Goa sights & sound

I promise this is THE LAST of my posts on Goa.

According to our driver, all trucks & big vehicles are obligated to have signs at the back to say "Sound Horn" - apparently this is for overtaking & the drivers there happily obliged.




Accordingly to my Indian friends, Goa's not like the rest of India & you can see why.

You could be in some small town in Portugal

Old part of Goa is a World Heritage Site. Most of the attractions are within walking distance & can be done in half a day - unless like us, our driver missed some & we had to go back a second time.






Another thing to do in Goa is to visit their Spice Farms. There are many to choose from & we went to an organic one. Don't forget your mosquito repellent !

cashew, a major export of Goa

that's where they come from

That's cinnamon

This should be familiar - aloe vera

We also visited some of the newer Hindu temples

Here's what you get at the tourist stalls

these are tattoo stamps

Rangoli

Alila Goa

Just when you think I'm done with Goa, there's more.

Based on past experiences, one of our top 3 criteria for choosing a hotel has always been the pool especially if we are with the little one. Given the condition of the beaches in Goa, I was so glad we didn't compromise on the pool.

The Alila Diwa in Goa has a spectacular pool. It overlooks the padi fields & strange as it may sound, there is something soothing about doing laps to the sound of buffalos in the background.

The Girl had a great time at the Kid's Club. I'm so making sure a kid's club is on the checklist when I next book a hotel.



After 2 nights, the hotel upgraded us to this ridiculously big suite that we kept getting lost in. Really. The many mirrors in the room were a little confusing.


The other highlight of the hotel is The Spice Studio. Chef Linda presents an array of delicious Goan dishes. We were delighted when we found out she conducts cooking classes in her open kitchen & promptly signed up for it.

Feni Cashew is an Indian liquor made from cashew apple. Drink it neat or use it for cocktail. Very interesting aftertaste.






I don't know when I'm going to have the time to prepare the dishes but my faves are chicken cafreal & lamb xacuti. I have the recipes from Chef Linda & don't hold your breath, but I'm sure I'll get to them one day.

Another reason to love the Esplanade

I've gushed often about how much we love the Esplanade. Now we have one more reason - library @ esplanade.

It all started when I went to watch Emily of Emerald Hill & at the entrance of the Victoria Theatre, the national library had set up a mobile booth for lending out books & videos. Naturally the subjects dealt with arts & theatre - I particularly liked that they focus on the local arts scene. But what struck a cord with me was the selection of foreign movies.

I'd been to the audio visual collection at The National Library & was not impressed. Until I discovered the little secret that is library @ esplanade. The thing to know is that it specialises in performing arts - any book, video, CD on dance, theatre, film & music can be found there.

It has a fabulous selection of foreign movies. An entire aisle of them. I couldn't believe my luck. Movies that you won't be able to find at Poh Kim Video Store. French, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Iranian, Russian. I could hardly control myself.

That's not forgetting they have several aisles of English language movies as well. I've since upgraded my membership to Premium Plus for $42 a year - a bargain if you ask me cos it allows you to borrow 8 movies for 2 weeks. Move over ezyvideo.

Like books, for a small nominal fee of $1.55 you can reserve the more popular titles.

I know everyone else is busy watching World Cup. Me, I'm happily watching my library rented foreign movies.

Beaches of Goa

Goa is famous for their beaches & knowing that I'm a beach person, you must be wondering why I've not blogged about their beach yet. All the beaches had red flags which meant swimming was out of the question. That wasn't the reason.

These beach huts were closed in preparation for monsoon

THIS IS the reason why

We stayed in South Goa & on the second day we arrived, we went to the beach only to find it covered in oil slick. Just another unreported oil leakage that happened off the coast of Goa. I spent the rest of the day trying to find reports of oil tankers colliding or oil spillage near Goa but no luck and the rest of the time, cleaning our flip flops & swimsuits off.

We thought our beach in the south was an isolated case. But it was the same even when we went to the north, near Candolim.

More importantly, it made me realise how detrimental the BP oil spill is. Here I am complaining about washing the oil stains from my bikini so imagine the severity of what happened in the Mexico Gulf. I refuse to order any seafood after that, just think about the marine life & wild life affected by this. Images of oil soaked brown pelicans will haunt me for a long time.

For me, this little incident brought the issue closer to home. We should be very very angry why our waters & beaches are polluted.

Is there any wonder nobody is in the sea ?

This is Fort Aguada which is extremely popular with the local tourists. Everybody wanted their pictures taken there.

Last remaining beach huts before the monsoon starts.

We had a refreshment aka cocktail stop at the Fort Aguada Beach Resort. The weather was blazing hot & even tho we went sightseeing in an air conditioned car, we needed a break from the heat. We found a table facing the fort that had a nice breeze, ordered a caiprinha & we were all set. The barbed wire was a little disconcerting & so were the birds lurking around.....

The little one doing a take away