I have finally got round to doing our trip report after being home now for over a month. Unfortunately 'life' quickly takes over once you get back to work and I am only just beginning to surface again, but I wanted to do this for all the people who say to us 'What do you find to do?' after our 8th visit. So here goes.

We left home at 11:30 a.m. on 30 March 2007. We arrived at Manchester airport in plenty of time for our Monarch flight as we had lots of luggage as we were taking extra for CWT and we didn't want any hassle. Unfortunately, hassle we got. We checked in armed with our e-mail from Monarch saying we had 20 kilos excess luggage allowance. As luck would have it we got someone who was new to the job and she said there was nothing on screen to say we had the extra allowance. I showed her the e-mail but she wouldn't accept that, describing it as 'a piece of paper'. I don't think she had ever seen an n e-mail before. I then asked her to ring the person who had sent the e-mail from Monarch but she seemed reluctant to do this and insisted on doing things her own way and rang someone else who obviously didn't know anything about it either. After about half an hours discussion by which time I was getting very annoyed as I couldn't understand why she couldn't just ring the person who sent the e-mail she said this time we could take it through but in future we needed a proper letter. I found it extremely hard to keep my temper during this time as Liz kept reminding me 'don't get annoyed or they will say no, then what will we do with all the extra luggage'. After we had checked in we went up to The Lancaster Restaurant which is a lovely quiet haven and had a well deserved gin and tonic and bottle of wine and dinner. Our flight was at 16:30 so after the usual browse around the duty free shops testing the perfumes we couldn't afford we boarded the plane only to be sat on it for another 50 minutes as one of the dials in the cockpit wasn't working properly. Eventually we left. The flight was uneventful except that we got a hot dinner for breakfast for some strange reason. As the TV's were all in the middle it was difficult to watch anything due to people standing in the aisles etc so we read and slept most of the way. We had a quick stop off in Bahrain and were soon on our way again. We didn't find the Monarch flight too uncomfortable as we don't have the problem of long legs so we found we had enough room to make ourselves comfortable. We managed to make up some time and arrived in Goa 20 minutes late instead of the 50 minutes. We didn't find the airport as manic as usual which was nice and there were no porters around pestering us for some strange reason until we got outside. Our usual taxi driver was there to meet us. Unfortunately we had told him the wrong time - due to the clocks going forward in England - so he had been waiting for an hour, he didn't seem to mind though and just laughed it off. After fighting off the porters trying to help him load the taxi we were on our way. We didn't notice too many changes on the way to Calangute, not as much as we expected after reading comments on the forum, the rubbish situation didn't seem that much worse to us either, perhaps we will see more later when we are walking about. We stopped off at the Sportmans Bar to see what time the ManU game was on that evening then went on our way to Carys Hotel in Calangute where we have stayed on 7 previous occasions. We caught up with the gossip with Cary and asked him about his trip to Europe in the Summer. We said a quick hello to all the lads and they took our bags to our room - no tips asked for - and then unpacked after a quick lime soda then we hit the beach and Beach Queen Shack which is our usual shack, met up with Vincent, Anita and John. We had our usual first day lunch of spring rolls and Kings, they do the best spring rolls ever. Welcome to Goa - flies in our beer. As we had been to Kerala for 3 weeks in December we compared the prices on the menu and found that they were less by about 20 rps per meal in Goa. The worst sight was all the Coca Cola pillars on the beach, I couldn't believe it, it completely spoilt our view from the shack although by the end of 2 weeks we had unfortunately got used to them. We then met up with Marta who is the resident beautician and has a beauty parlour at the back of the shack and we arranged to have a manicure and pedicure the next day. We lay out and sunbathed to catch up with our sleep before the football match tonight. Back to the room for quick shower, bought water, rum and coke from the bar on the way in. Our taxi picked us up and we went to Sportmans Bar at 7.00 pm to watch ManU -v- Blackburn. It was nice to see all the lads in there again, we were welcomed with reserved table and 2 Kings. We gave them a ManU bottle opener for the bar which kept them entertained with its cheers. At half time we bought drinks from the supermarket next door to take back to our room to keep us going during the week. After the game our taxi picked us up again and we went to Seashells at 9.30 to meet up with a friend from work who was at the end of her holiday. We had a good meal although Liz was too tired to enjoy it properly and went back to the hotel about 11.30 to get some sleep.

