Goa away!

Being our penultimate day in Goa, we decided to take a break from the serious business of drinking and sunning ourselves and go and partake in a little bit of shopping for trinkets and knick knacks (also known as fridge magnets!). The Leela being in such a secluded spot meant that we needed a taxi ride to get to the main shopping area about 4kms away. The nice thing is though that taxis are so ridiculously affordable, it is not a major issue (a driver hired to drive us there wait for two hours as we mooched around and drove us back cost about 600 rupees, which equates to about £7).

I like the name of this shop. I bet they're good at slashing prices!

So, we were dropped off in the middle of the shops. Obviously, seeing two slightly tanned tourists landing in their midst, the clamour to get us to visit each of their shops was strong!! When they do eventually tempt you in, you need to be mindful that the owners of the shops are eagle-eyed, so if you linger your gaze for one second too long on anything in their shop, suddenly you are being shown everything they have in stock for that particular item! You have been warned! We we are pretty good though at being polite but forceful in refusing to go into every shop along the strip. After all, there are only so many Pashmina scarves and linen shirts your eyes can take in before they all merge into one!! 

Our walk about the town made me realise something unusual about the area. There are dentists in Goa. A lot of dentists. Without too much exaggeration I would say about 1 in 10 shops in Goa that I have seen are dental surgeons. The people here must have the cleanest, healthiest teeth in the whole world!!

You might need to enlarge to see there's three different dentist signs here!

And a bit further up the road, more Dentists!

Anyway, I managed to find my fridge magnet (it cost me 50 rupees which is considerably cheaper than in Rajasthan), and Sarah bought a couple of bits and bobs too. She is good at haggling, almost to the point where you start feeling sorry for the shopkeepers - although a part of me realises that their whole "I am making a loss on this" patois is all part of the charade, as they are not silly enough to sell you anything without making money on it!

Another industry that is prevalent here: Chemists and Druggists

Owing to the humidity, even a couple of hours out shopping saps your energy, so as soon as we got back to the hotel we dipped straight into the pool and ordered a Kingfisher, which helped cool us off! This evening, being our last in Goa, we decided to push the boat out a bit and have a lovely Italian meal at the hotels signature restaurant. It was very nice way to end our Goan holiday, as sadly our time in this lovely part of India has come to an end. Tomorrow we fly back to Delhi for a final night before heading our way back home to England. It seems like only yesterday that we were arriving, and while I know that we have done a lot in three weeks, we have only scratched the surface of what India has to offer.

The sun is setting on our Indian honeymoon....

So, only one more post to go, and then I will try and summarise what I have learnt about our trip to India.