Len & Carolyn arrived in Panaji, Goa on Tuesday 18th Feb 2003.
We left Melbourne on Cathay at 1455 on Monday and 9 and a half hours later arrived Hong Kong. Walked miles to lounge with only enough time for quick drink. Noticed all loud speaker announcements were in Mandarin not Cantonese - times have changed in HK..
Our Cathay flight was almost 6 hrs to Delhi arriving approx 1am local time. After some time working the customs system to get our dozed wine through, we ended up at the Grand Hyatt.
The more usual route would be via Mumbai which we will certainly do next time.

Left Delhi around lunchtime next day on Sahara airlines for 2 hour flight to Goa after elapsed time of about 29 hrs. Goa is certainly not easy to get to. The airport is a naval base so commercial flights are restricted to 1 at 0630 and a few between noon and 4pm.

We will be staying at the Marriott until mid April. The Browns will be staying in the Company house until end March and then the house needs repainting. The Marriott is an excellent hotel on the banks of the Mandovi River, towards the mouth. It has a 40 m pool which is great for an early morning swim and an excellent gym. So we are both trying to get into shape a hard ask!!

Our first taste of Goa/Indai - no digital clock in the room. Why? Because the power fails so often you would be resetting the clock forever.

Picture 1: Sesa Goa Barge

Sesa Goan iron ore barge moving downstream on the Mandovi River, adjacent the Marriott Hotel. Where else in the world could you sit in your hotel and watch your work go by. The ore is transported about 15 km from the loading bunder to Sesa's offshore transhipping vessel. This enables large vessels - up to 180,000 DWT - to be loaded. Some ore also goes to the Managoa Port but only 60,000 DWT vessels can be loaded there.

Pic 2 Beach Shack Eating

A popular Sunday pastime is driving south or north to a beautiful beaches. The Mandovi and Zuire Rivers form a huge delta so you need to drive about 40 minutes to get to the beaches which then stretch forever. No real surf but walk-straight-into warm water. After a swim, then partake of a fresh fish, crab, mussel, calamari or prawn lunch washed down with the odd Kingfisher beer. Another swim then back to the real world for another week.