Choosing the view

Walked up alongside Baga Creek beyond the bridge. Looked at the new Acron luxury hotel with an infinity pool hanging over the river. The best rooms here cost £140 a night with a sea view. We think it is too costly because the situation is too close to the Baga nightclubs and the thumping noise would shake the windows! 

However this is one of the views of Baga Creek.

Don't be fooled! The photo below is 90 degrees to the right.

These are the Indian holiday makers who come to Baga for boat rides,  watersports, alcohol and views of bikini-clad Westerners. They are from dry States so the alcohol is a big plus for them. The rising tide has squeezed them onto a narrower part of the beach.  Notice that it is mostly single men. They aren't allowed girlfriends so they come with their pals.  They stay 8 to a room. This beach is just across the creek from the lovely hotel. 

We avoid these places because further North are quiet beaches with white sand and few people. 

Celebration for a 1 year old

We had intended to meet our friend Umesh with his heavily pregnant new wife last year. But she had the baby early and it wasn't a good time to descend on them.

So last night we joined about 30 other people to celebrate the baby's first birthday. There were lights, balloons and decorations, lots of extra chairs. 

This is Umesh with his son, Suraj. Can you see kohl marks on his cheeks?

There were two huge chocolate covered birthday cakes. The child is seated on a chair covered with an embroidered cloth. People come and bless him and shower his head with puffed rice. The baby was unconcerned and fascinated with these little bits of rice that had fallen on him.

Next is the cake cutting ceremony with his mother guiding his hand.

Afterwards there was a delicious vegetable thali for everyone to eat. 

Chillies in batter, chick peas in a sauce, rice with vegetables and a cashew nut dish. 

The snake and the banyan tree

By our guest travel writer, Helen Cooper.

A few nights ago I went for a walk to see Jerry, the watchman who manned the gates at our complex last year before suddenly being moved to another property without notice. He used to work as a cook in the British Embassy in Muscat, Oman. Anyhow I found out which gates he was manning this year and set off to find him. His new location was only a fifteen minute walk from our apartment down a dirt track and over a causeway. Before long I could see Jerry on the path ahead. He came to greet me like a long lost friend and asked me to bring Norma along next time. We chatted and I headed back down the road towards home.

After a minute or two I met three young men enjoying a beer or two who  were river fishing and invited me to look at their catch. Along the bank there lay a hessian sack a quarter filled with river crabs. These are much smaller than any crabs that we would eat but they assured me they were very tasty and offered to give me enough for dinner. I thanked them kindly but refused.

Not far from these young men was a large arched gateway with huge metal padlocked gates, so I asked what lay behind the neglected construction. An anxious look came upon the face of the fisherman. Oh dear, he said, that is a very bad place and he warned me not to go there. He told me that it was the main entrance to a new five star hotel but that work had stopped because a man had cut down the Banyan tree. This tree was home to a snake and now the snake had no house he explained. The site had been abandoned and the gates locked about eight years ago and the construction workers refused to return.

When I asked what would happen he told me that the land owner would have to get the Hindu priest to come in and exorcise the area to clear it of the bad spirits. It would take some time and no one wanted to work there until the site was made good again. The owner could also build a shrine to the snake and do puja there daily until things were back to normal but it could take many years.

Banyan tree

We asked our driver VJ about this site a few days later and he confirmed the story adding that the healthy man who had felled the Banyan tree had suddenly become ill and had died thus adding credence to these unfortunate events.

Many of the shops and houses here have small dolls, usually made from black fabric with white painted features, hanging at the property entrance. One house close by has four colourful pottery cobras above the doorway, in order to ward away the bad spirits. In this respect beliefs are very much the same as those in Morocco.

This is a photo of a doll, but unusually, this one is grey. 

Black ones below for sale.

Big Pecker

Remish Kuttan has run this small cafe in Calangute for eleven years. He is from Kerala where his wife and nine year old daughter live. In the off season, from late April to the beginning of October, he shuts up shop and goes home. Whilst in Kerala he helps with the family plot where they grow vegetables for home consumption. 

 

We like to sit here and watch the world go by. Local people, Russsians dressed in skimpy clothes and bare chests (men), elderly folk sometimes in shorts and sometimes more tastefully attired, tribal women carrying a baby and begging, beggars with various disabilities, the local priest with a holy ox wearing flower garlands, a man on his knees praying to a Hindu shrine in the middle of the dusty street.  

We love the variety of life here. 

Remish is quite happy at his work and always has a welcoming smile. His philosophy is not to long for unattainable things. 

