goans are lovely people, very friendly and extremely helpful.  We agree, there are some just like that.  However, over the years we’ve come to think that there is a nasty undercurrent and a number are hotheaded, greedy and only nice to you if you are giving them money for something.  Francis, our favourite shack owner, has also been shafted this season and people he called friends and distant family have connived to stuff him. 

Hey ho, we’ll just get on with our lives here, enjoy the excellent food, the beach will become beautiful again when the shacks are up, and old friends arrive daily making life here very, very good.  We’re back in the pool on a daily basis, Cheryl swimming over 500m a day and Neil around 800m.  It’s hot here so along with the exercise and the suppressed appetite the scales are beginning to go in the right direction.  It is a great place, you get to drink beer, eat delicious healthy freshly cooked food and salads and still lose weight……can it get any better?

New Year in Benaulim followed much the same pattern as in previous years, a meal in town followed by a party on the beach at Rex’s shack dancing to music from DJ Paul brought in specially from Hull.  Well, not quite but Rex does like to talk things up!  Paul and Wendy have been coming here for years, Paul’s just happy to sort out the music.  Fireworks were even better this year and seemed to just go on forever.  We meandered home around 2am having had a great evening.

The first few days of 2019 went without too much excitement which was just as well.  Just one evening of ska and reggae music, once again care of DJ Paul, but this time we were in bed just before midnight.  The quiz nights have started again with John deserting our team to support another team that were short on numbers….they won!  The following week we were back into winning ways so now we’ll see how it goes before we leave Goa at the end of the month.

The main event for January was our 1970’s themed party on the beach.  40+ people, many dressed in 70’s gear, came to Pescadoodle Shack for an excellent buffet and dancing.  We had some great outfits and a special mention to Bee (a space hopper), Jan (Debbie Harry), Derek (a marvelous performance as Sid Vicious) and Dave (just your average punk).  It was great fun and thanks to all the guys in the shack for making it a great night.

Shortly after the beach party we were invited to a dolphin trip on Cris Boats with around 25 friends to celebrate Tricia’s birthday.  It was the usual stuff, great food, plenty to drink and great company.  After we staggered off the boat Tony decided that we should head to Cheers Bar for a ‘cheeky one’ before catching the bus home.  Well, as we were about 14 people they agreed that we could bring happy hour forward by an hour.  Now it started to get really messy.  Having taken a picture of the table half way through happy hour Neil forgot to take a picture at the end.  That was probably because someone suddenly suggested that we might have missed the last bus…..oh shit!  We quickly paid our bill and headed for the bus stop.  Sure enough we had missed it so we tried to negotiate with local taxi drivers for a ride.  The taxi mafia are strong all over Goa but in Cavelossim they are solid.  Only one thing to do, wander away from the local taxi men and call our normal guys back in Benaulim to come and collect us.  So, while we waited, what to do?  ‘Ah, look a little bar, how convenient!’  We were both sound asleep before 10pm.

No surprise that we didn’t make the quiz later that night. Jeff and Mary were due to fly home on the last remaining quiz night so that just left us and John & Sue. It was a close thing but we managed to win by just one point! As usual we donated our winnings to the Children’s Charity in nearby Colva so another great night.

Our last day in Goa was spent enjoying the sea, the sounds of the waves and watching life pass us by.  We watched the sunset (not spectacular, but you can’t have everything!), had sundowners and a last chat with Alton before saying our goodbyes and heading to Jack’s Corner for our favourite beef vindaloo.  After the sundowners, some more drinks and a complimentary Honeybee we meandered our way home for a relatively early night.

Another year gone, another 3 months behaving badly on the beautiful beach in Benaulim and it’s now time to finish our Indian trip with a short tour of Rajasthan.  Watch this space.

Our first visitors of this trip arrived from London.  We met David & Hannah a few years ago on our travels in China.  They had decided to take a trip to India and dropped in for a couple of days before heading off further down the coast.  They did their own thing during the day and it was great to catch up on things during the evening over dinner.  They also brought us a present……Christmas Cake……..and it’s a Marks and Sparks so it’s absolutely delicious.

Just before Christmas we had the usual Christmas Party.  Not on the boat this time but in our shack.  The shack owner Alton laid on a superb buffet for our 25 guests and at 350R (£4) it was a steal.  Nibbles while people got drinks then starters of BBQ chicken wings and mushrooms stuffed with cheese and chilli.  Mains included a Goan favourite, beef assad, chicken tikka, paneer tikka, Goan salad, vegetable xacuti, breads and pilau rice……delicious. 

We had a visit from Santa, and as austerity is officially over, the budget for the Secret Santa present was a huge 100Rs.

It was also Ann’s birthday and we enjoyed watching her blow out the everlasting candles on her cake…..tee hee, until she finally pulled them out!!

The evening continued with dancing to our special Christmas playlist which went on until the early hours.

Christmas Day followed very soon after the party.  As usual we spent the day on the beach.  Neil had a beer and a vodka in memory to his mum and dad. Lunch was chicken tikka, mushroom kebab, bottle of wine, Christmas Cake and a few other drinks to boot.  Cheryl had an afternoon nap, then it was next door to visit friends in Rex’s Shack for one of Bee’s famous mince pies and to deliver some Christmas Cake to her. 

Then at the end of the afternoon we had telephone calls with Miranda and Paul and Alex and Freddy.  Cheryl also had a couple of G&T’s during the calls so that when Alton got out his karaoke machine she decided to treat us all to a solo performance of Band of Gold.  It was noted that two couples who looked like they were going to come into the shack turned around when they were close enough to hear her screeching!   

Finally, on the way back home we stopped off at Jack’s Corner for a beef vindaloo and a couple more drinks.  It was a very boozy day and we were in bed quite early for a heavy sleep.  The next day we managed to get the call into Leanne and Neil that we had to postpone the day before because she was running late the day before.

