I've gotten quite far behind on my blogs but I intend to catch up. Please be patient as I get them all together and up so everyone can read and view photos. I'll put dates so you'll know when it all happened. Things have been just too busy and consuming to be worrying about blogging and what not lately. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
March 22 - 25, 2012
I was so excited to be off to Goa the day we left Bangalore. Our flight was at the end of the day so I knew we'd be arriving late in the evening and we would basically have time for dinner and heading to bed. I knew my excitement would have to wait even longer, until the next day.
I wasn't sure what to expect, other than there being a beautiful beach there of course. We arrived at the airport, tiny as it is. We got our bags and headed out to a woman standing there waiting, amongst many other's doing the same, with a sign. Though she had the sign that had my husband's name on it. The hotel had arranged to pick us up at the airport. It was already dark out. We got into the Toyota Inova (very popular car here in India) and our driver started off for the hotel. They had bottled water and wet wipes in the car. It was nice to wipe our faces, then hands and get some hydration.
I can't tell you much about the drive, other than I realized the hotel was quite far from the airport. That's the case most often in many cities. The road was small and winding, with the occasional motorcycle or car passing around us or vice versa. I did see different encased shrines along the side of the road and I began to immediately feel connected to Goa, not just because of it's strong roots to Catholicism but there was something else that just felt peaceful about that place. All this and all we were doing was driving on a dark, somewhat quiet, winding road.
We finally arrived to the hotel another 30 or 40 minutes after leaving the airport. It's quite far from it. We get out of the car and as always have the usual greeting. The staff always knows when people arrive late, they are surely exhausted, even a little. They got our bags for us and bowed slightly forward with a spoken, "namasté", which is how you greet here in India. Namasté means peace and you say it with pressed hands and a slight bow. It is a sign of respect as well. You say it in greeting and when leaving. Then they offered us "tikka" which is a blessing. I have noticed it's customary when arriving at places. There is something very beautiful about it. They take a dab of red powder, which in this case, I'm not sure what the powder what, but sure that it was a spice or from a some plant, as it usually is. So they take the ring finger, touch the powder, touch a bit of oil and tab on your forehead, just above and between the eyes. This is your third eye. Some say that a third is there to help see what two eyes can not. I like that saying. After the greeting and blessing, we were led over to sit on a comfy couch and offered a refreshing drink. A Taj employee goes over the formalities of checking in and then we are walked, by another person, to our room.
The room is large, with a decent size bathroom, separate shower and bathtub and a beautiful balcony that overlooks the well manicured garden lawns and a distant view of the sea.We opened the doors, even though it was dark, you could hear the ocean rushing up over the shore, over and over. What a wonderful sound. If mosquitos weren't a problem, I would have left the windows open all night and slept to the sounds of the ocean. We were starting to feel quite exhausted so we ordered room service and watched a little TV. The dinner I had, was incredible! It was Arabian Grilled Sea Prawns, over mashed potatoes, grilled squash on the side, all sitting in a lime butter sauce. A little note on the side about room service. Often, in many of the hotels we stay at, the price the same whether in your room or in the restaurant. Since you don't tip until the end of your stay at the main lobby desk, it doesn't make much different if you get room service or go to the restaurant. After our dinner, we chatted a bit about our plans for the next day and then cleaned up, washing the grime of travel away, and went to sleep. The excitement was still there and I couldn't wait to get the next day started.
The next morning, we woke up and headed over for a lovely buffet style breakfast at one of the many restaurants, at the hotel. Only one serves breakfast. After breakfast, we wandered the grounds a little then went back to our room and looked at what all the hotel had to offer. As far as things to do, this hotel was amazing. There are so many activities and educational fun things for kids to learn, one being learning about snakes. Learning things like how to avoid them and how to know which are venomous and which are not. All the activities were free to guests of the hotel. You were allowed a certain amount of time for each activity each day. You could rent bicycles for two hours, you could do archery, croquet, swim in the beautiful pool, play on the pool tables inside, go down to the beach and they even had a small putting course on the grounds for you to play putting golf. There were even more activities for the children, but I can't remember those. This is definitely a good hotel for one to come to with children. Though sadly, I should mention that our service was no where near up to the standards of other Taj hotels we had stayed at, even with my husband having Gold status with them. He usually stays at a Taj when he's here, in Bangalore, for work. You can bet we complained when we left. They even removed some things off our bill because of it. We just wanted them to know how we felt. I mean they do ask you, "how was your stay", so always speak up and let them know. After looking over that and chatting about it, we chilled out and enjoyed our balcony, watching the numerous cranes playing in sprinklers and some walking only a couple feet away as they search for insects to eat. We refreshed ourselves with some bottled water and, you might laugh, decided to take a short nap. We're vacationing right? Might as well rest too. Before our nap though, we scheduled time to go and do archery for late afternoon. One thing I haven't mentioned yet, it was SO VERY humid in Goa. Being by the shore seemed to be worse too. I don't remember it being that humid in Miami, FL, but it's a peninsula so maybe that's why. Goa however is surrounded by mountains on all sides except the side that is ocean.
