The run up to Christmas was going to be crazy in any hotel but as we have no GM, except for Vincent who has pretty much been given the role by the staff, they always come to him with problems from any area as he can sort them out and actually listens to them. Rather cleverly Darielle decided she and her Mum would be GMs, but they are both going to be in Bombay over Christmas so that's no help.We decided that as a selling point for something different we would ask...

This week I went to the dentist, well Doyle our friend who we have mentioned before was trained in America but has a practice in Goa. It is a very exclusive private 'dental lounge', not clinic folks it's a lounge. When he said he would re-fill my tooth that was black amalgam with a white plastic one for 500rs how could I say no? However when he said he could do it with no anaesthetic I wasn't too sure! Actually I decided to try it and found that I could hardly fe...

Today we met Eve's daughter Darielle and her boyfriend Bryan. They had just arrived from the USA and we weren't sure what to expect. Eve described Darielle as her most spoilt child! In fact Darielle looks a lot like her Dad and speaks with an American accent and although she has obviously been brought up with money she is realistic about it. She seems to have more business sense than her Mum and it's nice to have someone more our age around again. Bryan is very s...

Last night we went back to the first temple again to try and get another look at Lackshmee the Elephant but no luck. They said if we wanted to watch hr having her morning bath to meet them at the river at 6.30am, we weren't sure we'd be up then as tonight we are sleeping on the bus again, and we weren't. We settled for having dinner in a cheap and nice diner last night and did some bartering on the market for some lovely little statues. Back in our room we made a...

Tonight we go to Hampi. The night bus was meant to be leaving at 8pm and arriving at 6am. We actually left on time! Our 'cabin' was at the very back of the bus and consisted of two chairs that laid right back and made beds and a curtain around us. We only took one small rucksack so that stayed with us. Pooja had made us a packed lunch, well she had ordered it from the kitchen any way. It consisted of Pooja pakoras, onion bagees and spring rolls. It was all packed...