Tourist numbers are down throughout Goa by around 30%.  Russians are showing the biggest decline but Europeans are also coming in fewer numbers.  The Russians are apparently not coming because other countries nearer home like Egypt and Tunisia are offering big incentives to tour companies and airlines.  India, as usual, continues to make it very difficult for tourists by making visas expensive and complicated to get and by charging very large airport taxes.  Yet again Goa is suffering as tourism is such a huge industry but the it’s national government that makes these laws.  However, between Christmas and New Year we saw a marked increase of ‘fresh meat’ although getting a table in a restaurant is still easy.  In previous years, the best places were often full from 7pm!

On our way to see in 2019 we stopped off at Jack’s for our favourite vindaloo and a couple of drinks.  Then we were off to the beach for a party in Rex’s.  We started off with Alton but, as expected, it wasn’t quite our scene.  We had a drink in there with Roger and Ann and then wandered next door to see in the new year.  The fireworks were superb as you could see them for miles in both directions up and down the beach.  After a modest evening we climbed into bed around 2am.

We celebrated Cheryl’s birthday with a fancy dress Sunset Cruise…..the theme being famous people.  A lot of effort went into the costumes which got a few stares as we arrived as we weren’t the only group on the boat.  We had a great trip and seemed to pace ourselves very well meaning that there was still scope after the cruise to head to a local hostelry for some more drinks and lots of fun.  We got some curious looks from the guys in the local restaurants as we walked back to our place – well, they don’t see Antony & Cleopatra walking down the road every night of the week.

One downside of being here was that our first few weeks were very, very hot.  The temperatures were unseasonably high with daytime temperatures at around 36C and night time at 25C.  The killer is the 87% humidity making the 36C feel like 46C. Thank goodness we have A/C and access to a swimming pool. 

We arrived on October 23^rd and just a few days into November we read in the paper that October had been the hottest for 50 years.  The strange weather continued into November and we have since read that its due to several cyclones which although far from Goa have affected the weather for a considerable distance.  November was the hottest in 15 years.  Thankfully, as described in The Times of India, ‘the mercury has dipped’ and we now have the usual seasonal weather of 31/32C in the day and 19/20C at night.

Ah, one more thing.  It’s great to back on the curry diet……..curry, how we’ve missed you!

Chapter 11 started in October with saying goodbye to family.  We began with Leanne and Neil followed by Paul, Miranda and grandson.  We said we would bring dinner to cook at their homes and surprised them with a full Christmas Dinner including pigs in blankets and sprouts, (not well received tee hee), pretty lights, Christmas pudding, mince pies and crackers and hats….great fun.  For all of you who despair at Christmas things being sold in the shops in October and wonder who would be mad enough to buy them……..wonder no more!!

We had a family lunch with Neil’s siblings, June, Bob and Bill, and their spouses.  It has been a long time since it was just the four of them so it was something that we think should become more regular.  We moved on to drop the car with June and Roy before heading to London.  Lunch with Bill & Sue at The Mayflower in Rotherhithe which is one of London’s oldest pubs – the name says it all.  We also surprised Alex and Freddy with yet another Christmas Lunch – here the sprouts were tolerated!

Our Swiss Air flight was excellent with comfy beds and extremely good food.  The Swiss wines, yes that’s right Swiss wines, were also very good as was the single malt scotch whisky.  We grabbed quite a lot of sleep which was just as well as we had a mind and bum numbing 4hr stopover before we could check in for our 5.30am flight to Goa. 

Not much has changed here in Benaulim, a few tweaks here and there, but essentially the same old Goa we have come to call our second home.  The swimming pool is in great condition, so we’ve been doing our daily swim to continue with the weight loss.  6kg down and another 3kg to go!!   Don’t forget we have 2 spare rooms in the house and we’re here until the end of January so you’re very welcome to visit.

October ended with some of the families in the complex organising a Halloween party for the kids.  The mums put in a lot of work making costumes and props for the event and the results were quite Spooktacular!

We also managed a trip for 8 of us for Sunday Brunch at the Radisson Blu for less than £18 each including all taxes – lots of delicious food, free flow wines, beers, cocktails and sangria……what a rip off!!

Diwali, one of the biggest Hindu festivals,took place at the beginning of November. It’s huge all over India and even in mainly Catholic Goa they celebrate.  Having said that, all Indians seem to celebrate every religion’s festivals which might explain why the kids always seem to be off school.  Whilst we didn’t get involved, some of the Indian residents where we stay organized a party.  They set up little clay lamps around the swimming pool with precise measurements and it looked beautiful.  One of the guys used a drone to take a picture of the complex from above, which sadly only gives an impression of what was such a spectacular scene.

This was followed by a surprise for Hugh.  He arrived a few days after his birthday and mentioned he didn’t have time to celebrate at home.  We arranged to meet for dinner a few days later and he walked into the restaurant to find balloons and a huge ‘Happy Birthday Hugh’ banner.  Raju and Karem at C5 restaurant put up the decorations and we bought a big cake from the German Bakery.  A good night with one or two or maybe more drinks to celebrate.

A huge surprise came just a few days after we announced we were getting married in the form of a call from the UK to say that we will become grandparents in July.  That gave us a focus to get on with our own wedding plans and first task was to find a date when all three children and their respective partners would be available – you don’t know just how hard that was!  Anyway, our big day is June 2^nd in Bath at 4pm.

Having set the date, we took some advice from John and Suz about shopping for rings.  They have used the same jeweller a short bus ride down the coast for a number of years and always found his service and value excellent especially when getting the jewellery valued when back in the UK.  So, off we went for the day, spent ages choosing the design for Cheryl’s engagement ring and our wedding bands.  Committed to a large spend a week later we headed to a lovely riverside restaurant with J&S to celebrate.  We then went back a week later to get the rings and go to the same restaurant to celebrate again. 

