Anjuna Beach Flea Market

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Today we head to the Anjuna flea market. That's all on our plans for today - just want to take it easy. We hired the same driver to take us to Anjuna beach and back.

Arrived there at about 11:30am. Stopped at Villa Anjuna to have lunch, just by the beach. After waiting a while for our order, the waiter came out to say that the chef had cut his finger and had to be rushed to the hospital and it will be at least 20 minutes before he comes back to complete our dishes! By now, we know what a “Indian minute” is! Their “1 minute” frequently spills over and lands up to be 10! So we decided to get some sandwiches instead. Anjuna was ok, it was packed with tourists. At times it seems like there are more tourists than locals here.

After lunch , we headed to the flea market. It's huge! Did not go the whole length, just part way as items sold were similar in most stalls. Spent about an hour there then back to the hotel as it was another scorcher, about 34 Celsius again! We were both very exhausted by mid afternoon. I was still limping and coughing. Prem's cough was acting up again and we decided to just go back to the hotel to rest.

Had an afternoon siesta and we were off to dinner at Viva Panjim just a block away. Excellent food, We had prawns-stuffed pappadams, goanese chicken and vege soup, kingfish ambot tik (a hot & sour tangy sauce) and jeera (cumin) rice. The soup was really good, we needed it given our coughs. The ambot tik was also really good too. The jeera rice totally defied our perception: so simple yet buttery and peppered with dill and what else jeera.

Tomorrow, another travel day, we head back to Bombay in the afternoon.

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Photos

Colours!
Amazing array of colours

More bags for sale
Store after store selling bags

The fine art of Negototiations
Prem negotiating the price for the top. There was quite a bit of back and forth between the vendor and her. Finally she did get it although I thought that this top was a little tacky!

Our ride in Goa
This is the van that took us everywhere in Goa. Prem's again trying to work some price for our ride from our hotel to the airport. She managed to reduce the cost for that ride from Rs. 600 to Rs. 500.

Panjim Peoples Hotel
The other, more expensive, hotel that is part of Panjim Inn hotels. It is located next to ours and houses a art gallery. The rooms are much nicer with antique furniture but quitea bit more then Panjim Pousada where we stayed.

The dreaded stairs
This is the stairs we had to take to get to our room - very steep with wobbly rails! It took a while for me to get up and down the stairs with the swelling in my foot. On the last day I had to carry our luggage down these stairs!

Viva Panjim
Great food!

Street Name
A street near our hotel

Scooter
Lots of people use these to get around in Goa. They are also available for rent by tourist.

Fan
A life saver anywhere in India. A must for survival especially in Goa where the temperatire hovered around 34 Celsius daily!