I have just got back from goa yesterday. flew with thomas cook we upgraded to the premium cabin (first time for us) well worth the extra cash! direct flights and all on time leaving and early arrivals both going and coming home!

arrived 30th dec stayed at the osborne hotel second time we have stayed there and had the usual drama of arguing over rooms. after paying for an upgrade and waiting for a couple of hours we got the rooms we wanted... we have had this trouble both times we stayed there but after speaking to guests in the hotel i think its purely down to luck coz some guests payed a lot less that us last minute, was on our flight and got upgraded rooms free of charge in our block. now we requested rooms back in may e-mailed hotel prior to arrival payed full price and also was first guests there off our flight as our bags where first off an we got a cab and skipped the bus arranged by thomas cook and was told there where no rooms available at all in the block we wanted.. so try work that one out!!!

anyway, settled in after a few hours and headded down to the beach. it was our second time in goa but our friends first. all we had gone on about was how good the food was! first meal my friend ate was a tuna wrap in the big budda shack in calangute and he got food poisining. really bad too! 100% from that shack because we all ate the same food that day except that tuna wrap we shared noodles, rice and tandoori chicken. our taxi driver explained later that tuna from that shacks is not popular with goan people and is no surprise that he got it from that as it is not a fast selling fish and could have been frozen for a while.

some good medicine sorted all that out and if anybody gets it in goa you can get an injection from the doctor for about 500 rupees which will sort you out quick!

went to anjuna for new year went to shiva valley and curlies amazin beach party that went on till past 7am!!!

visited a few beaches morjim, ashwem, baga,candolim, anjuna but the best was down south palolem! stayed there for a night and ate in the cuba shack mostly great bbq sea food there!

we booked a trip with our cab driver think he phoned daytrippers and went on there boats to monkey island... never made it though! on our way there about a hour or so into the journey the coast guard in there gunship stopped all three of our boats and a few others with us, where all tied together to the coastguards boat and insisted the drivers got on board and presented there papers to the coast guard. they done this but where still told that they could not go to the island. after a lot of shouting at the crew from the coast guards we turned around and headed back! after 10 minutes or so the crew made a few phone calls and decided to turn around and actually head for monkey island... this turned out to be a mistake for everyone! we travelled again in the boats for about 40 mins and we stopped for a bit of snorkelling. then we herd gunshots in the air from the coast guard, they where back, about 200 meters away in there gunship! one of our three boats went with no passengers to the coast guard and we waited. after another few phone calls to the crew we all had to go back again. tied to the coast guards boat.

on our way to the coastguard we could see the lads off the boat that went where first getting beaten up by the coastguards. then one by one the crew where taken on board and beaten up and this was infront of about 100 tourists! one of the crew was terrified and would not get onto the boat for is turn to get beaten up, this made it worse for him! the main coast guard got of his boat and onto one of the daytrippers boat, the one next to us and beat him up on the boat then took him onto the coast guards boat and whipped him with a big piece of rope! we never seen him again they kept him!

eventually they let us all go and we spent a hour or so an some secluded beach then spent another 2 hours getting back to sinquerim! so 6 hours stuck on a boat. all in all a bit of a eye opener! felt really sorry for the crew.

spent most of our time at the skylark shack in baga which is a great shack. great food and they do some of the best tandoori chicken i have tasted!

the police presence was apparant all the time we where there we where told that there where 15,000 army police drafted in from all over india for the terrorist threat. road blocks where still there and are there till at least the 21st jan.

anjuna market was busy went twice and there was a army there too. not that it was a problem, it made us feel safe and if your not doing anythig wrong you dont have anything to worry about.

all in all had a great holiday you can see there are differences in goa this year but its not a problem the people are just as nice and the weather is the same and everything is still as cheap (give or take a couple of rupee's).

anyone wats any more detaild info from where we went or whatever just ask!