I thought that this could be an interesting topic.

Most of us here are confirmed lovers of Goa and have been several times (probably an understatement for some! ). What made you decide on Goa in the first place - had you looked into the destination extensively, or did you stumble across it?

For us, we had some friends who had decided to go to Goa for Christmas and New Year. My OH came home having been visiting and said to me how did I fancy going to with them? I didn't know the first thing and thought 'why not' so we asked if we could tag along. I was so stressed before going that first time that I put my neck into a spasm and the doctor put me in a neck brace

We arrived pre-Christmas 2001, early evening to the madness of Dabolim , surrounded by loads of people who had been countless times and who were all very excited about being back. The queue for the immigration was long and slow, and all I could hear were people talking about their experiences, pig toilets etc!

Having negotiated immigration it was on to the baggage reclaim, my god we actually thought they were stealing the bags! Then off outside to the waiting porters and tour reps. Don't recall how much it cost us to get to the coach that year, not too much I don't think as we were all four of us rather paranoid by then!

We arrived at Sun Village after dark, one step into their foyer and the view of the Sun God looking out was enough to make us relax a little bit.

I remember our first day, emerging from the hotel to cries of 'come see my shop', 'taxi', 'cheap as chips' etc etc, we took one look and ran back in! That afternoon we took the hotel mini bus to Baga beach and once we had run the initial gauntlet we walked along the front, we decided to change our names and have a little fun along the way.

We were somewhat changed as we arrived back at the hotel that evening, much more relaxed and certainly getting into the swing of things. We had found a great shack (Spliffs!), had all been tatooed, massaged, Kingfishered etc (I had had a head massage to help my neck and my hair was all over the place!!)

I spent that first holiday, not really that sure of what I thought of Goa, but somewhere inside of me I knew I was coming back.

This Christmas is our ninth time, we have made some lovely friends over there during this time, people we met on our first trip and who never ask us for anything other than conversation and company. I'm just as excited and counting the days now, as I was the second time!