It took several shots and messing about to get that perfect picture……

When J&S read our initial blog posting of our engagement they were just about to pass through Gatwick and so very kindly bought a bottle of Champagne to celebrate – a few days after picking up the rings we headed off to Luna for bubbly, pizza and red wine…….phew, it’s one long celebration!

This month we’ve spent very little time on the beach due to our excessive shopping, celebrating and organising.  Trying to get the date for the wedding was tricky enough, then with Miranda’s help and a phone call to the UK we managed to book the registry office in Bath and make the appointment with our local authority for our interviews to make sure that we weren’t, amongst other things, a marriage of convenience!  In addition, we’ve also planned and booked most of our honeymoon.  We had considered various places in the US, Egypt, The Land of the Midnight Sun but finally decided that we wanted something much more romantic.   Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet, is to be our start point but we plan to hire a car and travel to Tuscany to visit Florence, Pisa, Sienna and many other historic cities.

Then we had more celebrations, this time a visit to The Hyatt Hotel just a short ride up the coast. 

It’s a very expensive hotel to stay in but they have a Sunday Brunch which is open to anyone providing they’re prepared to pay just under £30 each.  We went with Brenda and Tony, celebrating Brenda’s birthday, and Colin and Jan, celebrating Colin’s birthday.  None of them had said anything to us about our announcement so we suspected that they hadn’t read the blog so as we toasted the two birthdays Cheryl held out hand to show off her ring.  ‘More champagne please Pradeep, we have an engagement to celebrate!’ 

That’s how the day went, lots of excellent food and lots of champagne, fine Australian wines and even more fine Aussie wines.  It did get a little out of control – just take a look at the pictures. 

Brenda managed to hold Cheryl up for the walk back to the ride home and Cheryl managed to hold Brenda up.  However, Neil managed ‘not’ to negotiate his way into the tuk tuk for the journey home but somehow managed to fall and cut his arm and the top of his head.  There was blood everywhere but the guys at the security gate were out in a flash and had him cleaned, coated in iodine and bandaged in no time.

We had decided to have our ‘goodbye Goa’ party on the sunset cruise on Cris Boats.  With the help of Hugh we put together a great playlist of 60’s party music and asked people to try and dress 60’s style.  Sadly, Hugh was sick and couldn’t make it…..he was sorely missed.  It was a huge success with most people putting on the style and enjoying the great music, food and of course a drink or two.  This time we didn’t overdo it and had no mishaps on the way home…..well not as far as we were aware.  The pictures of the fancy dress say it all.

That’s pretty much it for Goa this time, we have a couple of days before we head off with John and Suz for a week long whistle stop tour of some of the highlights of Rajasthan.   However, just to remind you, we have booked for next year so we’re open for bookings!

What a time we had at Christmas and New Year.  Firstly, we had house guests for 3 nights that we’d never met before.  Then a quiz night where we finished Numero Uno. We had 2 boat trips in less than a week including The Santa Special and that was all before Christmas Day.  Finally, we have a massive surprise for you all from New Years Eve.

Now, to put some meat on the above summary of events.  Graham and Jean contacted us via TripAdvisor about a review of a guesthouse that we stayed at in The Philippines.  That was in 2015 and since then we’ve been reading each other’s blogs and picking each other’s brains for ideas on various trips.  When they said they wanted to visit Benaulim we had no hesitation in offering one of our spare rooms.  We really enjoyed their company, winning the regular Monday night quiz along with Jeff and Mary and then took them on a relatively sedate dolphin cruise – sedate because they were flying home that night.

A couple of days later we were on The Santa Special – definitely not sedate!  A great day partying and dancing and some of us, not mentioning any Cheryl’s, slightly over indulged the G&T’s and didn’t quite remember clambering into bed as soon as we got home at about 3.30PM.  To be fair, she did manage to get up for a light dinner that was washed down with a plain soda.  The boat trip was fantastic with Santa handing out the usual joke presents, we had Christmas songs before dancing music all of which took us hours to put together on a USB.  Special thanks to Hugh for also downloading loads of music for us.

For various reasons we’re trying a new shack, Café Arbat, and before Christmas lunch Neil had his customary couple of beers and quiet time to remember his mum and dad.  Then we had our Christmas lunch of chicken tikka and prawns wrapped in bacon or better known at home at Christmas as prawns in blankets and all washed down with a bottle of sauvignon blanc…..delicious.  Then, to our surprise the shack handed us two pieces of plum cake…..wow, a cross between Christmas Cake and Christmas Pudding!  It was so good we did our best impression of Oliver Twist…’please Soro can we have some more’?

After lunch we had calls with Leanne & Neil, Paul and Alex & Freddy before setting off to meet friends in another shack for sundowners and Bee’s homemade mince pies with brandy.  Bee and Dave gave us the card that we should have received 2 years ago……that brought a lot of laughs.

So, can it get any better?  Well, yes it can.  What better way to top a fantastic day than on our way home sharing a simple dinner of our favourite beef vindaloo with plain roti in a restaurant we’ve passed by for 10 years and only discovered this trip.  What a cracking day.

On New Years Eve there was the usual beach party at Rex’s which promised a super moon and a number of people mooning at the moon plus lots of fireworks.  Sadly, the moon wasn’t that super and the actual moon set was even less super but the fireworks were great.

Now here’s the big New Years Eve surprise.  As the fireworks were going off at midnight Cheryl accepted Neil’s marriage proposal……yes, were getting married!  We enjoyed the rest of the party getting home about 4.30am.  We didn’t say anything to anybody about our secret as we wanted to let the children know first.  Now of course, you’ve all read this and now you know!  Happy New Year.

