Beach huts!

So much has happened today that writing about yesterday will mostly be based on my short notes.

Yesterday we woke up late, neither of us had been up for setting an alarm. Fully in style with the rest of the place here, I think. Nothing opens before 11 anyway. Not that we were in any kind of hurry, our first appointment was at noon. This morning Susanne had some stomach pains though, probably too many acids in the fruit drinks the night before. We just made it to the cabins in time and met up with one of the employees who showed us the hut we would get. It was still occupied and he was about to evict the current inhabitants, but I intervened and said that it would be no real use to use before the evening anyway as the hotel was paid for the day anyway. Did get to peek inside though and it looked really roomy and airy compared to our current room. Deal!

Afterwards we went to an Italian restaurant we had seen earlier, hungry for pizza. So much for that! Pizza was the one thing they did not serve that early. I ended up with a Bolognese, sadly not of the kind I know. The majority of the dish consisted of minced meat fried in spices and a little spaghetti. No sauce. The pancake I had for dessert was nice though!

As we were sitting there, Susanne got into a conversation with our travel agency via phone. After a good 15 minutes we had some new things to think about. As I very much expected, they would not pay for our beach huts. That was still OK, Susanne wanted beach huts and she got beach huts. I must say I much prefer them too. The interesting thing was rather our flight from Goa to Delhi. We had booked the trip so that we would have 3 full days in Delhi at the end of our journey. Now we were informed that our original flight would leave Goa airport on the 22nd instead. I am most definitely not up for a week in Delhi, it is far too large and noisy and smelly, especially after Goa. But that would actually not be a problem anyway, as the travel agency was about to book us on a flight on the 27th instead! It seems like there was some doubts whether the midnight flight we were booked on for the 22nd would actually work out or would end up cancelled, and the flight on the 27th is some time in the afternoon. Also, they had booked us into beach huts now - even though the message yesterday was "no beach huts" because of "safety issues" and "all booked out".

These huts would be on another beach though, Palolam. A far more touristy beach with a much more active nightlife. We were starting to enjoy our little off-track beach though, and didn't want to leave just yet. As we had booked the beach huts here until the 22nd, I came up with the idea of staying here until sometime on the 22nd and then move over to the other beach and the company beach huts until the 27th. That way we would still have some time here, and we would also see another beach. One day in Delhi is perhaps a little short, but rather that, than a week. We got a web address for the huts at Palolam, and after checking it out at a cybercafe  Susanne called the travel agency back and arranged it like that.

We then ventured back to our 'untel'room to pick up bathing outfits. As we had walked all the way south the day before, we decided going all the way north. Towards the northern end there was a river flowing into the ocean, creating the setting of a nice lagoon. We never got around to bathe (just got a little wet from wading through the stream) as we would have to be back at the beach hut by 6pm to accept the cabin. We agreed on taking a break at the first restaurant we passed going south and found a quiet little place next to a set of beached fishing boats. A sweet little girl ran off to wake her father, and soon we were served a nice meal of mixed vegetables and rice. Neither of us were too hungry, so we shared it.

We made it to the cabins just in time, but the cabin was still not empty. The previous inhabitants were also on Goa time! No problem for us though, we just crashed at the closest beach restaurant and had a nice meal as as the sun slowly set in the horizon. We also made a new friend there, Lady. A nice golden shorthaired lady in her best years, she is a permanent resident of the huts in the area together with her friend, a black and yellow specimen that was a little more shy. Lady on the other hand was not shy, and she was laying across my feet under the table even before the food arrived.

Once they had finally managed to get everything packed, the previous inhabitants of our hut came over to us and let us know it was all ready and clean now, they were off to another beach with a late night bus. We got the key from the cabin and set a course for out untel. We also had a lot to pack and it took a lot of time before we were suddenly standing in the reception ready to check out... our untel-manager was less amused, even though he this way would still get money for the room and also the ability to rent it out again making it a double win for him. Oh well, can't please them all.

Just dropping our luggage at the hut we headed south along the road. In Susannes book there was a mention of a restaurant with a great chocolate pudding and I had to try it of course. It was quite a walk and it was dark, and on the way there Susanne failed to see where the edge of the road made a little curve and she stepped over on her left ankle. Poor her. She still made it to the restaurant though, it would probably be fine once she had rested it a little. It was an Italian place and the menu was quite disappointing. Perhaps 10 pizzas and 5 pasta dishes as well as some soups and a few other things. I went for a pizza margarita. I think I prefer American style pan pizza, the dough on the pizza I got was so hard I had problem cutting it with a beef knife. The filling was bland at tasteless as well. Meh. And chocolate pudding? Nope.

Not wanting to wait around for a taxi at night we walked home, Susannes foot still hurting but perhaps getting a little better. Halfway home we came across a taxi, and we were driven the last Lady greeted us as we came through the back gate. The foot was still uncomfortable as she went to bed though, and we agreed that she should see a doctor if it was still as bad in the morning.

It was so nice going to sleep in our hut, the waves slowly taking us into the land of dreams, and fresh air being circulated through all the openings in the rather basically built hut. It keeps cool during the day and gets borderline cold at night, just perfect for sleeping. I did find use for my Leatherman, the locking loop for the deadbolt being a cm too high too lock. Now it locks. Not that it actually matters too much as the bathroom s only separated from the main room by a 2 meter high wall and the roof is almost 4 meters up at its peak.. but still, it needed sorting and it got sorted. Like the clock on the air condition remote in Kochi, it was all wrong. Now it is not.