Goaaa

It was a fun packed vacation and we didnt know whats in store but we all were happy as we were going as a big family together. It sounded like childhood days when we would go together as family and play as children do. Landing at Goa in such a peak summer time was just impromptu to the hotel availability and the when we reached the hotel it eased all the summer blues. It was pure luxury where from reception which was so uniquely white and vast filled with natural light and water fountains. They buggied us to our garden villa rooms and the whole transfer itself made the place look so exotic as was the name, fifty-six acres of lush gardens ! Located on the southwest coast of Goa, overlooking the Arabian sea, this Mediterranean-style resort has a way of slowing down time to a tranquil tempo. We settled in the rooms and than rushed to the pool in the evening.

We played throw ball there and than I asked Dee to teach me to swim. She gave me the basic lessons and when it became dark we headed to rooms for a shower and than for dinner. It was a long taxing day so we hit the sacks. The next day we woke up and discussed the night breaks when our parents (who do wake up early and keep making noise by opening the door/lighting up the room) made us all take even number of breaks and all worked on strategies to solve the problem. We walked on the lush green grass in our garden, swinged on the hammock and took a hotel stroll to see the beach. Yes the hotel was made on the beach itself and its so amazing to sit by and watch the waves in the morning when the sun powers the rays with its colour. While I was watching the waves there I wanted to write on the enormity of waves there and them, they are so empowering as if they want to surround you complete by its vastness. They come from all directions and try to bring you under their fold as if to protect and hug you and swipe you off your feet :) But yes its a brilliant feeling to just be sitting watching waves drinking the sound they make when they hit the shore. Mornings generally were similar starts..we would head for the breakfast buffet and my uncle loved gerber cheese there..cant elaborate it more than this here..but we all enjoyed this segment everyday. We headed for pool again after a break and it was fun and loads of skin burn. Afternoon siesta and followed was beach where the fun began..we took water scooter ride, played with the waves, sat at the shore to let them splash you all over and than as it became dark, we headed for room to shower and have dinner of fish and chips as a special part of our dinner buffer :) The next day we thought to take a day's excursion but Aju and Keshav were not too much in favour of it. We thought to start in afternoon as it would be cooler by that time so morning was again back to pool. The whole way in the afternoon they both nagged to get off on the way as they had no interest to be anywhere but the pool. We went to see Mangesh mandir , St Francis Church (where you poke the Saint and his blood vessels still oose blood, inspite of him being dead for last 600 years - this was the story my uncle told and we played on that, thoh we werent allowed to poke him as he was put in a casket way up and locked) . We went for a ferry ride on Mandavi river on paradise cruise as they all thought it would be fun to mingle with Goan music and dance which was the cruise attraction. We liked the scenic Goa better on the cruise to the latter. After this taxing day (as we had to come down to North Goa and we were staying in South Goa) we moved back and said no to more excursion. Hence the next day was simpler, pool, Jacuzzi and beach. The only added advantage was that by this time they made me learn to float and after a lot of effort I started to ease out in water (may be it was beer which helped as per Keshav and Aju , but I think they both were so brilliant in teaching it that it happened instantly..the dead man float and the face up float I could do them both ) Keshav had huge fun in pulling my leg to spoil my balance and throwing me back in water and I took it back on him by pushing him out of hammock upside down when I got the chance. Evening beach was fun as we made a long chain and let the waves hit us on the back and bum and throw us off-balance. We moved quite inside till above the waist length and Aju would watch the waves to classify them as mother wave and smaller wave and giving us a pointer to jump the wave. It was huge fun.

It seemed for those days we had nothing but fun and we remembered nothing in this break, no work, no tensions, no problems whatsoever. I forgot to mention the morning Yoga classes which also was nice since it was a different technique of teaching there. And ofcourse Natasha with her Gore-Gore episode where she blew up the entire moisurizer bottle over herself and her tantrums to be in pool/tex kids all the time. She is so much fun baby that when we wouldnt be doing anything she would start singing songs and poems and entertain us with her baby ways. And finally was sunday when we all never wanted to go back and we knew we had to. And we thought we would like to come back again with so much fun along and together ..Amen !