Taken for a ride!

We arrive into this busy market town at the Kadamba bus station. There are at least 50 buses, some arriving and some just leaving. No bus seems to stay still for long. People try to scramble off the bus before it has stopped and others are pushing to get on and grab a seat before the passengers disembark. Meanwhile the conductors are on the ground hustling for passengers and others shouting ar-re! ar-re! ar-re! Hurry, hurry, hurry. Get on the bus quickly. No time to stop. The bus is going now! Get on board!

I'll try to get a better photo but this is a temporary Google Earth shot.

It doesn't show any people!  There are folk everywhere...

Unlike our bus stations at home there are people milling about in front of, behind and beside the buses. Leaping off and pushing on. The ground is dusty and uneven with potholes. 

We decided to wait for the next bus because this one was full but the conductor was having none of it. 

We said there were no seats. 

He told us there would be seats in five minutes...once we were out of the bus station and away from the traffic police. 

 So we squeezed on and sure enough, five minutes into the journey, we were given a small space in the driver's cab! I sat on a metal box and Helen sat on the gearbox where it was hot! And we weren't the only ones in there..two others joined us! (The fare for 10km is 10p.)

This is the fun of India...nothing is impossible. These people find a way round any problem.  

How is this different from our Western ways?  Answers below please! 

I don't know who is reading this blog but any comments are welcome.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday was Republic Day, a public holiday. We asked our taxi driver to take us to the far North of Goa which isn't really very far. 

First stop was a chance to look at a pair of beautiful white bellied sea eagles.

Then up to the border with Maharashtra. It's so quiet and unspoiled there. Village life exists here. Banana, coconut, mango, cashew nut trees and pineapple bushes. No big hotels or nightclubs. 

We saw about twenty or thirty boats laden with men scooping sand from the river bed with buckets on long poles. 

 These men are probably from Karnataka. They keep scooping until the boat is full and then gingerly return to shore. It must be valuable to them to risk their boats and their lives.

Indian pond heron

Spent a few hours in the cool breeze on a sun lounger at Mandrem beach which was quiet and pleasant. Delicious lunch at the beach cafe.

Late in the evening we met Thompson and Tricia for a drink. They fly home on Thursday morning.  

Today, Tuesday, we took the bus to Mapusa to fetch our glasses. Helen couldn't resist these...

£2:00 for 12" dressmaking shears.

We caught the crowded bus back. Standing room only. An elderly woman told me to request a seat from the man sitting in front of her. He was sitting in a Ladies Only seat. When I asked him he said "No!" because he was sitting beside his wife. A man sitting beside the elderly woman gave me his seat instead. Then erupted a row between my ally and the man and woman in front. I think he said they were from Karnataka. There was a lot of shouting and still he didn't offer up his seat....

Friday and Saturday update

After our early start on Thursday we decided to take a more relaxing day and walked 3.5 km to Calangute beach. There was no wind and a slight haze which made walking quite exhausting. When we reached Calangute we paused at a Kashmiri stall holder to look at his cushion covers. We bought some of these in past years and they are getting harder to find. Helen bought these.  

We then had a discussion with the Kashmiri about politics and women not being free..he said women are like diamonds and have to be looked after. But a diamond is a possession - in our culture women aren't possessions. He said our women aren't free anyway because they get attacked.

By twelve o'clock he had to go for prayers and we were parched so we wandered on to the Big Pecker for lime soda, water and omelette. 

I was overcome with heat and had to back to the apartment for an afternoon siesta.

In the evening we taxied to the Art Chamber in Calangute to hear the Banjara Gypsy Quartet play. This is a new venue for us. The Banjara quartet were absolutely brilliant. All professional musicians with great talent - lots of toes tapping! Great reception from the multi national audience of Swedish, German, Irish, Goan, English, Italian, French. The band members hail from Austria, Russia, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. 

The Art Chamber is run by a German with his Goan artist, wife. They have art classes during the day and hold weekly concerts of a high standard. If international musicians or dancers etc are in the vicinity they try to persuade them to come and play/dance in this small venue.  We will definitely be back. 

Saturday... We are lying low because this is a long weekend for Indians. Monday is Republic Day.  Indian tourists descend from the North in search of warmth, sun, alcohol and possibly sex. Many arrive in long distance sleeper coaches and as they drive through the busy street we hear chants and singing, whooping and calling from the open windows in anticipation of their holiday weekend.

Time to shut the windows at night to block out anti-social noise after  midnight. 

