Panjim, Goa

Umm... why did we leave the beach? We decided to err on the side of being too early for our flight from Goa to Jaipur (very unlike us) and we decided to stay in Panjim overnight because it is closer to the airport. What we didn't realize is that Goa is super small compared to Kerala and it only took us two hours to drive from Palolem Beach to Panjim. Panjim is only about 45 mins from the airport. SO we arrived early and decided to walk around this capital city... BIG MISTAKE for road weary travelers!

Within the first twenty minutes we realized that Panjim is not our favorite city in India. The traffic was relentless, the vendors were super aggressive, three out of four ATM machines didn't work, and the constant staring was starting to take its toll on Teri. Add all this together with uncomfortable heat, midday hunger (the restaurants were closed until 7pm), and two cases of lingering Delhi Belly and you get two very moody tourists! We decided to walk back to our hotel and wait it out until dinner time.

The good news was that our hotel was very cool and it was in a quaint little neighborhood called "Fontainhas"-- a colorfully painted Portuguese-style area with windy streets and small restaurants. We went to a small, family run restaurant in the neighborhood and then went to the open air patio at our little hotel for desert. We finally got to try the local coconut liquor called "feni" and it was great! We also ordered the local specialty for desert, which was a coconut based type of stiff custard, like flan.

Anyway, we hired a taxi for the day on Tuesday and he took us all over "Old Goa." We walked through great big churches built by Vasco de Gama and his Portuguese entourage, saw the preserved corpse of Saint Francis Xavier at the Basilica of Bom Jesus (Church of Holy or Infant Jesus), and retreated from the thick, midday heat in the Cathedral of Saint Catherine. It was fun to see these massive churches amidst the palm trees. All this AND we still got to the airport early enough to relax, have a samosa or three, and catch our quick flight to Jaipur.

More to come from the North!
Sincerely,
Teri and Matt