Thursday morning Dave and Diane Hartt hosted a brunch at yet another extraordinary beachside setting, a high season spot Kevin and Jeannine especially enjoy. The gathering included lots and lots of family and friends, giving us all one last chance for extended conversations and opportunities to get to know one another a bit better.
If there's one thing that these extended celebrations allow that is most to be appreciated, it's this chance to interact over time. We have met some extraordinarily interesting people here in Goa, folks gathered from all over the world - India and the United States, certainly, but also Italy, Germany, France, Dubai, Kenya, England, and Canada! Our Indian hosts, Lorna and Filippe Colaco, have been particularly welcoming and easy to talk with as were all the members of their extended family. This warmth and openness and the lengthy series of events we all attended over several days gave opportunities galore to extend our interactions with one another, in the end serving to blend all the desperate groups into one big happy "family".
In the end it was hard to say goodbye, especially since the sunny weather gave us even more to appreciate about this wonderful setting. The whole experience will remain one of those VERY special memories we are sure to replay over and over again in future years.
Our two flights between Goa and Mumbai, then on to Chennai, were fine; but our arrival was delayed by an hour. We didn't get to our hotel and settled into our room here at the Park until 2:00 AM. Fortunately we have an independent day on our own before our tour group gathers for the first time Saturday morning.
Thursday's journey did have its positive side, however. Lee earlier had lost his paper air ticket somewhere between Mumbai and Goa, then had spent some anxious days trying to replace it without capitulating to American Airlines stated policy requiring him to appear IN PERSON in DELHI at his own expense to fill in the required forms (which could not under any circumstances be handled otherwise), pay a hundred dollar penalty fee, then WAIT TWO DAYS before being issued the ticket replacements (!). With all kinds of help from Taj Exotica staff, we had eventually managed to settle on an alternative which, among other aspects, allowed Jet Airways (our internal carrier in India) to provide replacement paper tickets at the airport in Goa for our three remaining internal flights. When we arrived at the airport for our flights Thursday, however, they gave Lee back his ORIGINAL tcket packet which had been turned in days earlier!
All's well that ends well, we guess ...
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