Well, it’s been quite some time since we last posted and that’s mainly to do with the fact that we haven’t been up to much.  Yes, we know, ‘so what’s new?’

We’ve been on a couple of boat trips one of which was to celebrate Cheryl’s birthday.  Instead of the usual daytime dolphin watching trip we decided to take the sunset cruise which was fantastic.  The food you get on the day cruise is excellent but on the night cruise it’s even better with a huge slab of delicious Sea Bass replacing Kingfish and strawberries and ice cream instead of fruit salad.  Cheryl decided on a low key affair so we were a party of just 7 but we had a great night.  In typically Indian fashion, the boat owner lost track of time so we didn’t actually make it out to sea for the sunset and had to settle for it dipping behind the boat yard and palm trees instead which actually turned out to be quite atmospheric.

We’ve also made some new friends including Yvonne and John from Bude in Cornwall and Alison and Paul from near Cardiff.  John talked a couple of times about organizing a boat trip and asked if we were interested…….’is the Pope a Catholic’ we said?  Anyway, the morning after Cheryl’s birthday boat trip there was a knock at the door.  It was another new friend, Jerry and his wife Liz, to say ‘do you want to share a taxi tomorrow’, ‘what for’? I said, ‘John’s boat trip’ he replied.  It was our fault as we didn’t tell John to give us a bit of leeway after Cheryl’s night out so we were forced to endure yet another day of eating and drinking.  Life’s hard sometimes but you just can’t let people down.

We had a trip out to a new restaurant which was being opened by Rahul and Karem from our favourite curry house C5.  C5 is very, very popular in Benaulim and a great earner for them but as most people spend their days on the beach they don’t get much trade at lunchtime.  They decided to open a second restaurant in a commercial/industrial area near the airport in the hope that they would get a more balanced trade throughout the day.  We were invited to the formal opening and we were treated as guests which meant we don’t pay.  The food was delicious, which was expected, but on the basis that our party of 6 did consume considerable amounts of alcohol we thought it only fair to pay to for our drinks.  It’s not in a particularly salubrious area but, hey, these guys just want to make money and who can blame them.

Rahul left home aged 14 with nowhere to stay and slept rough for a long time.  He found work but always had it in his head that he wanted to be his own boss and to be in control of his own life.  We first met him working in a beach shack in 2006 but now he’s very much his own boss.  They are both lovely guys and at least in the future we can say we knew Rahul and Karem when they were young and ambitious as they drive past us in their Ferraris!

Rahul got married last April and we sent him a good luck message for his big day as we couldn’t make it. This was a traditional Hindu wedding so it went on for a big week!  They both looked stunning especially the bride in such a beautiful dress and the groom on his traditional white horse.  We haven’t posted all the pictures he sent us but suffice it to say it must have been a terrific event. Now, of course, she’s pregnant ……. congratulations Rahul!

We also experienced the after effects of Cyclone Ockhi which hit Kerala very hard and, sadly, there are still many fishermen missing.  The cyclone passed Goa out in the Gulf of Arabia but it still caused major disruption.  The rough seas, rain and high winds combined with a full moon to make the tides the highest we have ever seen.  A few shacks were flooded, some very badly damaged but the one we use, Pescador, escaped unharmed as it’s set on slightly higher land.  Thankfully, all is now back to normal.

We wish you all a Cracking Christmas and a ‘No Fake News’ New Year!   We’ll be back in 2018.

Here we go again, another thing to **** the tourists off – will India never learn?  Please read on about Government edicts, elections, police interpretation, curfews, corruption, rules that are just not enforceable and the public’s ingenuity at getting over ‘totally inept government’.

Now, here’s a question.  Is our favourite beach shack becoming like Benidorm?  There are many characters who frequent the shack during our three month stay, some more colourful than others.  Most are quiet couples who like to chat a little but mainly enjoy reading and the tranquillity of our usually uncrowded and haphazard shack.   This year we have our first transgender, a lovely person from Dublin called ‘Sean or Heather’.  Heather has a lovely selection of bikinis and dresses and, as you might expect for a Barrister, a great sense of humour.  Sometimes the overall effect of the delicate outfits is spoiled a little when Heather sits puffing on a very large cigar!  We have a bag lady – well she turns up with plastic bags on her feet then heads down to the sands to top up her mahogany tan.  Let’s not forget ‘Frenchy’ a very elegant high maintenance lady with a delightful sing song French accent and her gentleman friend ‘Swede’ who are a couple in their 70’s who use English as their common language.  He starts at 10am with a beer before they both hit the vodkas and they openly bicker like there’s no tomorrow. 

Then we have the ones we are less keen on. We have the German ‘dog feeders’ that are also the last of the big spenders.  They sit at a table and read for about 3hrs over a pot of tea and a bottle of water….100R’s or about £1.10! The normally laid back dogs get growly and snarly at any approaching dark skinned people as they demonstrate they are protecting their feeders.  This is hugely annoying as the German couple sit back instead of training the dogs to behave.  We also have ‘child bride, granddad and brat’ who are a very young Nepali girl with a 70 something German husband and an annoying 18 month old child.  They rarely speak to each other, and both often leave the brat to run wild expecting everyone else in the shack to be babysitters…..but not us miserable old gits!

