Relax

 Have you ever had a day, a whole day, where you did nothing? When was the last time you took a day for you. And not for you, plus doing the washing and getting dinner ready. A day where you melted into the couch, or immersed yourself in your bed sheets… for us, today was that day.

We were served breakfast at the buffet; all the wonderful foods of the world… plus our anti malaria medication of course. We spied some people doing a photo shoot at the pool on the day beds that we’ve come to know as ‘ours’. But by the time we put our swimmers on and gathered our reading books and iPads, they were gone and we took up ‘our spot’. It was about 9:30 by this point, and there we stayed until 6pm. We swam and played made up games in the pool. I did the local papers’ crossword and sudoku while Darcy read and Ethan played iPad games. We swam more. We shared a burger for lunch and swam afterwards once our bellies were settled. We read and played more and swam more and relaxed more. We made friends with people in the pool and chatted about the state of the world and what it means to be Indian and Australian. We swam more. I finished the newspaper puzzles and we had a beer. We swam. We walked to the beach and watched the sabre slice open the champagne bottle as the sun set on Goa one last time. We had truly relaxed.

We all had a shower and then walked to the fisherman’s wharf. The staff welcomed us back and thanked us for repeat business. We ordered some new dishes and some favourites, having now tasted many different flavours of Goa. The staff gave us a free dessert and wished us well on our journey home. Everyone in India has not only been lovely, but many have gone out of their way to be helpful. Something we would do or see in Sydney. It’s just nice that if you look lost, someone will approach you and help you. It is such a kind country, and as our friend in the pool said to us, the Indian people have tolerance of their fellow man. For so many cultures and religions and languages live side by side in this vast country, they are tied together and tolerant of how they each live. Would I have chosen that word? Maybe not, and maybe understanding or charitable or unprejudiced is nicer - but I do get what he meant. We are very fortunate to have spent this time in a beautiful place in Goa and look forward to returning soon.