Happy Hours

Phil has been a real star since we arrived, updating the blog, hunting and gathering supplies and sorting out places for us to stay. He settled quickly into Goan life within hours of landing. His life affair with India continues and it’s like he has never been away. For me, it has taken a little bit longer to adjust. The roaming cows, half starved flea ridden dogs, the smell of spices mixed with sweet sweat and streets strewn with rubbish, although sights not new to me, were all a little bit scary at first. A few days in and I hardly notice these things now, as I bask in the brilliant sun, bathe in the Indian ocean and pig out on local fare washed down with several Kingfisher beers. What more could a girl wish for?

I have only skim read a few of Phil’s recent blogs so I’m not sure if he has mentioned that quite a few locals remember us from our last trip in 2006. Phil is quite enjoying his mini celebrity status, being the type of bloke he is. But bearing in mind that we are only here for 14 nights, I’d prefer to remain anonymous. After the shit that we’ve had over the last few months, not just ours but that of friends and families, I need to chill out and recharge my batteries. I have had some sort of head cold over the last couple of days and felt really poorly on Wednesday. But the sun and see breeze has blown it away and now I feel back to normal. Poor Harriet who was ill before we went away has texted me to say that she has been to the doctors and has been diagnosed with tonsillitis. Poor HH, I hope you get better soon. I am thinking of you (honest I am). LOL, that’s ‘lots of love’ HH and not ‘laugh out loud’, just in case you were wondering!

Things are very much the same in Goa as they were when we were here last. The biggest thing that we have noticed is the lack of tourists. This is a direct result of the recent bombings in Mumbai in November. It’s sad to see so few beach shacks and the empty beaches. We have also noticed that tourists that are here are mostly Russian. You can virtually book a room wherever you want to stay. Good for us but not for the locals because the lack of tourists will have a real impact for them. Terrorism is everywhere and if you believed everything you read and hear on the news then you wouldn’t go out your front door. It’s a shame though for India and I hope the tourists flood back soon.

It hasn’t been a totally smooth path; well what did you expect?? Although The Rainbow was adequate for a few nights I’m glad that Phil agreed that we needed a bit more luxury for our 2 week holiday. Don’t get me wrong, it would have been perfect if we were here for a long stay and great value for money but I can’t live without hot water and it wasn’t a bundle of fun living with an army of cockroaches and sharing a bathroom with a resident frog. So it was with great delight that we left The Rainbow yesterday morning and checked into The Majorda. http://www.majordabeachresort.com/ For those who followed the first blog you may remember that this was our favorite hotel in the whole of South Goa. Phil managed to get a 3 night 3 day deal with breakfast, lunch and dinner for about roughly £100 quid a night.

We checked into a lovely room on Wednesday and were sunbathing by the pool by mid morning. The Majorda is very quiet with only a smattering of guests and we virtually had the poolside to ourselves. We went to the Laguna restaurant for our buffet lunch and the spread was fantastic. Obviously it was all Indian food but we weren’t complaining because we love it. Phil said to me it was his best meal yet and I agreed with him. The afternoon was spent around the pool and after a quick shower and change we were in the bar for happy hour dead on the dot of 6pm. We had mentioned to a couple that we met on the plane over (Phil & Bev) who were staying at The Kennilworth hotel nearby, that we’d be in the bar if they wanted to meet up. After 3 cocktails we had decided that they weren’t going to turn up when Phil suddenly popped his head around the bar door! It turned out that they had been sipping cocktails in the fish restaurant bar. Me and Phil hadn’t realised that they have ‘happy hour’ in all the bars and restaurants at The Majorda. Never mind, we had more cocktails with Phil and Bev, finishing up with dry martinis all round. I felt really fuddled by this time; Phil & Bev ended up getting a cab back to their hotel leaving me and Phil to go to the poolside restaurant for our all-inclusive dinner buffet.

Now normally I don’t think we’d have bothered but after a fabulous lunch we wanted to see what dinner was like. Unfortunately it was crap, a mix-match of everything and nothing and we’ve decided not to bother with dinner if it’s the same standard every night. I have to say though that the breakfast is fabulous, lots of fresh fruit and yogurt for me and poached eggs and dossa, the Indian breakfast for Phil. Plus you get lovely brewed Indian tea in proper china cups and saucers. We love The Majorda, it’s a bit tired around the edges but the reason we love it here is because it is very comfortable and not pretentious in any way. Mind you, this will all change next year; we heard that The Marriott chain are taking over and will be carrying out a major refurbishment in spring 2009. This is a real shame because it will end up being a lot fancier and certainly way out of our budget. All good things must come to an end I suppose. If all goes to the plan though we are hoping to get back to Goa in April next year and perhaps we will get one more stay here if the works aren’t in full swing. Fingers crossed!

Yesterday was much the same as the day before – breakfast then motorbike ride to Colva to collect the laundry and post the blog followed by sunbathing, buffet lunch followed by more sunbathing. Utter bliss. You can tell by now that I am beginning to chill out and relax. Last night Phil dropped me off at ‘Francisca’s Beauty Parlor’ on the Nanu Beach Road in Betalbatim (tel: 9822480992) at 5pm where I had a manicure, facial and a neuromuscular Hindu massage all for a cost of 500 rupees (roughly 7 quid). After he dropped me off, Phil went to The Tate in Colva for a beer and then went for another beer at the bar across the road from the beauty parlor when he came back to collect me and found I wasn’t ready. Francisca gave me an Indian head massage to finish off my treatment so when we got back to the hotel I had to rewash my hair to get out all the oil before we could go out. We decided to forgo the buffet dinner and headed straight to the bar for happy hour. The barman took a liking to Phil and told him that every hour was happy hour for him!

After a couple of cocktails we decided to walk up the road to the Pentagon for a bottle of Sula sauvignon Blanc and a tandorri starter. I like this restaurant because they have music every night and if I have had enough monkey juice then I like to get up for a dance or ten! We got talking to a couple of guys on the table next to ours, Dennis & Michael who were from Washington DC. They are in Goa for 5 days and then they head off to Jaipur. We gave them a few tips on places to visit during their stay and have invited them to happy hour at The Majorda this evening. We’ve also invited Bev & Phil to join us so we could end up having a real party this evening. Happy hours and happy days, I could get used to this life!