After reading a few topics on the forum before we went, rubbish, prices, russians etc., we were a bit dubious about what we would find, after 3 years away from Goa.
We have been about 16 times since 1998 and have obviously seen a lot of changes, not all for the better.
Here are some of my views regarding this holiday.
Apart from our first 2 holidays, which were packages, we have always stayed at guest houses or apartments in and around holiday street area.
For anyone that knows of Mantheven Homes near Little Italy restaurant, where we have stayed with Jessica for 5 holidays, sadly she is selling up at the end of this season and going to New Zealand to her daughters.
There was a nice place near there called Oceanic Pearl that used to be run by an english couple, sadly this also is under a new owner and whilst we were there was full of noisy Indian tourists,

With regards to rubbish, I didn't think it was any worse than normal in general, although there was a lot more left on the beach, beer bottles and all sorts, but most of this I witnessed was again from Indian tourists.

The Indian tourist used to be a weekend thing near the Calangute steps, but now they are there in large numbers every day, all along the beach. I even witnessed a large fight between 2 groups of drunken Indians using sticks and all sorts.

We have always used Aggis shack and this holiday was no different, there were a few Russians there but no problem whatsoever. They were polite enough and not noisy at all.
The sunbed rule is a problem, but didn't bother me much as I prefer to walk on the beach these days rather than lie in the sun.
Aggi was putting more beds out than he should, and also putting mattresses out for people.There was an understanding that if the police were coming people would have to get off them whilst they were removed until the police had gone.
Most people didn't have a problem with this, although some regulars decided to use other shacks, where as far as I could see it was the same problem at all shacks.
Everyone I spoke to understood the shack owners problems, and it was just another amusing Goan peculiarity seeing the shack boys legging it with these beds up and down the beach whenever they needed to.
Aggi is still serving some of the best food in Calangute as he has always done, missing it already.
If you are an early riser and want a sunbed, go down early as some people are there from 8 am.

In general we found quite a few places had changed hands since our last holiday there, some of our regular haunts had gone down hill in our opinion, we used to love the Kingstork, but found the food not good at all this year, although we did hear some people say they thought it was good. Little Italy seemed totally empty most nights so we didn;t even try it, used to be packed all the time and the Italian next to Shruti has now gone.
We had some good meals in Candolim at the chinese on the corner of the beach road, and at the italian set back off the beach road, something Roma I think it's called.

The exchange rate was good so in general prices not much worse than 3 years ago, in fact we spent less this holiday then we have for a long time.

Baga road seemed worse than ever, but Kim Fa restaurant just as good as ever and worth the visit.

So to summarise our holiday I would say just as good as any other visit.
We didn't have any problems with russians, and found the Indian tourists far worse and noisy.
The sunbed rule is a problem, but I do have to say it was a much more pleasant experience walking on the beach without the number of beds there used to be. There should be a happy medium to be reached between what there used to be and what there is now.
The rubbish didn't seem to be any worse apart from some bottles and stuff on the beach, I assume the mountains of rubbish full of rats had been moved as I didn't see any whilst there, or a single rat anywhere.

One thing I did notice was some of the cab drivers trying it on price wise, even some we have used regularly. And the tuk tuks were charging the same as cars.

So, still very good value for money, brilliant weather, great food, nice people, a bit noisier than usual in places, the worst thing by far for me was the traffic, can't imagine what it will be like at christmas.

Now we are back home in the freezing weather, my car is a white lump on the drive, shorts and sandals replaced with boots and overcoats, gloves, hats etc.
SO for anyone in Goa who thinks they have something to moan about, be thankful for where you are, it can always be worse.
To anyone who hasn't been before, yes it may take you a while to get used to it, but give it a chance and you may just grow to love it as a lot of us do.

Barry and Lesley