Tuesday 7th
September - We had to move out of the Indian Kitchen this morning as the price
was too high, albeit for a larger room. Nothing cheaper available. Some places
are prepared to negotiate, whilst others stay fixed and you just walk away. I
have noticed that those which appear in the Lonely Planet are the worse at not
budging sometimes. I think they have an inflated opinion about themselves, and
think they have guaranteed business if they appear in the 'Traveler’s Bible'.
Truth is that they are often also the worse at maintaining their businesses,
and are often way behind what the book describes them. Others who are not in
the guidebook have to set themselves up better to get the business, and are
almost always better standard. The Baga Residency opposite offered us a room
for 650 rupees including free wi-fi, which was effectively half the total
price.
It rained
heavily again this morning, but at least it
gave us the opportunity to catch up. Posting
photos, journals etc. After the rains stopped we got out to explore. Calangute
beach was fairly deserted. The Arabian sea was throwing up strong swirling
waves, making it too strong for most people, and life guards have been posted
for safety. Finding some comfort food to make for ourselves in our room is easy
enough with a handful of supermarkets dotted around the village. We even
managed to find Shiera's favourite dessert Gulab Jamun. A bit too sweet, but
she was asking how much for a kilo of it. Must find the recipe!
Well
two things are relentless. The rain and the power failures. It threw it down
through the night and carried on during the next day. Ok, we wanted a break. A
rest. So this meant some catching up on the internet. As regular as can be
annoying, the electricity failed. Last night we spent the evening in the dark
until it came back about 12:30, just when we were about to doze off, the TV
came on full volume and the fans and aircon joined it. Bad timing in one sense,
but good timing in another. The cheese, biscuits and Bourneville drink we had
bought earlier didn't go to waste. Went to bed finally, but on a bad food diet!
Power
gone again as I write. I cannot believe why this part of Goa is this bad. Ok,
it's the monsoon season. But why that should mean the power being this bad.
They have plenty of experience at this weather pattern and should have done
something to make sure it can cope. Well, that's the logic in the west, but
maybe not here.
Made
a visit into Panaji (AKA Panjim) and was impressed by it. An easy enough place
to do on foot. Some great food options and struck lucky in finding our
favourite desserts of Basundi and Rasmalai. Not great for health, but great for
the soul! I knew about the casino boats that sailed around the Mandovi river,
but was surprised at how many there were for this time of year. Lit up in the
dark and floating around the waters with their captive audience.
Back
at the hotel and the power was up and down again for the evening. Why does the
power fail when you get to that important scene in a movie when the story is
just about to become clear, or the most exciting bit? Murphy's law I guess!
The
next day was a brighter day. The sun came out for first time since we arrived,
so we walked the beach up to Baga. The entire area is a building site. There is
nothing more off-putting that wanting to have a nice relaxing meal surrounded
by tarpaulins, crashing and banging, and the whole range of construction
noises. It is understandable though, as this is their downtime before the peak
season begins, so they are all working to update and repair. The choice for
lunch was more based on the level of noise rather than what food they were
serving.
The
following day was a busy day out. Visited Old Goa (Rs8 bus from the Kadamba Bus
stand). It is a fairly compact area mainly around the Bom Jesus church and the
Se se Cathedral. Francis Xavier's remains are displayed in an elevated ornate
casket in the church. We returned to Panaji and headed for the cinema on 18th
June street. The movie Dabbam was in
Hindi, so could hardly understand a single word of it. It doesn't matter as the
plot was the usual cheesy fun action interjected with plenty of singing and
Bollywood style dance.
One
of the best breakfasts we have found is at the Bar Eclipse on the main Baga
road. Understandable considering the owners are both English. Yep, they know
what the customer wants. We had their breakfast everyday once we had discovered
it.
One
of the necessities was to plan our route out of Goa up to Mumbai. Sounds easy,
but getting train tickets for when we wanted proved to be tricky. We had been
advised by the hotel to take our passports to the Konkan rail booking office at
the Kadamba bus stand in Panaji to get our foreigner quota tickets. Turned out
that they wouldn’t let us book them as the train originated from Madgaon and we
would have to go there to book instead. Wasn’t in the mood to go all the way
there just to book tickets and it seems crazy that they wouldn’t do it. Why
make foreigners go all the way to a station a long way from anywhere just to book
your tickets? Anyway, had to change plan.
The journal is a bit shorter this time. Save's anyone falling asleep like the usual epic.
Bye for now.