 Finally, and this has driven us to leave Francis after 10 years, we have ‘Rabbit’.  She arrived in January and has a very loud and annoying voice, ‘it’ doesn’t have an off switch and ‘it’ only has three subjects to talk about making her conversation with people (definitely not us) extremely repetitive. Her husband is fine, quiet, probably because he can’t get a word in but she’s also got a friend at the other end of the shack, ‘lonely’, who has also got a very loud and annoying voice.  She gets bored so heads off along the beach to visit her friends in other shacks (hurrah – an hour of peace!) Unfortunately as soon as she is back she gives a blow by blow account of her conversation with her friend to her husband.  One of her favourite repeated sayings is – ‘that shack that so and so uses is so crowded and noisy and you can’t see the sea!’  Oh the irony – it was quiet here in Pescador until you got back motor mouth!!!  As we said, she finally ground us down and even loud music on headphones couldn’t drown out the inane ramblings.  We couldn’t take any more and left Pescador Beach Shack for our last two weeks and became ‘shack tarts’ trying out different establishments.  We’ll will go back to Pescador next season until ‘Rabbit’ returns.

We’ve had a number of events, a very enjoyable quiz night where our team of 6, called Universally Challenged, won!  John and Sue, Clive and Linda and us two competed against a dozen other teams …..our prize was a small box of Smarties each……amazing!  Wine tasting again, birthdays to celebrate and we’ve spent quite a lot of time with Aditya and Priti who have now gone to Mumbai before Aditya sets off on his round the world tour on his Triumph Bonneville.  Hopefully, we can catch up with them when he passes through the UK.  John and Sue had some friends arrive from France so we were forced to join them on yet another dolphin trip.  This time it was much more reserved although there was still plenty of beer flowing.

We were also invited along to Francis’ son’s First Communion Party. This was held in the small yard in front of his house where a small canopy had been erected to provide some shade. Functions like this are held throughout the village as many of the children all had their First Communion on the same day. The family parties start with a delicious plate of starters and drinks flow. There is time for chit chat and finally the cake is cut and the buffet is served. We are used to people chatting and socialising for a long while afterwards however, the Goan way is to sit almost in silence and then wolf down the buffet and clear off! Our table of foreigners who frequent Pescador had a great afternoon enjoying the delicious food. It was also a novelty to see Francis dressed in smart trousers and a shirt.

The money situation has improved but there are still times when the ATMs are empty.  However we have a brand new annoyance.  It’s election time in Goa and there is a strict code of conduct applied as Indians are not allowed to drink alcohol in the build up to and during the voting.  The Government decreed that for most of the month of January the sale of alcohol stopped at 11pm, even in restaurants, which often became 10pm if the police decided so.  Then during the peak 3 days before and during the voting they have shut all bars, and have prevented restaurants from serving alcohol and generally they have made the lives really difficult for the already beleaguered tourist industry of Goa.  The police even entered one restaurant at 9.30pm and told people to leave and shut the place.  Half consumed food and drink was left on the table and people left straight away leaving bills unpaid…….obviously this bar owner didn’t pay his baksheesh (bribe).  The crazy thing is that we have, like everyone else, just stocked up. 

However, at one point the police changed the rules once again and without saying anything to the general public all liquor stores were shut 2 days in advance of the ‘dry days’ before the vote itself.  We hadn’t bought enough gin and Cheryl had a middle class crisis as there wasn’t a single bottle to be found anywhere in the village!  Luckily, Aditya was back at Micon to pick up his bike and came round to our place with a bottle from his stocks as we had plenty of  tonics.  So, as usual, we found ways around the restrictions.  Some people had take out parties on the balcony, some carried neatly disguised drinks to add to the mixers that you can still buy or drank straight from fresh coconuts with a straw having added a shot of rum……..yes it is, once again, proving to be ‘Incredible India’!

We spent our last few days finalising plans for the rest of our trip to Thailand and China plus our week long journey to Delhi with John and Sue to go wine tasting and sightseeing.  We also made sure we went to our favourite restaurants to say ‘goodbye, see you next season’.  Our trip for pizza and red wine at Luna proved to be particularly eventful as we had some Spanish Flamenco dancing to enjoy…….well not really.  A young couple of Spaniards came in at about 9pm and they were obviously very drunk.  The girl was singing and generally being annoying.  Everyone in the restaurant did the right thing and just chose to ignore the attention seeker.  Then she got out her castanets and started dancing but it wasn’t long before she fell comically backwards onto her arse with her legs in the air and her man had to pick her up.  Unfortunately at this point a bemused group of young Russians politely applauded!! 

She then proceeded to go and annoy the chef at his open air pizza oven which forced Ingelisa, the dotty foreign lady who helps run the place, to intervene.  She asked the Drunken Spanish girl  politely to please sit at the table and be quiet.  Our cabaret star then proceeded to be abusive and accused Ingelisa of being German and rude, she’s actually Danish and very meek, which then forced the hands of several men, including Neil, plus Cheryl to go to her rescue.  ‘Get out, you’re not welcome here’ we shouted and without any fuss, just verbal abuse, the couple left!  Well, what an evening!

We do have a bit of good news. We’ve managed to secure the same house for next season and you’re all invited to join next year’s madness……but not all at the same time!  We have 2 spare bedrooms, a pool to share and a plentiful supply of restaurants offering most types of food.  Plus an array of colourful characters, surreal experiences, government ‘surprises’, wall to wall sunshine and temperatures in the early 30’s.  How can you resist?

That’s it for lazing around on a beach doing ****** all.  Next we’re off for some proper travelling so watch out for the next entry.

Hey, now don’t we scrub up well when we make an effort?!  We got the pictures taken of us at the recent wedding.  Neil dressed in his suit with collar and tie and Cheryl looking absolutely fabulous – we could pass for a real celebrity couple on the social circuit, ok maybe not.

Sadly, we must report the passing on of Cheryl’s cat Bruno.  After 17 glorious years he finally succumbed to old age.  We know it’s not of much interest to most of you but for us he was a gem…….even Neil was a tad choked when we heard.  After we started travelling 9 years ago Neil’s son took him on and then when he moved out of the house after 4 years a neighbour and her family adopted him and gave him a loving home for his final few years.  We didn’t come across anybody who didn’t find a small slot in their heart’s for him……he was such a loving and amusing cat.

