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Published: January 10th 2005
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Cricket - Goan style
Locals killing time on Patnam beach Goa was never meant to be our last port of call in India, but unfortunately our plans to travel further south and then onto Sri Lanka have had to be put on hold for obvious reasons.
It has to be said that the majority of our time in Palolem was spent eating, drinking and lazying on the beach, but occasionaly and against our better judgement we decided to venture off the golden sands and explore our surroundings!
We took a two day trip up north and visited Goa's capital Panjim. Panjim is typically Goan with the distinct mixture of Indian and Portuguese influences. We stayed in the old Portuguese area of the town in a wonderful (if not pricey) guest house (we had a hot shower!). By walking around the tiny streets it is easy to forget where you are. The shutterd windows, overhanging balconies and white-washed walls are more in keeping with the mediterainian coast rather than the Arabian!
That evening we decided to follow the advise of the Lonely Planet (who by this point in our trip had failed to let us down) and take the 'sunset river cruise with traditional Goan music and dancing'. So
we turned up on the pontoon and paid our Rs. 200 and waited for our transportation. Oh how we mocked the other people on their organised 'party' boats as they sailed of to the euro-pop tune 'We're going to Ibiza'! and how we smiled smugly at the thought of our relaxing cruise. We boarded our boat and took our seats, our attention was instantly drawn to the guy on the stage behind an electric keyboard tuning his mic? What kind of traditional Goan music was this going to be? Then the giant speakers lept into life with that traditional Goan song 'So this is Christmas' by Clif Richard - The Euro Remix!!!! It was at this point that Richard turned to me with a horrified expression and declared that he didn't care about losing the money, there was no way he was staying on this boat. And with that we left. Thanks Lonely Planet!
On the second day we set off for Old Goa. The area is famous for ist many churches and cathedral. At the time of our visit the area was very bust due to the Expostition of the body of St Francis Xavier. The Portuguese Jesuit
Late night chess
From L-R Paul, Guy, Ofir, Rich arrived in Goa in 1542 and became Archbishop in 1557. It was his, along with other Portuguese influences that bought Roman Catholicism to Goa. Even to this day you will see more churches in this part of India than Shrines or Mosques.
People had come from miles around to view his remains and pay their respects. The exposition only happens once every ten years and so it is a big occasion. People que for hours to see whats left of the (pretty manky in my opinion) corpse which now has to be kept in a glass box after during a past exposition some women got carried away and bit the poor guys toe off!! Nice!
As you can imagine the whole area was heaving and extreamly difficult to get around so after a brief couple of hours sight seeing we headed 'home' to Palolem. It took us around a week to recover from all that exercise!
We met some lovely people in Palolem so although Christmas was not 'Christmas' as it would have been at home, it was still an enjoyable day with great company. Tasha, one of the girls that we met, went out of her
way to dress up the huts with paper star lanterns so that in the evening the place looked a real picture.
As you can imagine the events of the 26th and our own worries of Tasha's trip to the hospital to have her apendix removed, left for a real quiet new year. We spent most of the days trying to re-route our tickets to Bangkok and get Richard over his bout of 'Dehli belly', which I would like to add should be renamed 'Goa belly' as everyone at some point got it during our stay!
On one of the last days before our departure a group of us desided to splash out and spend a day at the 7 star Intercontinental Resort a couple of Km down the coast. For a few hundred Rupees you could use the pool and Spa facilities for the day. As I soaked up the sun by the pool and treated myself to a pedicure, Richard and Paul showed off their driving skills on the golf course in more ways than one. From the brief glimpse we got of them, they seemed to be treating the golf buggy as an all terrain vehicle!
We all returned to the huts that evening feeling suitably pampered and relaxed. Three weels lying on a beach is stressful you know!!!
One evening sat in the 'Plantain Leaf' resturant we got chatting to a guy named Phil. He is spending a trial six month period out here to see if he could hack it on a perminent basis (whats to hack we thought?). He went on to explain his theory of the 'Palolem Effect' which causes people to be unable to leave. One women he knew had seven leaving parties before she actually managed to leave! We didn't think anything of it until we ourselves started pushing back our intended departure.
Its true that Palolem is a paradise, but it also has to do with the people that you meet and the times you have. When the time came to go it was sad because of the friends we were leaving behind. There will be other beaches.
Our flight was finally re-arranged and we flew from Mumbai to Bangkok on 7th Jan, which is where we are writing this entry. All is well and we are finalising our plans and sorting our visas for the
The Cathedral - Old Goa
This is the place where the body of St Francis Xavier was on show! next leg into Cambodia, up through Vietnam, Laos and back into northern Thailand.
Not sure how the internet facilities will be for the next few weeks so bare with us if the next installment takes a while or emails are not replied to straight away.
All the best
B & R
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Teman
Teman
Lazy Goa
Hello Bex and Rich, I just returned from the lazy Goa. I am smitten by her beauty and serenity. Goa has just about everything. I went Bird watching one day, the next for crocodile spotting, Scuba diving for a day - not so good due to murky waters, enjoyed the sumptuous sunsets - a sight to behold for life. On the way back from the jungle Dursager water falls spotted two king cobras matting dance. It was a great trip. I want to go back as soon as I could, again. Just to lazy arround. regards, ken.