Goa , Goa, IndiaWe are sitting on on the deck of our beach hut, which if you know your beach huts is basically a double garden shed on stilts with a jax stuck on to the back of it, with the arabian sea softly mashing up the sand below us. I'm just back from having a shave and the kids are asleep under their mosquito nets with the fan gently circulating the sea air over them. Outside on the deck there is very light breeze over which we can occasionally here some techno beats drifting over from the busier Palolem Beach. Our hut is in the middle of a small cove on Colomb beach, we basically have the place to ourselves as it is the end of the season and a lot of people have left, also the chaos caused by the icelandic volcano has meant a lot of people havn’t been able to travel out and the ones trying to get home are in the towns near the airports.
We arrived in Goa town on a flight from Udaipur in Rajastan. From Goa town we decided to go Benaulim in south Goa about an hour from the airport but when we got there we immiadiatley decided to go further south. After consulting with our taxi driver who had already been driving us around for an hour and a half we decided to head south another 100 kilometres.
We arrived in Palolem about an hour later and found ourselves once again not too sure if we wanted to stay where we were first brought to. It was looking a bit too crusty our liking. We asked to be brought two most family friendly looking places we had read about, Shiva and Baktikutur. Both these places have there entrances directly opposite each other on a laneway at the back of the beach. Lisa being the accomodation commandant on the trip had the job of flitting too and fro between both places checking out the rooms and the facilities. I could sense on this occasion some hesitation on her part, Shiva was newer, Baktikutur was cooler, better eco-credentials, however, both were in the middle of the jungle, '’awoomba awoomba awoomba awoomba, In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the spiders sleep tonight’’. Lisa has a serious phobia about arachnids which the children have inherited, not good in the tropics. All three of them frightened the shit out of the driver who brought us here with a screaming fit in the back of his cab, he must have thought there was a tarantula in the back with the level of hysteria. He pulled over and jumped out ready to save them only to find the tiniest spider trying to escape from them. I nearly puked from laughing so much.
Any way we decided on Baktikutur because it’s restaurant was open, as it does not close down for the monsoon. For 10 euro we got a big hut in the middle of the jungle. They would all have to get used to sharing their living space with other beasties. This place is run by a german lady who has been down here for 25 years and does some seriously good food,
We had always said we would look for other accomodation after we settled in and found this place Green Park Cottages a couple of days later It was better for us in that it was directly on the beach which allows for some cooling air in the evenings. It also was going to set me back by about 8 euro a night, a saving of 2 euro, enough for Kingfishers x 650ml x 4, not bad.
This place is perfect for the next few days. The kids are having a ball, the water is the right combination of waves for Axel and his boogey board. Elka demands I bring her in as well, for hour upon hour. The food is varied enough for their fussy pallets and the sun shines.
Right now I am sitting with the said Kingfisher’s looking out over a picture perfect moonlit cove deciding whether to have the kingprawn’s tomorrow, or the the Goan seafood curry.
Lisa has gone to bed and I am off to join her.
