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Published: February 20th 2011
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Goa - Palolem Beach
14/02/11 - 17/02/11
The beach!!
Our flight from Mumbai was delayed for about 4 hours so we arrived late at Dabolim domestic airport. We had arranged for a taxi to pick us up (had to wait poor thing) and cost 1200Rs for the hour and a half long journey down to Palolem (nearest train station Cancona).
We arrived at night and had booked (in advance) into the colourful Cuba Palolem Beach bungalows. A bungalow with a hot water guiser is 1750Rs, 1500 without. The Cuba company has bungalows on nearby Agonda and Patnem beaches also.
The bungalows look great from the outside, set back on the beach in a semi - circle. They are painted all different pastel colours and have a really nice verandah to relax within. Inside they are pretty basic but had clean linen and a fan. Our bathroom wasn't the nicest as the toilet leaked everytime you went or flushed. The hot shower was hot for about 5 minutes but being hot ourselves we sometimes preferred them cold anyway!
However it's location on the beach is the best and sitting on your verandah gives a
great view of the sunset over Palolem island. The bungalows have an associated bar and restaurant which plays good music (but at night it can be loud and go on late - god i sound old!! 29 in 3 days) and seemed to be one of the most popular places on the beach.
When we arrived we felt a bit shell - shocked! We felt like we were cheating just as we were getting used to the hustle and bustle of India! I think I had only just started to settle in when we hit the beach and I felt a bit disappointed. What? This is quite unlike me! Our first impressions (in the dark) was that it might be a bit trashy as there are lots of bars / restaurants lining the beach and more tourists than we had seen in a long time! I guess we were tired!
In the morning we awoke to find a lovely beach! We quickly settled into the more relaxed way of life and even wanted to stay longer than we had planned! There are lots of people around and lots of beach shacks but it is very chilled out and
it is a beautiful beach.
The little town of Palolem running parallel and back from the beach is lined with little shops, there is a good Internet cafe, money exchange but no ATM. You can get a tuktuk for 100Rs to one nearby though apparently.
Whilst we were there we walked along the beach to Patnem beach via Neptunes point and Columb Bay. Patnem is quieter than Palolem with less accommodation and restaurants/bars lining the sand however I still preferred Palolem though. We had the strangest nachos on Patnem beach which came covered in cold baked beans and salad! They were actually really nice, or was it that we were really hungry!!??
On Neptunes point they hold a silent disco every Saturday (we were not there for that) and an open air cinema every Wednesday. We managed to catch that and watched the King's Speech. It was great to watch a movie whilst having a drink and we ordered some more strange nachos!!
We stayed in Goa for 3 nights, 4 days and left on a 18hour train journey at midnight headed for Varkala in Kerala from Cancona station.
We were planning to go to Hampi
as we had been recommended it but in the end we ran out of time! It would have meant rushing around with a two day return journey so unfortunately we had to give it a miss :-(
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