1.4.07 Slept until 9 am and spent the day on the beach. We met up with Marta in the shack and arranged to have our manicure and pedicure after lunch, the knack is getting back to the sunbed from her salon at the back of the shack without smudging your toe nails. Taxi picked us up at 8.30 and we went to the Pagoda Chinese restaurant for dinner in the evening where the waiter entertained us with his magic tricks, followed by cocktails at Sudans restaurant next door to Rabbie Burns pub, as opposed to Robbie Burns.

2.4.07 Slept until 9 am again - must start waking up earlier. After breakfast walked up the road to Calangute to the chemist. Bought anti-malaria tablets, eye drops for dusty sore eyes not to mention late nights, contact lens solution and gel for mouth ulcers caused by anti-malaria tablets. Back to the hotel, got changed for beach and went to NV Shack to find Sangita for our massages. She saw us before we saw her. We had lunch there then had our massages. Taxi picked us up again in the evening and took us to Panaji where we went to Deli Dabar, had a great meal. Back to the hotel for 11.15 for an earlier night. Read our books for a bit.

3.4.07 We put the alarm on for 8 am to make sure we had an earlier start today, our taxi driver took us to Coco Beach. We were interested to see how it had changed due to the monsoon last year. We once again went to Rita's shack after being taken to the beach by a different route this time. The shack was much further down the beach now as the sea had taken over all the space where it was before. We had King Fish with Green Masala Sauce which was recommended by John the chef which was really enjoyable. Our visit was spoiled this time as we were constantly pestered by the two beach sellers at the shack to the point of their being quite rude by the time we left. We used to like going to Coco Beach because we were left alone. Don't know whether we will go next time. We left the beach about 5 pm and went back to our hotel to get ready for our evening at Casa Portuguese. We hoped to see Francisco but unfortunately he was away that day, we usually end up arguing about football all night, him being a Portugal supporter and the number of times Portugal or Porto have done us (ManU and England) out of winning. We always part on friendly terms though. Our taxi driver dropped us off at the Rabbie Burns pub for a late night drink. He had the Liverpool match on so we watched that with the enemy - a Liverpool fan. We had a few laughs with him though not to mention a few drinks. On the way out we asked the guy who runs the place if he was showing the ManU Champions League game the next night as it was going to be on very late. He said he might so we said we would come in and wear our shirts to which he promptly replied we would not be allowed into the bar in football shirts. As we were the best dressed people in there that night having just come from Casa Portuguese where we always dress to the hilt, I thought this was a bit of a joke. Have you ever heard of a dress code in Goa. Needless to say we won't be frequenting that place again, the guy needs to lighten up a bit. I think he thinks he is running The Living Room. We walked back down the road to our hotel at 2 am.

4.4.07 Today was Wednesday, Anjuna market day. We went in search of the three Sarahs. We originally met these girls on the beach 8 years ago in the days when it was easier for them to work on Calangute beach, now they tend to stay in Baga. We buy all our jewellery and bags from them. They can remember exactly what we have bought over the years and they know what kind of things we like. If we want something in particular in a certain colour they can always find what we want and they bring it to us on the beach. Also saw Camilla from NV shack who also managed to convince us we needed to buy something from her. We stopped off in the middle of the market for our usual samosa and Kings and went down to the beach before returning to Calangute at lunch time loaded up with more jewellery, bags, silver salt and pepper pots and yet more sandals. We did manage to avoid buying clothes this time though, we must be getting better. On our way back we called into Trip Adviser to see what trips they were doing. As we had spent all the money we had on us at the market we were only able to book the trip to the Taj Hotel on the Friday evening as they didn't take credit cards. We will go back better prepared next year. We went to NV shack again for lunch and another massage. This was to be the last time we went to NV shack though because we had taken some children's clothes with us for Sangita's children and her sister's children as we usually do and the woman who runs the shack tried to take them off her for her children. She told her off for telling us she had children even though we knew this as we have know Sangita for 8 years and have known some of her children since they were born having been to her home every year. We took them back and told Sangita we would take them to her house for her. She was then worried about what would happen when they asked why we had taken them back so we told her to tell them that we had taken them back because her sister was away and we wanted to give them to her ourselves and would wait until she returned, which was partly true as her sister was away. We couldn't believe anyone would be so mean. This is a woman who owns not only a shack but also a guest house and is by no means poor. In the evening our taxi dropped us at Lazy Days at approx 8 pm as we wanted to go to the meet up. Unfortunately no one turned up until later when we had arranged to be at O'Pescador. We did manage to meet up briefly though with Walks, Polly, Leoness and Robbie but had to leave at 9 pm. We did promise to come again the following week. We finished the night once again at Sudans and had a drink with our taxi driver.

