It’s been eleven months since we last saw our friends in India; eleven rather eventful months it has to be said.

Though it seems no time at all, and we seamlessly slipped back into village and beach life as if we left only yesterday, it has effectively been a lifetime for me.

Perhaps more of that later, but right now I’m preparing my first blog post on my phone, on a sun drenched beach with the smell of tandoori cooked meals wafting across the sands to our sunbeds.

This is our twelfth visit to the west India coastal state of Goa. Other than the COVID years, we’ve been coming since 2011.

We kinda like it here. 😎

In recent times, as this, we rent an apartment in the village of Majorda – a lovely, tranquil little place that caters for tourists, but in a quiet, uncommercial manner.

There are a few bars / restaurants within a ten minute walk and the beach is about 600 metres down the road from our room.

The people of the village are so welcoming too. Many remember us from previous years and come to greet us. It’s one of those friendly little places where you hear a cheery “Good Morning ” as you pass the locals after breakfast

The journey from Glasgow, Scotland is a bit arduous but the flights to Dubai and then Bengaluru with Emirates were fantastic. As was the final flight up to Goa with Viristar.

On all three, the service was impeccable and the food first class.

It did take 24 hours of solid travel / waiting for connections and in all we went 36 hours without sleep.

It will be well worth it though, we know

That said, on our first day, Monday gone, the weather was a bit cloudy. In all our previous visits, I swear we have seen one solitary cloud that quickly rolled over our beach one day a few years back.

Worse still … yesterday it rained! Boy, did it rain!

Today however, the forecast is for sunshine (still pretty hazy at lunchtime, I’m afraid) and temperatures rising from 31 to 35 degrees over the next few days.

To put that in perspective, back home the max high is forecast 7 degrees, falling at times to minus 4.

Ok … so that’s it for now.

I’ll be back to bore you with more tales from The Times of India tomorrow – hopefully with some pictures of blue skies and sunshine. 😉

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😎🇮🇳😎