The Mandovi Panaji

... The large, mouldy-walled houses made up the town, European, Portuguese in style, so much so that the streets we were walking down could have been part of a European city. It was cleaner than we've seen so far, and very pleasant to explore. <br>We were stopped by a man offering us accommodation, holding a big wad of cards, and once we explained 300 rupees maximum, he took us to Elite Hotel, which had a dirty little room on the first floor in a great Latin style buildings ...

... which if you are ever in Old Goa i strongly advise going too, and at 5 rupees per entry, you won't find a cheaper option like this anywhere else on Planet Earth. <br>It was almost embarrassing parting with the equivalent of 15 pence to get in. <br>Amazing stone carvings dating back as far as the 10th century as well as paintings of all the Portuguese Viceroy's, chancellors and dignitaries that ran Goa until 1961, an archaeological treat ...

... na plazi. Ale divil sem se ze to udelali i potom, co sem zaujmul polohu smejiciho se Budhy. A ze figuru na to mam. Asi ze me yogin uz nikdy nebude. Ale sem rad, ze nas nechaj tam tudy prochazet. Je to nejblizsi zkratka na plaz. Tak sem se nechal unest zase zvanenim. Mezi tim ten petiminutovej slejvak zkoncil. Nevim jestli je nebe modry, protoze je uz tma. Jenom hvezdy svitej jako blazen a ja pomalu dopiju a pudu spat. Tak jsk sem to Oline slibil pred hodinou......

... Now all that remains are some of the catholic cathedrals and churches built by the Porteguese. And a lot of dudes hassling us to buy their wares...this time blackgammon and chess sets and bubbles that didnt burst! We declined. After 2 nights in Panjim, it was time to head up the coast to enjoy some of the beaches that Goa is famous for!

... window, love travel sickness!!! got into mapusa early morning, took a motorbike taxil, goa just seemed abundant of luscious green trees, went over wide rivers, through villages, up hills with views of the rivers below, and after 30 minutes reached arambol. An old hippy favourite, not yet ruined by package tours and development, but highly populated with travellers after checking in on a place around the corner of the headland over rocks jutting out over the sea, i ...

... Arambol to go to Mapusa to see the Carnival parade again. It was the same parade as the one in Panjim, but the floats were moving around much faster! At the end there was a show at the parade ground. Some Indian groups were playing, some young people did some Bollywood dancing and people were drinking even Indian girls! I stayed for a while, but left when they started handing out prizes for the parade, it was taking forever!

... Nice to have someone to show me the cool places around! Then it was time for food and more time doing not much, drinking lassi and more lassi and then back home on the scooter. And in the evening it was the Arpora Saturday Night Bazaar. Fun! Amazing food (did I say AMAZING already???? Sorry, lack of vocabulary), music, tons of people, and things to buy. I bought enough Darjeeling Tea for the next 10 years. And then the trick was to come back home with the traffic that was totally ...

... OH MY GOD QUICK QUICK QUICK OH MY GOD LOOK LOOK LOOK CHIEL CHIEL LOOK!!!!!!!!!! Blue Butterfly. BLUUUUUUUUUUUUU----BUUU-TTTURRRRRR----F LYYYYYYYYYYYYYY' 'It's black' 'Yes, but we call it BLUUUUUUU BUUUUTTTUUUURRRRRFLYYYYY OH MY GOD OH MY GOD.....' He's reaching near hysterical levels as he points out a blue kingfisher bird. He does have a good eye for it. It takes me a good 3 minutes to spot a bird with binoculars that he has seen with the naked eye. And he's never stuck for ...

... France's company, together with the friendly Nepali staff at what became our beach front hang-out made this place unforgettable. India was an amazing country to travel in and offered more than we ever imagined and although Rajasthan was our favourite province, Goa was the perfect way to end our trip there and get ourselves ready for roughing it in Africa!!! See you in the Serengeti!!!

One cannot stay in Paradise forever, and unfortunately it is time for me to move on from Palolem Beach. Counting back, I've had 10 (or 11) days here, but honestly it seems like months. Time seems to get trapped here, in little eddies, so that the normal ebb &amp; flow almost passes you by. It's been an amazing and relaxing time on the beach, and exactly what I needed. 10 days of sunning myself on a perfect beach, and not once ...