It is a grim prospect to have a horrible cold and have to get on a plane for a 12 hour trip…but that's what we did when we went to India in March. Faced with our second cold since Christmas, I put the blame for that squarely on Jim's petri dish of an office, we loaded up with antihistamines and set sail to London-Mumbai(the old Bombay)-Goa. Let's just say by the time we landed at the Goa airport we were ready for bed (at 1:00 in the afternoon) but had already experienced Indian food, cows on the loose everywhere (you know they're sacred in India), seen beautiful old colonial Portugese houses, and been driven over some of the worst paved roads I've ever been on (and that's saying a lot for someone who grew up in Mississippi). We found the Goa Park Hyatt to be an absolute oasis .... just what we needed under the circumstances.
Our days passed in a lulling blur of monotonous activity – breakfast on the outside terrace, securing the perfect shady spot by the pool (and conveniently located to the pool bar for those all important ice-cold Belo beers– affectionately known as the Goa Corona),
out to the beach for a morning swim and then back to the pool lounging, rousing ourselves just in time for lunch (the gazpacho soup was incredible), then a little naptime, some swimming, more beers!, a late afternoon walk on one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen. We did see some local color on our beach walks, the infamous beach shack restaurants and bars….we actually spent several delightful hours at the Wen Den in their hanging basket chairs watching glorious sunsets. We did vary the routine one day by taking a boat trip to the well known Wednesday market at Arjuna.
It doesn't sound it but it was a very exciting trip that involved a jetski ride to get to and from the boat and a hour long boat ride, each way, that was like something out of a James Bond movie.
We were reassured by the plasticVirgin Mary on the dashboard of the boat.
We did have a little trouble (!)on the way home when, through no fault of our own, we barely missed the flight from Goa to Mumbai (somebody at the Hyatt got a wakeup call, twice, at 5:00am!). In somewhat of a panic to get out of Goa so we could make an afternoon connection in Mumbai, we were desperate enough to flash our York Minster Card (we're going to hell for lying with church property) in a misguided attempt to get into the Minister's Lounge - I thought it must be like the Delta Crown Room where we could use the phone, get on the internet, get drinks and snacks, etc. Once we managed to momentarily talk our way past the surly door guard, we saw it was no better than the public waiting room- it was in fact it was a completely empty room with a bunch of badly mismatched furniture from the 70's, no telephones, and a door guard was astute enough to immediately determine we did not fit the "profile" of an Indian Minister. He couldn't even be bribed!
What made it happen was the beach nights ....
It was a long trip home .... see ya,
0 comments:
Post a Comment