The blue travelling diaries

Breakfast at the Guest House was at 8am, and none of the phone booths in Goa open before 7, so I tried to get some sleep. Slept for about 15 minutes and then went in for my shower. About 7:15 I thought I'd find an STD booth, and call home to tell them that I'd arrived. The STD booth is a short while away from the Guest House, so before leaving, I called some friends, who live in Goa.

As it turns out, the 3^rd of December is a state wide holiday in Goa... it's the feast of St. Francis Xavier. The university was closed, as were most offices. My friends Vinitta and Valerie were both home when I called, but Val was on her way to work. Vinitta wasn't working, and came to pick me up at about 8:30. I called home before that, and got back for breakfast of medu wada, filled with coconut, and sambar :)

Vinitta and I went back to her place to say hi to everyone, and then off to pick up Charlene, and then headed down to Bogmalo beach. Stopped at Neville's place on the way, and had soup and bread sticks.

The beach was so amazing. It's really long, and there were about 15 people there in all. The water was blue. The sky was blue. The sand was yellow-white. I still wish I'd carried my swim suit. Had to go and leave it in my bag!

We had lunch at a small beach side restaurant. It wasn't expensive, but they had no bread! The family that runs the place managed to get some sliced bread for us. Lunch was king fish, and prawns. We sat around there for a long while, solving the crossword in the newspaper, and just chatting. Took a few pictures too, but they're with Vinitta.

Took the bus back to Panjim. We had to pass Dabolim airport on the way. There's also a few bridges across the Zuari river. At one point of time we were on the bridge, there was a train on the parallel bridge, a few boats below, and a plane overhead. Cool.

Had a great day, and got back to the university guest house at around 7pm. There isn't much transport after 7, but Vinitta dropped me back to Bambolim on her bike.