Heading south, the problems continue

I finished writing last night and we headed straight down to the guys for our fish supper but it was raining again. They only have small umbrella’s which are not going to cover 8 people so we all piled into reception where they made a table and chairs up for us all. They laid a yellow table cloth on the table and almost immediately it was covered with dozens of mosquitoes which is a bit of a worry as we are not taking malaria tablets yet. We had a few drinks and chatted until the rain stopped then moved outside and carried on. Terry had ordered papadoms with salad and home made mango chutney to start followed by the best Singapore noodles we have ever tasted. We had a chicken one and a prawn one; mmmm I can still taste them. We had a small break and then the fish and chips came out; we had battered fish and massala fish with more salad. It was all made from Bob’s 36 pound Barramundi that he had landed about two minutes into his first fishing session. Unfortunately for the boys their good fortune has not continued with Bob catching one fish a day but nobody else seemed to get a look in. This is the first time that I have eaten Barramundi and it was delicious; a bit like the giant cod you used to get when I was a kid with the big flakes except even more meaty like swordfish steaks. I particularly like the massala fish as it was delicately spiced with the taste penetrating all the way through. Certainly the best meal that we have eaten here so far and Terry wouldn’t let me pay a penny towards it all so a big thank you guys; we owe you one.

As the previous night we had partied on down until around 3.30am again we all felt rough all day and expected to go to bed early. It’s amazing how a few beers blow away the blues, especially with such great company and we ended up with another 2.30am finish. After the beers that we had stocked up with before the staff retired had gone I fetched down the remainder of our 5 litre cask of wine that we bought in Bahrain and that was soon gone too. Just as well otherwise it would have been another 3.30 finish. I sat next to Mick and had lots of property advice as he used to have 40 properties that he rented out and has recently sold them and moved over to commercial property rentals; very interesting, we need to investigate when we get home. Terry, the main man, was on form again but his brother Steve was feeling a little jaded and didn’t hit the alcohol until after his meal. Karen and Sheila were also on form and Karen stayed up until almost the end this time. Karen is married to Terry and Sheila to Steve and Terry and Karen have a boat in the very north of Goa where they all fish from. Sometimes when you first meet people you just know that you will see them again and this is one of those times.

Surprisingly we got up about 10am and I headed off into town in search of the chemist that Terry had recommended to buy some malaria tablets; the advice was to buy the weekly ones so you don’t have to take them every day and also they don’t seem to have as many side effects. Claire had read about these but we were quoted over £200 for 3 weeks course for the pair of us so we decided to get them here anyway. I found the chemist and asked how much they were and for a 5 week course I was surprised to hear that they were 6 rupees. That’s about 8 or 9 pence so good job we waited and I couldn’t resist buying a years worth for just over £1. I also topped up on the diorhea (shit tablets, I can’t spell it) tablets as we are getting a little low on those; not because we have eaten them all but Claire keeps giving them away. I topped up my wallet from the ATM and returned back to the internet café but had the same trouble, not being able to copy and paste. I stopped off at Pinkies where I had hired the bike from and asked about their taxi service. They only wanted 800 rupees to take us all the way to Majorda in south Goa so I booked him without negotiation and he took me back to the hotel while I brought the bags down and checked out.

We arrived at the Palm View hotel in Majorda and I asked him to wait to see if they had rooms available before leaving. They had so I paid him and he left but when we carried our bags to our room she said the price was 1675 rupees a night and I nearly fell over. They have changed hands since we were last here and we only paid around 800 rupees so that’s quite an increase; especially as we found out that they had less facilities. It’s very cheap for English terms at less than £25 a night but it’s quite expensive for over here. They do have aircon, a tv, a fridge and a nice pool but to double the price in a year is a little too much. I say a tv but the reception is so rubbish we can’t use it. We changed from a week to 3 nights and headed off along the beach to Colva where we would pick up a bike for the remainder of our holiday, get even more money out and put the last blog on before buying stock for our fridge and returning back to Majorda on the bike so I could start to write this. I have an old bike for one day but I will swap this tomorrow for a brand new one because we are such good customers of Anthony. He is only charging 200 rupees a day so not bad considering inflation and the exchange rate. I paid 350 for the other bike but it was only for 2 days rather than 2 weeks. It’s very quiet over in the south compared to the north but even more quiet than normal I think and now they seem to have signs for everything in Russian; even at chemists and bottle shops. There seems to be more cows roaming the roads in the north than the south but the beaches are wider with less people, in the south as you can see from some of the pictures.

Talking of pictures, my problem continues and I only just managed to get a few for this blog today because of the time it now takes me to transfer from the camera. Now even Claire’s SD card can’t be read by my computer so that’s 3 SD cards I have got through. The only one I have left is a 16Mb one that I can hardly get and pictures on at all so I have turned down the resolution on the camera now. I think what happened was that my virus checker picked up a couple and when I asked it to put them in the vault, the card stopped working. This has continued several other times and maybe it coincides with putting a new SD card in. The first few viruses were worms but not they are Trojan horses. It may be that my pc has something and its copying itself to the cards when I put them in or it might be it thinks something on the cards are a virus when its not and puts an essential part in the vault. I did try to re-install some of the files from the vault without success; can anyone suggest anything else for me to try please?

Walking down to the beach in Majorda I noticed a huge pile of rubbish which is not unusual over here, but the sign is. Also when we got to Colva Claire headed off to the English bar called Tait for toilet duties leaving me in the internet café to put the previous blog on. When I got there it had changed hands and name to Leda and they had moved the bar from one side to the other and put in a second floor. Not sure if it still an English bar yet but the toilets had also been replaced. Every corner we go around a new building is there or a name changed; the average generation of a business over here must be about 3 years but there are still some of the original ones that never change. Tomorrow we will head off to see some of them.