Goa, Christmas

Season's Greetings!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

We are settled into enjoying hot sunny days and lots of relaxation. We arrived in Goa, a beach area popular with Europeans, about 10 days ago and we plan to stay until after the New Year. We should know that it is Christmas this year as we are in an area that has a lot of Catholics due to the Portuguese influence. Then we plan to travel slowly south and a little inland ending up in Chennai or Madras to fly back on Feb. l6.
We have an apartment and enjoying staying in one spot for a while. We enjoyed a scooter ride down the coast yesterday and visited a beach up the coast on a bus the other day. We have a wonderful beach 300m from the apartment. Beautiful fine sand and just perfect ocean temperature. The sea here is clear and green (not the clear turquoise of the Caribbean or Australia though). You can sit on sun chairs with umbrellas and the restaurant looks after you - with drinks or food. There are a few beach hawkers to pester you but after a while they ignore you and of course, lots of sleeping dogs near the restaurants. There are miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches so of course one can go off to be all alone if that is your choice. Interesting that the sky at night seems to have so few stars - there is obviously something in the air such that the star show is not great. It is wonderful to eat dinner on the beach with your bare feet in the sand, a candle on the table and the sea in front of you and the stars overhead. Sometimes there is a gentle breeze and some nights there is entertainment at the restaurants. Pretty laid back and comfortable. Who ever thought that we would while away the days and nights like this? Stopping work sure does let one slow down!

Take care, Wishing you all a safe and joyous festive season

Susan and Clive
We plan to rent bikes (pedal type) in the next day or two and do a bit of cycling either on the beach or amongst the rice paddies and Portuguese homes (rather like mansions).
Clive has just managed to get enough reading material - we look everywhere for books - seems that he can just find enough. Me - well, I have two books in hand and the Lonely Planet keeps me busy. We will do some planning before we leave here.