5.4.07 Today we went to Arombol beach with Jim and Norma from our hotel. We always go for Easter and meet up with them every year. We thought it best to get away from Calangute as much as we could over the Easter holiday weekend to avoid all the Indian tourists. We had a fantastic day here once again, lovely and peaceful. Guess who we saw when we arrived - Richard Gere. We got sorted out on our sunbeds then went to the shack to get water and he was sitting right at the front of the shack. This was a few days before the Shilpa Shetty episode that has since been going on in India. We love Arombal and have decided to stop there for a few nights next year. We went to look around some of the places and liked the look of Sunny Guest House/Outback Bar & Restaurant so we will probably stay there, it was in a lovely spot at the end of the beach and had very clean rooms. We also managed to buy some skirts from the stalls there, so we might have missed buying clothes at Anjuna but couldn't resist at Arombol. We ate at Mermaid restaurant in the evening and had our usual Mussels and steak with blue cheese.

6.4.07 Back to Beach Queen Shack for a day spent eating, drinking and sunbathing. We saw Jenny, another long standing friend who always has nice bags. She took us home one year and spent the afternoon dressing us up in her saris. We bought more jewellery from her, mostly for presents. I explained to her I wanted a new bag to replace the one I had with me on the beach and Liz wanted some earrings which she described for her so she went off and said she would get them for us. In the evening we went on the Trip Adviser trip to the Taj Hotel. The drinks were a terrible price. We were warned they were English prices but we had a bottle of wine which was expensive even for England prices, but we were on holiday and who cares. The food was excellent. I wasn't overly impressed with the hotel though considering what it costs to stay there. The strap broke on one of my sandals so I had to go barefoot for the rest of the night which included walking down from the main road in Calangute to our hotel. I was surprised how well I managed though although I think I had a narrow escape when I saw all the glass on the road the next day. Anyway this was going to force me to buy yet another pair of sandals.

7.4.07 Today was Aswen beach with Norma. Jim had gone back to England as he was only there for 1 week. We had Pomfret for lunch. We left about 4 pm as we had to be back quite early as we were going to Sangitta's house before we went to see the ManU game which we lost 2-1. We had early dinner at Beach Queen shack then went up to Sangitta's house with the clothes we had previously given her. When we arrived she had made a meal for us which we were forced to eat so we were absolutely stuffed after having already eaten a big meal on the beach. We met her brother for the first time too. Our taxi picked us up and took us to the Sportsmans Bar where we ended the night.

8.4.07 Today Mojim Beach with Norma. We love going here to see Saach and the lads at Cafe del Mar. They are big ManU fans and we take over lots of ManU memorabilia. When we go to the matches we buy two programmes and always get them autographed by the players after the game. We take the second one to Goa with us and share them between our taxi driver and the boys at Cafe del Mar. It keeps them all happy all day reading them while we visit and ensures we get excellent service! Before we arrived our taxi driver had rung ahead and ordered lobster and crab for us which is our usual meal when we go here, it is so cheap and really well presented. They told us that this year there have hardly been any turtles because of all the interference from the land, hopefully they will return next year. Whilst we were having our lobster and crab we met a lady who was a travel writer. She was interviewing the lads at the shack about their lives, she was Australian and is writing a book about Goa entitled Off the Beaten Track. She was amazed at our well presented food and asked if she could take a photograph of our meal for her book, she couldn't believe they could do such things in the beach shacks. She asked us how we knew about the shack and how we could get the lobster but we weren't too forthcoming with our information and she said that she has found that in Goa no-one wants to share their secrets. After all we don't want everyone there, that's why we go! For a bit of peace and quiet. We left Mojim Beach and the Cafe del Mar at 6 pm after water melon juice and a long photo session and also being shown around their new guesthouses they have now. For evening dinner we went to All Spice. This is the first time we have been here and found the food very good we will definitely be going back next year.

