Still haven’t managed to find somewhere that I can use my card reader, so I have more than a weeks worth of daily diary to upload, and I really want to upload some of the photos we’ve taken. My search will continue…

We’re in Arambol, staying in an excellent guesthouse called Ivon’s Holiday Calm. Nice tiled room with balcony and attached bathroom. No air-con, but a fan.

We bought a Flying Carpet hammock from The Arambol Hammock Co. and that is proving very useful for chilling out in.

Our balcony overlooks the family compound of the owner of the guesthouse (a guy called Martin Rodrigues). The compound is filled with coconut palms, and is also home to countless pigs, chickens and dogs. The pigs eat any leftover food or other compostable stuff.

The guesthouse is about 3 minutes walk (through a coconut grove) to the beautiful beach. The beach is still used for fishing, but also plays host to the various visitors to Arambol; travellers, long term residents, beach sellers, visiting Indians etc.

There are loads of bars and restauants along the beach, and all the ones we’ve tried in the week and a half since we arrived have been very good. The seafood is naturally very fresh, though still more expensive than the great veggie Indian food we’ve come to love.

Our daily routine here tends to be:-

Get Up Early (7:30)
Wander down beach for breakfast (until 10:00)
Sit on beach for an hour.
Go for swim in the sea
Return to room for a shower
Sit in hammock reading until the sun cools down.
Wander down the beach for a drink.
Watch the sun set (about 6pm)
Go for dinner (usually until 9pm)
Back to the room for a read and then sleep.

Not bad really. Food and drink costs us about five pounds a day, our room is about two pounds seventy per night.

We’ll be staying here until at least 6th December, maybe longer, depending on how busy it gets…

And I’ll try to get some pictures sorted out…