Saying goodbye to Palolem

---

1/3/10: We woke up with the sound of beating drums outside our paper thin bungalow walls. The festival went on all night resulting in a lot of drunken and stoned Indians that were covered from head to toe in coloured oxide to celebrate the colour festival, even the dogs and cows couldn’t escape from the colour. I was lucky enough to crawl out of bed and witness the festival turn up on the beach for the last and final hurrah. With hundreds of Indians meeting on the beach they all ran down to meet the Arabian Sea and tried to wash oxide from their skin and clothes. It was quiet funny to watch as and even the older men were acting like children giggling and laughing as they played in the waves and rolled in the sand.
I went back to wake Jacinta up and go for a walk and we then had to do our much needed exercises for the upcoming Himalayas. After exercising, the rest of the day consisted of lying around and swimming in the ocean. We also had to say our goodbyes to Nick and Marie as they had to shoot up to Mumbai to pickup an IPod that had been shipped back by a dodgy insurance claim after they dropped it some weeks earlier. It was sad to see them go but if the timing was right then would try to catch up with them in Japan as they still had another three to four months of travel to go. If we missed them in Japan then we would see them in Sweden when we make our way around Europe. They were pro travellers that spent the entire Swedish winter away from home as the winters are dark and cold. It was great to listen to their stories about South America. So it was just the two of us for dinner at our favourite restaurant Fernandez. The meals we have had here have been incredible and we haven’t been disappointed yet.
2/3/10: It was our last full day today as we had to catch a bus tomorrow into Margao full our trip to Hampi the following morning. We both could stay here another week easy but had to push on and see some more of India before it gets too hot. I’m feeling a bit depressed about leaving and would love to come back some day with the kids. We have slept terrible the last couple of nights due to the hot weather. It has been steadily getting hotter the whole time we have been here resulting in a sweat stained sheet only to wake up 5hours later freezing cold. The mosquito net we had to sleep under lets no air through due to the slow spinning fan. It’s only when everyone switches there lights off late at night that our fan has enough power to really spin fast enough to cool you down but by that time it’s cool enough to not need the fan this combined with midges biting you most off the night made it hard to sleep. We had our final swim to cool off and notice how deserted the beach was becoming as the tourist season slowly comes to a hot steamy halt. We tried to dry off and had breakfast on the beach talking about the wonderful last few weeks we have had in Palolem. We pack the last remaining items in the humid breezeless heat, paid our bills, said goodbye to everyone and walked to the bus. It worked out well with the bus just about to leave so we easily found space for our packs in the empty bus and drove the 1.5hours winding roads to Margao. Being in the bus with a drivers view made me realise how F#$%n crazy these Indian drivers are. They will not even think twice about overtaking on a blind, winding, busy uphill road only to have someone come around the corner almost resulting in a head-on collision, its only due to both drivers breaking at the same time that an accident is avoided as there is nowhere else to go.
We arrived in one piece and found a restaurant to have a drink while I went to look for a room. There’s not much in Margao for tourist but if you need to get something this is the best place in Goa as it is the capital. I managed to find a hotel in our price range and it appeared to be clean enough. It’s more than I can say for the owner as he was a huge sweaty fat India with a beard and chewed beetle nut, it’s not the best impression to make on guest as all he walked around in was a white stained sheet that looked like it was about to fall off any time. It wouldn’t of mattered anyway as his hanging gut would conceal any view of his privates, you just had to make sure you weren't on the wrong end when he goes to pick up the sheet off the floor “YUK!!” We chilled for awhile until it was cool enough to walk around and with little to do went and had something else to eat. We were disappointed with the meals as we splurged on meat dishes that mainly consisted of bone splinters and a spoonful of meat. We returned to our hotel early to get some rest for the train tomorrow.

---

Comments

[Sunnyach]

Hey there!
nice blog! Good to see you all on travelblog. I guess we met on butterfuly/honeymoon beach near Agonda beach. It was early mrng on Tuesday. Hope you have nice time in your world trip Cheers Sunny