GOA

Tim flew home from Delhi on the 20th November, while Isabel and I flew to Goa for a week's relaxation and comfort at the wonderful Leela Palace Hotel, which was fabulous. I thoroughly recommend it if you want to spoil yourself. Goa itself, enjoyable and interesting as it was, seemed more Portugese than Indian. A grand place to relax nonetheless, and well worth a visit. We especially enjoyed the covered market at Margao, but the Catholic churches in Old Goa seemed altogether too European, splendid though they were.

The Leela Palace was superb. Our villa had not one marble bathroom, but two! There was a splendid system whereby you could call up a buggy anytime day or night to transport you to anywhere around the hotel complex. This made all the difference to me with my walking problem . We used to eat breakfast at the restaurant overlooking the swimming pool, spend the morning on the beach and have lunch there (barbecued vegetables and/or rockfish at the beach bar), laze around the swimming pool during the afternoon or else sit on the balcony of our villa watching the egrets and whitebreasted kingfishers, back to the beach to watch the sun set, and then back to our villa to shower, rest and drink gin and tonic before dinner. What a life! We particularly enjoyed the fish restaurant overlooking the River Sal.

NB Click on any picture to enlarge it

	Leela Palace Hotel
	Entrance to the hotel Villas round one of the lagoons
	The swimming pool
	The path to the beach Sun, sand and sea
	Sunset from the beach and early morning on the River Sal as the fishing boats come home
	Our sitting room The enormous bed

	One day we hired a taxi to take us
	to Old Goa and Panjim
	and Margao on the way home.

Another day we went out early on a speedboat to see the dolphins in the bay, and Isabel explored the local village, Mobor.

Then sadly our three wonderful weeks in India were over. We flew to Mumbai, where it was 35⁰C, and we spent a few interesting hours in this vibrant centre of commerce, visiting Ghandi's museum and taking a boat ride around the harbour. Then we flew to Heathrow where it was 8⁰C, and wet and windy.

	Mumbai
	The Dhobi Ghat, open 4am to 6pm Employs 4000 laundry workers
	Gateway to India , built 1924 Our last view of the sun for weeks!

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