After our day of Holi, we got the itch to go south and see Palolem, which was referred to as 'paradise lost' in the Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, it was at the opposite end of Goa from where we were when we decided we needed to add it to the itinerary. After much debate, we finally decided to leave most of our stuff at the current room, which was only $7 a night, pack day bags and head south on a road trip to Palolem where we'd stay one night. By eyeballing the map of Goa in the Lonely Planet, we assessed that it would take about three hours to drive down. After a slow start, we rented scooters at about 10:30 and set off.
Within the first hour on the road, we were stopped by cops who told us we had to have helmets on the national highway, which really was a good choice regardless of the law. At any rate they threatened heavy fines for us (1050 rupees) and the bike owner (500 rupees), and said they would have to confiscate the bikes until the owner was notified and paid his fine. Plus they said we couldn't drive with our licenses and had to have international or India licenses. However, our guidebook and the hundreds of other tourist on the road suggested otherwise. We had no way of contacting the bike owner, and after some debate about other options, the cops finally told us to buy helmets from a local street vendor (200 rupees each, $4, for helmets made for show alone) and pay a 500 rupee fine and be on our way. They also promised no other cops would bother us now that we had helmets.
The cops are reportedly the most corrupt portion of the Indian government and bribes are referred to as 'Chai money.' Therefore, we had probably just bought their chai for the next month. We decided we didn't want to risk anymore fines, plus the highway was too crazy anyway; so chose a back road route to get the rest of the way to Palolem. In the end, we got to see some nice back roads scenery through the hills inland and along the southern coast, but we spent seven hours on the road to get to Palolem and arrived just on time for sunset.
Upon our arrival in Palolem, we were mobbed by scouts sent our by local hotels to drum up business. They followed us down the last stretch of road to the beach, and had us surrounded before we even killed the engines on our bikes. We got the names of the hotels, some prices, and assurances from all of them that the rooms were good at cheap prices. After some debate, we broke through to the beach telling them we had spent all day on the road and just wanted to enjoy the sunset. One persistent but easy going kid stuck with us for about 10 minutes while we took pictures of the rapidly fading sun so we finally gave in and followed him to his beach shack hotel. While we chatted he told us about the local ordinances which stipulate that the beach side commercial zone permits are only good for six months. After which, most of the city is torn down for monsoon season, leaving only a few permanent structures, and rebuilt the next season. Anyone who failed/refused to tear down their building at the end of the season, would find it destroyed by the fire/police dept. It was quite amazing to see how many 'hotels' and restaurants were built up every season to turn this beautiful crescent of sand palms and hills into a crowded beach resort.
The shacks were actually quite comfortable, despite their simple construction and limited/no amenities, some did include bathes and all had mosquito net covered beds. Our two bed shack with bathroom and ocean view cost us (400 rupees a night, $8). The beach was a beautiful crescent set between hills and rocky out-croppings at either end, with an island at the NW end that was connected to the mainland at low tide. The vendors were also more laid back, the tourist population was more our age, and we had some of the best seafood of the trip our first night; so we loved the place and ended up staying two nights. We were also blessed with great surf the next day and spent an hour boogie boarding on four foot waves that just kept coming.
Our last morning we grabbed breakfast and hit the road back to Ajuna, we took a little more direct route, with a little more highway time and made it back in five hours. After showers and a quick bite to eat, we treated ourselves to a post-bike, pre-bus Kerala Massage. Then we turned in our bikes and after trying to sell the helmets for 100 rupees, to our unhelpful bike renter, we settled at 50 rupees and left Goa on a sleeper bus to Mumbai.
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