Walked along the river this morning and along to Babas French Bakery. We sat under the fans drinking tea and reading three different local newspapers.

Birding at Bondla and Temple music

We left with Vijay at 5:30 for a 1.5 hour drive up to Bondla wildlife reserve and zoo. Thursday is a quiet day up in those hilly roads because the Zoo is closed therefore no coaches and cars.

It's quite chilly in the early morning but as the sun rises quickly we soon lose our goose pimples!

Approx 40 species were seen : Indian grey hornbill, scaly breasted Munia, Indian golden oriole, crested hawk eagle, brown shrike, bay backed shrike are just a few.

Here's a wild flower to brighten up your day.

As the day warms up the birds go quiet so in this climate you really must be out in the field early. By 11am there wasn't too much about.

Magpie Robin.

In the evening we heard classical music being broadcast rather loudly from the local small temple. After dinner at Nick's Place we headed off to find out more.

Outside the temple we left our shoes on the steps and were invited in to sit on central mat with the musicians. Harmonium, tabla, bells and 5 voices were working through a Raga. Each piece can last about 30 minutes. The tabla player must find it very tiring as he put in a lot of effort rhythmically playing the drums. We were fascinated and the music was good. Incense was being burned.

When we uncrumpled ourselves from trying to sit cross legged we slipped outside and the tabla player came out to talk to us whilst others were still playing and singing.  He is Ravi...also a masseur and he used to work for a grand luxury hotel down the road. 

The musicians play in two temples in the village, every Tuesday and Thursday. 

The back of an Indian lorry. 

Fun in the water

Female Indian beach visitors enjoy the sea wearing modest clothing.

Market

Today we caught the crowded bus to Mapusa market. Bus fare is 15p! The market traders were still setting up because things don't really get going until 10am. 

I was taken to the ophthalmologist to get me eyes tested for reading glasses. The optician is also a surgeon and she works out of a tiny back office independently from the shop where they actually sell you the spectacles. She charged 250 Rs ie £2.67 and sent me back to the opticians shop. This place is always crowded with at least 6 to 8 customers being served simultaneously by 5 employees. 

 

Jaggery is raw cane sugar.

Local delicious bread rolls called Pau and Poi. 

We like the flatter ones at the back but they need to bought fresh daily.

This lady is selling shrimps, king prawns and tiger prawns.

 200rs per kilogram ie £2.14 for the king prawns.

Grazing cattle

This is a typical cattle grazing scene. 

The cows, calves and bulls wander freely and search for food 

amongst the waste heaps.

Early start

Vijay came at 6am with our new friends Carol and Philip who live in France. We drove away from the busy coastal strip to Socorro Plateau - a raised laterite hill with sparse grasses and bare stone.

It was just getting light as we arrived and a pair of Savannah Nightjars flew over calling noisily. We wandered quietly over the plateau studying green bee eaters silhouetted against the sky as they huddled together for warmth in the chill. 

 White bellied drongo, Indian Robin, Indian Golden Oriole, orange fronted green pigeon. Small minivet, Jerdon's and golden fronted leaf birds, common Iora and Blyths reed warbler were all seen.

Then a flock of Blue-tailed bee eaters appeared nearby and one posed. 

 

After lunch I went to the new local beauty parlour for a £3 pedicure. It was strange to have young males doing the work instead of females as we are used to back at home.

We took a phone call at 6pm from John W. and Janet. They had arrived the previous week after missing their plane due to a six hour traffic jam on the M11 motorway. Traveling by charter they had had to wait another week before they could catch the next flight. 

We joined them for a delicious meal at Rasa restaurant. H. ordered prawn and bindi masala with steamed rice and I had prawn biriani, curd and roti. Yum yum.

On the way back we wandered through the famous Mackies night market. There were noticeably fewer Russians. It was easy to walk through the narrow alleys past the sequined cushion covers and bedspreads, carved soapstone elephants and temple gods, Tibetan turquoise and silver Jewellery, t shirts and baggy trousers. We headed for the DVD stall and  looked at the latest release films for sale.

Here's an example of how the local cattle graze.  To be added

 

Craft fair and talk

This morning we prepared to visit Calangute to top up the wifi dongle. We've already used up 1gb of Internet by using FaceTime. Now we have 10gb so that should satisfy our digital needs for a wee while.

Helen met a man she knows, who lives 5 miles away from her home in Dorset! 

The road widening in Arpora goes on apace. It's definitely an improvement and has eased the congestion caused by buses, taxis, water tankers, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, cows, dogs, people. Everyone has the right of way. Just keep weaving forward if you see a space...overtake on the inside even if there is a wall on one side and a large bus on the other.

