Aims and Objectives in Calangute

Friday 20 October 2006. We arrived safely back to Cangalute and went straight to Coco Banana where we met Walter Lobos, the owner. They were full so we were directed next door to accommodation owned by a lovely older lady called Maria. The room had a fan and cost 600Rs so we agreed to stay there for one night. My first and indeed second visitors were cockroaches so need less to say, I was back to sleeping with my face covered. I hot-footed it back to Walter the following morning and took a room there for the one available night. It’s the best sleep I have had the whole trip so far – there was a mozi net – yippee! I want to clarify that there is no big need to fear malaria here but because I don’t know where I might be next week, I for one am taking the tablets. I really don’t like insects at all and really should have gone to get some phobia treatment at London Zoo before I left. For those of you who shared my hope that I would simply get used to it, it just ain’t happenin’. I did a bit of a ‘Monica from Friends’ and sought out any small tears in the net which I repaired with gaffer tape that I hauled from London and just had to find a use for. Walter then homed us in an apartment he has with a telly and a swimming pool for 1200 Rupees per night (about £15 for the two of us). It sounded great and was only a few pounds more so we were sold and, though the flat isn’t as well kitted out as the room we were in first, we will stay here until next Wednesday. Our list of priorities for choosing a place to stay looks something like this: 1) air-con 2) working shower 3) fridge 4) net 5) fan 6) mozi plug/coils 7) telly. We went to the South Anjuna Beach flea market and I had my first brief but pleasant taste of the trance music for which Goa has become famous. There was so much to see and buy but I resisted. There were lots a bed and cushion coverings and sarongs that looked amazing, teeney-weeney clubbers clothes, comfy yoga type clothes, bags, loads of jewellery and ??? semi-precious stones. I’m sticking to vegetable biryani (in my best effort to do slimming world green days) which comes as a fine healthy portion and costs about 60p. My plan for the next week is to do as many of the following as possible: 1) Ker Kar art Complex just to see, 2) Amrita Kerala Ayurvedica Massage (try one and see if I can do a 5 day course to complement the intro course I did in London), 3) Dolphin and Croc watching, 4) ??? go-carting (but it looks closed), 5) Enquire with travel agent about getting to Kerala from Goa and doing a Backwater tour and possibly a bit more travel around South India, taking in Cochin, Trivandrum and Madurai in Tamil Nadu (so that I can send Heather (from work) a post card from there). 6) Make enquiries about a jeep day-trip to the Tropical Spice Plantation near Sri Mangesh Temple in North Ponda where they cultivate spices for skin treatments. If anyone can advise me about the Backwater tours, I would be very grateful as the choices are over-whelming or if anyone knows where I might be able to do an affordable cookery course somewhere along the way that would be great too. I don’t regret it for a second but the preparation that I put in to closing up shop back in London far outweighed the planning I did for the actual trip. I have had lots of advice for Thailand and not so much for India so all tips welcome.