billrider2013

It was a great relief to find that the hostel I picked in Panjim was as good as the reviews on the web site I use had suggested.

It is called the Old Quarter Hostel, because (surprise, surprise) it is located in the old quarter of Panjim. It is one of the new breed of hostels that are popping up in India. A number of mainly young entrepreneurs are establishing these businesses. If George Bush is reading this, entrepreneur is a French word for people that start businesses.

A Very Good Hostel

The Old Quarter a good example of a good hostel. It is located on the in the centre of the most interesting part of the town. It is where the Portuguese colonialists settled along with ‘Old Goa’ which is about 20 klms away. The colonial architecture is interesting. The building in the hostel is housed has been gutted and the interior is specifically built for purpose. This includes, modern bathrooms and toilets with very good plumbing that works.

The rooms are a mixture of bunk and private rooms. They have fans and air-conditioners. There are large lockers and plenty of power points which take most plugs (except those silly over engineered UK plugs – but wo cares). These are essential features for travellers.

The common area includes a long table power points which can be accessed from the table. The Wifi can be accessed throughout the building. It is not particularly good, but that is not the fault of the hostel. The internet is only as good as what the providers can provide (a lesson the Malcom Turnbull needs to learn). There are also a number of lounge chairs and couches, again with nearby power points.

There is a café next to the reception. This serves reasonable coffee include cappuccinos and expresso coffee. It also serves a standard breakfast which is included in the tariff or optional extra breakfasts and snacks. The quality of the food is good. The place appears to have high hygienic standards.

The staff are very professional and helpful in providing advice on travel and sightseeing.

The Usual Eclectic Bunch of Travellers

As with most hostels there was a mixed group of guests of varying ages and nationalities. I am certainly no ‘Robinson Crusoe’ when comes to being a ‘senior’ traveller. There are lots of us staying places like this.

Two Blokes agree that Putin is an Arsehole

On the second night I shared the room with a bloke from the Ukraine and bloke from Malaysia. Naturally, the shooting down of the Malaysian Airline over the Ukraine was discussed.
They both agreed that it is almost certain that the Russians were almost certainly responsible for the disaster and that Vladimir is an arsehole

Tony Who?

I told them that Tony Abbott said he was going to ‘shirt front’ Putin of the the shooting down of the pane at the G20 Conference in Brisbane in November 2014.
The bloke from the Ukraine had not heard of Tony Abbott.
The bloke from Malaysia had heard the he had “been expelled from Government” I liked that sound of that.

I thought that I may have to had tried to explain the meaning of the term ‘shirt front’. They clearly had no interest in what Abbott had said and the conversation moved on.
I think there is a lesson for all Australians in that.

Tacky Beach

Late the next day I decided to head for the beach. Gao is known for its beaches. I took the local bus from Panjim to Calangute

The ride was interesting. It seemed that no matter how far you travelled the fare was INDR 10 or INDR 20 id you were no a local.

The road follows the coast. There are beaches to the left and string of shops, bars and ‘resorts’ along the road.

Once in Calangute I headed to the beach. There is sand and the ocean. There were also a number of cows. Most of the people on the beach were fully clothed. There were some people in the water. None were swimming.

There is a large number of bars along the beach. This is seems to be the main reason for being on the beach.

That was the beach done. I headed back into the town. There are a lots of shops. They seem to selling one of three things: T shirts, swim wear – principally bikinis, and tattoos. The Tattoo shops seem the think that being ‘hygienic’ gives then a distinctive offering.

I stopped off in bar for a drink. There were a couple of women drinking beer and speaking Dutch. There aren’t many really unattractive Dutch women in the world. These were two of the limited number. A bloke with a very distinctive Yorkshire accent arrived and started chatting to the Dutch women. They clearly knew each other.

Back to Panjim

The ride back to Panjim seemed to takes much longer than the ride up.
The bus dropped me off at the ferry that crossed the river to Panjim. It is mystery way this ferry operates given the there is a bridge (the one I crossed to get to the beach) less than 500 metres away. The ferry was chaotic. Check out the Flickr video.

Nice Restaurants

There are a lot of good restaurants in Panjim. I had some excellent meals washed down with very cold Kingfisher Larger.

Windows 10

On my third day my Surface Tablet started being particularly slow. I decided to reinstall Windows 10. How silly am I. It took nearly all day.

Old Goa

The next day, I took the bus out to Old Goa.
This town was settled by the Portuguese back in the 1600’s. They still governed the state of Goa up until the 1960’s. That is something I didn’t know until now. I thought all of India became independent after partition in 1947.

Flying to KL

My flight to KL left at 9.00 p.m.

When I checked in I was told that my seat “would not recline”. I was asked if would like to “pay extra for a declining seat?”. I ignored the question.
When I got on the plane I found that the seat was in the least row and indeed, it did not recline. There were plenty of other seats.

I simple got up and took one of those.

Flickr Link

Garmin Link

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