Going to Goa
March 17th, 2007 by Vijay
Having managed to avoid the Rajastan Runs we ventured south to the wonderful state of Goa. Its much calmer , cleaner and quieter than the North.
The first difference you notice is at the airport, the taxi drivers here are complete amateurs. Nobody tried to grab our bags, or give us false directions or anything, are we still in India we thought ?
Then the 35 km ride from Dabolim airport to Panjim. The roads are unbelievable. They were beautifully made and did not have potholes. There were fewer potholes in that ride than I would find in any half-kilometer stretch of Delhi roads. I could not stop being amazed by the quality of not just the roads but also the city streets. They were the kind that I would find in any developed nation. And to top it all, there was no trash on the streets !
San Tome is the atmospheric end of Panjim and hence has the more expensive rooms. So after some walking around we consulted the Lonely Planet (boy, am I going off that book) and found the Park Lane Lodge. The lady at reception seemed nice enough , but then out came the rulebook – NO unauthorized use of electricity, gates locked at 10pm sharp and checkout time 8am. Fortunatley Panaji pretty much closes down before then so it was no hardship.
We also took some daytrips to the charming Old Goa and Calangute.
Old Goa was a random collection of a large number of churches built pretty much on each others doorsteps. It was nice to wander around and we didnt get too much grief. One of these is the Basilica of Bom Jésus where the mortal remains of St Francis Xavier can be clearly seen (Not nice).
Calangute is the package holiday central place. Couldnt get within fifty yards of the sea without someone trying to sell us a banana boat / dolphin trip / beach chair/ tea/ taxi/ oh you have won a jackpot scratch card. It was also the most over priced place we have been to in India. I tend to use chappatis and tea as my price indicator, although cheap in themselves they allow you to make comparisons. We have rarely (even in fancy places in airports) paid more than 15Rs for a tea, so imagine my surprise when our two teas came to 100 Rs ! Thats more than we pay for most our meals ! Apparently the food etc is quite good here, but I was not sticking around to find out.
Hampi next.
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