Creatures Great and Small

 1. Sacred Cows

It's a cliche, of course, but the first time you see a maniac driver slow down to move round a slow moving cow in the middle of a busy road it come as a bit of a shock! The beasts also roam on the beach, and in and out of shops and restaurants. Nonetheless avoiding the cowpats is less trouble than avoiding the dog poo in Corralejo!

2. Goan Pigs
Do your own research on the history of this former Portuguese colony! Suffice to say that the majority of the local population is Catholic - with no taboo for either beef or pork, and you find both on the menu - along with plenty of fish (pomfret and kingfish predominate). So there are plenty of pigs wandering around freely. In fact we spent a long time on our balcony watching the sows and piglets in our "garden". They co-exist quite happily with the many crows - particularly around the rubbish tips! (The anti-bacterial hand gel got a fair old pasting!)

3. Beach Dogs

We thought the large number on the beach would be a problem, but they are quite endearing and largely ignore humans, spending a lot of time sleeping under sunbeds. (They dig a hole in the sand!) In the evening they join the musicians on stage :- particularly three-legged Elvis - the dog, that is!

4. Flying things
We caught sight at a distance of some large exotic birds, and regularly saw flocks of cormorants, but not having done the river trip

missed out on many twitchers' delights.

This beautiful butterfly was found dying on the beach by Dick and Jane, and was moved to a tree at The Nest where it revived.

We should also note that mosquitos did not trouble us thanks to tropical strength repellant in the evening, and the electric liquid thingy left behind by mistake by the last occupant of our room.

5. Dolphins

On our last day there was a great deal of boat activity out in the bay. They were taking tourists on trips circling round a pod of dolphins. Suddenly from our sunbeds we saw at least two dolphins leaping from the sea no more than 50m from the shore. Magnificent - and free!

6. Itinerant Rupee-Hunters

Now that Palolem has become popular there is no avoiding the very many people who walk back and forth along the bay in search of money, and it is a relentless stream, to which one needs to develop a harsh strategy. There are:

• Basic beggars, keen to show you their afflictions or an official statement thereof
• Women in beautiful saris or shalwa kameeze with jewellery, or offering pedicures
• Men with baskets of fruit on their head, or newspapers, garlands, sarongs ...
• Younger men with knock-off DVDs
• Boat-folk offering trips
• Performers, such as these tightrope walkers, who should be at school, and are allegedly - by design - older than they appear!

7. Saga Louts

We spent everyday at the Office, often accused of late arrival or temps' lack of commitment! We did not, however, join the Works Outing which involved a glorified "booze cruise" starting Up North. It sounds great fun, good value and even educational! After their return that evening Beer O'Clock deteriorated to the point where "Passing a Tissue with your Toes" took hold. There are photos but no permission to publish! So, if you are involved send an email (ask D&J) and Greyrocks will send them.

Here is a 5-minute slide show of our Goa trip (with music)
.. oh, and for regular readers we are experimenting with allowing comments - just in case you feel moved!

Goan Bananas and Coconuts!

Why Palolem? Well - mostly because Dick and Jane are here! The consensus is that development has greatly spoiled the state as a whole, but mostly in the North. We are very far South! The Lonely Planet Guide says that the village's nickname is Palaga on account of loud British single-sex groups, and there certainly is some of that; (In fact last night there was an invasion of bimbos in neighbouring rooms!), but this is harsh! It has a 2km beach - fairly wide - and at the two ends - away from the easy vehicle access - it is very civilised!

Behind the whole beach are tall mature coconut palms, and amongst and in front of them are the restaurants, bars, kiosks and "resorts" - collections of beach huts of varied sophistication. All of this is completely dismantled in May or thereabouts, only to be reconstructed in October. The motivation is the monsoons, but it does also mean the holiday companies are fended off. It would make a better account if we were staying in a crude beach hutraised on stilts, and indeed some are very luxurious with full bathrooms; but we asked D&J to find something a tadge better, and we are therefore across the road in a solidly built guest house.