It’s been the usual build to Christmas and New Year with a social calendar befitting anybody famous. The pictures tell it all but in summary we had a superb lunch with Priti and Aditya our neighbours in Micon who came to Neil’s rescue when British Airways lost his bag.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing them in the UK during the summer as Aditya passes through on his Triumph Bonneville during his round the world trip.

Then it was the obligatory Santa Special on the dolphin boat – 32 people in the party.  Hugh was magnificent as Santa as you saw from our previous post and it all got very messy when some in the party started to moon at another boat!  Neil didn’t start it but he’s easily led!  It was a fantastic day with superb food, great company and maybe one or two drinks, followed by a lot more drinks.

Our calendar took a slight deflection as we went for drinks one evening with a new neighbour, Niloufer, and her friends from Bombay (that’s what they call it and for this blog entry so will we!). It was such a laugh and they also had friends from Quebec who brought some superb Canadian Gin made from a recipe originating from the Inuits.  One of the party was a very striking 6ft girl of 15 years old who is studying music.  Her and her mum gave us an impromptu Christmas Carol concert in French……….some people get camera envy, some phone envy but for us it’s voice envy……..they were just so harmonious! 

Talking of envy, we’re about to give you Christmas Day envy.  We had the day on the beach and Francis cooked us a delicious lunch of fish and huge tiger prawns all washed down with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc……just take a look at the pictures if you dare!!  We had amazing quality Skype calls with our children and family, the video was the best ever, and then it was cocktails with friends at sunset.  Finally, we made our way home, showered and had yet another bottle, this time a slinky Zinfandel Red, to go with our blue cheese pizza at our favourite Italian…..sorry readers but you should really come and experience our Christmas day to fully appreciate just how good it is.  

Then, of course, we had the traditional New Year party at Rex’s beach shack.  No photos as we decided to travel out very light – money to pay the bill (and we didn’t take enough) plus the key to get back in.  The fireworks started at 11.50 and went on with such vigour until 12.15.  We paddled in the sea to look down the beach in both directions and the sky was ablaze with fireworks for as far as we could see……who needs Sydney Harbour Bridge?  What a great night, staggered home at 4am with Cheryl hiccupping all the way, and now Neil is nursing very sore calves from too much dancing to Madness and Cheryl is nursing a delicate head after far too many G&T’s.

The Goans love to party too and they make us look like real amateurs.  We left the beach at 3.30am and having been to Mass they were just arriving in their stunning suits and party frocks.  We’re typing this at 11.30 am and we can still hear fire crackers going off and the local church is playing Konkani music that can be heard for miles around…….do the Goans never go to bed?

We hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year celebration, today is New Years day and we’re having a very lazy day at home in the cool but we’ll be back on the beach tomorrow!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year wherever you are in the world. Have a great festive season whether it be in the snow, rain, slush or a BBQ on the beach.

What’s on your top ten of things you really should not do?   Now, that’s got you all thinking hasn’t it but, sorry, you’ll just have to read the rest of the blog to find out what this is about!

The cash crisis is still with us and is unlikely to get much better before we leave in February.  Not letting this get us down we’re enjoying being back here again especially our first morning chorus.  Our body clocks were not quite back to normal so we both woke early on our first day here.  We sat in bed with a mug of tea and watched the sun rise and listened to the birds, monkeys, buffalo, pigs, firecrackers, the distant sound of the train and the church bells and the singing at morning mass – it’s absolutely fantastic to be back and who cares if we have no money.  The rent was paid in the UK and we could both do with losing a bit of weight.

This year we’ve rented a 3 bedroom town house with balconies at the front overlooking the swimming pool and at the back the paddies.  It’s in the same development we’ve stayed in for the last 2 years so we’re beginning to get to know more and more people.  The advantage is we can have people to stay and Neil’s sister June and best friend Barbs were due to arrive just a few days after us.  We got on with planning the rest of their trip and working out how they could pay for things without a wad of cash in their purses.  We took them on a boat trip to see dolphins and eat gorgeous garlic prawns and kingfish plus plenty of G&T.  They enjoyed time on the beach and Barbs found time to apply some much needed first aid to Neil who slipped in the shower and managed to slash his wrist on the edge of some tiles.  Then they were off for 6 nights on their own for their trip on the overnight train to Kerala including the backwaters and tea estates.  They had a ball, ate too much and came back with lots of goodies like strawberry jam for us to devour.

They arrived back at midday to find Cheryl banging and crashing about as she swept the stairs and June quietly asked Neil why was Cheryl cleaning today? This was just as he spotted it on the calendar whilst closing down the computer.  That was an almighty ‘oh sh*t’ moment – yes readers, he had forgotten Cheryl’s birthday!  His mitigating circumstances were concentrating on making sure we all had enough cash to get by plus ensuring that June and Barbs got back from Kerala OK.  It had completely slipped his mind – ‘oh sh*t, oh f**k, oh b**llocks, Neil you’ve really gone and done it this time you pillock’!  So, blunt rusty knife in one hand, balls ready on a plate in the other hand ready to be surgically removed he went upstairs to beg for mercy.  Fortunately for him whilst this was a gargantuan error of judgement Cheryl decided it didn’t warrant the removal of his precious gonads……….but it came pretty close.  Keen to make amends, Neil quickly ordered a taxi and we went off to Martin’s Corner for cocktails, a long lunch and a relaxing walk back down the beach just in time for sundowners. Cheryl mellowed a little after her fourth Margarita. 

