Vacation in Goa

This year we wanted a simple vacation. No sight seeing, no dashing around, no running to catch assorted planes, trains and automobiles, just a simple, laid-back holiday with lots of sleeping, hanging out with kids and eating involved. It didn't start like that, of course. The original plan was to travel down to Bangalore and Mysore by train ( can you believe my spoilt brats haven't been on a train yet? I feel sorry for all the excitement they are missing out on) and sightseeing - Hampi, Bandipur, Kabini, as well as assorted relatives. Well, the third pregnancy knocked that idea on the head - I don't want to be having to get up to pee every fifteen minutes in a moving bathroom, and A had only one week he could take off right now. After much tossing back and forth or destinations, we finally agreed on Goa. It's strange but until now, whenever we've planned to go there, it turned out more expensive than going to, say, Bangkok, so I've never been, though A has been there on work. A decent package from makemytrip.com at the Taj Holiday Village and we were all set to go chill...


The day before the vacation was about the most frantic ever - doctor's visits, visitors to dinner, tons of work to be completed and emailed off...I asked A to put all the things he wanted to take along ( his and kids) into a bag and regretted it when I lugged out the bag to do the actual packing the next day. A, as usual, had packed two T shirts for every day as well as numerous pairs of trousers, jeans and shorts, while I was trying to minimise the luggage by saying we would travel with only 1 big suitcase and a couple of carry-ons. I had to haul everything out and restart the packing process from scratch, as contentiously as usual. But finally we were off to the airport, Chubbocks almost bursting with excitement as he had been for the past couple of weeks.


The flight was a bit bumpy towards the end, and both the kids turned delicate shades of green. Oh no, with our usual forethought, A and I had not packed any travel sickness medicine. Even last year, Chubbocks had had problems traveling by car and we'd had to stop and pick up some anti-nausea tonic. I don't know why, because he travels by car all the time at home, including hour long drives in the city, but whenever we are on open roads, he starts turning sick. We made a mental note to buy some avomine in Goa for the return trip and managed the best we could. Chubbocks thankfully forgot all about his misery when he saw fighter planes parked at the airport.


We've never yet managed a holiday where we didn't have a problem with the room, so sure enough, as soon as we stepped into the hotel and started checking in, we ran into one. Instead of the sea-facing cottage we had booked, we were allotted a first-floor room. We had to wait ages for them to sort that out, while feeling tired from the journey and hungry. Finally they assigned us a cottage as booked, though not an independent one, and we got to our room. The cottage was essentially a large room with a verandah and a tiny garden with a hammock. The view was fabulous...

After a quick order-in of really expensive chilli cheese toast, since I was starving ( they'd served chinese food on the plane which I didn't have for fear of msg), we settled in and for the first time ever on a holiday, I actually unpacked and put away all our clothes into the wardrobe and we all watched the sunset. Chubbocks was keen on hopping into the pool right away, so A took the kids there while I chilled in the room.

The next day, after breakfast and a brief hiatus during which the kids played or watched Krishna for the nth time, we headed to the pool. It was quite hot so the water felt like a cool caress and we lost track of time. We hadn't taken Puddi's floater since the absurb child is scared of it so she just lay on the top step of the pool while A or I floated nearby. Chubbocks was busy trying out his water wings as well as bending the ear of anyone within reach. We came back to our rooms all tanned - the hallmark of a successful beach holiday, to me. In fact, I was sunburnt a little, as was a, while the kids had just tanned a nice brown colour. I still remmeber the first time I got sunburnt was at a tennis camp from school in Singapore. I had been so snooty about Asian skin while my gora classmates were busy slathering Coppertone on...Next thing I knew my cheeks and nose were red and peeling! This time I just had a nice, rosy flush on my face but we decided we had to dig out the sunblock we had picked up from FabIndia for the kids' sake.

Meals were part of the package, all served at the restaurant overlooking the sea. It was fabulous to sit there and watch the sea swell and recede, while water-scooters raced here and there and the balloons of parasailers drifted past gracefully. After lunch and a brief paddle in the sea, we got back to our cottage for a lovely afternoon nap. One unexpected bonus was that despite my 12-month tummy, I wasn't the largest woman in the pool, and the other women didn't have my excuse!!!Evening followed the same pattern, with hours spent in the pool, followed by dinner and then the tuckered out kids slept peacefully while A and I read or caught up on movie-watching.
After that, the days drifted past in a haze, with an early morning swim followed by breakfast so we could avoid the hottest part of the sun, lunch and naps, swims, dinners and movies...Chubbocks went on a waterscooter with A once and parasailing twice, with great excitement. Puddi unfortunately turned out to have this huge fear of the sea and screamed her head off every time we even sat on the restaurant balcony overlooking the waves so we didn't do too much paddling in the sea. Even Chubbocks was a little scared of wading since the sea was quite rough, this close to the monsoon, but I thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of pitting myself against the waves, seeing how far up they would come and whether or not they would knock me off my feet...
(yup, that white ship in full sail is me...)

The activity center, Jungle Jam, had a couple of nice events for the kids - one day they had a snake show, where they brought out a bunch of different types of snakes and told the kids all about them and even let them handle the snakes.

Chubbocks of course wanted to see a python and a boa constrictor! They also had a mask making session in which Chubbocks made himself a fearsome mask...

Puddi kept herself busy scribbling little lines on the writing pad in the room and calling it an elephant or dinosaur...

We only stepped out of the resort twice - once to take a look at the antique stores ( I love antiques though I can't afford them), buy some local plants and see Wendell Rodericks' boutique, and once to supposedly have dinner at a much-recommended restaurant which was unfortunately only operational during the season. I was much offended at the boutique when the sales assistant thought that I was this size naturally instead of 5 months pregnant!

It was a wonderfully relaxing vacation, made even better because A and I both switched off our mobile phones permanently while there - see the world keeps turning even when you fall off the map for a little while!

By the end of the week, Puddi had lost her fear of the pool water and was quite happy to be lugged into the deep holding onto A's or my hands. It was fabulous to be able to wake up late and step into the garden to look out at the sea. The kids had a gala time racing through the sprinklers on the lawns each morning, and we had our morning and afternoon tea out on the veranda, watching the sun rise or set into the sea...

Chubbocks was really sad to leave and had a tearful face when we pulled out of the resort. Poor guy, even two weeks later, he sniffs that he wishes we could live at Taj Holiday Village...So do I...