So we took our short nap and then got up, moved around a bit went to have some lunch eventually. We decided to try the Italian restaurant there. We both love our Italian cuisines and at these hotels, these chefs have studied in some of the best schools from where the food is from. Vikas ordered pizza. I ordered the lamb lasagna and a piña colada. Once again, the meal was amazing and definitely high on my list of favorites. Goa was proving to be a place for great food. Dangerous, maybe, but you stay so busy and sweat so much from the humidity, that the calories were gone quickly.
After our lunch, we went back to our hotel room to change into some other clothing for archery, we rested a little and then when the time came we headed over for our archery lesson. For archery, we each got 15 arrows to shoot, and there was a guy there to assist us. It's hard to hold the arrow in place before shooting and even harder making sure you hit the center. I did get close a few times but Vikas did WAY better than me. I have a passion for archery now though. I loved it! We both did. We're even thinking of taking lessons and doing archery after we're back in Austin. Here are a few photos. Photos were taken with my iPhone.
After archery, we decided to go sit on the side and have a refreshing drink while we sat on lounge chairs near the pool but facing towards the ocean and the lawns. We laid back and talked about how much we loved the archery lesson and how much we were enjoying ourselves and Goa. It was the most we had relaxed and been able to enjoy each other's company in a while. The other journey in Rajasthan was fun and in Udaipur we had some time, but we spent a lot of time going and going. That is fun too, but sometimes it's great to, juuuust relax (as the kid on the movie Couples Retreat says it).
The sunset was beautiful in Goa as well.
The next day we headed into the city and saw a local temple some churches and a local plantation. The temple and one of the churches was our first set of stops. I took a few photos along the way.
We had lunch at the plantation and bought a few essentials oils. Then we were off to another location, The Basilica of Bom Jesus. Bom means good or holy in Portuguese. Goa is primarily Portuguese and India, in heritage. Goa's population is 27% Christian. One church in particular is the church of St. Xavier. His body is sealed in a beautiful casket. It is held high above so that it can not be tampered with. They take it down once a year, on his birthday, in December, so that people can view the body closer.
Took a few photos after leaving the church and heading back to our hotel. It was a long day and so humid. We were exhausted and ready for our favorite drink, the Ginger Zing (lime, mint leaves, ginger, and ginger beer).
We took it easy the next day, our last day. We did a bit of shopping at the shops in the hotel. They had some great shops there and they had some really great items. I took some photos of the grounds at the hotel.
Goa Airport
Not too new but still clean and nice and quite small.
March 22 - 25, 2012
I was so excited to be off to Goa the day we left Bangalore. Our flight was at the end of the day so I knew we'd be arriving late in the evening and we would basically have time for dinner and heading to bed. I knew my excitement would have to wait even longer, until the next day.
iPhone photo of our plane to Goa, this is the engine
of an ATR72. The green ring is the propeller. I thought it
looked so cool.
I can't tell you much about the drive, other than I realized the hotel was quite far from the airport. That's the case most often in many cities. The road was small and winding, with the occasional motorcycle or car passing around us or vice versa. I did see different encased shrines along the side of the road and I began to immediately feel connected to Goa, not just because of it's strong roots to Catholicism but there was something else that just felt peaceful about that place. All this and all we were doing was driving on a dark, somewhat quiet, winding road.
We finally arrived to the hotel another 30 or 40 minutes after leaving the airport. It's quite far from it. We get out of the car and as always have the usual greeting. The staff always knows when people arrive late, they are surely exhausted, even a little. They got our bags for us and bowed slightly forward with a spoken, "namasté", which is how you greet here in India. Namasté means peace and you say it with pressed hands and a slight bow. It is a sign of respect as well. You say it in greeting and when leaving. Then they offered us "tikka" which is a blessing. I have noticed it's customary when arriving at places. There is something very beautiful about it. They take a dab of red powder, which in this case, I'm not sure what the powder what, but sure that it was a spice or from a some plant, as it usually is. So they take the ring finger, touch the powder, touch a bit of oil and tab on your forehead, just above and between the eyes. This is your third eye. Some say that a third is there to help see what two eyes can not. I like that saying. After the greeting and blessing, we were led over to sit on a comfy couch and offered a refreshing drink. A Taj employee goes over the formalities of checking in and then we are walked, by another person, to our room.
