India Day 7- Goa (Panjim): Thursday

We've had a really interesting trip to Panjim (Panaji) today. We took a taxi and our drive to Panjim from our hotel (about 40 mins) took us through several little Goan towns where the morning markets were in full flow and the locals were buying their fresh market produce. We saw a few cows and boars trundling along the roads too.

We swept down a hill and into Panjim town along the Mandovi Riverside, complete with cruise boats, steamers and cargo ships. Our driver dropped us off at 11.30am in a busy square near the bustling centre and agreed to collect us at 2pm outside a shop across the road called the Bombay Bazaar. We had a map of Panjim that we bought in England but at some point between the map being printed and now, all of the street names seemed to have changed. We slowly got our bearings though on the hot sticky streets that were quite labyrinth-like when you walked down a few. If you ignored the rickshaws and heavy traffic you could fool yourself that you were in Portugal. You will see from the photos today that Panjim is very Portuguese in its architectural style and colours. Our guidebook recommended three must-see places in Panjim: the Secretariat Building, the Municipal Gardens and the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Panaji Church). In our 2 and a half hours we found them all and had a nice stroll along the river and also through the back lanes that form the Fountainhas district of Panjim. According to the guidebook, although Panjim was liberated in 1961 from the Portuguese, Portuguese is still the first language of may of the older residents of Panjim. Many of the old Portuguese colonial buildings are now dilapidated but there is still a strong sense of Panjim's colonial past in the back lanes we wandered through.

An amusing encounter took place as we walked back towards the Bombay Bazaar to meet our taxi. The area around the bazarre is clearly where many tourists get dropped off and so where there are tourists, there are hawkers. As we arrived back at the bazaar, hot and ready for a sit down, we were offered toy drums for 100 rupees, the price of which went down to 10 rupees as we repeated no thank you over and over. We were also offered leather wallets, peacock feather fans, leather "genuine" Wrangler belts, hats, taxis, etc. We put our heads down and just kept saying "no thank you" when a there was a voice over my right shoulder- "driver"- no thanks, we already have one we said. "No, came the voice, I AM your driver". He was. We all laughed. He had fooled us by changing out of his white shirt and into a t-shirt during the couple of hours we'd been in Panjim.

Back at the hotel we had an Indian lunch, a late afternoon read by the pool and we shot some sunset photos on the beach. We got a free bottle of Indian sparkling wine in our room on our first night which we have just cracked open. The Sula Vineyards seem to be a big thing over here. Actually it's pretty nice. Tomorrow- we hit the Mapusa Market.

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