The next day, I got up a much healthier happier person Prayers always work wonders with me!

I did not venture out with the rest though as we were flying back & the last thing I wanted to do was to get ill again. Instead I finished packing and the spent a very peaceful & quite morning all by myself enjoying the natural beauty of Goa; watching barges, police speed boats & birds go by.

The rest had in the meanwhile gotten Jess back from the hospital. She was going good, the day on the drip really revived her completely & she was even talking about going shopping when we returned back to Bombay! She also had her “fitness to fly certificate”, so we seemed A-ok.

We reached Dabolim well in time for our flight. My sis kept her word & bought me two Agatha Christies from the airport & I promptly tucked into one. The flight out was uneventful & we reached Bombay pretty much at the time we were supposed to.

As we left the plane, I took one last pic. The holiday (illness or not) had been great. We had eaten (like pigs), danced, shopped, laughed, sang, bonded. We have enought memories to look back at, for the rest of our lives, which will make us all say “that was a great holiday”. And it sure was.

Started off the day by having to go to the hospital for Jess. Unfortunately, now there was one more sick person on board (though not even half as bad as she was).

My aunt had gotten an appointment with a Dr. * at ‘Vintage Hospital’ in Panjim. On the doctor - he was very cute Trust two girls - both ill, one who couldn’t even walk - to notice a cute guy. Yes, he even had light grey eyes. And he was very very polished and sensible. Ahh.

The hospital itself was state of the art. We were very impressed with all the facilities. Best of all, it was UK affiliated, which made it a lot easier for Jess to file medical insurance claims. I later found out it has it’s own website.

The good doc immediately admitted Jess into one of the private rooms & put her on the drip. I was put on anti-biotics for the infection & other drugs to stop throwing up etc.

On the way out, I was most amused with this sign I saw (you can tell I was better already, that I could take pics!):

The others dropped me off home & after making sure I had a maid to take care of me proceeded to the Spice Farm (no sense them missing out on their holiday) in Ponda. I told them I might join them for dinner - which they had at ‘Calamari’, Candolim finally, but I was too weak to get out of bed even then.

I pretty much spent the whole day between sleeping & praying in bed. I hadn’t prayed on the 31st nor the 1st (barring Mass), so it was actually a very good thing for me & I actually enjoyed my time with the Lord, looking back on the whole year gone by, making lists little by little (I had lots of time!) and thanking Him for all the multitudes of blessings I’ve received this year.

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Firstly, though I’m writing this is retrospect, let me say…

It’s NEW YEAR 2006!!!!

How wonderful it is to keep a journal (on or offline), now I don’t know what lies in store for me this coming year - a year from now, I’ll (hopefully) be looking back & praising God for another full year!

One of the reasons I didn’t start my New Year in Church as I usually do, is that my sister would have to go alone for Mass in the morning. The bus driver who was a Catholic had invited me for Midnight Mass with his family & I could have done that & gone back to Cubana but then decided for Sim’s sake I’d just stick with the group.

The next morning with not more than a half hour of sleep, Sim & I got up, totally groggy & got ready for 8am Mass in Old Goa, in the famous & beautiful the Basilica of Bom Jésus which holds the casket of Saint Francis Xavier. Half of our group had come in about an hour earlier, while the rest got home as Sim & I were leaving.

Miraculously (thank you God), caught a bus right outside our house that took us straight to the church & we got the whole Mass (albiet in Konkani). The great thing about Catholic (which means universal) Mass is that wherever you go, you can follow most of the Mass. (I’ve also heard Catholic Mass in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Konkani & Chinese on various other trips.)

Incidentally, the phirangs among us had done the whole Old Goa tour on Day 3 in the morning, including the Churches & the Museums etc but I didn’t go as I’ve been to Goa a million times. I thouroughly recommend it if you haven’t seen, esp. the ‘Sound & Light’ show.

Back to us! After Mass, was very refreshed (the singing was great, in voices & harmony) & Sim & I decided that everyone would probably get up by lunch so we might as well get some breakfast. Found a nice place just next to the Church & while Sim got so South Indian stuff, I decided I would start the year with a good Goan Sausage Pau

Miraculously again, we caught a bus - which turned out to be the SAME bus on the way back - immediately after breakfast & they again dropped us right off to our door. Could get used to this service

Couldn’t really sleep & just got ready for the day. The rest of the group that arrived by train were all off & we sadly said goodbyes, first to Eric, who was flying directly back to Bangalore & then to the rest. Took some pics at home before dropping the rest off to the airport.

