My favorite place on our visit to India was Goa. Before 1960 something, it was a Portuguese state or province. You can visit temples as well as churches and cathedrals. There are many resorts in Goa, as it has beautiful beaches, great seafood and friendly people open to everyone, not just indian nationals. We didn't get to hang with the "hippies", but were told that this is where india's hipsters reside.

We sampled the local liquor, fenny, an aquired taste. Fenny is made from cashews or coconut and is meant to have medicinal qualities. Husband bought six bottles without tasting it first and insisted on bringing home this local flavor. Fenny anyone?


The tiger prawns at Mum's Kitchen in Panjim, Goa were excellent as was the service by Abdul.
Mum's is located

"down the road from the Goa Marriott Resort (which, incidentally, has a marvelous seafood restaurant, Simply Fish, an outdoor venue overlooking the bay) in Martin's Building, D. B. Marg, Miramar; tel. 98221-75559 or 3100873; daily noon-midnight. It has a laid-back Mediterranean atmosphere and does wonderful crab xec-xec (cooked in thick, spicy coconut gravy) and pomfret recheado (fish stuffed with hot spices and pan-fried). The owner, Rony Martins, not only invites you to examine his kitchen for standards of hygiene and his fish for freshness, he is on a mission to revive authentic Goan cuisine. He sources and adopts old "grandma" recipes and has started "A Cry of Goa": an exercise to save Goan cuisine, in which locals are invited to eat at his restaurant free or at nominal cost and provide constructive criticism/suggestions for improvement." frommers guide to Goa .

We stayed at the Taj Exotica in southern Goa and even though it was monsoon, one day it rained only briefly in the morning and I got sunburned. :)

I met village girls who lived next to the Taj named Mira and Rosie. They sat us down with the rest of their womenfolk and proceded to bargain with us for their wares, some of which was worn and stained and looked as though it had been stored for years.

We had regular visits from "ghost kitten", a small white starving kitten that appeared by moonlight and ravenously devoured our bar snacks on the veranda overlooking the Taj grounds and beach. Ghost Kitty's meow was feral and a little unnatural.