We're back!

coconutgrove
Originally uploaded by waterlooHildreds.

The first thing that I noticed about Goa, was a nice orderly road. It was much cleaner as well than Delhi, without the apparent disparity between rich and poor. When we got to the hotel, Dianne and I headed to the beach. Ben and Joel the hotel pool (pictured) for an endless game of water polo.

The boys quickly zeroed in on chicken masala as their staple their with plain nan. Chicken in spicy gravy, with a flat bread eaten fresh. Tuesday we also spent at the beach and the pool with a siesta after lunch. Dianne and I discovered a beach restaurant and bar a little further along the beach that we watched the sunset from Tuesday night. The sun sets about 6:30 here.

Wednesday we went into Panjim. We saw 400 year old St. Francis church there. Older than the Taj Mahal. We also went into a magic carpet shop, with a beautiful green carpet. The sales guy just wanted us to take "one more look at it" and we arrived for our boat trip just in the nick of too late. Once again we got to watch the sunset by boat.

Before the boat trip we went in a public restroom and had our first experience with floor mount toilets that you don't actually sit on. The boat trip was on the river Mandovi past some beautiful sights. Just like a Bollywood movie there was unexpected singing and dancing.

On the way back to Coconut Grove I noticed that Dlink and Siemens are here. Why oh why couldn't HCL be in Goa?

On Thursday we went in to Margao. We had already found a beach hut where we bought some t-shirts. In Margao we were looking for cds and shorts and tshirts. One of the music stores that we checked out turned out to be upstairs over the market. It was right next to the leprosy clinic and there were a few men that looked very ill on pallets on the landing. It was a music store with instruments instead of cds. They had drums, and a bunch of guitars. I didn't play any guitars as my family was eager to get going. The market itself was quite neat. It was indoors, with a maze of aisles and lots of tiny shops. A lot of it was food, but there was a fair amount of flea market type stuff as well.

Friday we played in the ocean for 2 whole hours. The locals couldn't believe that we stayed in so long. There was a live band at the resort Friday night. They played "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes", without the acapella introduction. They also played something from Eric Clapton's unplugged that I liked. Ben and Joel and I watched from the restaurant balcony for a while. Saturday we went back to reality. Lokesh met us and took us home, and Dianne and I went to the local grocery store and picked up a little food.