The room is large, with a decent size bathroom, separate shower and bathtub and a beautiful balcony that overlooks the well manicured garden lawns and a distant view of the sea.We opened the doors, even though it was dark, you could hear the ocean rushing up over the shore, over and over. What a wonderful sound. If mosquitos weren't a problem, I would have left the windows open all night and slept to the sounds of the ocean. We were starting to feel quite exhausted so we ordered room service and watched a little TV. The dinner I had, was incredible! It was Arabian Grilled Sea Prawns, over mashed potatoes, grilled squash on the side, all sitting in a lime butter sauce. A little note on the side about room service. Often, in many of the hotels we stay at, the price the same whether in your room or in the restaurant. Since you don't tip until the end of your stay at the main lobby desk, it doesn't make much different if you get room service or go to the restaurant. After our dinner, we chatted a bit about our plans for the next day and then cleaned up, washing the grime of travel away, and went to sleep. The excitement was still there and I couldn't wait to get the next day started.
Prawns over mashed potatoes with grilled squash (yellow & zucchini) all sitting in a lime butter sauce. (Taken with my iPhone.)
The next morning, we woke up and headed over for a lovely buffet style breakfast at one of the many restaurants, at the hotel. Only one serves breakfast. After breakfast, we wandered the grounds a little then went back to our room and looked at what all the hotel had to offer. As far as things to do, this hotel was amazing. There are so many activities and educational fun things for kids to learn, one being learning about snakes. Learning things like how to avoid them and how to know which are venomous and which are not. All the activities were free to guests of the hotel. You were allowed a certain amount of time for each activity each day. You could rent bicycles for two hours, you could do archery, croquet, swim in the beautiful pool, play on the pool tables inside, go down to the beach and they even had a small putting course on the grounds for you to play putting golf. There were even more activities for the children, but I can't remember those. This is definitely a good hotel for one to come to with children. Though sadly, I should mention that our service was no where near up to the standards of other Taj hotels we had stayed at, even with my husband having Gold status with them. He usually stays at a Taj when he's here, in Bangalore, for work. You can bet we complained when we left. They even removed some things off our bill because of it. We just wanted them to know how we felt. I mean they do ask you, "how was your stay", so always speak up and let them know. After looking over that and chatting about it, we chilled out and enjoyed our balcony, watching the numerous cranes playing in sprinklers and some walking only a couple feet away as they search for insects to eat. We refreshed ourselves with some bottled water and, you might laugh, decided to take a short nap. We're vacationing right? Might as well rest too. Before our nap though, we scheduled time to go and do archery for late afternoon. One thing I haven't mentioned yet, it was SO VERY humid in Goa. Being by the shore seemed to be worse too. I don't remember it being that humid in Miami, FL, but it's a peninsula so maybe that's why. Goa however is surrounded by mountains on all sides except the side that is ocean.
Open lobby with several areas to sit.
Lobby with view of the courtyard in the center.
Fountain in the courtyard, in the center of the lobby. You
could look down and see it from the lobby floor.
Pool tables
Chess table and seating area
Seating in the lobby, closer to the balcony over looking the ocean side.
Goa's own newspaper
Lobby area
Italian Restaurant, Miguel Arcanjo.
After our lunch, we went back to our hotel room to change into some other clothing for archery, we rested a little and then when the time came we headed over for our archery lesson. For archery, we each got 15 arrows to shoot, and there was a guy there to assist us. It's hard to hold the arrow in place before shooting and even harder making sure you hit the center. I did get close a few times but Vikas did WAY better than me. I have a passion for archery now though. I loved it! We both did. We're even thinking of taking lessons and doing archery after we're back in Austin. Here are a few photos. Photos were taken with my iPhone.
He hit the bullseye with his first shot. Way to go Vikas!!
After archery, we decided to go sit on the side and have a refreshing drink while we sat on lounge chairs near the pool but facing towards the ocean and the lawns. We laid back and talked about how much we loved the archery lesson and how much we were enjoying ourselves and Goa. It was the most we had relaxed and been able to enjoy each other's company in a while. The other journey in Rajasthan was fun and in Udaipur we had some time, but we spent a lot of time going and going. That is fun too, but sometimes it's great to, juuuust relax (as the kid on the movie Couples Retreat says it).
The sunset was beautiful in Goa as well.
The next day we headed into the city and saw a local temple some churches and a local plantation. The temple and one of the churches was our first set of stops. I took a few photos along the way.
This was the first car, in India so far, that had Christian totems on the dash instead of Hindu ones. I love them all, but, being Catholic, I had to say this made me smile. I love this photo.
A local house in Goa.
Beautiful bougainvillea.
Rice fields.
The houses are so colorful here.
Mile markers
After driving through the city area, we arrived at the Shanta Durga Temple.
