======================================================================== Goa's phone numbers change from Nov 10, 2002. Prefix old number with a 2. New numbers will be seven-digit 2XXXXXX (where XXXXXX is the old number). ========================================================================
Source: The Guardian. 23 November 2002. Headline: Deck the hall with bougainvillea - Can't face another year of turkey and mince pies? Louise Nicholson and family spend Christmas in Goa, breakfasting on papaya and bathing in the Arabian sea. By Louise Nicholson. Feature article (1,424 words) with photographs at http://travel.guardian.co.uk/countries/story/0,7451,845562,00.html Excerpts: It was Christmas Day in sun-drenched Goa. Multi-coloured tinsel, plastic reindeers and plenty of cottonwool snow decorated our hotel. .we mixed lazy hotel life with land trips, renting a car and driver - only a fool would drive his family around India, even in laid-back Goa. At Margao we found the fish market where fisherwomen crouch, cheroot between lips, beside baskets of shrimp, sardines and prawns. .we went down the coast to the uba dando, or straight road, the 12-mile stretch of beach in south Goa, stopping at little villages such as Baga [sic] to take a sunset walk along the beach and pause at one of the little beach shacks for a dish of grilled tiger prawns and a glass of feni. .Sometimes, we drove inland past dozens of white-washed baroque colonial Portuguese churches and through tiny villages where locals sat on their balcaos - built-in seats by the front door - like any self-respecting Portuguese villager. ...Goa's 1,446 square miles is roughly the same size as Sussex. .hundreds of churches were built across the state, and most still retain their grand altarpieces, annual feasts and showy processions. .Nehru, increasingly annoyed by Goa's wholesale whisky smuggling through its port, took firm action in 1961. .Goa is the springboard for seeing the rest of India, and using a package deal in and out of the state usually helps keep the prices down. Louise Nicholson, based in New York, is a personal travel consultant on India and has been travelling there and writing about the country for more than 20 years. To know more about her tours and customised itineraries, e-mail her at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========================== And from The Daily Telegraph. 23 Nov. at: http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2002/11/23/et newsxmas23.xml Extract: Freedom Direct, a Newcastle-based call centre that sells the holidays of major travel firms, including Thomson, First Choice and MyTravel, is offering two weeks to Goa, departing from Gatwick on Friday with Somak Holidays for £189 - a saving of £340 on the brochure price. Freedom Direct 0870 010 7812 ---------------------------------------------------------- What's On In Goa (WOIG): Nov 06 Children's book exhibn opens, Walkabout, Anjuna... (all weekdays) Nov 06 ArtHouse, Calangute: Chaitali's acrylics on canvas till 19.11 Nov 07 Revision of electoral rolls (till Nov 30) See schedule. Dec 01 Two day conference, Goa Agenda. IT For Society. (Ends 2.12) Every Sunday: Music therapy sessions at Moira, 5 pm. 278, N.Portugal ----------------------------------------------------------
