Palolem - November 5th

Today we finally go to the beach.  But first as Margao is a market town, we stock up on a few supplies and have some Goan snacks.  Thanks to the Portuguese influence, the bakery here serves very good breakfast snacks.  Then we have to get the bus to the beach.  This is an interesting experience as the way to find the bus you want is stand at the bus stop and listen to the conductor shout the name of the stops as the bus pulls in.  The accents make this very difficult, and asking locals gets us the wrong answer at least twice (we get told busses are going to Palolem when the conductor tells us they aren’t – we learn waiting for the conductor to finish his spiel and then asking him, gets us answers).

Eventually we get the bus and get to Palolem in an hour, which is just as well because the heat would have made it difficult to last much longer.  When we get off the bus we are approached by a guy renting out beach huts.  Having been successful with this in the past we go with him, and the hut is pretty much as expected, just off the beach (you pay double to be on the beach) and with very basic facilities (no electricity, but it’s the whole town that is off at the moment).  We take it, as the price seems about as good as we have been told we can get here.  We aren’t put off by the pig running by, the cows have immunised us to roving farm animals.

Once checked in (like booking train tickets, checking into a hotel is not something that gets done quickly here) we explore the beach,  it is quite long, about 2km, and I’d say we are about 1/3 of the way down (from North to South, and the town to check out the facilities, which has everything you need in a beach town (except an ATM but we knew that so have enough cash).  We also see the electricity people attempting to fix the supply.

We spend the rest of the day on the beach, going for a swim, and in the evening after dark, walking the beach to find the best looking restaurant.  We settle on a place called Ciaran’s, alas not an Irish bar, where we eat really good freshly caught fish dishes.