In both directions from our beach are plenty of others. Bob walked over one headland and found two very quiet ones - including Patnem.

The bars here provide free sturdy and very comfortable sunbeds. On arrival we were introduced to The Nest (or, as we know it - the Office). It is run by Mohan and his English wife Ellie. This has become our hub for beach life. The list of "What's not to love in Goa?" is a very short one. (It might get an airing at some future point). On it is the total lack of wine worth paying the price for! The compensation is Kingfisher beer - as sold in many a British curry house! 33cl for 50rupees (0.75 GBP) or 66cl for 70 or even 60! There is a cheaper brand (Kings) but that is less attractive!

At 5.30 pm or so the clan of Office British long-stayers (and hangers-on like ourselves) assemble for Beer O'Clock. A major topic is "Where to eat?" With real resonances of Paleohora this can be a long discussion, because the choice of places is huge, and the differences between their menus and their quality quite small. So there might be report on runny dhal at X, small portions at Y, or slow (even for Goa) service at Z. As two of the Office contingent are restauranteurs from Devon we have a lot of fun with gastronomics!

We might also have on the agenda "Bad behaviour by Russians". This is significant because there are a lot of them about. There are direct flights from Moscow to Goa, and now there are Russian-orientated bars, menus etc. We will hold off the full stereotyping whinges about them for the moment, They are not popular!

Or we might discuss"How to get here more cheaply" - a topic that is starting to interest us!

And then the sun sets, we go off to our variously hot or cold showers! Some might return for the night shift and the magnificent Honey Bee:- local brandy that is very moreish. We have developed signals for ordering:- flapping hands means Kingfisher - the same with buzzing is Honey Bee! easy and very silly!

And.. a few days ago there was Bollywood filming further down the beach, which caused a flurry! The film looked dire! We watched take after take of one minute of mass dance in bizarre costume. The location catering looked good, though!

The Reward of Loyalty

We are currently wallowing in the tropical sunshine of Goa! This is thanks largely to thirty years of shopping with Sainsburys and then Tesco, so that we have accumulated a vast number of Airmiles. These can only be used on BA flights starting and ending in UK, so we have spent a lot of time planning for three weeks away from home. We flew from Fuerteventura to London Stansted on Feb 2nd, arriving in the afternoon and expecting to see some English countryside on our coach journey to Heathrow. We had forgotten it is dark by 3.30! It was also raining and bitterly cold; and within half an hour we had thrown a tantrum about British rip-offs! This is normal, we have found! This time it was a Spectrum  internet station which ate a pound coin and refused to play ball, and when the man at the Information desk dragged himself away from a Polish conversation he told us we would need to ring a 0870 number for a refund! Grrr!

.. but National Express let us get on an earlier coach than booked (and is half-price for over 60s!) and we got to Terminal 5, where we found Adnams real ale, M&S supper ingredients and a wonderful BA employee, who did what we were not permitted to do until the next morning and issued us with boarding passes. We took the shuttle to a hotel and back next morning for a bit more frustration. Despite the stunning surroundings BA have a barmy baggage drop system which is slower (if you are unlucky) than ordinary check-in procedures. However, when we boarded all this was forgiven!

We had one of the new 777s, a third full! This made for a very comfortable 8 hour flight - particularly with use of the seat-back entertainment system offering a menu of about 600 films, TV programs, audio and music tracks. We arrived in Mumbai shortly after midnight, and procedures there were predictably slow and inefficient. We spent an age trying to find the free shuttle bus to the domestic terminal, each transit through a door requiring three police to consult about us and then grudgingly allowing us through. We walked around outside the terminal looking for a beer and gave up, then took a taxi to the terminal seeing probably enough of Mumbai to last for a while. More confusion at that terminal, no beer, and a wait until 3.20 am for check-in and an expensive couple of beers. The flight with Go was full, and there were very few Europeans on it. At Goa we waited until sunrise then took a taxi down South to Palolem. Just over an hour of hooting and hairy manoevres, and here we are!