The photo above, is of my husband shot in the secluded beach of candoliem behind our hotel in Goa.so. shall we proceed onto the second day?
Day 2- Woke up early in the morning to get ready for the sight seeing trip arranged by the hotel people.We were excited. We were expecting lots of fun, picnic, party in the river cruise and what not! But a dampener in the real sense. it was raining heavily. if it continued that way then we will not be able to enjoy at the beach. When the mini bus came we rushed off to it like excited school kids grabbing our lunch packets packed by the hotel people. The bus was half full and we checked on the other co occupants. They didn't look interesting nor interested. Gradually picked up the rest of the tourists from other hotels. we were disappointed. the crowd was not what we had expected. Robust, fun loving, friendly people. the crowd inside were far from our expectations. each of them scowled. all of them remained stiff. the crowd was an assortment. A muslim couple. the lady was in burqa. a family of four with two teenage daughters. very conservative family. the girls looked sad and restrained. a very sexy and modern couple ...but entirely wrapped up with each other oblivious to their surroundings. A couple of guys speaking in accented english trying to outdo each other and a foreigner girl. keeping to herself with no intentions of mixing with each other. Got the picture? so, our first stop was in Donna paula- a beach front u can say, with a memorial built in it. There we made our first purchase. Two umbrellas. Yes Siree! It was raining heavily and without the umbrella no sight seeing would have been possible. The sea was beautifully turbulent giving credence to the story of Dona paula who had committed suicide for her lover but it was no fun exploring with an umbrella overhead. After that we were taken to the cathedral of St Francis.To view The holy remains of the saint. and the basilica of Bom Jesus. Our guide was trying to make the tour lively but was not having much success. By then the rain had stopped and the sun had come out strongly making the air sticky and humid. At that time I cursed myself for visiting Goa in the monsoons.After paying our obeisance we proceeded on to the temple of Lord Brahma. Again it started raining Cats and dogs and disgusted I sat in the bus itself. From there we were taken to the Old House in Old Goa to show the Portuguese lifestyle of yore. I found it interesting . the inquisitive and nosy woman in me liked it a lot.My husband looked bored to death. he is an outdoor type and was waiting to hit the beach. After that we were bundled off to Colva Beach finally for Lunch and exploring. there the halt was for 3 hrs. By then the sun had come out again. We had the time of our life playing like kids on the sea shore. we didn't see any adventure activities going on there due to the high seas so we happily played by ourselves. Here I observed that the Goa tourism hotel was just near the beach and one could view the sea from the balcony . I made a mental note to myself to stay here the next time I am in Goa. It was around 4 pm when we left the beach and were taken to a Feny shop in Panjim and then to the river front for our boat cruise. Till then none of the co passengers had attempted to be friendly with each other. Inside the boat there was a local band playing and then they entertained us to a cultural programme.Few local couples had also joined us for the cruise. Maybe they had come on a date. And a college group of boys. There was a compere who was trying to coax us to dance. we were game for it and only us and another local couple were the only ones in the floor trying to put up a show. the rest looked on mutely. masked faces as if they were all stricken by Parkinsonism. As a token of our participation the organiser gave us a couple entry ticket to a discotheque. When we came back to the hotel we both were not in much good mood. After changing and having tea we decided to visit the disc with our Free couple tickets. We reached there to find it hidden in a very camouflaged spot. the crowd were yet to arrive. there were few gals- a peroxide blond and two or three local gals all in heavy make up and giving coy glances to my husband. After sometime the men started arriving. all heavily built and wearing thick gold chains with surly expression with mugs of beer in their hands. Something was fishy i concluded. My husband conveyed in hurried tones that we were not exactly in a safe and respectable place and that he was seriously worrying for the safety of...of ...hold your horses- his new Handycam. not me or him but the handycam . I was seriously offended but decided not to press the matter then and instead bade a hasty retreat.. We came back to the hotel for dinner and instead left for Mambos again for an after dinner drink. It was drizzling lightly. I had not forgotten the slight of the evening and again brought the topic in the bar after downing a cocktail. A fight followed. we both left the bar as we both were not in any more congenial mood. In the night Baga beach looked breath takingly beautiful. But we just made a mental note about it . we both were too soured up with each other to speak civilly with each other. we were still fighting when we left our hotel. and were still fighting on the road. and still fighting when our bike skid and both of us went flying on the road. that was a nasty fall. a very nasty fall!!!! and what happened next? that's another post.