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Panjim and Palolem - Goa
Hi everyone, I know I'm being slack, sorry. I'm having trouble uploading photos as nowhere seems to have a card reader.
Anyway, I've been getting around a bit more now, after leaving Anjuna I made my way down to Panjim, the Goan state capital, it was settled and ruled by the Portuguese hundreds of years ago and it shows, it was a lot like a small Portuguese town with the mediterrenien style architecture in all kinds of vivid and bright colours. It was a nice place to see for a couple of days but apart from wandering round looking at things and the large brillant church in the centre of town there's not a lot else to do there. On the afternoon of the second day I took a bus out to Old Goa which was the former capital of Goa. Again settled by the Portuguese it's a small village where the biggest churches in Asia can be found, and they were huge and a lot of them, probably about 10 in total including the cathedral and the convents all tightly surrounded by 30 metre high coconut trees in the scorching heat, it was beautiful if a little out of place, the churches themselves are still all in great condition with original painting decorations on the walls. The Portuguese really seemed to make a stamp on the area with another town a bit further away named after one of its most famous explorers - Vasco da Gama.
The following morning I checked out at 8am and got the bus from Panjim down to the resort of Palolem in South Goa it was a 2 and a half hour journey and only cost about 40p. On the way down I made a couple of friends and we decided to go in search of a beach hut, we got a really beautiful place for about 7 pound a night at the quieter end of the beach and I soon set into my way of lazing as I had done for the last couple of weeks. The beach was beautiful with lots of Goan fishing boats lined along the beach in front of all the bars and restaurants. The ocean was warm and much calmer than that of Anjunas it felt safe enough to swim in so I did everyday. I only planned to stay there a few nights which tied in perfectly with the trains to my next destination. On the Saturday night we decided to take a walk down to the other side of the beach and over the headland to a club/party we'd heard about called Silent Noise. It was weird! In Goa they have strict rules about how late places are allowed to stay open and play music till and the club was no exception, a regular party from 8 till 11 then at 11 you hired a pair of headphones to listen to the music on and the speakers were switched off and over the headphones where broadcast 3 different channels of music. It was bizarre watching people partying to different music with headphones on in almost complete silence. It didn't quite work for me and the novelty soon wore off. But, hey, it was an experience.On the final night in Palolem we were asked by the guys at the hotel if we'd like to go sea fishing in one of the little timber fishing boats. 200 Rupees (3 quid) for about 2 hours of fishing and whatever we caught they would cook for us back at the hotel for free. So off we went not expecting to catch anything but we did Matt caught a snapper and I got a rockfish and the biggest fish which I think was a sea bream, the guys back at the hotel had never seen one before but when we ate it it tasted a lot like one I'd had before, so when we got back to the beach huts we got the chef to stick our 'haul' in the tandoor and it came out beautiful, the big fish I'd caught was absolutely delicious best meal I'd had so far I reckon, four fresh fish and a couple of naan and me, Giulia and Matt got stuck in. It was a good end to our stay in Palolem. It was an early night after that as me and Giulia were up at 5am to go to Hampi, which will be coming next.
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