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Published: February 19th 2008
We left Palolem at a respectable 11am and bid farewell to our fantastic views and relaxed beach life. After a brief negotiation over price we had begun the two hour taxi journey up to Panaji (Panjim), Goa's capital.
The journey was breakneck and bumpy as all the road journeys seem to be here, but got some great glimpses of village life as we hurtled through the countryside. Sari-clad women working slowly through endless green fields and hordes of school children dressed in pristine uniforms making the hot and dusty walk home.
We arrived in Panaji and spent a good half an hour trying to locate the Afonso Guesthouse. A helpful man on a motorcycle pointed us in the right direction and we were dropped off outside the quiet and friendly family-run guest house. We checked in for two nights at a rather pricey 1360 rupees per night, however the rooms were bright, spacious and clean, and you can't complain when you're staying in an old converted Portuguese Town House.
Portugal's empire once stretched to these dusty streets and therefore the whole city is rich with their mediterranean influence. The streets are narrow and winding and the brightly painted houses
often cause you to forget you are halfway down the Indian coast and not in a Portuguese town.
Our stay here was a slow attempt to get back into city life (although this is the smallest city that either of us have ever seen) and we didn't actually get up to much.
Plenty of nice meals which were lighter, smaller (but cheaper) than in Palolem, and a few wonderful breakfasts at the Hotel Venite which had midget sized balconies just large enough for the two of us to squeeze into.
Panaji, continuing the portuguese influence is a very christian town so the sunday that we spent there consisted of a desperate effort to find somewhere to buy food.
On monday 11th we took a taxi to see what was once the Portuguese stronghold of Old Goa. There really wasn't much to see here apart from 4 or 5 churches that looked the same and were relatively unremarkable despite their size. We'd arranged to meet our taxi driver two hours after being off in Old Goa, however we completed viewing the churches within 25 minutes. We found a restaurant to retreat from the heat and wile away the
rest of our time over a few beers.
Got back to Panaji and were dropped off at the foot of the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception - The town centerpiece. Although it is a small church and we couldn't go inside it was far and away the most impressive church we had seen that day.
Walked back to the hotel we were now staying in - The Vaz Residence (which was a snip at only 250 rupees each per night.) Chilled out in our slighty shabbier but very comfortable room. Put in for an early night as our check out time was 8.30 the next day. After worrying all the previous day about where to leave our bags the Vaz Residence kindly looked after them for us and we now had the prospect of wasting 5 hours before we could leave for the airport and our flight to Jaipur.
We achieved this with relative ease grabbing a table in Hotel Venite and guzzling down some milkshakes whilst playing cards.
At around 2 we found a taxi to take us to Dabolim Airport where our journey to the north would soon begin.
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Miriiii
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bliiimey boys, you sure have got far. I didn't think you'd last this long!!! It all looks amazing! xxxxxxxxxxxxx love u both