We had more beach time for June and Barbs, a final candlelit dinner on the beach of lots more fish and prawns before they headed off to Rajasthan.  We had planned them a trip to visit Udaipur, Jaipur, Fatepur Sikri, Agra and then finally to Delhi.  Our plans went like clockwork until they had one of India’s famous experiences – the late train!  The final leg of their journey was from Agra to Delhi which normally would take 3hrs…….their journey was 3hrs but unfortunately the train was over 5hrs late arriving to pick them up…..ho hum!  Anyway, they finally got there and had a good time exploring its many sights – J&B it was great to have you stay and we’re already planning your trip for next year!!

Everyone here is always looking for different things to do and, mostly, they tend to include alcohol.  That’s why the boat trips are always a winner, we had yet another one, and why the wine tasting that Sue and Andy arranged was oversubscribed.  It was a great afternoon sampling a number of Indian wines, nibbling on all sorts of goodies and then carrying on into the evening.  Some of the wines were reasonable, some ok and two bottles were only fit for pouring down the drain! In between all of this we’ve managed to cram in some beachtime where we just read, swim, eat and watch the activity on the beach.  

Now, who wants to come to Goa?  We have lots of space and we’re here until February 8th.  We have also secured the house again for November, December and January 2017-18 so if anybody wants to come and visit we have 2 spare rooms.  C&N’s Best Exotic Tours can also put together a tailor made package to suit your requirements!

Never could you imagine how eventful life can get in just a couple of days. 

There was nothing eventful about the backtracking flight from Bristol back to Madrid after the wedding.  The Crowne Plaza Hotel at Madrid airport was just as expected.  The flight from Madrid and our connection at Heathrow was slick.  In fact, our splurge was mighty comfortable as we had our own little pod in the centre of the plane.  The food was excellent and the drinks plentiful and the staff even gave us some miniatures and snacks to take off the plane for our wait in Mumbai for the uneventful flight with Jet Airways to Goa.

But, and here’s the but……..just before the BA flight landed at Mumbai one of the flight crew told Neil that his rucksack didn’t make it onto the plane.  He was chilled about it having had plenty of fine wines and port with his cheese.  When we arrived the ground crew were very helpful saying that the bag would arrive on the same flight next day, flown to Goa and would be delivered to our door within 72hrs.  Neil was still chilled at this point as there wasn’t any point in getting angry….it wouldn’t make it arrive any faster, it wasn’t the ground crew’s fault in Mumbai and, anyway, all he needed to do was to buy a couple of T-shirts for the beach……..72hrs would fly by!  As savvy travellers we normally split our clothes so that if a bag does go missing we are covered.  We didn’t this time and Neil knew that he was going to regret it…….Cheryl’s pants were going to chafe a bit!

We got money from the ATM at Mumbai, headed for our connection to Goa, hassled for a taxi to Benaulim and our swanky 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom town house that overlooks the pool at the front and the paddies at the back.  The house was very clean by Indian standards so we headed off to get breakfast and some wifi to let family know we were OK. We started to meet old friends, had a delicious dinner at our favourite curry house, C5, and slept soundly that night.

We woke up to find that Trump had trumped Clinton – how did that happen? We then discovered that India had trumped Trump in terms of shock breaking news.  Whilst we were asleep, at midnight, the Indian Prime Minister announced that all 500 and 1000 rupee notes (the equivalent of £5 and £10 notes) were ‘history’!  This was aimed at reducing the amount of ‘black money’ in the economy which was earned by corruption, terrorism, counterfeiting and money laundering.  It was also intended to make a cash driven economy, where hardly any taxes are paid and incomes are hidden (less than 1% of the population pay tax), into a modern accountable society where salaries are paid into bank accounts and transactions are auditable via electronic payments.  The 500 and 1000 notes are about 86% of the currency in circulation so we knew that this was going to be mayhem!

So, it was a S**t moment with a capital S.  We had a wallet full of useless Ghandi emblazoned toilet paper taken from the ATM in Mumbai.  No problem, the Times of India and the BBC news said that we could get them changed into the new 2000 and 500 notes at any bank at the rate of 4000R/day….but only in 2 days time as the banks were closed so that they could prepare for the onslaught……… and onslaught it was.  The official announcement also assured that you could get 2000 each day at the ATMs, about £25, so all we could do was wait until the banks and ATMs re opened. 

Fortunately, many restaurant owners who knew us kindly offered us credit and most were still taking old money even though it was technically illegal.  We heard that the new 2000 rupee notes that had been promised had arrived on day 3 and we managed to change 4000R each at the local bank after queuing for about 30 minutes, not so bad we thought.  Next day we headed off to the nearest large town, Margao, thinking it would be easy if we went to the ICICI Bank where Cheryl had an account.  Although it was as crowded as Wembley on Cup Final day we were ushered through and told to go upstairs.  The ATM had no money so we asked for some money from the account using the debit card and we were told that we needed to write a cheque!  Who has a cheque book these days?…..we certainly don’t.  ‘No cheque book, no money’!  All the other banks and ATMs either had massive queues or none at all which meant that they had no money.  By now we were losing our sense of humour and decided to get the bus back to Benaulim for a beer and some lunch to catch up with other people’s stories. 

Then we hit on the ruse that if we exchanged sterling and dollars for old notes at the money changer we could get lots of new money just by getting to the bank early each day and queuing. It was important we got new money as Neil’s sister June and her friend Barbara were arriving very soon and would need currency to go on their 5 day trip to Kerala and their 7 day trip to Rajasthan.  Next day we went back and we queued again only to be told that as we had changed money the day before we would have to wait another 15 days.  ‘What the ****’!  ‘The Government said we could change money every day’.  We were again told ‘no’.  Knowing that bank systems here don’t talk to each other we went around the corner to another bank and queued yet again for 40 minutes.  We were then asked if we had a receipt.  ‘No, we got it from an ATM’ we lied.  He replied, ‘I’ve just had a phone call from H.O. and no receipt means no new money’.  Damn, we had just exchanged $100 and suddenly we were lumbered with old money we couldn’t change.  So, we headed back to the money changer to get a receipt.  At this point we were getting hot and bothered and didn’t fancy queuing yet again so we headed off for a beer and some lunch.  Hey, what the heck, all our favourite restaurants were giving us tick and/or taking old money and we came here to relax not stand in queues. Can you see a pattern forming here? – queues, frustration, empty banks & ATMs followed by a beer and some lunch!

