Day 23, Panjim, Goa [Wednesday 26th December 2007 - Boxing Day]
Previous day: Day 22, Benaulim, Goa [Tuesday 25th December 2007 - Christmas Day]
Next day: Day 24, Panjim, Goa [Thursday 27th December 2007]
We leave Mrs D'Souza's at 10am and get coconut milkshakes for breakfast, then catch a bus to Margao, another bus to the bus station and another bus to Panjim. This takes about an hour. Then we get a rickshaw into town, where we have trouble finding a hotel as everything is booked up for Christmas. Eventually we get a room at Orav's Guesthouse, with a balcony overlooking some rubble. It's a bit of a dingy place. There's a TV, and I flick through the channels, most of which are showing soaps. We walk into Panjim, through the Fontainhas district, a Portuguese quarter with lots of heritage architecture, most of which is now home to posh hotels. The parts that aren't hotels are a bit dusty and decrepit and ripe for development. It has lots of former grandeur.
We climb up to the Hanuman Temple. On the way I play a few strokes of cricket with a gang of kids who are hanging around the temple steps. From there we walk to the Goan Archbishop's house, an inexplicably grand, white mansion atop a hill. It dwarfs the Goan Chief Minister's residence which sits opposite being heavily guarded by police. Now I know where my donation at midnight mass is headed.
We visit the Church of the Immaculate Conception - the one in all the photos of Goa - with its soaring, white facade and electric blue highlights, big white steps zigzagging up the hill, and a huge bell at the top. Once you've climbed the steps it doesn't look nearly as impressive as it does from the bottom, from where its elevated position makes it more striking and imposing. Inside it's ornate, with two altars, and everything is gilded in gold. Again, it seems even smaller in here than it does when you're standing outside. The whole thing is like a weird Tardis - the further away you get the bigger it appears.
We dine at Sher-E-Punjab, a place which is overpriced on very little foundation. They have a pation/garden, haphazardly lit with flurescent lights, and cooled by electric fans stuck around the edges. But at Rs 350 for paneer bhaji and chilly noodles we probably won't be rushing back.
On the way home I feel a slight twinge. Later it becomes apparent that I have the shits.
Today we spent Rs. 1555.
Next day: Day 24, Panjim, Goa [Thursday 27th December 2007]
Previous day: Day 22, Benaulim, Goa [Tuesday 25th December 2007 - Christmas Day]