Went to Panjim for lunch. Went to ‘The Ritz Classic’ for a quick lunch before we left. Jess was not very upto eating & just ate some french fries. The rest of us ordered common dishes & all joined in together (I mention this for later reference).

From there did a quick round of shopping in Panjim before heading off to Dabolim airport. ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’ - apparently it is bitter sorrow as well. Was witness to some very weird partings of another family at the airport - worse than many funerals I’ve been to!!!

Having dropped off the lot at the airport returned home for a much needed nap. Our original plan was to go to Candolim (to a restaurant owned by a friend, called ‘Calamari’) in the late evening for dinner.

Unfortunately sometimes things don’t go exactly the way we plan them. Turned out to be quite the negative adventure after that.

Firstly Jess became violently sick, throwing up continously. We didn’t even realise it at first as we were all in individual rooms happily sleeping.

Next, the bus driver just didn’t show up. Worse still neither he nor the guy we had booked him through were picking up their cell phones.

By the time we realised Jess was really sick and needed medication (& possible ER help) it was already around 10.30pm. We had no transport & no way of getting into Panjim. Public buses do not run late in the night & there were no ricks or other public transport we could hire.

Add all this to the fact we had not eaten any dinner & probably wouldn’t get any since it was so late. We were also pretty unsure if there would be any chemists open in Goa at the hour.

Finally two of us walked to a hotel nearby to ask if they had any ER medication. They didn’t. But mercifully they did allow us to rent a vehicle from them to go to a chemist in Panjim - they themselves made several calls to find out which pharmacy would be open at this late an hour. Found out we should go to ‘Hindu Pharma’. And we also went to their restaurant and ordered food which we decided to pick up on the way home.

Off to Panjim then. Took a long time to find the pharmacy which turned out be next to ‘Hotel Aroma’ on Church Square. (I much later found out online that it is “Panjim’s best pharmacy” and stocks Ayurvedic, Homeopathic and Allopathic medicines).

I tried to get the names of doctors etc from the chemist & got a name of a clinic instead. Found that clinic after a little more searching. But it turned out to be a Maternity clinic. oh well.

On the way home, realised many roads had been closed due to some carnivalish celebration happening on the roads for the New Year. Traffic was diverted to Ponda & took a really long time to get back.

I was really feeling very weak on the way back & thought it was due to the fact that I hadn’t eaten yet. It was already midnight by the time we reached the hotel. Picked up our food & headed home.

In the meanwhile, thanks to the advice of a friend I’d called in Bombay, realised that I should call some relatives of mine in Goa and update them on the situation. They immediately called a doctor who made an appointment for the first thing in the morning (8am) and told us what medication Jess should take (pretty much the same we had just bought).

After giving Jess her meds, the rest of us had dinner & retired for the night. Nick spent the night with Jess, who mercifully (after meds) finally stopped throwing up but was unable to even move by that stage.

I wish that was the end of the horrid adventure, but back in my room, shortly after I had drifted off to sleep, I got up & started being sick myself. Pretty much spent the night in the bathroom and sleepless in my bed.

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The last day of the year! Usually I would sit in Church or chapel (or at the very least, in a quite room) and meditate on the year gone by to give thanks & praise to God for all the blessings received.

On this day however, was not allowed to wander off by myself & was forcibly dragged to Arpora first & then to Anjuna as one of the gang wanted to “check out” the venues before the night’s dance.

So off the lot of us went to Arpora to see Club Cubana. As I had said though, it was closed (d-uh) and there was nothing to see except the sign at the foot of the hill.

From there to Anjuna beach to ‘Curlies’. Anjuna beach turned out to be very beautiful thoughI don’t think it’s good to swim in (seemed pretty rocky). We walked on the beach for a good long strech until we reached the place.

It turned out to be a very hippie druggie (imo) place with rave music playing (in the morning!!!) and various degrees of drugged men of every color.

Ana & Geh, like two excited school girls were highly thrilled at finally getting to “see people doing drugs” (!!!) and Ana even posed for pics in front of some of them so that we could get druggie-goings-on in the back!!! Yes, I know we’re all crazy.

