Going on Goan Time

The view, as promised, at the River View Restaurant in Cavelossim, Goa

Nov 2-12

(Rob)

The company we booked our villa with in Cavelossim, Goa, is called "Lazy Days." We took the name to heart. For ten mostly sunny days, we did nothing in Goa other than just sit by the pool or beach and relax. Even our nearest internet access was almost a kilometre away, and therefore not so tempting.

We had a lovely two-bedroom villa, with a patio out back, in a quiet enclave of such homes called "Luisa-by-the-Sea." Many of the homes there are people's permanent residences. Some live there six months a year, and they're vacant during the monsoon off-season. We were part of a ring of homes that backed onto a large swimming pool. Just sitting in our backyard, we felt like we were bird-watching. The variety of birds - exotic, at least to us - was astounding.

Our villa at the Luisa-b-the-Sea enclave

Other than our accomodation, we got by on about $20 a day by eating out only at dinner. The kitchen was fully equipped, and we didn't even have to wash dishes, as our price included 2-3 hours of maid service every day except Sundays. Linda, our wonderful maid, even did our laundry for us by hand during that time. Plus she was a very sweet person, who took an interest in Anica, being a mother of five herself. We exchanged addresses with her when we left. Linda was quite confident we'd be back in Goa again, of course. That seemed to be a theme wherever we went: "is this your first visit to Goa?"

The beach was spectacular: wide, clean, miles long, with clean, shallow water in which to wade, soak, or be knocked about by waves on rougher days. Although it was only a five minute walk from our house, we didn't go every day. For one, the pool was so nice. Also, the pool didn't have hawkers. The beach did. They had little stalls on the paths across the dunes to the beach, and there were strolling hawkers on the beach itself. If you stayed in the water, you were left alone. Otherwise, they'd chat you up, learn your names, and try to extract a promise of a future purchase. It was hard on us, because we had no intention of buying anything. We're travelling too long to buy a t-shirt or sarong at every stop.

Just as proliferate, thankfully, were nice restaurants. There were a couple on the next street over from Luisa-by-the-Sea, where we hopped a fence as a shortcut to get there. A nice one was "The River View" so named because Cavelossim is a strip of land between a river and the sea, and "The River View" is built out on a dock overlooking the river. Another is called "The Beach Hut," and I'm sure you can guess why. The main street is also lined with restaurants, and stores such as D'Mello's, where we bought most of our groceries.

Another feature of our villa was its inverter (or automatic back-up generator). Power outages happen several times a day in this part of South Goa. The first time it happened we had too many things switched on, and the inverter didn't work. Another night, during a spectacular, lengthy lightning storm, we conserved the back-up by just using candles. Using a flashlight, we went creeping down the darkened main street until we came to a restaurant that had on its backup power.

Knowing that the villa had a DVD player, we had stocked up in Delhi with (pirated) DVDs. Most of these actually worked just fine, so that we watched a movie every evening. Anica did more work on math and spelling than she had been doing, mostly cheerfully, and Jenn and I devoured novels. I'm reading aloud the Harry Potter series to Anica and we're into the third book now.

On Anica's birthday, November 8th, the Lazy Days people really helped us out by having a birthday cake delivered. The woman who manages the place, Lynn, also gave Anica a card and gift of a diary that's hand-decorated. The other manager, Sammy, came by with his wife and gave Anica flowers. We'd got a couple of gifts for Anica in Delhi, included a digital camera that was from her Nana and Grandpa as well. We watched the first Harry Potter movie that night, and Anica declared it a great birthday, especially with the phonecalls she got from her grandparents (we had a local landline that could take incoming long-distance calls). We were able to enjoy her special day, comfortably, and be able to do her favourite activity: swimming!

