Thursday 27th/Friday 28th - Ramada days 3 & 4

Condensed version for these two days..
Thurs - morning at the pool, lunch on the beach, afternoon siesta, taxi into Cavelossim in the evening for a spot of shopping (shirt for Dad, necklace, pens & jewellery storage boxes for Carrie and sunglasses for Sam) and dinner. Nice day all round, Ben 10 watch broken already...
Mel's worried about the food situation - too much lovely curry! Her diet starts tomorrow. Bought her first packet of fags to combat the hunger pangs...
Fri - a repeat of yesterday, except we went to the sunset bar for an early evening drink and to watch the sun go down. Then we had dinner by the pool at the hotel. Kids had a bit of a mad half hour in the room when we went back while Mel and I packed up the bags, ready for the trip to Delhi tomorrow night.

Wednesday 26th March - Sam's birthday

The big day was finally here - the daily countdown to Sam's birthday is finally at an end....
Sam was unsurprisingly up early today & we opened his cards & presents in our bedroom. The Ben 10 watch (whatever that is!) was a big hit. After breakfast we spent the morning at the beach, Sam & Carrrie amusing themselves as well as being dragged around on a boogie-board. Managed to get Sam some pasta for lunch, so he was happy, and like yesterday, we retreated to the room for an hour or so after lunch to avoid the sun. To our delight, we had a chocolate cake waiting for us in our villa with "Happy Birthday" on it - a nice surprise. The kids & Dad loved it!
Carrie enjoyed the hammock and colouring for a while while Sam watched yet another DVD...some things never change.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, Sam being a lunatic as usual.
Carrie & Mel went to paint a terracotta pot at 5pm, while Sam & Dad went back to the villa to get changed etc. Yet again, Sam hit the wall, falling asleep on me on the sofa while the girls were getting ready. However, the 40 winks was what he needed before we headed out for dinner
(cocktails first, of course). Dinner was great - they rustled up some pizza for the kids, but the best bit was the entertainment....a really cheesy singer in a cowboy hat doing covers of songs from his laptop - classic! I particularly liked his version of "Goodbye My Lover" by James Blunt - say no more. Dinner finished with Carrie finally giving up and falling asleep on me - two in one day, what can I say?

Monday 24th March - Ramada Day 1

Another lazy lie-in for the Lee family, & had to rush to make breakfast - again. No worries on the weather front - scattered cloud & hot as you like. Breakfast was even better than the Leela, with much more choice. Sam & Carrie tucked into doughnuts & dippy eggs - I could get used to this...
We were really surpirised at how much sun we all caught yesterday, when the weather was very overcast( read - 4 lobsters) - time to slap on the factor 40. Spent the morning at the hotel pool, enjoying the swim-up bar and watching the kids interact with the other families. There's a real variety here, well-to-do families from elsewhere in India, lots of Russians, a few other Brits (no kids) and we also met a nice Australian family who are living in Bangalore for 2 years.
The sun was getting FIERCE (my new word) after lunch, so we de-camped to the room and let the kids watch a DVD while I popped to the business centre to suss out the blog uploading - piece of cake really, even for a non-computer geek like me. The problem is, now that I have started this thing, I've got to continue....
We went down to the beach towards the end of the day when it had cooled off a lot. Let the kids play in the waves & had a beer at a beach bar while the sun went down - lovely.
After a quick nightime swim & shower, it was down to the beachside grill restaurant for grilled Indian Salmon. Carrie in her element - fish & baked potato, while Sam hit the wall due to too many cartwheels down the beach. He was practically asleep at the table and dreaming of his impending 6th birthday the next day.

Sunday 23rd March - enjoying the Leela & transfer to the Ramada

Woke to the sounds of birds nearby the lake and, for the first time in years, Sam was still asleep.

Both of the kids took some serious rousing before we were rushing to breakfast before they stopped serving. Very nice brekkie, waffles & syrup for Sam, cheese omlette for Carrie - sorted.
Weather was very cloudy, but temperature 31 degrees. Off to the beach to get burnt.
Beach was great - Sam adored the waves, and needless to say, it was like a bath. The kids amused themselves so easily, and I was really glad I packed the buckets & spades.