We had a quick drink since we had come all the way & then made our way back to Panjim. Passed a now empty flea market, the stalls stripped to bare essentials poles & it was very surreal looking at it, remembering the ridiculous crowds of only a few days previous.

We had been forewarned of Goa’s unmoving traffic on New Year’s night (it’s really pretty much the same in Mumbai also), so we decided to get out the house really early to make it to Arpora on time. Hence an early lunch was in order.

Couldn’t think of any place in a hurry & as we had such a fabulous dinner at Viva Panjim the previous night we decided to head back there. BIG mistake. Unlike the previous night, we had to wait THREE hours for a table & then for the food (even though we ordered in advance). Eating took precisely 15 minutes, we were so hungry. We were also highly peeved with the restaurant for keeping us waiting so long (each time we were about to leave, they’d tell us the table was just getting ready, finally seating few of us, and then another hour to the food after we’d been seated). It was an ordeal we may have endured if we were as “susegad” as some of the Goans, but since we especially wanted to go home, sleep & get ready for the night early, we were really totally *@^$*@&.

Jess took this pic of me sleeping on someone’s bike during the long wait. Some of the rest wandered the streets in Panjim. Very very pretty.

Finally made it back home & got some sleep. All turned out well. We managed to all be dressed and ready to move by around 8pm.

Made it to Arpora by 10pm. Towards the time we reached traffic was killing, but I suspect we got off easy anyway.

The view from the top allowed us the greatest display of fireworks from over 25 places! I won’t go into details about how we spent the rest of the night at Club Cubana except to say this - it was FABULOUS!!!

A great way to start the New Year. May it be a good one for all of us!

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Having had a fabulous time on the beach (minus the cuts), decided to do another “beachy” day. This time we were careful to choose a good beach to swim in.

We did choose well & had such a good time that it won my Pick of the Holiday Award!

We decided on the beautiful & comparitively secluded beach of Utorda which is waaay down in the South of Goa. The beach is seven kilometers from the north of Colva, towards the north is Arrosim and towards the south is Majorda Beach.

What really impressed us as we drove all the way from the North to the South of Goa was the wonderful countryside. The coconut trees. The buffalows in the fields. The scarecrows. The quaint homes. The churches. Enough to take one’s breath away. The phirangs among us clicked picture after picture, pretty trigger happy.

Utorda beach was everything we could want in a beach. There were hardly any people and there were miles and miles of clear white sand and blue sea for swimming in. We also managed to catch a couple of waves. The Ozzies of course, thought we were nuts and we should go by Bondi (or was that Coogee?) to see what real waves are.

Anyway crazy Ozzies & Americans aside, I decided to get some adventure sports. Was pretty dissapointed at not having done any the previous day & decided that come what may, I was going to take to the skies

Not everyone was highly enthu though - Geh pretty much lounged & read a book the whole time & most of the others just continued swimming in the water. I think Ana got a little high in the water and was leading imaginary ochestras and other sorts of insane things in the water

Resh & Vi though took a jet ski out by themselves. And after that (when the wind was right) Resh, Ana & I went parasailing!!!

I so totally loved it. It was just for a minute but was so amazing to be up in the air and looking down at the scenery like a bird! Oh I could honestly have stayed up for a long long time. Decided at that point I was going to marry a guy who owned a parasailing company

Of course, if you saw the type of guys selling the parasailing to us, you’d know why I didn’t go through with it

Had lunch on an amazing shack by the beach. We initially considered Martin’s or Zeebops (which were close by) but decided to do local as it’s so much more fun! Lunch was great. The waiter showed us some amazing fish on a platter and we pretty much chose all of it.

Unfortunately it tooks hours to get ready - “everything’s fresh sir” - and we realised we should have probably ordered in advance while still lounging on the beach. Goa hasn’t heard of the fast food concept. But it was all amazing.

The Americans had flights home that day, so we say our goodbyes (very sadly acknoeledging that the trip was already half done) to them. We came home on our bus, stomachs full & most of us fast asleep.

We didn’t really want to do anything in the night - the original plan was to go to Club Cubana (which apparently has the most happening party of the year there on the 30th of Dec) but everyone was pretty tired out from the long trip down South & back & from all our beaching.

