We didn't get much sleep last night as the office next door had its phone ringing and TV blasting til late then again from 5am! I think we might move rooms. We met with Ivor and the boss, whose name is Dinky! Basically they don't have much of a plan or much of an idea what Europeans would like of a hotel. We will be given a pretty free reign so I hope to teach their house keeping how to clean and Vincent hopes to make the shabby bar/restaurant nice. We decided we would check out the local area. I also asked the receptionist to move us to a different room, which they did. We decided to do what the locals do and hire a bike. Well a moped actually. It was a step through, small and not that heavy. 250rs later and a bottle (water bottle) of petrol from a road side vendor, we were off. I haven't been on a bike for years. It was a bit shaky at the start, and getting used to the constant horn blowing, ropy roads and Nicole squirming will take some time but it does the trick. Before long we where speeding (all the clocks on the bike don't work) the wind in our hair and a fresh breeze that we haven't hade since we left the UK. Arriving at Calangute beach we parked up and wandered through a mix of shops selling shells, tattoos, and sunglasses. Reaching the beach down only a few steps we could see a sprinkling of beach restaurants (on the beach itself) lots of fine white sand and plenty of Indian tourists (Europeans tend to come later in the year). We did what we should have done at this point, rolled up our trousers and with flipflops in hand strolled down the beach in the blazing sun. We walked for about half an hour then sat for a bit. A fishing boat arrived and was being dragged up the beach by a rope. Some of the guys on the rope where white. It was the boys from the UK! We decided to go for lunch so the boys walked up to Baga and we drove. Stopping at a beach restaurant (St Anthony). Nicole went to get some flipflops and ended up with a top instead. Dressed in the new top we sat together by the beach and watched the sun go down with the boys. Driving again I drank coke, Nicole and Michael drank a whole bottle of wine and mark had beer. We watched the sunset from the wicker chairs and I think that this is something that happens to other people not me. The sky goes through red to a deep purple and then dark, glittering with stars. The Arabian sea not far from our feet and children playing with parents and dogs running around. It all makes you feel relaxed and calm. Dark now we decide to get back and change and meet at a bar later. Finding we had lights on the bike was unexpected and welcome (here they do lights, but not much in Mumbai) now all we needed to do was find the hotel. People don't have maps or seem to sell them, so you either know the way or not. We only went wrong once (Twice! N. Ed.) but I didn't mind as it was so nice to ride in the cool evening air. We returned the bike, the guy there seemed a bit surprised that I hadn't scratched it (he witnessed my shaky start). We went up to the room, changed, ate and returned to town by taxi, the taxi drivers name was Sandy (that was a shortening of a name I couldn't say or spell), he told us he would take us around and to swap numbers with him (this seemed a good idea as even locals don't know where our hotel is). The boys place was in a villa several flats on the top two floors (Mark had stayed there before) it was big and had living room kitchen and bedroom with a huge shower room and toilet off it. The downstairs consisted of a "shoppe" , housing an old lady called Mama (that's what we all called her) and a carport with a new looking Suzuki swift, covered in Ferrari badges that seemed to belong to Dash (who reputedly owned the guest house). Dash was upstairs practicing catwalk with Michael (who later told me he had been doing it on and off for 5 years). We drank vodka and coke then ventured out to a bar called the Lounge Fly. It was empty but nice. Techno dance in one room, that was way too loud, the other room was the lounge bit and was lit by candle light (mostly to cover the monsoon water damage. After a few drinks we went on to Mambos. There were a few people there and we played some pool and meet some Iranian girls (and their mum aged 42, but you never would guess it) who just wanted to dance. 2 pizzas, several games of pool and lots of dancing later we were done, the boys went on to another bar called Kamaki but we got a cab home.