Next day we headed off to Colva which is bigger than Benaulim but is smaller than Margao.   All the banks and ATMs were empty so we decided to get the bus back.  As the bus went past one of the banks we had tried earlier, Neil spotted a queue at an ATM.  We were learning fast, a queue at the ATM means money in the machine.  We stopped the bus and leapt off to join it.  Then Neil had the idea that if the ATM had money then the bank probably had money. 

Cheryl queued in the sun for the ATM and Neil headed into the bank.  There was no queue inside so he wasn’t hopeful but, bingo, ‘yes you can change money’.  The night before the Government announced that the withdrawal limit at ATMs had gone up to 2500R but not at this bank….the stern bank official (she looked like Hattie Jacques in a sari) overlooking the withdrawals said 2000R only so Cheryl didn’t dare argue.  Anyway, 2000 was better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick and inside the bank we were getting 5000Rs of old notes changed not 4000Rs……we didn’t know why but by now we had come to the conclusion that despite the Government announcements all the banks were operating by different rules – hey, welcome to India!  Then the nice but incompetent lady announced that Cheryl could only have 4500Rs.  ‘Why’? We asked.  ‘It’s because she has an OCI visa’ – that’s an Overseas Citizen of India.  ‘But she’s NOT a Citizen of India, she was born in the UK and has a UK passport’. She was having none of it so we didn’t argue.  About 1.5hrs later she told us to go upstairs to collect our money.  For this 1.5hrs all she had to do was get us to fill in the exchange form and for her to check and copy our passports, money change receipt, visa and entry stamp, get us to sign each copy and then she had to stamp them and sign them herself.  Hence, the ‘incompetent’ label……1.5hrs for something that should have taken 10 minutes!  Upstairs we were told that despite what we had been told downstairs the system would not allow Neil to have 5000Rs only 4500….the same as Cheryl but we didn’t argue.  The whole process took us more than 2hrs!  We also had a serious sense of humour bypass by the end of it but couldn’t show any signs of frustration in case they said no money. Hey ho, we’d missed lunch but we headed back to Benaulim for a beer and a chat and to tell people we had won the lottery!

You had all forgotten about Neil’s bag, hadn’t you?  Ha, well to cut a long story short it didn’t arrive in 72hrs, it arrived in Goa in 4 days.  Despite being told by the ground crew in Mumbai, the customer service staff on the telephone and the many emails telling him of the status he was finally told that he would have to go to Goa airport to collect it.  ‘How can I collect it, I have no money, the ATMs are all empty, how can I pay for a taxi’?  After several phone calls, buckets of frustration and pointless blood boiling he gave up and we were lucky to get the lovely neighbours that we met last year to take him to the airport to collect his bag…….finally a result for everyone as frankly he was beginning to pong a bit!

We’re now 2 weeks into our trip and whilst Neil has his rucksack the complaint to BA remains open and we’ve heard nothing about his claim for out of pocket expenses.  The money crisis continues unabated with ATMs and banks, in the main, empty.  Whilst the withdrawal of the large notes was a bold move the logistics behind getting the new money into the system has been, well, typically Indian………pretty incompetent and needlessly bureaucratic.  The first note to be issued was the 2000 (and we have yet to see a new 500) so no one wanted to take one as pretty soon there was a shortage of 100R notes for change.  The ATMs need recalibration so for now can only take 100R notes so are quickly emptied once they are re-stocked and restocking is very hit and miss as they haven’t organised enough security staff to deliver the cash.  The Finance Minister has made a comment that recalibrating the ATMs will take several weeks so things aren’t going to improve until after Christmas at best.

Tourists have been left high and dry with many unable to spend or change the amounts they exchanged at the start of their holidays. Some new arrivals haven’t been able to get any rupees at all.  The only option for tourists who didn’t bring a debit card, or when the ATMs are dry, is to change $, £ etc into old notes at a money changer and queue up at the bank to change 4000R into new notes.  The money changers occasionally have new notes so we are changing sterling and dollars but only in dribs and drabs of £10 on a normal day or £50 on a good day.  They still have old notes which we still take but we are being cautious with this as, for sure, very soon businesses will not be able to bank the old money so we only get enough for one or two days at a time.  Despite it being illegal to use old money, if it hadn’t continued we’re pretty sure that India would, by now, be in a state of anarchy with pitched battles at all banks and ATMs. 

All in all it has been an interesting experience despite the frustrations.  It’s a strange feeling to have money but not be able to get your hands on it.  It’s a really strange feeling to be given credit from people who can only dream about having even half as much money as we do….it’s extremely humbling.  We get excited when the ATM makes that satisfying whirring noise which means money is on its way.  It’s just like seeing 3 cherries on a slot machine and you jump for joy at getting your daily allowance of £25!  We even got a couple of bread parcels from our lovely Indian neighbours.

We’ve been coming to India for a long time now…….so long that nothing really surprises us, it’s just Incredible India.  However, this time it’s very, very different.  The Government changes the rules almost daily as the owners of the ‘black money’ discover loopholes in the Governments ill thought out master plan.  Then the banks respond to the rule changes by operating different rules to each other so nobody has a clue what’s going on………this is India on Acid!