Finally decided to do Cubana for New Year’s and just go out for dinner. Ended up at ‘Viva Panjim’ which had not only the best fish I’ve tasted on the entire trip but also was in a pretty little lane, all decorated and all Christmassy.

Eric was the happiest of the bunch as (for a while) he was the solitary man among the lot. Came home happy and content that we had a great meal.

I unfortunately did not get any sleep though I wanted to, as I had to stay up for DV (who had gone to Club Cubana with other friends) and also for some of the lot - who decided to walk home almost half the distance after dinner. Yes, I didn’t understand that either.

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We started the next day all perky, happy to be going off the beach at last. “Goa, at long last” was pretty much on all our minds.

We went off to the Sinquerim beach, which is the beach off Taj Aguada hotel. Salman Khan (my good friend, who’s body guards have rudely shoved me in the past leaving behind deep wounds) was having a party in the Taj Holiday Village and had apparently booked most of the hotel for his friends. Some of the gang spotted Shah Rukh Khan & wifey Gauri. I ran into Chunky Pandey, Geh who was with me was very surprised I said hello to him! Later we even spotted Soheil Khan on a massive bike… oooh is he gorgeous?!!

Sinquerim beach was pretty full but is not advisable (says moi!) for swimming. Sections of the beach were cordoned off as “safe” and even these were full of rocks. Everyone of us who went in swimming ended up with cuts on our feet, Eric’s being pretty serious & bleeding a lot.

That aside we had a fabulous time. Many of us got henna tatoos! I chose to get a Chinese tatoo saying “Princess“. Here’s the group with tatoos posing for what we call our UCOB (United Colors of Benetton) advert. I was, fyi, the arbitary black person. Merci, my ‘friends’.

We did try to go parasailing and jet-sking but the rates were ridiculously expensive (around a 1000 rupees for a minute) so we didn’t end up doing that.

Had a great time all in all. Came home more than satisfied that we were “living the life” and that this was what Goan life was all about.

Had a very late “lunch” at Infantaria. Had a crazy waiter who was busy ordering us around!

From there walked to the beach to watch the sunset.

We were all pretty zonked in the night, so stayed home & ordered in from Dominoes Sim’s choice & a great choice it was. Played Dumb Charades until early in the morning, the teams losing more & more players to the sandman until we finally gave in & dozed off to lala land.

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At this point, let me talk about Ana. And Ana’s book. The book with all the facts of Goa, which never left her side. In fact long before she even reached Goa, Ana was all agog about which places we should see and which restaurants we should try.

One such restaurant was Anand Ashram which ‘the book‘ told us was over a 100 years old and served authentic Hindu Goan Thalis. Ana was so enthu about going to Anand Ashram, in fact we heard the name mentioned so many times from the moment they arrived that all the rest of us thought it wise to have lunch there immediately to save our ears the rest of the trip

When we reached there however we were all in for a surprise. The place is over a 100 years old & as DV put it, doesn’t look like it’s been done up for a 100 years. It’s really a small little place frequented only by single men (all sitting separately on the edges of a wall). After a little hesitation we decided to give it a try. They had no table for us & had to actually get two tables for us. Even the chairs we got were all old wooden ones, one different from the other.

The food was however brilliant. I don’t know if there’s anything different about authentic Hindu & Catholic fish though. And you can’t beat the prices @ Rs. 20/- a plate!

After that we moved onto the Wednesday Anjuna Flea Market. It was unbelievably crowded and we parked about 2 kms from the actual market & walked. This turned out to be a good thing eventually because as the day passed, the traffic just became more and more crazy & eventually seemed like it wasn’t even moving.

Took the above pics at a lovely little coffee place we stopped at on the way to the market (as we really wanted to use a loo!)

The market was crazy, busy, crowded, hippified. It’s an experience in itself & though it’s not my type of place, I definetely recommend going there. One should be fully prepared to meet Bombay people in Goa during peak seasons (May & December) & it was no surprise that we ran into many people we knew at the market. What was possibly surprising is that the Aussies in our group also ran into fellow Aussies at the market too!!

Between the lot of us, bought lots of junk jewellery, embroidered wall hangings, lots of t-shirts & other things to wear. I even picked up some terrible rave cds for a friend (which I ended up forgetting to carry back with me!).

It was pretty late by the time we all re-grouped - we had broken off into groups of threes in order to browse more effectively and make sure no one got lost - and to add to that traffic was crazy, so we decided to go directly for dinner.

