Goa

Goa is the most popular destination in India and not so Indian in many ways. It is very busy with tourists and everything is highly overpriced unless your haggle for half an hour first. Lots of people haven't seen any other part of India and that will give you some twisted idea of this intriguing country.
We'll spend at least two weeks here so we make an effort to find a good place to stay and of course that works out fine: a very nice cottage, 2 minutes from the beach with an ocean-view veranda to work on. We find a favourite restaurant with lots of fresh fish where the guys running it have also escaped winter, in their case from Sikkim in the far north-east Himalayan area of India.
As Lena is learning the Ayur Yogic massage every morning for 12 days in a row, I have my project for the bank to attend to and make good progress in this wonderful, undisturbed setting. On the weekend I take the bus, again through the wonderful Ghats, to Belgaum and see Sheetal, who is my colleague in Holland and meet his family and see his newly built Indian home. It's cool to see each other half a world away and he treats me to the best Bhel Puri you can eat in India!
After a while Goa really grows on us, we rent the obligatory scooter and zoom around exploring the place. All of a sudden our two weeks here are over and it is time to move on but it is easy to see why so many people are constantly postponing their departure and end up staying in this place for years, or at least till the rains come.