Location: Palolem, Goa. Panjim, Goa. Date: 23rd May 2010

Tessa says: Sand between our toes sitting beachside at a restaurant eating nachos Jared says “ooo I like Palolem!” Palolem is a laid-back beach town. There are enough foreigners here to poke a stick at, all the ladies wearing clothes of the western world making me feel almost out of place in my Salwar Kameez (Indian pant and suit top). There are hordes of Indian tourists here and all the Indian tourist men seem to smoke, drink beer, wear jockeys for swimsuits and stare at the foreign ladies in their bikinis. I guess it’s like a mini holiday from the more conservative parts of India for them.
We stay in a basic hotel room, which has cable tv and hot water all for the low price of 300rp ($10NZ) a night and it’s only about 2 minutes walk from the beach so we’re happy.
A restaurant “Cheeky Chapati” on the corner from our holiday home advertised a quiz night so Jared and I got there early for some brain warm-up exercises of Connect 4. Thinking we’d be better off being in a bigger team than just us two we offered our expertise and were snapped up by some long-term expat stayers. Our team totaled 6 and because the rest of them were Brits, we opted for the team name “Upside down-unders”.
Needless to say with our mighty brain power our team won (I think we were just really lucky because the quiz was aimed at Brits and we had a load of em) the grand total of 1000rp which we split between us.
After feeling rested, relaxed and beached up we moved onto Panjim and Old Goa. We arrived for the weekend so things were pretty quiet, the architecture and food had a real Portuguese influence.

Jared says: Palolem beach reminded me a lot of some of the Thai beaches, although the sand wasn’t quite so white and the water not so blue. But the feel of the place was very similar, with bars and restaurants dotting the beachfront, most even protruding as far as the high tide mark. There was also a similar mix of holidaymakers, ranging from those like ourselves, just taking a quick stopover, to the long-term stayer, such as one of the girls on our quiz team who had been in the area six months. Then there was also the ex-pats who had decided to extend their holiday and make this little patch of paradise their permanent homes. The food was also on a similar scale to many Thai beaches, with a mixture of international and Indian foods on the menu, but neither quite matching the quality if you were eating them in their regions of origin. Cheeky Chapati gave us our best meals here, with the overweight English owner obviously teaching his predominantly Indian staff well in the fine arts of good “chips, eggs and baked beans” as well as some great steamed vege and mashed potato. One other thing they do well in Goa is cold beer, with both the price and availability far more satisfactory than anywhere else we have been in India, which definitely kept me happy, maybe a little too happy on occasions.
Although we could have relaxed at the beach for another couple of weeks there is still plenty more of India to see so we headed to Goa’s capital Panjim. The city itself was quite nice by Indian standards and the area we stayed was very sleepy with rows of big old Portuguese villas lining the narrow streets. We took a trip to see Old Goa, the previous capital. Here there is an absolutely amazing number of big old churches, again with the Portuguese influence really showing through. The size and grandiose of many reminded me of Rome, with one even modeled on the original St Peters cathedral.
This was all definitely a different side of Goa you don’t hear so much about, but now for us it is time to go back to the beaches for a bit to get in some more R&R before some big travel days we have coming up.

Palolem
Accomo: Pritam Cottages, The classic concrete bunker style room but excellent value for money. 300rp ***.
Eats: Cheeky Chappati, a little expensive but quality food on every occasion ****.
Cuba, the most popular of the beachside eateries, but definitely nothing special on the food front for us **1/2.

Panjim
Accomo: Comfort Guest House, another basic room, but with a very slow fan and only a trickle of water for the shower. 400rp **.
Eats: Fishland, quality curries at a good price made this our regular eating spot ****.