Went for lunch in a nearby beach restaurant (at least half the price of the Leela beach restaurant and more choice). Carrie decided she had to have red snapper, and they both demolished loads. Sam's basmati rice with his fish was a big hit - "I just can't stop eating it Daddy!"

4 pm arrived before we knew it and we were dropped at the Ramada by the Leela's complimentary driver - nice touch.
As we arrived, we were given some crushed kiwi fruit drinks (lovely) and had a red dot dabbed on our foreheads. Everyone is always sooo nice here!

Our 2 bedroom villa is a result - massive space to unwind & unpack into for 5 days. Not as nice as the Leela, but still pretty comfortable (the bathrooms are not up to Mel's high standards!).
Clouds were looking ominous as we headed to the pool, Mel amd I opting for 2 cold Kingfishers while Sam & Carrie swam in the rain! Just as we were heading back to the villa, a massive downpour started. I don't think the kids would have seen rain like this before...
We knew the weather forecast wasn't great for the first few days, so lets hope that was the worst of it.

Dinner was great - a big gala buffet affair. Loads of nice veggie curry stuff which Mel couldn't get enough of. Pasta for Sam.....but we got him to try some curry & rice. Afterwards made Sam's night - an african gymnastics exhibition, all somersaults & human pyramids etc.
Everyone asleep within minutes, except for me typing this blog thingy....

Saturday 22nd March - departure day.

Well 6pm took an awful long time to come around, but Stuart, our regular taxi man arrived on the dot, and we were off.....

M25 was a breeze and we were zooming past the new Terminal 5 building before we knew it. Terminal 4 was our destination, and having checked in on-line the night before, the fast bag drop was calling. After a quick stop at the Amex counter to pick up travellers cheques & rupees, we made it through security unscathed. All too easy so far...
Having found a spot to de-camp before heading to the departure gate, Sam proceeded to eat all of the sandwiches Mel had made him, and we hadn't even left the country yet!

Mel was desperate for a Pret a Manger sarnie and a Starbucks as "I might not eat for 24 hours".
Plane journey was not too bad - a little bit of turbulence to get Mel in a mild panic, but the kids slept pretty well after struggling to stay awake through "Enchanted" on the movie channel.

Arriving at Mumbai was great - no queue whatsoever through Passport Control, bags came out straightaway, and there was even a check in for the domestic flight departures! I was a bit concerned about this part of the journey, as it wasn't until Saturday morning that I realised that there are 2 airports in Mumbai (International & Domestic). They are 4 kms apart, and you get there via a free shuttle bus (getting a good sight of the largest slum in India near the perimeter fence), but thank god we didn't have to deal with our (very heavy) bags.

After a one and a half hour delay, our flight to Goa set off - Jet Airways. 45 minute flight, and they even squeezed in an in-flight meal - veggie curry (very nice). Both Sam & Carrie crashed out again...
Goa airport, or air strip really, was busy outside - a lot of taxi taxi taxi men. But in amongst all the mayhem was a uniformed driver from the Leela Resort - a sight for sore eyes. We jumped into his air-conditioned 4x4 and put our lives in his hands as he proceeded to break every traffic violation I'm aware of on the 45 minute journey South to the hotel. Sam and Carrie started to get a feel for some of India's classic sights - cows nonchalently wandering the roads, women carrying unfeasibly large things on their heads, extreme poverty, suicidal moped riders etc etc
We arrived at the sumptious, gated resort of the Leela to be all presented with garlands of flowers to hang round our necks, and a coconut each with a straw in! Started to feel like we were on holiday....
It was getting late, but I had time to take the kids for a quick swim in the pool as the sun came down, and we finished in darkness ("It's like swimming in Turkey Daddy!").
Room was lovely - 2 flatscreen Sonys on the wall - one for the kids in the living room area (even had Nick Jr!). Massive bath which the three of us dutifully tried out and remote control everything. Talk about easing our way into the trip!

Dinner was incredibly Indian (pasta, fish goujons & smiley faces) - can you believe it! Kids were exhausted, but devoured their food ("We''ll be more adventurous tomorrow"). Tiger Prawns for me and Red Snapper for Mel - brilliant.
All four of us collapsed into bed, and were no doubt snoring in moments.