9.4.07 Today we started the day by going shopping to replace my broken sandals although we didn't buy just one pair we bought 2 pairs each - well he did have colours that we didn't have. I think we have the full range now so unless any of them break this summer we may get away with not buying any next year. Before we went shopping we rang CWT and spoke to Rob and arranged to take the clothes over to Mango House on Tuesday at 3 pm. We also rang our friend Di who we felt very guilty about not getting in touch with in over a week. She has an apartment and lives there Oct-May so we keep in touch by e-mail. Unfortunately Di was going away for a few days so we made hurried arrangements to meet up on Tuesday before we went to Mango House. After shopping we went to the beach and bought 3 more skirts. We also got pestered by someone to look at his rings so we looked at them and then he got the hump because we wouldn't buy any. While we were having lunch Jenny came by with the bag and earrings she had found for us. These were just what we wanted so we were very pleased. She sat with us for a while and we bought her a banana milkshake but the girl in the shack had the sulks on then because I don't think she was impressed at having to serve her with a drink. She left then after paying over 50 rps for the privilege of selling us something in their shack! It didn't seem to occur to them that we were eating there most days not to mention the fact that we had just bought her a drink, never mind that's Goa. We then went to find Sangita for another massage expecting her to be at the NV shack but she found us before we got there to tell us that she had left there and was now working at Domat shack. She had had a big argument with them after we took the clothes back and so went to work at Domat. The food in the new shack is brilliant and the people in there are lovely so we were quite pleased for her especially as half the customers from NV shack had followed her there, they were so disgusted at what had happened. In the evening we went up to Sun Village. On a Monday night they usually have an all you can eat buffet and drinks for about £11 with entertainment and dancing which is very good value but when we got there it was not on. We found out later they have changed the night to Wednesday. By the time we found out our taxi driver had left expecting to pick us up at 11 pm. We got another taxi back to J&A Little Italy for pizza, the taxi driver said he would come and pick us up again after to take us back to our hotel. J&A's was very expensive. We used to go here quite often in the early years before there were so many restaurants but although the food is very good we now find it very overpriced and there were some rich Indian people in there whose children were running riot all over the place which spoiled it. The taxi came to pick us up but didn't even know his way to Carys Hotel in Calangute so we had to direct him. He was lost once he got to Bagga. When he dropped us off he tried to rip us off as well with the fare but we gave him what we usually pay and told him that was all he was getting.

10/04/07 Beach day. Di came down to meet us for lunch, she filled us in on all the gossip and we passed some photographs on to her that we had taken last summer when she came to visit us at home, so we had a nostalgic lunch talking about last summer when Mark and Simon ex of Eden Bar in Calangute were also visiting us for the weekend. Mark and Simon were home for a few weeks to renew their Visa and as they live close by we all spent the weekend together watching the world cup (much to Di's disgust) and eating and drinking and drinking! Not to mention the Greek dancing. Di's friend Jenny runs East Meets West so we arranged to go there for dinner in the evening and she also rang Francisco at Casa Portuguese so we spoke to him and he told us to go in on the Thursday when he would be there so we ordered paella for that night. Di said she would take us to CWT so we had a quick shower and went off getting lost on the way but we eventually arrived. Rob showed us around the Mango House and then Di left as she had things to do in Calangute and we joined another lady with her 2 children who kindly gave us a lift to the two villages which Rob took us to where we took lots of pics and played ball with the children and fruit was passed around. It was a lovely afternoon and nice to see all the good work they do, we will be back next year. We had loads to bring out but only 20 kilos extra luggage allowance so still have lots in the attic at home for next year. Liz works for Puma who very kindly gave her lots of clothes to bring out. We were dropped off in town and got a tuc-tuc back to Calangute where we did some shopping and bought cashew nuts, ayurvedic soap and polo mints - which are really cheap in Goa 5rps, we buy the stock out. Went to East Meats West for dinner. Di had reserved us a very good table, the food and service were fantastic, Jenny made sure we were really looked after. We then went on to Paradise Village with Di, the place which Mark and Simon were hoping was going to be as successful as Eden but unfortunately it didn't turn out that way and they are both now back home. It was nice to see all the old crowd though still doing the karaoke. We went home at 2.30 a.m.

