Lovely Goa

Our Trip to Goa

Hello all! We hope this update finds you all happy, healthy and enjoying the holiday season. We are just back from our extremely refreshing trip to Goa, where we vacationed with our dear friends Andy and Emma and their kids Erik and Mycha. Goa is located on the western coast of India on the Arabian Sea. We started out early in the morning last Saturday. Once in Goa, we drove around for quite some time looking for our hotel and finally the guys hopped into a rickshaw and we followed behind in the cars. The Vila Goesa Beach Resort on the Calangute-Baga stretch of North Goa beach is a lovely place with a pool and semi-private beach access. I say semi-private because there were plenty of people hawking a variety of local items. The following day we went on to Villa Salmona, a quaint Portuguese-style villa in Saligoa. A friend of Andy and Emma’s recommended the place and it was perfect. The drive to a very-public area of the Calangute beach Monday morning took only a few minutes. After eating fresh fruit from a vendor and playing hard in the sun, we returned to the villa for an outdoor lunch prepared by the caretaker/cook and a dip in the pool. We spent the evening relaxing and turned in early. On Tuesday we drove north about forty-five minutes to the very-private Morjim beach. It was so quiet, the only other people there were either lying in the sun or swimming in the ocean. Although it is December, it does get extremely hot in Goa so our trips to the beach were limited to mid-morning and early afternoon. We did some shopping Tuesday evening and then enjoyed a fantastic seafood dinner. We headed back to Pune early Wednesday morning. We cannot express how relaxing this trip was in the wake of what happened in Mumbai last week. Last Sunday we celebrated Christmas early with our friends from Servant’s Heart International. We arrived early to help the kids prepare for the show which included two skits and several dances. Chris played Santa again, much to our friend Preety’s delight. All-in-all, about two hundred gifts were distributed to many very happy children. It does the heart good to see such joy in such a turbulent time. We are now frantically packing for our trip to the US this weekend. We are beside ourselves with anticipation. We hope to see as many of you as possible while we are home. If we miss you, please know that we are thinking of you and wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!