www.vivendagoa.com

Vivenda dos Palhacos is a one hundred year old, carefully renovated house set on a very quiet* cul-de-sac in the village** of Majorda, in South Goa. The longest beach, with the most beautiful sand in Goa, is about a kilometer away. Guests are very welcome to rent a bicycle or grab a lift down there in our customized Tuk-Tuk***.

Vivenda dos Palhacos has three quite different atmospheres. At the front of the house, is a modest Portuguese Mansion, built in 1929. It has a hall, two large bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, a sitting room leading out to a veranda and a large dining room to seat twenty.

The older Hindoo house, behind, is made from thick rammed earth walls with three double bedrooms all with ensuite bathrooms. All our bedrooms have fans as well as air-conditioners. The latter are not usually required until March or April.

At the back of the house is the main garden with a 12m swimming pool, private dining and sun bathing areas and a self-contained cottage.

Our food is best described as eclectic. Our Chef, Nielson is from just around the corner. Signature meals include a Goan Feast, complete with suckling pig and continental favourites like Iced Gazpachio topped with Lobster, drizzled in Paprika oil. Excellent steaks on caramelised onions with Masala mashed potato and an exceptionally gooey chocolate mouse, which my children have been known to eat for breakfast.

Continental breakfast is complimentary. Lovely first growth teas from Darjeeling and fresh organic coffees from the South of India. Fresh fruit and fruit juices & the ubiquitous buttertoast or butterhomemademangomarmaladetoast. Unless you’d prefer something heavier, like ham and my scrambled eggs which, though I say so myself, are usually unsurpassable.

Picnic and Alfresco lunches can be arranged on the beach or by the pool. Cocktail eats, snacks and children’s meals will be served at all times.

Dinner has to be booked by breakfast at the latest. This will allow us to discuss the menu with you and ensure the freshest ingredients.

Our wine list will have twin purposes: a) to quench the sometimes-unquenchable thirst of those who favour quantity over quality b) to tickle the taste buds and memories of those who prefer quality to quantity. I will choose the former, and Ivan Scholte Esq. (former butler to the The Queen, ex-wine merchant and currently a high-class hotelier in Laos) will choose the latter. HAYWARD’S 5000 strong beer will be served with our compliments to anyone beating the record, The Ladies’ record is currently six bottles, and the Men’s, eight. Both, needless to say, are held by Australia. HAYWARD’S 5000 is stronger than wine and very popular with North Indian lorry drivers.

The rooms are named after the places we have lived in and loved, in Bengal and Tamil Nadu. They all have fans, air-conditioners and en-suite bathrooms. They don’t have TVs or phones. Though either of those menaces can be easily rustled up for children or major sporting events.

There are two rooms in the Portuguese part of the house. KONNAGAR, the master bedroom has an old four-poster and its own balcony. The large bathroom next door has a shower and a cast iron bat tub saved from the Royal Bombay Yacht Club.

ALIPORE has a window seat that is either a love seat or prayer spot, overlooking the next door coconut plantation. So if you hear a small explosion overhead every now and then, it is more likely to be a coconut hitting the tiles than the Taliban. It has a simple teak antique double bed and a long, narrow ensuite bathroom hidden between the two houses.

In the older, Hindoo part of the house MADRAS is a large double room with French doors leading out to the garden from its open-air bathroom. BALLYGUNGE has two large single beds in it that can be pushed together. With a distinctly Gujarati bathroom. OOTY, with its private entrance from the courtyard, has a built-in double bed and sitting area and a mirrored ensuite secret bathroom.

CHANPARA is a huge tent, with twin beds, rugs and old camping furniture, including a Thunder Box and an early version of a mini-bar. It has a private entrance and young garden of its own, in a coconut plantation by the pool. It is fully plumbed and air-conditioned.

The CHUMMERY is a self-contained, air-conditioned cottage with a bathroom, small kitchen and two verandas.

Vivenda sleeps fourteen in perfect comfort and more, in emergency. KONNAGER, MADRAS. The CHUMMERY and CHANPARA are the four rooms with most space for extra beds or a cot. We are happy to arrange spill-overs at various price points, round and about.

We also rent out the entire house. But any individual reservations we may have cannot be cancelled. So do book early, if you would like the entire house and staff.

The 12 x 4 metre swimming pool is set in a young tropical garden with private sun bathing areas. It is cleaned with Ozone, instead of horrible chlorine, so it is like swimming in spring water. The shallow end of the pool is three feet deep so will not suit very young children. We’d be happy to set up a piddling pool in the front garden for tiny tots.

Airport pick-up (Rs 550 per car). Sight seeing and shopping tours from Rs 1,800 a day. Baby-sitting. Bicycles to rent. Laundry. Hair dryer. Around three-quarters-of-the-clock food and drink. Relatively high speed internet access (Rs 50 for half an hour). Advice as to what is worth going to see and what is worth avoiding. A television and DVD player in the sitting room. A very sophisticated 24 hour, native English speaking concierge service. Picnics and parties planned. Weddings arranged, though not necessarily in the desi sense of the word. The spas at The Grand Hyatt and Leela are both excellent and almost next door.

*/** Please note that we are in a village, so we do not have a view, unless you count blue skies and coconuts. Also, being in a village in Goa means cocks, crow; chickens, cluck; pigs, grunt; children, play; parents, grumble; dogs, bark; Christians, sing and Church bells ring amid all the other signs of life you would expect in a South Goan Village. ***The Tuk-Tuk remains a figment of my imagination and my bank manager’s lack of one. For the moment.