14.3.26

Margao actually. A short bus ride away, something different for the four of us.

I did some trip planning from Wikipedia and jotted down some of the best things to see.

Liz and I went during week 1 and knew it’s not a pretty place and no reason to go to the market place again. We got nabbed by a friendly lady last time, this time a friendly man made conversation, looked at my map and said follow me. This ultimately ended in the market, come to my shop, come and see my pashminas. Can’t believe I stupidly fell for this again.

Anyway, we resisted his shop and carried on our 20 minute walk to our first amazing spot on our tour. Pandava caves.

20 minutes became much more due to our pashmina diversion and my poor Google map reading abilities.

It was boiling hot, the humidity is getting worse every day.

So close but yet so far we walked around St Sebastian Church area. Google was taking us in a persistent loop. Where are the caves?

There was a metal staircase with no rungs, we werent risking that. Sharon spotted a man on a motor bike. Caves? He laughed, ‘you used Google maps!’

We followed his instructions and there was the caves. Spectacular. Omg, blown away! I jest.

Wow. Not sure we’ll top this.

Sharon had been speaking to a lady who recommended a fabulous place for coffee. Of course it was back the way we came but we did some back street diversions to get away from the incessant traffic and beeping.

The pavements are obstructed by vehicles, dirty, rubbly, litter everywhere. We all agreed we wouldn’t live there if we were paid to.

Coffee stop found. It’s a very impressive building.

https://www.gomantaktimes.com/amp/story/best-of-goa/longuinhos-a-legacy-of-authentic-goan-flavours

They only had a Nescafe type machine, only plain lassi, but their chicken noodle soup was delicious.

We lingered for as long as was polite and enjoyed being cooler. We looked at all the other treasures I’d jotted down, all over 30 minutes walk.

The library is apparently very nice, but closed on Saturday.

Nah,was the overwhelming majority response to more touring. Let’s look at the garden and get a bus back.

Very pretty, a small but lovely green escape and people were relaxing on the grass and enjoying it. I think I heard Kevin mention Hyde Park at one point. Not sure of the relevance.

There’s a large Hindu Festival happening at 5pm. We’re sure it’ll be lovely but it was just 2.30pm, couldn’t kill time in that heat any longer.

Back at base camp everyone scuttled off for showers and naps. I’m not a napper, so made myself cosy on my cube and watched MAFS.

I napped for over an hour! Felt so disorientated when I woke up. I hate that feeling.

Off to Pavillion for dinner, we’ve not been back since disapponting Chinese meals in week one. The staff are friendly so we took a chance and only ordered Indian food. It was OK, but don’t think we’ll be back.

Tomorrow will mark the beginning of our (please god) last week.

We’ve discussed our essential food plans. Cashew curry at Bullion and Chicken Makhani at Leda are top priority.

A beach day at Roger’s is a must do, hopefully will go early enough for their fab muesli and curd bowl then have room for honey chilli chicken later. An early dinner at Cedrous over the road for our last night, as we need to get a few hours sleep before our epic journey begins at 3am on 22nd March.

There’s a train journey in the offing. I researched it. Not sure the others will trust it after the cave experience.

We were going to do that on Monday but have to delay until Tuesday because it doesn’t fit with the eating schedule.