Nov 12-17

(Rob)

Having decided to spend a little more time and see a little more of Goa, we headed just up the road to Benalium (actually, it turned out to be Colva), where we stayed at the Sandray Resort. This allowed us to spend a few more of those relaxing days in Goa, but at less cost. The Sandray ran us just $32 a night, for a two room suite with kitchen facilities. It has just five suites, which surrounded a small, but lovely pool. After adjusting to our new digs, we really enjoyed being there. We knew it wasn't near the beach. In fact, we ignored the over-crowded Colva Beach, and instead, just once, took a cab to Utorda Beach. There we had dinner at "Zeebops," right on the beach, joined by Nigel, another Sandray guest.

Utorda Beach at sunset, Goa

Everyone at Sandray seemed content to just sit around the pool, reading and sometimes swimming. That's about all we did, other than helping Anica with her schoolwork. Anica swam so much her hair's tinged green in parts. We mostly made our own meals, helped by a local grocery store called "Sho-Faz," and a bakery called "Dalima's." These were just a couple of blocks away, yet that still took us past yards with water buffalos, pigs, cows and goats. It was a nice reminder we were still in India. The resort, despite being so tiny, did have its own restaurant, and we had a couple of meals there. Basically, Goa was just what we hoped for: a place where we just slow down and unwind for a couple of weeks.

Nov 2

(Anica)

We got on a plane by Go Air which is not Goa's airline! Got to Goa ad 1 hour drie to villa. got there ad looked around to see pool, 2 large bedrooms, tv, dvd player (heaven). We went swimming, had dinner, watched Underdog. Good night.

Nov 3

(Anica)

Today we went swimming two times and dipped our feet in the beach. after lunch I watche Barbie of Swan Lake. Then had a beatiful river veiw Dinner. Good night.

Nov 4

(Anica)

Our pool in goa is big, warm, and very colourful. One end is very shallow and one end very deep. We go swimming 2 times a day. Our pool in goa has beatiful dark and light blue stripes, with two ladders at one end, ladder and steps at shallow end. It's surrounded by big palm trees (not to mention a toy winnie-the-pooh stuck in one). Also birds, bald eagles, and many other birds that I don't know the name of. One day we saw and heard jets. We just love it so much that we go swimming 2 times a day.

Nov 8

(Anica - "My Birthday")

Today I got up and had hot Milo and tosat with butter for bresfast. Nana & Granpa called [yesterday]. Happy birthday they said. Then Poppa called too. Also the owner of the villa bought me a diary and flowers and a card, and our maid Linda gave me a card to. Then I opended presants from Mommy and Daddy. I got a Barbie Mermaidia play makeup set, Abracadabra (a 70 trick magic show), a big card, and a Harry Potter gameboy and an art techer Barbie set. But then the most best presant ever A CAMERA. So even though told getting two, I got 13 encluding cards and calls. Wow! Went swimming and had lunch and watched Sinbad. Had cake with candles that do colours. Then had dinner and watched Harry Potter and Philophers Stone. Good night.

Nov 9-12

(Anica)

We went on a walk on Nov 9 down to fisharmans warf. on the beach went in on the Leila, another resort. washed our feet off and had a good dinner at fisharmens wharf.

One day we went to the beach and did wave surfing and played around.

One night there was a power outage forever. almost six hours! We used the flashlight to get to a restaurant with power.

One day we tried 2 movies before we could find one that pourply worked!!! Then the last one got attacked by thunder!

Nov 12-17

(Anica)

"Goa Benaliam"

One day we took a interesting drive to Sandray and saw our room. big table inside, and out side, small kitchen area, living room, pool, DVDs.

One day we took a taxi down to the beach and played and saw lots of interesting shells. Mommy picked one up with a crab in it and me and Mommy picked up some starfish. Had dinner with friend named Nigel and went to bed.

One day we went down to a shop called Sho-Faz and it had everything!

One day we went down to a bakery and got veg samosa, butter and chocolte cookies for dinner.

The pool is big with jacuzi and children's pool, waterfall out of jacuzi. and games we play are monkey in the middle, water bowling and lots more.