!!SEASONS GREETINGS!!

To EVERYONE we know and love, we wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas season, and may all your dreams for 2006 come true! Charlie and Jackie, Dec 24th, 2005

Goa

Photo: Curlie's Bar, sunset, Anjuna Beach
Sound: Goa Trance!

GOA -

Portuguese enclave, christian, party place, beach and ocean.
Many have an opinion, and something for everyone is here. Our train rolled down from Rajasthan in just under 30 hours, a good journey, many travellers heading for Goa and beyond. We chose a spot called Benaulim in the centre of Goa to head for.
Everyone has an opinion about Goa, and anywhere else for that matter, but with Goa it really showed us that we need to make our own minds up and treat the guide books and other travellers with a pinch of salt.
''Ánjuna has been overrun by Israelis fresh out of the army, techno sound systems and ruined'"
"Norther Goa has no planning laws and it is ruined by modern developments"
"Souther Goa is so busy and expensive you'll pay 1000 rupees for a room"
etc. etc,
All not true.
Benaulim in central Goa is a wonderful beach, backed with a small variety of bars and restaurants. At first we styed behind the beach in tin beach huts, a bit hot and noisy believe it or not by the birds in the early hours - like crows and really loud! Jac's foot which she twisted in Jaipur and possibly caused tendon damage was now really hurting her and walking on the sand especially was a struggle, so we had a couple of quiet days, reading, having a haircut etc, getting the legs waxed, swimming, and afternoon cricket sessions on the beach with the locals.
By Tuesday, when we had wanted to go, Jac was coming down with a nasty cold and cough, so we moved to the owners house in the village a mile or so from the beach, pleasant enough to be ill in, but a bit stuck away from what little action there was. I bided my time and on the Weds went up to Anjuna flea market for the day, and arranged some accommodation for the weekend, only 4 buses and 2 1/2 hours away.
Anjuna was lovely. A spread out village stretching back from the sea, full of more interesting things to see and do, no high rise development and positively quiet, yoga, tai chi, chillout music, interesting restaurants, market area, bookshops, and where was the rave? I couldn'nt see it...

Friday Jac was feeling a lot better, we headed up to Anjuna, in the hope of fixing a place for Xmas when E and P are here. Our little hotel Çabin Disco'seemed quite cool then, well, blue is cool, altho now I hate blue rooms!
The delightful little Pomfret fish we ate on Weds then made its mark on us, and the 2 days was about to turn into8! t,b,c,

Yes, our December quickly became a month of 'health awareness', as first we were gripped by the revenge of the Pomfret fish, details not required here, which put CH onto his first antibiotics for over 5 years, actually since he ate a rather old cheese & onion pasty off the van dashboard(!), and then left him writhing in agony at 2 in the morning a few days later, while Jac hobbled around trying to look up emergency health services in our guidebook. I survived till morning, got to a doctor, was diagnosed with infected kidney stones, and given a fistfull of pills...it seemed we were going nowhere, but the pills took effect and arm in arm we caught the 4 local buses down to Palolem, where we were hoping to spend Christmas, and spent more time washed out and washed up on the beach!

Palolem is the most photographed beach in India, an idyllic cove fringed with coconut palms and, if you're as eagle eyed as us, inhabited with dolphins, friendly Goans, and small animals that scuffle thru' your beach hut in the middle of the night and eat anything they can get their little claws in!

* RIGHT! Quick Interlude! I have tried for two weeks to update this post and have been thwarted every time, either by power cuts, incompetence or the gods! I have just had a haircut AND quick head massage so lets see if this works! HERE WE GO!* (now Jan 8th!)

So, apart from a week when we went off to Karnataka: Hampi and Gokarna, December belonged to Goa. I had to return to the hospital in Anjuna for tests, and for r&r you can't really beat Goa, very beautiful, but not for those who don't know how to sit still! In Anjuna we met up with friends from UK and Holland, then went down to Palolem for Christmas itself. This year it seems Palolem was one of the few party places for Goa, 4 nights running the sounds would rock one end of the beach or another, all in a very organized way, with baksheesh paid and disturbance restricted to alternate zones!

Christmas was special, for us the main attraction was December itself, and the wonderful lack of shopping and incessant commercialism. India does religious festivals like no other country on earth, yet at least it keeps them to just that, and for the outsider they provide a wonderful spectacle. If we were not with our friends, it would have been harder for missing our family, but we talked to you all, and what a Christmas present to know that you can count to NINE now Daisy!

So Goa treated us well, but we hope it doesn't become another mainstream charter resort which the authorities seem to want it to become. It emerged from an alternative scene which really still provides its uniqueness and charm...and let those that visit its thin strip of beaches not miss the enormity of INDIA that lies just behind!