Can you die from happiness?

Goa..is...fantastic. This hotel is unbelieveable. After a 15-km, 45-minute drive from the Goa airport, we arrived at the Taj Holiday Village where we checked in while sipping actual fresh coconut water directly from the coconut. After receiving our keys, we were whisked away to our cottages in a little golf cart that seats 6. The first stop was my cottage (literally, my own little house with a front yard, two chaise longues, a hammock, a patio table and chairs, a porch with two benches, king-sized bed, plasma TV, DVD player, cotton robe, terry cloth slippers, and 6 windows!). Marcelo's place is just across the way. From my yard, I can actually see the Arabian sea. We both said that this is the first time in a long time that ANYTHING has made us squeal and clap our hands. We never want to leave.

We arrived just as the sun was going down, so we didn't see much of the grounds in the daylight. We took a dimly-lit walk down the beach, which is lined with beach restaurant after beach restaurant. There are lots of water activities like jet skiing, parasailing, and boating, so people were in the process of closing these operations for the night. Large groups of strapping, young men were hauling large boats out of the water and up onto the sand. Very impressive. I could watch that all day. We walked all the way to the other Taj hotel next door called Taj Fort Aguada. That was the one that we had originally wanted to stay in. It is built around an old 16th century (I think) fort and it is recessed into the cliff face. I think I prefer my little cottage though. It's like playing house for grown-ups.

We wandered back up to the main building and continued on to the Banyan Tree restaurant for dinner. It is a Thai restaurant that is built around an ancient banyan tree. We were two of only six people in the restaurant tonight, but everything was excellent! We had our best meal in India bar none. India is actually quite close to Thailand, so it's no wonder that the ingredients and cooking skill were so good. We had shredded papaya salad, crispy tofu cubes in chili sauce (best ever; I'm not kidding), phad thai (had to try it), diced eggplant with basil, and green curry with chicken. And yes, of course, we had dessert (sweet bananas with honey and coconut ice cream). And we washed it all down with a bottle of white wine. The food was amazing (even better than Salad King) and all service was incredibly attentive. We've had huge, stupid smiles on our faces ever since we got here.

We had a driver lined up to take us around, but we both decided that tomorrow we just want to soak up what the hotel has to offer and stay put. On the agenda for tomorrow is having breakfast at the beach cafe, taking a yoga class from the in-house guru, lounging by the pool, having drinks at the swim-up bar, and taking a dip in the ocean. I could die; this is so much fun.

I finally got the Internet access to work and it's wireless, so maybe I can blog from the hammock? I know. I'll shut up. I'm beat, so I'll say goodnight. I took lots of pictures today, so if you want to see some more, please click here. Night all.