Greetings friends and loved ones from Marie and Neil North Goa, and more specifically Morjim (turtle beach). Since our last email, we have been very busy partying, relaxing ourselves and 'havin' it!' in Goa with the hippies and hedonists you will be pleased to hear. I have developed a wonderful tan and look like a local and Neil is ginger ;-) Before leaving amazing Mumbai, we visited Mani Bhanvan Mahatma Ghandi Museum, which was Gandhi's Bombay base between 1917-1934. The house has an extensive library and has maintained his sitting room behind glass. On the walls we found various letters, including one to Adolf Hitler offering an olive branch. I also found his certificate of call to the bar - none other then Inner temple where I was called - I was very chuffed with myself. The afternoon left us both feeling very emotional as Gandhi truly was a amazing and selfless man and fought peacefully for what is true and honourable. That was definitely another highlight so far. This was followed by an evening stroll along Mumbai's famous Chowpatty (beach) and some more tasty Indian snackage! This time bhel puri, a marvellous blend of what I can only describe as rice crispies, onions, toms, spice and herbs - yum! Another cullinary marvel/disaster was an interesting digestive introduced to us by my good friend Pankaj. Following another very challenging Gujurati Thali (ie - eat as much as you can), Pankaj ushered us to a stall outside the restaurant where they roll tobacco as well as what is known as 'pan'. Basically, the guy layers all sorts of spices and dried dates into the leaf (including sticks that I guessed were cinnamon) and rolls them into a very large bite sized portion. Pankaj assured us that it was edible and having devoured it himself we took the plunge (to my initial regret as It was like chewing a birds next and made me gag twice!) Neil could not stop laughing inside when he saw my face. It did the trick however and settled our tummys very nicely indeed. This one's for Anna, Nats and Jenny - they also sell Lays crisps here. Devoured a tiny weeny packet of 'Magic Masala' flavoured Lays (very small blue packet - 5 rupees - sell by date 16.12.2007 - nice!) I do recall from my last email that I had informed Laura that the medical kit had not yet been necessary (touch wood). However, the following day, having dined at the tea centre for lunch and experiencing the best ever 'good old masala chai' to date, whilst crossing the road and stepping onto the pavement, I walked straight into a metal box raised on a pole, gashed my eyebrow, blood everywhere and had to head home in a taxi quick time!!!! I still have a little scar which I think is tres cool although the bruise took a while to fade..................all fit and well now though and no tummy probs to date we are pleased to advise you...............Dr Le Bihan was on hand to ensure that I did not have to visit the local hospital! Our journey from Mumbai to Goa on the Konkan railways sleeper train was very exciting. I was on the top bunk and couldn't sleep with all the excitement. Neil was on the bottom bunk and couldn't sleep either as he was kind of sharing with an African Grey (talking/squawking) parrot - at times I was convinced that it was possessed given the noises coming from it's cage. We supped very sweet chai in the morning and towards the end of our train journey we spent our time hanging out of the side of the train taking in all the beautiful sights of North Goa; the lush green vegetation, rivers and the clear blue sky - what a transformation in 12 hours from the hustle, bustle and tooting in Mumbai to the tranquility and beauty of Goa! We then headed straight to Arambol - a hippy resort in the North - and stayed 6 days! Our taxi ride from the train station to this beautiful village was breathtaking and when we found Arambol we both agreed that it was far from what we had expected or could have ever imagined - we were very far from Mumbai and some might say India itself - Goa is not India!!!!!! The beach is about 2/3 miles in length, with flat white sand and fringed by palm trees and the occasional bar. Isolated fishing boats, cows idly grazing (yes Kate lot's of cows on the beaches here!), women selling colourful sarongs, anklets and necklaces (hassle-a-minute), hippy-types with dreadlocks practising their yoga and doing unimaginable shapes with their bodies. The sunset was amazing, possibly the most beautiful I have seen, vibrant reds, yellows, blues and purples in the sky sinking into the horizon slowly. A world away from the bustle of Mumbai and a world away from the world that we know..................a peaceful haven for hippies and communal living........a rural fishing village that can be legitimately described as paradise. Golden sand and the vast blue sea as far as the eye can see..........cows, crabs, pigs and the occasional chicken. Pineapple, mango, coconut, papaya, bananas..........The breeze from the Arabian ocean stroking our warm bodies as the bathe in the sun. A palm fringed oasis for daily sun bathing and evening congregations around a camp fire with bongos, guitars, fire displays and dancing! Having spent our first night in a room without any water i.e. shower (not ideal considering we had spent the whole day and evening on the beach!) Neil found us a 'bungalow' to stay in. He convinced me to hike in what can only be described as a desert with my backpack on with the image of Goan luxury keeping me going. to what turned out to be a wooden hut/bals wood type shack on the top of the roof of a 3 storey block of apartments. Upon arrival at our new home, exhausted I examined the accommodation in silence for a while before planting both hands on my hips and questioning, 'I thought you said a bungalow?!?!?!?' Although we only stayed for one night (and several mosquito bites later!), it was fun and was all part of the experience (and now that is out of the way hopefully we will never have the misfortune of staying on the roof in a shed again!). ginger NEIL writing now: We transferred to one of their proper rooms the next day and each morning watched the piglets running around the place fighting, Marie loved it! It was a short walk to the beach and we spent a few days bathing further and spending the evenings eating baby hammer head shark and tandoori kingfish with some cocktails and beers normally. The cost of everything is very very cheap. Live music in beach side bars (music in the bars stops at 10 o'clock though because the police turn up to enforce the 'lights out' law, although a few rupees bung normally allows for longer. Basically the law of Goa (and India from all accounts) is the Police enforce the law but money will pretty much allow any breaches! Once the bar music stops there is normally a fire somewhere with bongos, flutes and local singers sitting around hanging out, all very very pleasant and we fulfilled the Goan stereotype very quickly! The Goans and 'local' residents really are a world away from anything I have ever seen.(Not the Russians though, a three hour flight from Moscow has seen a lot of properties brought up and they charter them all out here for heavy trance).They are changing the visa requirements for Russians to try and stop it though as the local Goans are far from happy) We moved South to Morjim (turtle beach) and are now staying with Gilbert at 'Gilbert's, a guy slighty older than us (he has a restaurant on the beach too), who takes us out each night on the back of his Enfield 350cc for live music, and good food. He is quite an exceptional character. His pals all look after us too. We visited 'Nine Bar', a famous bar about 20 mins on the bike for some trance with heavy base at the top of a cliff overlooking the bay in Vagator. Trance has never been my bag, but here anything goes. We had Indian supemodels on one side, a famous Belgium artist (about 55) 'havin it' in front of the speaker, children, old people etc it was amazing. The town or tiny village of Chapora near Vagator at one in the morning is unbelivable, set down in the conopy of the trees and close jungle foilage, the biggest bongs ever seen to man being passed between an ageing grey hippie to a local Goan, to a young woman etc etc, not for me quite yet I think!! Gilbert has ordered us some fresh Lobster for our last night here tonight before we head south. We saw a gig last night, Prem Joshua, we bunked over the wall to get in with our host (Glasto style)and had been told that this band has been touring Europe for a while, a five piece band from all over the world, if you can get their album, listen to the song Silver Moon, its about 20 mins long but well worth sticking with. I expect our last morning we will be woken by the woodpecker on out bathroom window about 8:30, and perhaps hopefully see the monkey that has recently been stealing the bananas from out front garden. He lost his family recently in the surrounding jungle and seems to have set up at our house for a bit. We hope you are all well at home and of course you are missed but not that much hey! Love to all. Ginger Neil and Sri Lankan looking Marie.xx