Panjim’s calm streets
So, what I have been doing in the last few days. Nothing much, really… I left Colva and headed for Panjim, the capital of Goa. I found the city a pleasant surprise, with decent hotels (Orav’s GH), great restaurants (Venite) and cheap and fast Internet places (iway). I stayed here for three days, mostly doing some work @ iway on my future web projects and walking around the town. Definitely lot calmer than beach towns. People aren’t in your face all the time trying to sell you ‘overpriced’ and ‘useless’ stuff…After 3 days, I decided to sample some beaches north of Panaji and took a cab to Candolim. Surreal…) The place was overran with sun-bathing, beer-drinking, belly-nursing retirees talking in strangely accented English, most of the time completely incomprehensible;) (Btw, I’ll leave it up to you to guess which country they were from.) OK, to be fair, not all of them were that bad, but enough to make such impression on me… Plus, everything was lot more expensive for stuff that should have been lot cheaper… The only good surprise was the Fisherman’s Cove restaurant. I discovered it by pure chance. I read about the place some days ago in the local Herald daily. A friendly owner and great Goan seafood.
Btw, the Candolim beach has a ‘pleasant’ (insert ‘ironic smile’) view on a rusting cruiseship that stranded there 6 years ago. It’s called “Princess…” something. Still there, polluting waters!!! The good news: It was reported in a local press that it’ll be finally removed to Gujarat for a disassembly. It should be gone by mid-year of 2007.
So, the next day I quickly headed back to Panaji… Good coffee, iway and quieter streets are lot more to my liking. It all only proves what I have known already: Beaches aren’t my thing. I just get too restless after a few days of laying around on a beach. Three days, tops!!! Would you believe that I didn’t take one single dip in the Arabian Sea??? Expect wetting my feet when walking and taking pictures;) I’m serious…
