October 8 - Panjim, Goa

The plan: Head to Goa to relax, visit the beautiful city of Panjim and beach it up

We finally made it to Panaji at around 7 am…after a long sleepless night (Why exactly are they called sleeper buses if it’s impossible to sleep in??). When we got out, our first mission was to find a bathroom since after being in a bus for 12 hours, we really really needed to go!!! After using the surprisingly clean ones at the bus stand (the girls bathroom anyways!), we headed downtown to try and find a hotel for the next two nights! The walk in the early morning was a nice way to make it into town, despite the slightly rainy weather. Once downtown, we both fell in love with the place! It is soooo different from any place we’ve been in India so far…it has a very very strong Portuguese influence from the narrow streets, to the beautifully bright painted houses, to the beautiful doorways.

Panaji reminded me a lot of Havana, for anyone that’s been. Much of the same architecture style and feel, and just as Havana lines the ocean with its main roadway along the boardwalk, Panaji faces out onto its bordering river.

We checked out a couple of places and after finally identifying the cheapest one (after the cockroaches of Mahabaleshwar, we have no more fears!!) we booked it for the next two days, took a quick shower and headed out to find a place that was open to have breakfast! We were both starving at this point and wanted someplace close by so we settled on the Alphonso Guesthouse…a beautifully restored Portuguese townhome where, if we weren’t both sooo cheap, we could’ve stayed at!! But at least we got to enjoy a wonderful breakfast of Goan bread with jam, eggs and toast with a rooftop view on some of the surrounding area! Once fed, we headed out follow the suggested walking tour of Panaji.

We started out our personal Lonely Planet Guidebook assisted tour at the Panjim Inn, a 200 year old mansion. The pastel pink exterior gives it a very Mediterranean feel. We then slowly made our way over to the Maruti Temple which is dedicated to the monkey god Hanuman…and were we had to seek shelter from the monsoon (leftover!) rains…but luckily for us, it didn’t last long and the sun accompanied us on our journey for the rest of the day!! After taking in the beautiful views of the Mandovi River, we walked over to see the Bishop’s palace. This MANSION is where the Archbishop of Goa resides. This mansion has a giant silver painted statue of Jesus outside and totally overshadows the Chief Minister’s residence across the street!! After retracing our steps a little bit, we explored the narrow streets and found our way to the Chapel of St. Sebastian. It was actually built in the 1880’s and the crucifix that currently inhabits the chapel is the crucifix that originally stood in the Palace of Inquisition in Old Goa. Since we were both tired from the bus ride and the humidity of Goa, we headed over to the Hotel Venite, located in another 200 year old building, sat on one of its very very cozy balconies overlooking the street and had two nice milkshakes. The last and most impressive stop on our tour was the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The Church itself wasn’t that big but the stairs leading up to it where very impressive. This church is clearly the center piece of the city! It was originally consecrated in 1541 and stands above the town square. It turns out that Panaji was the first port of call for voyages from Lisbon and newly arrived sailors would visit the strikingly whitewashed church to give thanks for a safe crossing before continuing to Old Goa. It is quite an impressive site, especially when the sky is blue and holds such a contrast against the white church.

This church is the symbol of Panaji and rightfully so. Though we couldn’t enter it during our visit, the nice walk up and view down on one of Panaji’s main streets is well worth the visit.

The rest of our day was spent walking the streets of Panaji. We walked down by the water and made our way to the market…but before even getting there, we were stopped by this very friendly man who chatted with us and offered to show us the market…and to our surprise, didn’t seem to want anything (at the time!). Yan and I were both hungry and tired and so we asked him to suggest a nice lunch restaurant for us…and he did, and proceeded to follow us inside, order tea, drink it, and then asked us to pay for it while he went to check on his shop! He let us be for a while but told us he would come back after we were done our lunch…he came back in a second time, but saw that we weren’t done and decided to go back outside. When we were finished paying, we walked out and didn’t see him so we started walking away…but as you know it, he had spotted us and asked us to come visit his shop.

He had been pretty nice to us after all so we decided to follow him. We walked down a couple of streets where at one point, he picked up a bag full of stuff (Yan and I thought he had gotten a delivery!) and then proceeded one street down and asked me to sit on the sidewalk…where he opened his bag and showed me his shop!!! Crazy! He had nice pillow cases and blankets but nothing Yan and I wanted so we walked away with him still begging for us to buy something.

We went back to our hotel and got ready for supper and headed to Hotel Ritz! Recommended to us by a travel agent who said they had delicious seafood…with a hefty price attached to it!! I went with squid masala while Yan got to choose his fish from a selection they brought to him on a platter! The food was pretty good and seriously, although it was the most expensive meal we have EVER had here (we paid the same amount on one meal than we would normally pay in 2 whole days!) when you think about it, 5$ for a seafood dish is pretty cheap, and we were both happy to finally have some fish, Goan Fish nonetheless!