Advertisement
Published: December 13th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Hey Guys,
Well we decided to end our trip on high note with a little well deserved beach time after some road weary travelling!!! Unfortunately neither of us are in too good of shape as we both have pretty rough stomach issues. We decided to split our time in the Goa province with a week in Anjuna and a week in Palolem.
ANJUNA
Our arrival in Anjuna provided to be fun as we had some issues actually finding the beach and we almost stayed in a place way out in a banana plantation but we finally found a place beach side so life is good although I am now officially the most skeptical travel and think everyone is a liar. Our time here was mostly spent at one beach front restaurant or another enjoying their sun chairs and umbrellas. It is approx 40+ deg here every day and unless you're Russian you don't dare lay directly in the sun for longer than 5min unless you enjoy being severly sunburnt.
Our first day on the beach we got introduced to what I have aptly named "The Henna Mafia", the mafia consists of women who stroll the beach everyday
offering you henna and engaing you in small talk long enough to then show you their shop which is a tupperware bucket full of bracelets, rings, boxes, necklaces and tons of other shit. Although I understand their position and congratulate their entreprenural spirit, the non stop harrasment gets old pretty quick. Needless to say the Ipod headphones were in all the time even when the thing wasn't on!
Anjuna is a pretty beautiful area as is much of Goa. The area was once home to large Portugese colonies so there are several nice buildings and churches showing the architectural style of the era. The beach was nice, relatively clean and we got our first experience with beach cows. As you know from reading this blog we've seen cows everywhere and the beach was the same. We now have way too many pics of beach cows so if any one needs some let us know. The main draw to Anjuna is the Wednesday Market which started years ago with a few locals and hippies having a flea market and has grown into a pretty big market. We spent most of Wednesday at the market and ended up getting a huge
bedsheet/beach blanket for a rock bottom price.
Our evenings were pretty quiet since there is curfew and we were both feeling like shit so it gave us a good excuse to lay low.
PALOLEM
We said goodbye to Anjuna and headed to Palolem, another small fishing/tourist town further south. Palolem is way more touristy than Anjuna and I slowly started regretting leaving Anjuna after awhile. Our accommodations here were somewhat dodgy and our Delhi Bellies were raging making hanging out in the sweltering heat all day pretty rough. The beach is littered with fishing boats and there were no chairs and umbrellas so we would set up shop under the palm trees that lined the beach moving every 20min following the shade until we were totally exposed and then hit up a restaurant for some shade. The Henna Mafia was not just an Anjuna beach thing as they are here in full force. We resisted them until the last day when Tyne might have said maybe to one of them and then before we knew we had three shops opened up on our beach towel. She ended up getting some cute anklets and toe rings so the
Beach Performance
The mum is in the left playing the pot and breastfeeding, the son is playing a drum and the little girl does all the balance beam tricks! damage was minimal. Or so we thought until another lady who we told we weren't shopping to came up and bitched out the girls we bought from and then tried to lay the guilt trip on us and then got rude. I explained the concept of "free market" and sent her on her way.
All in all our stay in Palolem was ok but with being ill and the insane heat not the best trip to the beach. The funniest experience was one night while sitting in a restaurant eating dinner a huge bull walked right into the restaurant, it was crazy, he just stood there and the only ones to pay him any attention were the tourist taking pics! We missed out on a good pic leaving the camera at home, but after hanging out for 10 minutes he just turned around and walked out. Only in India!
Goa was very beautiful and although it wasn't in the cards for us to fully enjoy ourselves it was still a nice way to end India.
Until the next one
Cheers,
Matt & Tyne
Advertisement
Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0717s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jill Jeffrie
non-member comment
Greetings from Melbourne
Hi Guys Not sure if you remember us we meet you in Cappadocia and then again in Selcuk. We have loved reading your travel tales. In your last blog dated Nov 5th you were leaving Goa. Just wanted to let you know our offer is still open , if you get to Melbourne there is a bed here for you both. If your looking for sun we have 40 degree days for the last 3 days. Travel safe and enjoy Regards Jill and David Jeffrie