Lucky Star Hotel Colva

... you can eat a meal for 20 Rupees in India.

Rita is actually staying at some of her mum friend's flat - turns out it is the same place as Roy - she has the whole flat to herself! The boys from the family were taking her out around the area in the evening. I could have joined them but I just couldn’t. I was way too tired.

... dark skinned. She sat on her own to our left and ordered a coke. As we were pretty much about to go, we crossed sights so I smiled and started to speak. Rita is a pharmacist from Lisbon and is on a 1 month holiday in India. She invited us over to her table if we wanted but she ended up on her joining us. She had the most contagious smile I have ever seen, it was unbelievable.

We got to talking and, although she has never lived in the UK, her English was perfect ...

... speaking “decent English". They were really nice and very curious on my view on politics, religion and loads of other matters.

It is difficult to make the difference between someone who is genuinely nice and people that will eventually want to take advantage from you. You always have to be cautious and even distant at first without being rude because the person is probably just being friendly - 99% of them are! Unfortunately, you have to always be on your guards just in case ...

... to the bus tipping over, the pot holes were hit hard and fast and every turn in the road felt multiplied by our misery at our situation. The only thing that held us together is that we were together. Mother and Daughter, for the first time in a very long time, thats all we were on that bus. Not work colleagues or friends, or two people with much in common. Just the two of us in our real roles knowing that even come the worst we were in it ...

... and after an incident with Fran (one of the group we'd joined) and his infected finger (two holes, one gammy pussy clot...), the sun began to rise and we could see our surroundings a little bit better. Soon it was time to walk up the beach, a little ****** and very tired. Finding a place to stay wasn't hard though, and we fell in to our beachside bungalow, and relaxed, we were finally here! Palolem is a nice stretch of sand, more built up than ...

... beach seems to stretch for miles, and the restaurants are all of the coconut-hut type so that they blend in with the surroundings by and large (other than the large neon "Get Raucous at Rogers" type signs, obviously). The sun loungers are intermittent, attached to the restaurants so the deal is that they're yours for free if you purchase the odd cold beer off them (oh, go on then Rog, just the one). Our hotel is run by the ...

... on board and filling the boat with water. Finally the engine died completely, and as the sailors were working on it a huge wave came up and knocked them all overboard. Reeta, this other woman, and I had just enough time to look at them and laugh before an even bigger wave CAPSIZED THE BOAT. The woman and I were thrown free; Reeta was underneath the boat but managed to swim out, losing her hat and glasses in the process. The other woman clearly couldn't swim; she was clinging to me ...

... rode into town stopping twice to check the hand drawn map that Roger gave me. I had dinner at the German bakery which had a wandering cow (the first I've seen in Goa) nearby. I know I marked out in my mind a thousand peculiar details to include but I can't find them now. hopefully I'll remember them tomorrow. speaking of hope. I'm hoping for a good night's sleep. Wishing you all well. oh, here are the only two photos I've taken so far.

Time to move on... ...and so we left Colva Beach today - sad to go, but we are both really excited about going to Thailand (mainly for food reasons...). Lots of friends have come and gone over the last two months, can't name everybody but it was really good meeting up with you all again. It seems that some people we see more of in Asia then we do in England! Dom kept us entertained by spilling drinks over anybody within a two foot radius and managed to wind up almost ...