Thursday, January 13, 2005

Palolem & around

I've spent a bit longer than I intended in Palolem, it's once of these places that is hard to leave!

It has a postcard picture beach in a curved bay fringed by swaying palm trees. I had a wander down to the beach south, Patnem, which was slightly quiter and then continued south onto the beach which is owned by a big fancy hotel called Intercontinental and then doubled back through the roads, it was close to exercise. The owner at my beach hut said that for one night in Intercontinental I could spend a month here. Although my beach hut doesn't have a private golf course or tennis courts, it does however boast a waiter who does a great Michael Jackson impersonation. This mostly consists of him saying "Michael Jackson!" and maybe raise an arm in the air.

Over the rickety bridge to my shack, in amongst the rocks I spotted a crab. Probably end up on somebody's plate tonight.

Back from the beachfront you can see pigs scavenge around through the trees.

Sitting in a cafe, I took some photos of the plants and a cactus & moped.
As I was in a cafe, I deem them art!

Exiting the cafe, I walked past a large white tree
and a painted rock. The sun set on another day as a few straggling fishermen came back in the fading light giving a warm orange glow to the beach as the sun finally dipped below the horizon.

I decided to rent a bike for a couple of hours one day. This was a clunky "Atlas" Indian bike with no gears. It didn't like going up hills, me neither. Still I managed to trundle down, past brilliant green rice paddies, to the next beach along, Agonda. This beach was absolutely deserted! Definitely the place for peace and quiet. Although when I arrived I was beetroot cheeked and dripping in sweat, not quite as serene as the beach demanded, so I proceeded back to Palolem....well that was the plan. But it seemed boring to come back the way I arrived so I took a different route. However the new route got less and less road like and more like a dirt track as it rose upwards. I ended up pushing my bike over red dusty rocks among green vegetation. Soon I was lost in the middle of the vegetation and the path kept dividing. After a few wrongs turns I eventually escaped the dusty mountain and made it back to the main road and fairly zoomed along back to Palolem. It was fun going over the speed bumps on a bike with no suspension, a bit like holding a pneutmatic drill I imagine.

I finally got round to looking into leaving Palolem, after taking even more sunset photos, and heading down to Managlore. It turned out that to get the express train I would have to head back north to Margoa. I then decided I would be better staying on the coast at Colva beach instead of in Margoa town. I had a walk around there and the next beach down, Benaulim, which had some people out fishing and carried the fish back from the small boats. Walking along the beach I came across this little fella in amonst the sea gulls. In the back paths of Colva, you may notice a whiffy smell I turned the corner and there was the answer. There is lots of dead fish lying drying in the sun!

I had "Dave's Super Special Steak" at the Lucky Star hotel where the menu was translated into German for some reason.

However after much research I can exclusive reveal that the winner of the Colins Goan Steak award goes to....

Domingoes in Baga!
Smugglers Inn at Palolem also gets a honourable mention for having giant folded steaks.

Back at the Lucky Star it was my lucky night as the entertainment was on tonight. This consisted of a one man band with a casio keyboard playing bad songs. I left Colva the next day.

I have now arrived in Mangalore and added adverts to my blog so I can soon rake in the millions, sweet! :)

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