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I stayed in Panaji or Panjim, the capital city of Goa. It is about 25-30 minutes from the tourist beaches of Calangute and Baga. That was a big mistake and I could not change hotels no matter how hard I tried. At least I could walk around within the town itself and it is not unpleasant. There are lots of restaurants and shops in the city centre which is also geared towards tourists. On average, it cost me about INR600 one way to get to the beaches in a taxi.
It rained 4 out of the 5 days I stayed in Goa. The second day I went to the hotel spa for a 2.5 hour treatment and massage. By that afternoon, I had a cold. I also went on a half day tour of old Goa which consisted mainly of churches built in the 17th century. Also went for a sunset cruise on the Mandovi River. On the cruise, they had traditional Goan and Portuguese dancers. They also had a DJ and the Indian guys went wild on the dance floor.
The third day I went to Calangute beach which didn't look particularly nice so I walked along the beach to Baga. As I reached Baga which was much nicer it started raining. I went and sat in a beach shack and had lunch there. After an hour or two, it stopped raining so I decided to get a taxi back to the hotel. As I walked to the street, it started raining again.
Went back to Calangute the next day and walked to the same beach shack in Baga. I ordered a drink, then told the waiter who had also served me the previous day, to watch my bag while I went for a swim. The water was quite warm and nice but the lifeguards generally do not allow people to go beyond waist deep in the water. It was quite clear even to me that Indians are not very confident or good in the water. Went back to the shack and had lunch. Looked like storm clouds were building again so I took a taxi back to the hotel and went to swim in the hotel pool. It started raining while I was in the pool but it was already early evening by then so I was not too bothered.
Took a taxi back to Baga that night and went to a club called Titos based on the advice of a couple of taxi drivers. Entrance fee was INR1500 but drinks are free thereafter. They had 2 dance floors. One was playing hip hop / R&B music which was not too full. The other dance floor had really good Hindi music remixes. The floor was packed and these Indians tend to go wild when dancing. Men outnumbered women by 10 to 1. I had entered the club at 10.30pm but by 12.15 I had enough of them and walked out. Walking on Baga beach, the beach shacks had candle lit dinners. There were people just sitting on the beach and others looking like they had passed out there. I can imagine what it looked like in previous years with hippies there.
Next day rained until almost 3pm so I watched english movies in my hotel room until 4pm. Walked around the town and had ice cream. Then went to Baga that night and went to Cape Town Cafe. DJ was playing trance music and the Man United/Man City game was on tool big screen TVs. United lost the game 4-1. The cafe had a nice vibe and I stayed there from 7pm until after 10pm.
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