A walk in Panaji

I set the alarm for 7.30am so that I could have a shower and sort myself out before my 9am taxi pickup to Panaji. I have hot water here, which is a bit of a luxury. At Maya, there is only cold water. Even when the weather is boiling hot, I'm still not keen on cold showers! 😂.

My taxi arrived on time, but the driver didn't seem to know where he was taking me, and didn't speak enough English to tell me how much it would be! We sorted out my destination in the end and set off for the 15-minute drive. When we arrived, he suddenly knew how to speak English and demanded 800 rupees, not a fortune, but extortionate by Indian standards! I argued, but he was adamant. I didn't have the right money and, surprise, surprise, he didn't have any change, so I ended up giving him 1000 rupees. I was not best pleased and told him not to bother coming to pick me up later! 😀

I was too early for my heritage walk, so I found a coffee shop to sit and calm down for a while! I had some messages from Dimple, my Greeter in Mumbai. This is the female only company I learned about at WTM. They match up solo female travellers with female residents of the city they are visiting. Dimple will be my first experience of this service. She sounds very excitable in her messages!

Panaji, formerly known as Panjim (and still referred to as that name by everyone I've spoken to), is the state capital of Goa and has a population of around 114,000.

At the appointed time, I walked to Panjim's main post office to meet my guide, Divya. There were another 4 people joining us for the tour - a guy from Singapore, a lady from Bangalore, and a couple from Mumbai. We all introduced ourselves, and then Divya gave us an introduction to the history of the city.

Our walk took us through Fontainhas, the Latin Quarter of the city with plenty of examples of Portuguese colonial architecture and brightly painted houses. It was all very picturesque. In many of the narrow streets, photography was banned. I found this rather puzzling until I saw the number of Indian tourists posing in front of people's front doors or open windows and completely blocking the roads. They were ignoring all the No Photography signs. I could see why the residents might be upset!Read more