Well, I’m finally off to Goa – a trip so long in the planning that I find myself vaguely surprised that it’s finally rolled around at all…

I’m aiming for a bit of a change in pace for this trip, rather than going in for my usual round of jampacked schedules and epic route marches from dawn till dark in my frenzied efforts to see best part of half a country in the space of just a couple of weeks. This trip, by contrast, will hopefully be that bit more balanced between “being” and “doing”, with a fair degree of downtime built in alongside my usual explorations…

The trip will be roughly broken down into three parts: a first few days in a yoga and meditation retreat in South Goa, followed by a few days beach time (with a few day trips factored in too), then finally a bit of time spent in Portuguese-influenced Old Goa to see the sights – and of course eating and drinking (mainly my beloved chai masala – the real thing!) my way around the place in the process too…

While I’m definitely looking forward to it, I can’t say I’m not a little daunted by taking on India a second time – first time being nearly twenty years ago, when I visited the North (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri and Varanasi). Crikey, don’t I just look young there…

I am definitely hoping that one of the benefits of travel at 43 rather than 23 are that the sexual harassment encountered last time round will have slackened off a bit, but that may well be wishful thinking here. After all, if you’re the type to follow someone down the street furiously masturbating, you’re probably not going to be put off by a few crows’ feet… They do say Goa is a bit more chill all round though, so hopefully it will be as drama-free in that respect as possible!

As for now, I’m posting this from Heathrow Terminal 5 (ridiculously early, as per usual…) before setting off later this evening. Anyhoo, I’ll say ‘namaste’ for now and post again in a few days’ time from the other end… Till then!