11/04/07 Today we went to Tiracol Fort with Norma. We got a small rowing boat over instead of the ferry it was much more fun. We had been here before but still took lots of pictures. We then went to Mandrem Beach for the rest of the day where we ate at Sea Paradise shack. In the evening we went to Sublime but found it was shut which was disappointing as we hadn't been here before so we went to Kim Faa instead. We had never been here before either so that worked out okay. We had Duck and ate for too much. We decided to go over to Lazy Days for the meet up but it was virtually empty when we drove up so presumed everyone had been and gone as it was about 11 pm. We will have to be more organised next year and dedicate a night to the place instead of dropping in when we are either coming or going somewhere. We then went to Sudans with our taxi driver for cocktails and we sat chatting with him for an hour or so.

12/04/07 Today we got up early for an early morning walk before breakfast. We walked up to the far end of Bagga beach and stopped at Bobbys shack on the way back for breakfast of fruit salad and lime soda. We had told Sarah from Anjuna market that we would see her here as she was going to get us some earrings like the ones she was wearing, the ones that have the gold chain that goes up over the top of the ear (hope you know what I mean). We wrote postcards until about 10.30 as she said she is usually there by that time. Unfortunately she didn't show so we walked back past CSM and along the main road to our hotel. We tried to buy some t-shirts along the way but they wanted too much for them, they tried to call us back but we couldn't be bothered by then. We got changed, went down to the beach and had lunch and sunbathed. We then had a facial from Marta to try and get rid of some of the grease we had been rubbing onto our faces for the last week. It felt lovely and clean when she had finished it was a pity we went straight back out and put sun lotion all over again. Then Sarah turned up, she said she had been running late that morning and had missed us so she came to look for us as she knew where we usually were. We bought the earrings and more besides! She is a very good saleswoman! We saw Jenny again and I gave her my old beach bag as she said she could repair it, we said our goodbyes as we wouldn't see her again until next year. We stayed on the beach to watch the sunset with a drink then went back to the hotel and got ready to go out to Casa Portuguese for our paella. When we arrived Indian Television were there filming which is obviously why Francisco asked us to go on that night. They interviewed us and asked us what made us keep going back to Goa. They were doing a lifestyle programme for Indian TV about the other side of Goa. Also in there were some friends of Francisco who were Polish, there seemed to be no country they hadn't been to. Anyway it was their 28th wedding anniversary so they had made a cake for them and they passed it around and asked us to join them in a bottle of champagne which we certainly weren't going to refuse. Then they ordered another bottle which we helped them along with as well. They were a lovely couple and really interesting to talk to, we had a great night and left at 2.30 a.m.

13/4/07 Up early to start packing as this is our last day. Went last minute shopping for anti-malaria tablets for next year, drinks and t-shirts for last minute presents. Back to hotel, changed for beach, went to Dommat Shack to see Sangita for last massage, had lunch and sunbathed. Back to Beach Queen shack to watch last sunset and say goodbye to everyone. Finished packing. Met Di in Sudans for dinner where we met up with Norma. Went to Shamrock Karaoke pub and back to hotel for 1.30 am for a few hours sleep.

14/4/07 Up at 3.45 am, finished packing. Left for airport zombie-like at 5 am. Usual queuing. We were 18 kilos over our limit but she said she would help us and only charge for 5 kilos! It cost us £43. Must do less shopping next year. We bought samosas for breakfast and settled down to read for who knows how long. The flight was on time. We bought more nuts at Bahrain airport and had an uneventful journey home. We did have an interesting journey talking to the guy who owns St Anthonys shack at Bagga, he sat next to us on the plane home so it wiled away a few hours. We will call in and see him next year.

Hope it doesn't take as long to read as it took me to type this! Sorry about any spelling mistakes. Next stop Paros in August, Benidorm at Christmas then back to Goa March 24th, hope to catch up with you all then. Happy travelling.

Brenda & Liz