Goa - MIND BLOWING!

Goa...... Absolutely amazing, relaxing, serene, surreal and utterly MIND BLOWING.

We spent one week here. We arrived by train on a Sunday morning. After one hour of driving through beautiful landscape we came to our Guest House for a much needed shower and then set off to explore Goa and grab some breakfast/lunch. We ate at Electric Cats. The place didn't have any relevance to cats anywhere but the menu was so good, seafood all around. We soon realised that was the best part about Goa, the food. We bummed around for the day, looked at some shops, walked on the beach then watched a beautiful sunset. Next day Rita, ameet's mum, and Yasmine, Rita's friends, joined us. We hid on their balcony to scare them as they arrived then spent the rest of the day stoning together, taking in the sights and sounds of this wonderful place. Another amazing sunset as we sat on the beach having the best food and some sheesha (hukka).

Next day we set off on a boat to Anjuna Markets. Its a market place, described by Lonely Planet as "a place where you must remember to bargain hard and take along equal amounts of patience and stamina, and that once you spend just a couple of hours here you'll never want to see a mirrored bedspread, peacock feather fan or floaty Indian dress again in your life" And it was just that. The market place was so massive that it starts to become generic and overwhelming after a while and the shopkeepers yelling at you to buy their goods tires you down faster than you can imagine. The hot sun doesn't help either. It was a great experience though. The beggars dancing on the beach also adds another touch of difference. My favourite though was a lady selling bags but was wearing one on her head to escape the sun, she looked so silly and just couldn't understand why all the tourists were laughing at her!! We ate beachside then headed back to offload all the heavy shopping and relax on the beach. We had the most relaxing afternoon and evening there, ate a sad looking lobster and some other seafood.

Next day Rita and Yasmine went to have a day of pampering. Facial, manicure, pedicure, hair done while Ameet and I went for a day of water sports. We had such a great time. First we held onto a round donut looking thing that was tied to the back of a boat and got thrown about the Arabian Sea (which had us gagging as the water is soo salty!) Then once our arms had a bit of strength back we sat into another donut looking thing again tied to the back of a boat and got our backsides having a workout. Then after a much needed swim in the beach, while btw wearing our life-jackets. We had to wear them for the activities and without thinking just kept them on and went swimming, soon after we realised how stupid we must have looked, esp since the water isn't that rough! We did some Jet Skiing which was so awesome!! We had a guide at the back, went by individually with him and got to drive it but with him guiding you. It went so fast I was screaming my head off making a fool of myself! Had two rounds on the water each then we took a boat further offshore to deep water and went Parasailing. Amazing!! So so fun!! You go really high and can see the land for miles. I'm sure this was another painful experience for Ameet since the harness isn't exactly comfortable. Afterwards we sat for a while on the beach stoning over all that happened then went and met the dolled up ladies for lunch. After lunch I had a South Indian Ayurvedic Massage. Really good massage! By now we are all relaxed and feeling good. We got all dressed up in our new clothes and headed to a french restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was sooo beautiful!! It had a nice passageway lined with delicate lights and palm tree's with which you enter through. Then it opens up into this beautiful beachy restaurant. The art works were so individual and really made the place. Each table had a different colour an art work theme. There was one Rajasthani corner, one Buddha corner, one Africa looking corner. One metropolis corner with a collage of cut out magazine covers with beautiful Indian models on front. After a really good meal us ladies spent half an hour posing near the toilets where the lights meant we were only silhouettes (will put some pics up) after we realised we looked like idiots we sat near a small fountain with a comfy bed that was made for sitting on and had desert. All the while drinking wine like there was no tomorrow! After dinner we went to Tito's, the most happening place in Goa!! It was a Thursday night and they had an awesome DJ playing bollywood mixed with trance and house which was soo good! Free entry and unlimited free drinks for ladies so we sent Ameet down the road to pick up some stuff and we headed inside for a dance and some more drinks. Once we were all hammered we dragged ourselves home and stayed up til 2am talking about the awesome week we'd had as the next day and complaining about tomorrow as we were leaving :( Next morning we had our last beachside breakfast, sat there in silence as we were all sad to leave and hungover from the night before. A few nights before we met a young boy on the beach, one thing about Goa, and the rest of India, is no matter where you are or what you are doing, the locals selling goods will come up to you and try to sell things to you, the beach as you can imagine was filled with these people since there were so many tourists there. The young boy was .. on the other side of the fence from his peers if you know what I mean, and it was the first Indian one we'd met, we were so intrigued that day we'd met him that as we all sat there stoning on our last day and he walked past, we called him over. Bought some of his goods and sent him off smiling. He was soo sweet. After this Rita and Yasmine headed off to the airport while we waited around and had lunch then flew later in the day. So sad we were to leave Goa. We flew to Mumbai and then Chennai, on Anise and Thyme.... We flew with Spice Jet airways and they name each aircraft a different spice. We had Oregano on our first flight with them (Varanasi - Delhi). Will update Chennai then our departure later today!