Panjim

The local buses depart Palolem just up a short road from the beach, and when we got there the local boys tell us the bus will leave in about 20 minutes - which as usual was just enough time to pop across the road to a miniscule local hole-in-wall that served up a really tasty dal and bread breakfast for 10 Rupees.


The bus pottered up to Canaconda where we waited for 5 minutes before continuing up the road to Margao, where we had to change to another bus for Panjim. All-in-all it took about 2.5 hours to get Panjim, but only because the buses kept picking up and dropping off people.

At the bus station in Panjim I had to use a bit of guesswork to decide which direction to walk to the accommodation, but luckily I guessed right and within 5 minutes we crossed a footbridge and were in the Fontainhas district.


The guidebooks both highly recommended a Portuguese restaurant that happened to be exactly where we were, so we had lunch there (feijoas of course, just like back in Brazil), before Sarah strolled around looking for a place to stay. The first few places were all relatively expensive, but as usual if you just use the places mentioned in the guidebook as a 'guide' and check out the places beside them, you inevitably find a cheaper, better option. Such was how Sarah found the Relax hotel, a great little spot that was just around the corner. It turned out we were the only guests there for our two nights, and the owners didn't even live there, so we had the whole house to ourselves both days.


That afternoon we strolled about (the LP had a walking tour in it, so we did that), and it really is a lovely little town with a lot of character. That evening we strolled down tothe main square to check out a local parade, which although similar to many we've seen in South America was a lot more colourful and the dancing much more coordinated. The parade was quite slow moving though, so after a bit we headed off for dinner at another recommended place, Viva Panjim, which was a real gem. It's a really homely place with a friendly lady owner, and in fact we went back the next night too.


The following day I rented another scooter, and after checking out the promenade and the Media centre on the waterfront of the town I drove the 10km to Old Goa.


This is a very impressive collection of old Portuguese and older ruins, churches and cathedrals, and having the scooter to scoot about the spread-out site was fantastic.


Then it was back to Panjim, for lunch at the fancy Pan-e-shari hotel before heading off North to check out some more of Goa's famous beaches.


First stop was Calangute, and what a shock that was! I thought the beaches of Kerala weren't that great really, but they were idyllic paradises compared to the mayhem on Calagute. Basically it's just the worst example of a Benidorm I could ever imagine - I've never been to Benidorm, and I never want to go, but this was how I imagine it to be. Basically it was hordes of people, about half-and-half Indians and foreign tourists, all lounging out on row after row of sun loungers in front of fairly grotty looking bars. All the foreign tourists seemed very pasty (or burnt), overweight, tattooed and drinking lager.

The beach itself was pretty clean, although driving around would reveal rubbish tips not very far away. The beach was also just dead-straight for miles and miles, so it didn't have any sense of being contained. Access to the beach was via a series of perpendicular streets that were lined with bars, restaurants and shops selling all the usual junk.

All-in-all I thought it was all a bit of a nightmare, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for all the idiot tourists who were presumably paying through the nose for resort accommodation that must have been a good distance from the beach (I didn't see any beach shacks on the beach at all, just bars and resturants), and then have to share a boring beach with millions of other tourists on a beach covered with sun loungers. If those same people had investigated Goa just a little bit (by reading any guidebook maybe), they could have seen that just an hour in a taxi would have taken them to a truly idyllic beach where everything was a fraction of the cost. Of course, it's just the fear and paranoia of the unknown and pure laziness I suppose, so I guess they get what they ask for.

Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was spent just cruising up the coast from beach to beach, and in fairness the further north I went the better the beaches seemed to become. Apparently one of the best unspoilt beaches in Goa is Arambol, but unfortunately I didn't have time to head all the way up there, only getting as far as Vagator. But I must say I was really delighteed to have stayed as long as I did on Palolem beach, as from what I could see in passing through, it was by far the best beach that I saw in Goa.

So after watching the paragliders over Vagator for a bit it was a straight run back to Panjim, after one more beach stop at Candolim to check out the huge shipwreck literally only a couple of hundred metres off the coast. Again the timing was just about right, getting back just as it got dark, and after a quick shower back at the hotel it was dinner at Viva Panjim again.

Next morning was an early local bus back to Margao, then a rickshaw to the station to catch the train for our 27 hour journey up to Jaipur in Rajasthan.