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Published: February 23rd 2006
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We finally arrived in hot weather at Palolem Beach on January 27th. The train from Mumbai arrived in Panjim in the morning and we then took a bus south from Panjim to Palolem - the ride was 2.5 hours. At Palolem we walked on to the beach wearing sneakers, long pants and all of our luggage. So we found a hotel/restaurant to set up base and I went on the look-out for accomodation. It was so hot - I hadn't eaten, I was thirsty and I was not dressed appropriately. It felt like I was wandering on the desert. I walked the length of the beach (it is a very beautiful beach) which is about 2km stopping at quite a few establishments. There is literally hut complex after hut complex all the way down. Anyway, by the time, I got back and we realized that the first place we visited was the best value, it was already taken. So we stayed at a hut for one night (this pick of hut got my hotel picking responsibilities revoked - Jill handles this now) and switched to one of the nice huts the next night. The huts are all very basic - cold
water, mosquito net - but some are finished nicer with real wood and a cool bar/restaurant area. Hard to explain but pictures should help - see attached. After seven nights in the nice hut we downgraded huts for the remaining four nights. Although we downgraded, I enjoyed it more since the crowd at the last hut was a younger crowd (the previous hut was almost all families); and, yes, Jill still preferred the family scene but I think this was a fair compromise. In total, we stayed 12 nights.
The language in Goa is Konkani and English. Goa is very un-'Indian'; it was formerly a Portuguese colony and it seems that most residents are Catholics or Christian, but this is probably not actually true. And especially on the beach, you feel like you could be in the Carribean. It was full of foreigners (many Europeans spend holiday here) and seems to be one of the more popular places in India, even though it seems to be smallest state in India. It has a reputation for drugs - hash, weed and pretty much anything else - and you will, expectedly, find alot of hippies spending months of the year living
Scrabble during Sunset
Roy wins by a landslide here.
I spent 5 days sick, again; it was, more or less, the middle 5 days. It started with a sore throat/cold, turned to my usual stomach issues and finished with a fever; nevertheless, the stomach pains persisted. So it was another trip to the hospital. I started Cipro and the Doctor set up me up with some additional meds after she ran some tests; but she thought correctly that the Cipro should do the job. It did and I finally felt normal (and I'm still in good health 2 weeks later). I was able to eat normally and drink beer and it was fun to be on the beach again.
Activities included reading, eating, drinking and walking. One day, Jill and I took a cab (2 hours) to the Wednesday market in Anjuna. It's a very big flea market right on the coast but we didn't think much of the quality of goods that were being sold. The best shopping seems to have been in Rajasthan; mainly, Jaipur and Pushkar. In Anjuna, I had a new Indian experience: within 60 seconds of leaving the taxi, about 3 men, one after another, starting pointing at my ear. I
instinctively am shaking my head 'no' and continuing to walk. One guy grabs my arm another guy puts his finger on my cheek, and then it hits me. They're carrying this little leather purses over their shoulder where they keep their supplies. They are ear cleaners. Ear cleaners are the most persistent of all Indian salesman - they grabbed, they tried to put their fingers in my ear and it seemed the more irritated I became, the more ear cleaners approached me. About ten men in total, one after another, attempted to clean my ears. Jill got off cleanly. Maybe my ears were dirty?
The last few days, after my recovery, were especially fun as we met up with some cool people and, as I've said, I was able to enjoy the food and drink. So Jill and I spent our time, reading and relaxing in the restaurants on the beach.
Other things:
-All over India I've been seeing the swastika on cars, temples, buildings, which made me slightly uncomfortable - in the US (and probably many other countries), it symbolizes hate. I ded realized that it wasn't Nazi related, at the least because of the many Israelis
visiting India. Anyway, just googled it (finally) and it's a sacred Hindu symbol. It symbolizes luck or well-being or the sun. Nice to know what it means.
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Zaliha
non-member comment
Emaciated
Roy, In the picture of you playing scrabble, you look like a contestant on Survivor. Deprived of all luxuries in life, including Food. Are they feeding you over there? You should food thats not gonna go right through you. If you need some money so that you can get a decent meal, please let us know. We have all discussed this and are worried about you.