Goa grows on us and now we're sad to leave

Well Goa has certainly grown on me and now it's almost time to go, I'm sad to leave it. Sati came, had a great time and left yesterday and we are leaving for Mumbai tomorrow. My initial impressions of Goa weren't inaccurate; but still we have met some really nice people here, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly and there is plenty of variety away from beach resort land if you are bothered to find it. Of course the beach is fantastic, the weather perfect - hot and sunny in the day, cool in the evening. We swim twice a day, eat delicious food - sometimes Indian sometimes European. We have got into a habit of eating a lovely fruit salad with yoghurt and museli down at the Swiss cafe for breakfast after our early morning swim. We have had great thalis away from the beach area and the cafe next to our hotel (run by the Anglo-goan family) has become our second home. The kids have made friends with Tizzie,the daughter of the house,and we have made friends with the adults.

Last night we went off to Palolem to a restaurant that had music,fireworks and ice sculpting, the place is getting really busy now, but feels nice. Mark will put up some photos soon I'm sure. Tizzie stayed over with us so that we could get up early to go on our dolphin trip.

We got up at 6.30 and we saw plenty of dolphins. Rosa was sick but other than that it was gorgeous. We got back to shore and went to "Home" - the Swiss cafe, lay around in the 'chill out' area eating our fruit salads and Nutella milkshakes!I lay there fantasising about coming here to set up a school - can really imagine it. It's hard to believe that by the time we get home, Patnem will seem like a distant memory.

Having Sati here was fantastic, but its amazing how quickly it just felt 'normal' - it was a wrench when she left yesterday but again by tomorrow it will seem normal not to have her here I guess. It was a shame that she couldn't stay for long as she was having a great time.

I'd love to know what its like to be here out of season. There are quite a lot of Europeans that live here, both for six months of the year and permanently and I ask everyone I get a chance to talk to 'what's it like?' 'how do you afford it?' - it's expanding my ideas about the possibilities for the future.

Well that's it for now, we're off to Mumbai tomorrow and then off to Kenya on the 7th - good to leave still wanting more and looking forward to the next leg of the journey. I will be really sad to leave India though - I still love it, sickness and all (although I've been well for a couple of weeks now!).

Bye for now - love Heather