After lunch, we had decided to give everyone a chance to choose a restaurant, so by Geh’s choice we went to ‘Bombra‘ an up-market Burmese restaurant in Candolim.

Since we didn’t go home & I was very chilly - it was hot during the days and pretty chill in the nights - I bought a lime green sarong to keep me warm. It turned out to be a good investment as I got to use it again the next day on the beach

The food at Bombra was excellent. We ordered several dishes including the Burmese Khow Suey (pronounced Cow Sway) which we had at Sim’s engagement too.

Word to the wise though, check all your bills in Goa throughly. Don’t know if it’s just coincidence but we were overcharged a lot on the entire trip. Think it may have something to do with all the phirangs in our group (haven’t faced this problem before). At Bombra’s they made the mistake of overcharging us for 2 extra Lobster platters (which substantially increased an already humoungous bill). Hmmm.

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We got up nice and early and ate a typical South India Vege breakfast at Ruchi in Panjim before heading onto Candolim. From there we headed to Calangute for a quick walk on the beach. It was unbelievably hot & I almost had a sun stroke. Bought a bottle of Sprite and armed myself with an umbrella everyday since (didn’t help with the tanning though, turned blacker anyway )

Went to the Tivim Rail Station to pick up the rest of the gang. Their train however was delayed & we ended up having lunch at a really fabulous little homey place (it was fully pink & we called it the “Pink Palace”) - fish curry rice thalis.

Did finally manage to get the gang all together - were joined by DV, Ana & Eric, Geh (minus Prem who was to join us later), Resh & Vi and the Khils thus making it 12 of us totally & a really happy bus full! DV was totally praised for the “bus idea” and we spent most of the trips up & down to various places singing in the bus (sometimes with actions!!!) much like any school picnic. Oh the tremendous fun to be like silly little children again!

It was Vi’s bday & we decided to celebrate it at a special dinner at the famous Souza Lobo’s. Before that though we ordered a Chocolate & Walnut Cake from Infantaria restaurant & bakery. The cake took forever to come but was totally worth the wait when it did arrive.

Our table at Souza Lobo’s was actually ON the beach of Calangute. Resh had organised party hats, DV bought silly little light thingies (that all the boys enjoyed playing with) and we really had the most fabulous time. We didn’t end up too late & if it was upto me, would have headed to a club but most of the gang preferred to head home “& play Uno” which we didn’t end up doing because everyone pretty much hit the sack immediately on arriving.

Geh didn’t want to sleep alone & asked me to join her until Prem came (& he never did due to problems with getting leave at work). I’ve known Geh for a long time now through Sim but this was the first chance I’ve had to really bond with her. And we really did have a fabulous time, every night talking & gossing into the wee hours of the morning. Couldn’t have asked for a better roomie

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Sim, Nick, Carl, Jess & I caught the afternoon flight to Goa on ‘Go Air’. I had booked Go Air despite certain warnings about the unreliability of these “newer airlines”. Mercifully the flights going & coming went without a hitch. ‘Go Air’ being a low cost no frills airline was pretty economical, but that also meant all additionals (like drinks & snacks on board) were extra.

We were seated right at the back & decided to annoy our fellow passengers (yes, we’re those sort of people) by discussing the movie Final Destination. Unfortunately we couldn’t get the name & were racking our brains when the stewardess piped in & told us the name

We reached Goa and automatically assumed the “Susegad” (laid back) air of the Goans. Since we were a whole gang holidaying together (the rest were to arrive on the 27th) DV had booked a bus to take us around. Yup, you read right, a Bus. I had initially thought he was joking but a bus it was.

Our bus driver picked us up from the airport and we drove straight home to the beautiful place we were staying at, a place of a friend’s, directly off the Mandovi river. After taking in the amazing sights (I spent a whole hour by myself just looking into the river) we had an early dinner - consisting of course of lots of fish- fish curry, fried fish, veges & rice.

From there headed over to Altin to do a spot of visiting. From there we went to Panjim for some more visiting. Passed by the church which looked amazing in the night with all the lights (next to that is a pic of the same church by day, which we took on another day). Having made plans to get up early the next morning & already pooped with all the day’s travelling, we decided to call it a day & head home for beddy byes.

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