Today we returned to the craft fair with a camera.

These are bed covers and sheets.

Birding and craft fair

I met a birding friend at 6:30 to look for the elusive Indian Pita in Arpora woods. This bird is easy to see in the breeding season but remains in dense undergrowth at this time of year. You have to there at day break to see it. This was not our day but we did see a group of sunbirds fly in and work through a bush ....oblivious of us standing there.

In the afternoon we visited a huge craft fair in the grounds of Kala Academy, Panaji. 600 stalls from Goa, Rajasthan, Kolkatta, Gujurat etc.

Money money money!

Yesterday we tried several bank machines to pay the rent we owe our landlords.

The machine only gives out Rs 10,000 (ie £100 approx) at a time. I guess we tried a total of 10 times without success. In the late afternoon I phoned the Halifax card service. The call took about twenty minutes to UK but our cards were finally unblocked and we subsequently paid the rent.

We saw Thompson and Tricia Patterson today and met them for dinner this evening. Thompson and I are meeting at 6:30 am in the morning to go birding in Arpora woods -specifically looking for the Indian Pitta. This bird is hard to see at present as it's not breeding. It spends its time sitting under trees motionless And occasionally tossing a few leaves whilst looking for morsels of food.. During the breeding season it's easy to spot.

First day

We arrived this morning at 2:05 am.. The new airport building is very spacious but the tedious procedures and queues from the old airport building have been transferred  to the new building... Our first queue was to get temperature taken by one person and Ebola  form stamped by a second.. Three hundred people took nearly 30 minutes.. 

We took a taxi from the airport to our apartment in north Goa. Slept until 10:30 and forced ourselves to rise as our landlord was coming.

Took a taxi  to Calangute and were delighted to get our sim cards quickly and easily.. It took about 10 minutes as opposed to three days last year! 

Having supper here and the first item below is my choice but not quite sure what it is!

London ..last day

Couldn't sleep last night and was awake from 1:15am till the morning.

We visited the museum of London beside Barbican station. It shows a very comprehensive range of artefacts from the stone age right through to modern times. I didn't expect it to be so large or so thorough....and it's free!

Then we walked back past our apartment at silverdale, Pear Tree Road just off Goswell road.  And on to Islington high street where we walked through Chapel Market. Found a surprising theatrical shop stuffed with moth eaten taxidermy, ocelot coats and other ancient belongings heaped in piles so high you can't get in to the shop.

Stuffed animals

Kathryn came for a cuppa after her yoga and to wish us Bon voyage. 

Now we are off to join our suitcases at the Premiere Inn Heathrow. 

....nearly asleep on the train..... Yawn.😴 

London ...continued

Hauled ourselves out of bed and bussed our way across London. Travelling is much easier with an Oyster card.   

Simply top it up with cash then check yourself onto a bus/tube/train. No fumbling for coins. Kathryn told us about the Ciymapper app. Type in your destination and in a moment you can view different routes and how long the journey will take plus a map and other detailed info. Just remember the keep your smartphone charged as it eats the battery!

Viewed the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the natural history museum. I liked the baboons and we both loved the parakeets flying over the graveyard. 

London

Landed at Heathrow and met sis at the arrivals. Found a  bus to take us to our hotel. Checked in, left our cases and headed off to London. We can use a wonderful app called Citymapper which tells you the bus/train/tube you can get and the estimated cost.

So we waited 12 minutes for the first bus which simply whizzed past. The second bus was going elsewhere but we hopped on. Sis paid using her Oystercard. My Oystercard was empty of credit. I couldn't pay cash because the driver doesn't take money, and I don't have a contactless bank card. So he gave me a credit ticket...wasn't that nice? Anyway he told us to get off and take a different bus but we decided it was the Heathrow express he was suggesting ....rather expensive my dear.

We hopped onto another bus which eventually took us past a train station....Hayes and ... somewhere. The train to Paddington was fairly quick. Then a kindly young Malaysian girl showed us how to get to the circle line as we were heading East for Barbican. No time to blink since I stepped off the plane. Arrived at the Air B and B apartment for two nights. Dumped our small bags and headed out to meet our daughters at Upstairs at the Ten Bells, Spitalfields. 

 Highly recommended restaurant. Food delicious. Every mouthful bursting with flavour. I'd go back. 

Kathryn walked us back to our place then cycled off to meet some friends. Clare took the bus back to Hackney.