I was up at 3:30am to get picked up to go hot air ballooning, went back to Baga Beach for lunch, had a quick sleep in the afternoon and then dinner at Antares in the evening.
Hot air ballooning
Wow! This was an experience I won't ever forget. Hot air ballooning in Goa was amazing. After the failed attempt on Sunday I was very grateful for the effort made to get us up in the air on Monday, albeit with only two hours sleep!
Our pilot Trish was highly skilled and very friendly, she certainly related well to us Aussie's which was nice. The combination of a sunrise, mountains and mist were stunning. I feel like this is one of those experiences where pictures say a lot more than words, so I've put a bunch into a flickr album. This was definitely a highlight of the week and I would do it again if I had the chance (Ralph had a good time too).
Antares Restaurant
Sadly, I have to say that this was a disappointing experience. We were looking forward to an evening at Antares because it is run by 2014 Master Chef Australia contestant Sarah Todd. The pros were that my meal was excellent - I had the chicken skewers (not actually on skewers) for an entree, pork belly and broccolini (which was broccoli and came out before my entree), and chocolate brownie for dessert. The food itself was great, although the others weren't as pleased with theirs as I was with mine. The down side of the experience was that to begin with, we needed to get out the torches on our phones to read the menus because of poor lighting and poorly printed menus, then the side dishes for the mains came out before the entrees. We met with excuses when asked for feedback and generally whilst we had hoped for an engaging encounter with a fellow Australian, it wasn't as warm and friendly as we had hoped. We probably should have gone next door to Thalassa like we were advised.
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