Life's a beach....

Day three in Goa and it's fair to say that we are in full blown chillax mode here. The weather is hot and humid and so we are spending most of the time down by the pool dipping ourselves in the water (which is lukewarm rather than cold) and drinking plenty of Kingfishers (the local beer, not puréed wildlife) and cocktails. It seems I have a penchant for ladies cocktails, as every time. We make an order the waiters *always* put my drink choice in front of Sarah and are genuinely surprised when we say it is for me! What can I say?? I enjoy fruit based cocktails in this sort of weather!! **Update** I may like them, but my digestive system certainly doesn't enjoy the fruit based cocktails, so I am having to stick to beer instead now!!

Our regular breakfast view overlooking the pool......relaxing

View of the pool, with waterfall and caves to explore!

Anyway, permit me to give you a few things I have noticed so far. The food and drinks in the hotel are fairly expensive (Relatively! It is still cheaper than a night in London), and if you are brave enough to venture out of the grounds even a little way, you will find the same drinks for a fraction of the price. I suppose it is hard for the Leela to compete, as they have staff to pay for etc. and I am guessing they have to pay their share of government taxes too.

The beach bars and vendors all have wonderfully English names. We like dining in Vernon's bar which offers good local fare at very reasonable prices and this is next door to Pearl's beach bar, which after a few conversations is more a "Russian" place to go and eat (even the menu has been translated into Russian). As an example of the price differential, we had a lovely meal at Vernon's washed down with a handful of cocktails and beers and it came to a grand total of 1700 rupees (about £20). Compare that to us having two cocktails each at the hotel bar which will set us back a little bit more!!

A selfie at Vernon's - nice place to watch the sunset

 
It is safe to say we love the beach bars, we can sit and watch the sun setting into the Arabian Sea as we get progressively more tipsy. One word of caution though is that the cocktails are *strong*....there is no such thing as measures here, they just pour what they think is a reasonable amount of booze into a glass and shake it up...the result is a sharp intake of breath after your first sip, but it becomes more palatable the more you have (or the more drunk you become).

Cheap beer, generous spirit measures and a beach view.....what's not to like?

The wildlife here is great, it is not shy whatsoever! Sarah is a big fan of the egrets, and has taken to feeding them little tidbits whenever she can, much to the annoyance of the lone gunman patrolling the balcony trying to scare of the birds with his rifle. At least I think that is what he is there for.....he does have a knack of knowing when you are at your most relaxed to then fire off a couple of shots at crows. Needless to say, since we noticed him, I have avoided the "Goan chicken" on the menu ;)

Sarah feeding her little egret.....#come feed the birds, tuppence a bag#

The gun is to scare the birds - or non-paying diners!

Other wildlife we have seen includes a variety of kingfishers outside our room - they usually annoy Sarah in the mornings as they have a loud call, which is like an alarm, and do this every sunrise without fail! There are also Brahminy kites which soar around the grounds all day without having to flap their wings once, they swoop in very low, but I am just rubbish with my camera, so haven't got a decent shot of them yet!. On top of that there are chipmunks, snakes and Sarah's faves, beach dogs. 

Whole families of dogs just seem to laze on the beach around the beach restaurants, knowing that come the end of the night the staff will give them a few scraps. They are very friendly and not too rabid, so you can interact with them without ending up trapped in a beach hut in a Cujo-esque stand-off.

Dotty dog (Sarah's name for her ) - just a little pup and very friendly!

 

They really have the life of Riley here,  and you have to wonders if you would be rescuing them by adopting one.  Here they have warm evenings, water to splash around in, and an abundance of food (as far as I can tell) and loads of people who come over to say hello to them....

That is about all to report for now, we are looking to pop into the town tomorrow in order to pick up a couple of mementos (fridge magnets!) from Goa, and after that we only have one more day here before we start making our way back home (via Delhi!).