Goa - Palolem Beach

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Feb 6th - 18th

We arrived in Margao (capital of south Goa) after a 12 hour train journey from Cochin. We randomly bumped into a guy called Steve on the same bus to Palolem beach, this was the third time we had met Steve as previously spoken to him in both Kovalum and Alleppey.

Palolem beach is about a mile long of sand, sea, restaurants and bars. Goa has different licensing laws so is one of the only places in India where you can get a drink without having to disguise it in a teapot. There are plenty of choices for places to eat but as Goa is mainly tourist we didn’t find as much of the culture as the other places we have been.

Everyone in Palolem works in Sales, from the man who tries his best to sell you a second pair of sunglasses, to traders on the beach who asks “what is you name good sirs’, “where you are from”, “how many brothers of sisters you have” and finally “do you want to look at their jewelry collection”. I had a henna tattoo on the beach from a young girl called Emma.

The place behind our Hotel had daily Ashtanga Yoga lessons, so we had a go. It was good fun but many of the class members were quite experienced, comparable to us, and were able to twist themselves into all sorts on positions, maintain 10 minute headstands and chant at the start and end of the class with “ommm’s” and ‘shanti’s’. Deepak the teacher was very friendly and gave us lots of help making sure that we took it easy, his advice is that Rome was built in 5 years!

We hired a motorbike and journeyed up the coast to Margao visiting both Agona and Mobai beach resorts. These places are very peaceful and also are home to some on the most expensive places to stay in Goa, at $3600 a night, not quite in our 8 pound budget.
The coastal road is very quiet, apart from tourist on bikes, and the scenery most enjoyable.

We took a trip to the capital of Goa, Panaji which is a Portuguese style town with a few churches. Historically Goa was conquered by the Portuguese and therefore many of the towns have churches and Portuguese architecture.

Last day today then it’s a 10 hour train to Mumbai……….

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Comments

[claire Geddes]

Raffles
Hi Jo and Greg just reading your most recent update with your mum and dad. All most jealous and anxiously awaiting the photo from Raqffles. i think that will be the point when we start pricing up the flights to Singapore. Take care love claire and mum and dad xxxx

[maria and dad]

Back from Oz
As you are now in Singapore we missed you by 4 days as had to stop there for 16 hours as plane new A380 had teething problems lived to tell the tale and we are now back home,great time in Oz ,left your birthday gifts with Andrew,glad you enjoyed India its a great country brought back so many memories reading your blog, take care of each other xxxxx

[GregStaley]

Re - Raffles
Hi Claire, we are going to Raffles tmrw so watch this space for photos. Singapore is really great, but it's rainy season at moment so got caught out in a storm today and ended up very wet. Speak soon Jo and Greg xx

[Josefin]

yoga
Hi! Just read this and I think I will go to paloem next week to do yoga, where was the hotel? and how much did it cost> would be soo nice If you wanted to help me:) Im in gokarna at the moment! your swedish friend Josefin

[GregStaley]

yoga
It was on the main road in Palolem sorry can't remember the name, but I'm not sure that the course is running anymore as the instructor moved on but you could maybe contact him and ask deepakashtangayoga.com