table, grinning like a Cheshire cat!! After a couple of drinks we headed off to the house to see Ruta and meet the kids. Myc's kids are great, they took a little while to get used to us being around, but they soon became very friendly, and it was nice to see Ruta again too. We spent the first day chilling at Myc's, it felt like we'd been on the move a lot recently, and Goa was already a really nice place to chill.

The next day we organized another scooter, Myc had given us the use of his, but we were decidedly shaky with us both on board!! We were quite alarmed by the fact that both scooters had the words "Infant Jesus" written on the front!! In fact, there were lots of signs that Christianity had been forced on the Goans during the Portuguese rule. It seemed somewhat out of place in India. We went off to the nearest town in convoy to get some money, but we found the town too hectic, and decided

to stick to the quiet country roads which lead to the beaches. That night we all went out for a meal at a restaurant facing the sea, which was great! It has to be said that the food in Goa was the best we'd eaten so far in India, not just the legendary seafood enjoyed by me, but the veggie food as well. We also found here the best breakfasts so far, including real Heinz baked beans, previous Indian beans seemed to have a very suspicious bright orange-red colour, and a very vinegary taste! And the Goans have a friendliness which we had not previously seen.

We spent the next couple of days exploring North Goa on our scooters, there were some lovely places, and by the end of the two days we had visited every beach in North Goa. Even the beaches which Lonely Planet described as busy and touristy were really good as the season hadn't started yet. Just off one of the beaches is a huge grounded oil