Goan Diary - V

We drove to fort Aguada.....the drive was fabulous....all the greenery coupled with the winding roads, one side of which is the mandovi river and on the other side are houses, mountains or fields depending on how far away from civilization you are.....

Fort Aguada was spectacular...but i could really do with better behaved tourists....most often our own....what is it with them?? why do they have to lech and catcall and generally make such fools of themselves.....if they think road romeo like behaviour will get them the attention of women....they really have their heads screwed onto the wrong end of their bodies....

the views from the fort, the ramparts that lead to the sea, the drop to the ocean, the small island in the background and the sight of smalll steam boats chugging along....i could have spent my whole afternoon there....but it was so punctuated by noisy rowdy crowds...but then i already mentioned them!!

we drove out to panjim so we could book a river cruise, only to be told at the counters of three different cruise operators that there were no “dolphin cruises” which started “only in season” (meaning tourist season)……… I wished I had my blogger friend A’s number so I could call her and possibly visit her….i had managed to lock my bedroom with the keys to the room and my phone inside at home before heading out the airport……and the last thing my family would allow me to do was get online to find her number…..

we lunched at Hotel Mandovi at the Restaurant called Riorico …. It was a weird thing to sit in a place decorated with a Mexican theme, there were large sized boleros and cactus all over the place and order goan food!! we went there 30 minutes closer to their closing time…..they hastened us into ordering….. forgot a few of the things we ordered…..and the guy who took our order was by then off duty….. whatever food they managed to serve us was good, but I am surely not going back to a place that seems not to care much about my satisfaction….

We got back late afternoon and rested for a while before finally walked in the sand – on the baga beach…. Rachel got to play in the “matti” sand or soil in telugu….and I built castles (well they looked that way to me anyway) after many many years….took an obscene number of photographs because I just discovered the multiple capture option that my brother’s hitech camera had including tones of pictures of beach dogs (you cant call them street dogs since they’re not on the street but on the beach…. We spent a lovely evening watching the waves, which were very rough, the people, some of who braved the tide, i though they were just being falsely brave....and politely refusing the wares of several women who came around speaking impeccable english...offering shells, necklaces, hair braiding and sarongs.....

later that evening, while we still were soaking up  the sunset on the beach, we were told that two youths got sucked in with the tide, one got rescued and one paid for his bravado with his life....it shook me up..... 

dinner at Souza Lobo's was spot on..... but my mind was elsewhere.....what if it was me.....or someone i knew.....why couldnt those silly boys see that the sea was too rough to pick a challenge with....