CLOSER TO GOD IN GOA

AND CTV REVEALS ALL

Saturday reporting Friday and Saturday.

As mentioned earlier, on Friday afternoon, I left the reservation and ventured a kilometre or so up the road with my driver, Raman. First off we drove and parked up close to the Aguada Lighthouse a massive fortification that offers great views of the Zuari and Mandovi estuaries that snake inland. Underneath the lighthouse was a massive goal that until very recently keep wrong-doers bang to rights. The actual lighthouse was only de-commissioned in 1976.

Super-friend Derek (Guest Services Supremo) at the Vivanta Holiday Village Goa had also recommended visiting the Church of St Lawrence a little way down the road.  Again Raman parked up and I wandered up to the church.

It closed and a forced my way through a sort of turnstile. All the gates (delightful Art-Deco wrought-ironwork) were chained and locked. So I sat down on a concrete bench close by and made a creditable drawing of this lovely church.  The Church of St Lawrence was built in 1630 and has that delightfully over-the-top architecture that we love about the Church of Rome.  See illustration.

Least we forget Goa was a trading centre, originally established by Portugal’s seafarers, following in the footsteps of Vasco da Gama. By the middle part of Cl16 Estado da India was one of the great centres of the entire world - a rich trading post between West and East.

Saturday: Packing, discovered passports missing and caused a fuss, which later became acute embarrassment when the CCTV footage (Tuesday afternoon 16:00) revealed that I had stuffed them into my jacket pocket after they had been copied for the security purposes, prerequisite during check-in in any hotel in India.

We move on back to Delhi as a pair of Spice-Jetters.

[I interrupt this story to report that we are back in Delhi, at The Taj Mahal Hotel (a paradise in Delhi), and Sian has just been offered two different types of Kingfisher beers! For which she has to offer an opinion - a new  definition of female emancipation].