Monsoon

Monsoon....

In this case, not a time of extreme weather, but a wonderful guesthouse and restaurant that has proven to be a home-away-from-home for so many that come to Agonda Beach in southern Goa, India. The origin and development of the Monsoon was under the creative and innovative Maya for the first few years of its life, and for the last three years it has been lovingly managed by the equally capable and innovative Dirk, Maren, their son Fynn and the excellent staff.

For the occasionally-lazy-at-heart (myself definitely included), it is a place where you can find yourself going in for breakfast, and then eventually discovering that it's time to go to bed! It is a great centre for socializing with travelers, picking the brains of those who have been here and there around India, as well as a centre for yoga....and great food and accomodation, of course!

If you're on Facebook please check out the Monsoon Guest House page!

Some 2011-2013 changes...

Just for fun, I did up a couple of panoramas standing around in the Monsoon in February.
I've put them up on the interactive 'Photosynth' site at
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=8e993a25-af40-405b-98a0-7121801954e0
and
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=47c183ea-10d1-47cf-8653-828870b5ca6d

Hold your left mouse down on the image to move it around, and you can zoom in with your mouse wheel (or use the controls in the app). Next year I'll do full 360 panos. I've got a few other panos (not necessarily all so successfull) on the Photosynth.net site - just click on the 'donebc' link next to the pano name.

Here are some images from the 2012-2013 season. There were some minor changes in the huts, rooms, and one new 'penthouse' (the 'Up Top' room....see the additions to the 'Photos of Huts' page).
Here are just a couple of new pictures from the Guest House.

Two of the bigger changes at Monsoon in the 2011-2012 season were the addition of a new lounging area near the beach, and the redesign and reconstruction of the `Serai`gathering spot. Great additions to the Guest House!

A new spot for easy lounging & eating, next to the beach.

The Serai

Inside the Serai

..and in the beginning...

there was an incredible amount of work!

For a variety of reasons, each year the guest house 'huts' along Goa's beaches are required to be newly constructed at the start of the season (November) and then taken down in April (storing the remaining 'good bits' away from the coast during the monsoon) . It's quite a process to annually re-build the huts (also known as 'shacks' in Indian parlance), and workers from all over western India are brought in for the construction period. Some guest houses - like the Monsoon - have permanent buildings that have rooms that are rentable during the building process, which provides an interesting view for the select early residents into the unique methods of creating such beautiful structures.

Please click on the pics to enlarge.

For those who want to just sit back and watch the pictures (with assorted music) of images (below) of the building of the Monsoon in Dirk and Maren's first year (2009), just start the YouTube video (with different video resolutions) below (you can still just click on the single pictures below for larger sized pictures).