“A vacation within a vacation.”
As if our vacation visiting family and friends in Hyderabad wasn’t enough, we decided to indulge ourselves in…another vacation! This time we headed off to Goa, with our children, my mother, and sister in tow! We debated for awhile on whether to go to Goa or Kerala, and decided on a beach vacation due to Soren’s love for sand, water, and swimming. As it turned out, the state of Kerala has been experiencing a very severe monsoon season, the worst in a century in fact. It has been a terrible natural disaster.
The monsoon was also active in Goa, but in a much more pleasant fashion I am happy to report. It was cloudy most of the time and humid, with occasional light rains lasting 10-15minutes 2-3x a day. The beach water and the pool water felt amazing – cool and comfortable. It was off season in Goa, so the markets were not as bustling as usual and the resort was not fully occupied, which all suited us just fine. On talking to the resort staff and outside vendors, we learned that Russians are now the major international tourists that visit Goa to escape their long and cold winters. I had no idea!
The plane ride to Goa was only 1 hour long and we had no travel issues. The hotel had a bus that picked us up as soon as we stepped out of the airport. We arrived on August 7th at the Park Hyatt beach resort in the evening and settled into our rooms and had dinner at the resort.
The next few days followed a similar pattern. Breakfast, then beach time, then pool time, then pool-side lunch, followed by more swimming or time in the kids’ club, then clean-up time and dinner. I LOVE pool side lunches…only second to afternoon naps! Here are some of these moments captured.
Here we are enjoying a nice breakfast:
Due to the monsoon season, the beach was rough and windy, but somehow still pleasant. Clark is getting good at taking these panoramic pictures. The sand was very soft and lovely to walk on and play with.
On our third day in Goa, we finally ventured out of the resort. We hired a driver to take us to a spice plantation. We all enjoyed the tour and learned about where our favorite spices come from!
The farm itself was quite beautiful and tropical. We had a lovely time!
Here were are in front of Clarks’ favorite crop, the coffee tree.
On our way out, we stopped briefly to take pictures with 2 friendly elephants. Soren was brave! One of them opened his mouth widely and we were quite impressed. The elephants then retired to their lunch of tree branches and leaves.
On the drive we passed many churches and other buildings with Portuguese design. Goa was a Portuguese colony/terrority for a few hundred years prior to being rightfully annexed by India and is currently the (smallest) state in India. It was interesting to note the Iberian influences as we drove around. I had been to Goa 8 years ago with friends from medical school for vacation, but didn’t appreciate this element as much back then, but after having recently visited Portugal just over a month earlier (where has the time gone!!), it was fascinating to note the similarities and differences. We are very excited to see what Macau, another former Portuguese territory, looks like as we are planning on a trip there while in Hong Kong.
The children had a wonderful time in Goa. Meera started sitting up independently for longer periods of time, and Soren really improved his swimming abilities!
Soren loved going down the slide, and splashing into the pool below:
Meera enjoyed the children’s play room where she had plenty of space to try to learn how to crawl and chew on many toys:
She also enjoyed tasting the many different delicious dishes at the resort:
On the last day, we relaxed at the beach and pool before heading to the airport. I spent an hour walking on the beach, cooling off in the water and listening to my audio book, All the light we cannot see; this was my personal highlight of the vacation. What a trip!!