Calvin is back

Just got back from a two-and-a-half-week break in India’s tiny state of Goa in a place called Candolim (my first time to Goa) and now gradually working my way back to full steam ahead on this website. I say gradually working my way back due to the fact that the garden pretty much resembles a forest floor as a ton of leaves have fallen during my absence and now cover just about every surface, including benches, tables, chairs and ponds. Getting to my office at the bottom of the garden is a bit like walking through a jungle at the moment; not so different from the jungle in Goa to be honest!

While I was away I did a little re-tweeting when I got access to the internet and I’ve read about some worrying things about fewer police on the streets in years to come. Actually, I was reminded of home policing while I was on holiday. Hand on heart I saw the ‘proper’ police in Goa on only two occasions while I was there and on both occasions they were driving along in police cars accompanying what looked to be some sort of VIP in a following vehicle. The only other uniforms I saw were the traffic police, who stand next to police check barriers set up by most of the busier roundabouts.  As you have to be slightly mad to drive in India we always hire a driver if we need to get anywhere and only got stopped once by the traffic cops on the way back to the airport. It makes you wonder if this is the sort of policing that we might be experiencing in the future – a sort of fire brigade policing when you’ll only see the police dealing with traffic incidents or if you actually call them – all a bit worrying.

With a small bottle of Kingfisher beer at between 60p and £1 (Don’t really like the stuff, but that’s all there was); cocktails between £2 and £3.50; a fabulous Butter Chicken costing £2.80; a lightly fried Paratha at 30p and rice at 50p, Goa is certainly a place lots of Brits can afford! Getting there is about £460 and you can hire a two-bed A/C apartment for around £250 a week. We stayed in a lovely 4.5 star hotel, which was around £500 a week. We went a tad too early and missed out on the beach shacks, which just got their electricity turned on as we left, so when we go back in 2018 we’ll go a little later to experience Candolim, Calangute and Baga at their busiest. Great place, huge clean and sandy beaches, great food, plenty of restaurants with live music and lovely people!

Normal service on this website will be resumed tomorrow!

Candolim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candolim

Cheers all – back to reality!