Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Sunset at Patnem
An every evening event Goa.... for us, a little piece of paradise and a welcome relief from the intensity of the rest of the trip!
What a difference a few hundred kilometers can make. After an early flight via Mumbai we arrived in Goa late afternoon. The evening before, we had rung ahead for accommodation. Some bamboo huts right on a beach called Patnem (south of Palolem). Palolem itself is now a famous over run beach where lots of tourists and backpackers head. There are cocohuts lining the whole length of the beach, as well as bars, restaurants and plently of burnt tourists. Too much for us! We chose Patnem, a quiet beach with a few choices of huts dotted along the beach and a few quiet restaurants. We were chuffed with our choice.
The sand is a golden yellow; the sun is a bright red at sunset. If it wasn't for the dogs and cows roaming the beach, we would have forgotten that we were in India! Our hut was basic but clean with a mosquito net and on-suite bathroom. We couldn't have asked for more. To add to this we had the sound of the waves lapping against the shore at
Leaving Patnem
Leaving Pavarti coco huts for Bogmalo night to send us to sleep, although according to Ruth, sometimes they are more like bone shaking smashes. Whatever it was, it certainly beat the sound of dogs, car horns, motorbikes and trains rolling through town. Having said that, the locals are in the process of re-building practically the whole area as the government recently had a "Sealing drive". Sealing is the process of knocking down all properties across the country that do not have the necessary paperwork to be there. It looks like there were many in Patnem and Palolem. The consequence is that many are now being rebuilt, so there was quite a lot of building noise during the day, including early morning and late at night. Traditional building methods are still in use so the hammer and chisle is a very useful tool!
Ruth coped with the bugs very well (only a couple of screams from cheeky grasshoppers!) although the searing heat was a bit more of an issue. I, on the other hand very much enjoyed the heat and it was great running along the beach early in the morning or late evening, helped along by a few of the friendly rogue dogs!
On
Our final sunset
We watched five in a row whilst swimming in the sea :) HAPPY DAYZ our second day of being beach bums we decided to take a boat trip to an isolated beach called Butterfly beach. Very nice it is indeed. We asked our boatman to leave us for half an hour so that we could have a swim...one hour and a half later.... he came back...slight misunderstanding there but great for us. Though at one point we did wonder whether he was coming back! On the way to the beach we went Dolphin watching. We were lucky and spotted some straight away! There must have been about 20 or more.
We just had a thought... we have eaten over 30 curries so far this holiday and we are still not bored! With the many variations for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and staying in different states means it has been possible to have something new almost everytime. But we are still sticking to the advice of avoiding meat! However, Goa has added something refreshing to our diet....FISH! Yes, we have eaten excellent fish. The thought of fish in central India is quite horrific, since it is miles from the sea and with little to no refridgeration. Catches of the day eaten at a beach
side resaurant is too good to miss!
Since travelling in India we have grown very used to regular power cuts. Most lasting only minutes or even a couple of hours. However, in somes parts of Goa it happens frequently and for much longer! We think it has something to do with the luxurious five star hotel on a beach south of ours where all the celebs stay. They use so much of everything that they have to ship in 20 tankers of water a day, as there is not enough water in the region to cover it otherwise! Just enough we think for a couple of western tourists baths and to keep the 18 hole golf course green!
On our last full day we took a taxi ride out to Dudsagar waterfall. The falls are located in a strict National Park (they count the number of plastic waste items you have with you as you enter and leave the park area). They are the second highest falls in India and set in a jungle they are beautiful. With a railway line running across the middle it helps to put the whole thing to scale. After a tough journey
Dudsagar waterfall swim
Ruth swimming in the fresh water in a jeep to the falls, we were able to swim in the lake at the bottom. It was one of the most refreshing moments of the trip. A real highlight.
Our final night in Patnem consisted of our usual routine of swimming in the warm sea watching the sunset (at about 6pm), shower and change for dinner and then a walk along the beach pondering over the difficult decision of which of the lovely restaurants to eat at. Tonight we chose our favourite, a place called Tantra. We selected our fish from a few choices and watched as it was prepared in the Tandoor.
Then, halfway through tucking into our King fish and Kingfisher beers, the power went out. Not a real problem as candles are always used in the evening when eating dinner.
The lack of power only became a problem when we arrived back to our hut for two reasons. First, the one and only single fan in the room was a write off.... we were in for a very hot night. The second problem however was the toughest.... BUGS! Our last night in Patnem turned out to be our only real encouter with loads of
Pavarti beach huts
This is where we stayed bugs.... including, we think, the dreaded cockcroach. Everything we seemed to touch, lit only with our single torch, seemed to have a flaming bug on or in it!
Having had a couple of frights and thinking the we had well and truly "de-bugged" our cocohut, we headed to bed in the safe haven of our mosquito net (which every night without fail was tucked into the sides of the bed for good measure - just to be sure!). With torch in hand we settled down to sleep, but then Ruth asked me to shine the torch on a dark spec on the ceiling of the net. I did so and to our horror, right above our heads was a cockcroach! ARGH! We both screamed and darted out of bed! We could not believe it! The following twenty minutes was spent trying to work out how to get rid of it. Finally, our trusty mosquito repellant came to the rescue! A few squirts of 50% deet knocked it off as nothing else we tried had worked (including wacking it from the outside!).......45 minutes later, after having undergone the delicate operation of vetting each item of bedding, we settled down for what
turned out to be a very unsettled nights sleep!
The next morning I was up early for a run to shake off the previous nights bug encounters and then we went for a much needed swim to cool off as the electricity STILL was not working!
In a way, we were a bit relieved to be moving on and to something more substantial for accommodation, but it was still very sad to leave this peaceful oasis that we had found, behind.
Still, we had prebooked a taxi for late morning to take us further north to Bogmalo, for a little slice of luxury again.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0413s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
helen
non-member comment
sounds lovely in goa, cant wait till i have a change to go, pity about the bugs though! flat looks like a bomb has hit it with alex sitting in the middle of the chaos, amazing he hasn't accidently been packed up in a box! ( (joke...) Poles finish today, all looks v nice inside pleased with the result, hope the pain does not start peeling off after they are long gone with our cash. hey ho, better go and find something else to pack... Helenx