"The door will be closed at 10 pm. Please make a note of that."
Signed, "The Temple Board" My husband translated this so I hope it's right.
The writing is not Hindi, it's Marathi, another language spoken in India.
In India, one is supposed to walk around the
temple clockwise, never counter clockwise.
The lion. You will also see this figure with Durga.
Durga is singularly revered, in Goa, as the goddess of peace.
Women sit just at the entrance and in front of the temple to sell offerings.
They sit stringing beautiful, colorful flowers together.
This woman counts her earnings for the day.
One of the offerings that is sold at a booth in front of the
temple. The flowers are water lilies.
Plates of offerings. On the plates are marigolds,
bananas, coconuts and incense sticks.
Shop just outside of the temple. It's like a mini mart or gas station, minus the gas.
They have foods, drinks, and even little needed things like batteries and such.
After we left the temple, we stopped by a local church to take a look around. It was closed so we couldn't go inside but the outside was nice in itself. St. Roque sits on top of a hill. It was beautiful to see as we drove up to it.
This is our driver. He was a nice guy. The car in the background is the car we
were driven around the city in, a Toyota Inova, the most popular car in India.
On the way to the plantation I took a couple of photos along the way.
This is an old Mosque. It's no longer used as it seems to be very old. I found the scene to
be beautiful. All places of worship, such as this and churches and temples are beautiful in my eyes.
A lone cow walking along the road.
We arrived finally at the plantation.
Entrance path
Coffee bean tree. One of the people you see plucking a bean here,
later tried to actually eat the thing. Everyone, almost in unison, screams, "NO!"
Then the guide tells him that he can't eat that. It will make him sick. The bean
looks more like a grape at this point. It has to be processed before it can be
what we see as a coffee bean we buy in stores.
Black pepper. It's not ready yet so that's why it's red.
As it ripens, it dries and turns black or white. Depending
on how long it dries will depend on whether you get
white or black pepper.
Along our tour of the plantation, we ran across a family who
paid to do the elephant washing. You get to scrub the elephant and
after sit on her back as she sprays you with water as a thank you.
The elephants love getting these baths. Elephants love water. They
don't have sweat glands so water is extremely refreshing.
I would have gotten the elephant spraying them but a rude woman
decided she was more important than anyone in the group and
stood in front of most of us at the last minute.
This guy shows us how to climb the coconut trees.
He shows us how he can get from one to the next.
Later after his presentation, he allows anyone to try. This little girl
was so cute! She actually gave it a go and held on all by herself.
Cocoa pod. The yummy deliciousness is inside.
Vanilla bean vine.
Beautiful flowers were growing everywhere.
This is the adorable female elephant from earlier. She walks along,
following her trainer back to get food and rest.
Lemongrass
Our group
Ferns
Jackfruit
Baby Pineapple (not ripe yet of course)
There were some rickety looking bridges on our tour.
Beautiful but one couldn't help but take a second to look at it
before walking over it.
Nutmeg tree
We had lunch at the plantation and bought a few essentials oils. Then we were off to another location, The Basilica of Bom Jesus. Bom means good or holy in Portuguese. Goa is primarily Portuguese and India, in heritage. Goa's population is 27% Christian. One church in particular is the church of St. Xavier. His body is sealed in a beautiful casket. It is held high above so that it can not be tampered with. They take it down once a year, on his birthday, in December, so that people can view the body closer.
The body of St. Francis Xavier
The bones of his body were only removed when the fell away.
They would seal them here for viewing.
This was the previous coffin the body was sealed in before
putting it in the new one.
People light candles and say prayers
Large and beautiful tree outside. See how small the people are.
It gives you an idea of just how large, tall this tree is.
The Basilica of Bom Jesus
We arrived back at the hotel and headed to the bar, Adega Camoens. They brought us a light snack. While we were there, a guy was giving a presentation about snakes in the area and in India. He even had live specimens to show us. It was a bit scary but very informative. Growing up in Texas, I know a LOT about snakes, especially with me growing up in the country side. I did enjoy the presentation though, along with my favorite Ginger Zing drink.
The guy on the right is the snake handler and presenter. The woman on the right
was there with her children and she is petting the snake he is handling.This is the only one we
could pet. There were a couple of other live snakes he had but those were not snakes we
were allowed to pet or handle what so ever, which was fine by me. Haha!
I had to take a few photos of the beautiful beach at dusk.
Large chess board for guests to play with
Love this tree. No idea what kind of flower this is though.
Pathway leading to one of the restaurants/bar and the beach.
Golden coconuts
We had a few great drinks and later that day we were on our way back to Bangalore.
My favorite drink (along with the Piña Colada) is the Ginger Zing
Goa Airport
Not too new but still clean and nice and quite small.
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