We had an early night after our trip to Agra as we had to be up early to catch our domestic flight down to Goa (Friday morning). Before I witter on about Goa I have to tll you first that our driver to Agra actually left me touched, and I dont mean literally. We ahd been told it was 4000 RP each for the tour and in the morning he picked us up our reception said to pay half now and half at the end of the day. Lucia gave him her 4000RP and I kept hold of mine and paid it with a tip at the end of our trip. About 15minutes after we hd gone up to our rooms our bell rang - it was the driver he said we had paid him way too much and it should have been 4000RP for us both and we'd already paid him that morning so he'd come to bring us our money back - we gave him 1000RP which I think made his day but he'd most certainly made my day - we wouldnt have known any better if he'd have pocketed it - yes I was touched by his honesty! Amazing!

Anyway - Goa - yes well we arrived at Delhi airport just about in one piece - we were flying with Spicejet and were a little wary of what the flight was going to be like as they very cheap flights - suprisingly enough it was excellent - seats, services, cleanliness - we were pretty shocked - it left on time arrived in Goa early and whizzed straight through to get our bags as it was domestic - completely hassle free. Arriving in Dabolim airport we had been advised by Claire to get a prepaid taxi to a restaurant called Brittos to meet her, she had got us accommodation for 3 nights where she was staying. Taxi ride to Baga was excellent I loved Goa and Id only been on the ground 5 minutes....the road from the airport to Baga was a blur of vibrant colour and greenery crossing a couple of strips of water. It was gorgeously warm and sunny just had a completely laid back feel to the place.....my kinda place! The houses we passed all varied in design, size and colour - the bright red Kingfisher logo everywhere you looked! It was so pretty......i knew I was gonna love the place.

We met Claire and she took us to our room, with the added comfort of a cold shower, 2 inch thick mattresses and padlock on the door......i loved it! We changed pretty damn quick and followed Claire to the beach all of a minutes walk from our room.....fantastic! We got introduced to people throughout the day - mainly locals working at the Bistro shack or Brits that came back every year that Claire had met previously. Everyone welcomed us and we felt settled in immediately. We had a lovely meal that night, out on the beach and sat and drank til the early hours....a plan was hatched for us to join some of the guys on a trip down to Palolem on the Monday - they were going on a boys holiday for a few days and as we wanted to make our way down there in the coming week, they asked if we'd like to travel down with them - so that was that - Gavin was to be our tour guide to Palolem!

Saturday and Sunday entailed lazing on the beach working on our tans - the girls, Claire and Kay were leaving Sunday morning so a few of us went for a meal on the Saturady night and kept them awake til all hours - there taxi was taking them to the airport at 5am and I think we left them be about 3am - god bless those girls the journey home must have been horrendous! Sorry ladies...

Monday we were up bright and early with our rucksacks packed ready for our rip to Palolem - this we had been told involved 4 buses over about 3 hours! Not too bad but I did drop some stuff of mine off at Gavins place to keep hold of until I travelled back up to Baga a couple of weeks later - thought itd lighten the load a little - I know....I know - thats cheating coz Im gonna have to lug the lot around the world but hey if I have an opportunity to ditch some and pick it back up - why the hell not!? lol