Today turned out to be "action packed" compared to our other days - and all by pure spontinuity.
I went for the usual morning run and then we went for the usual breakfast. Claire had her appointment with the professor ortho-dentist at 10:45. I waited outside and spoke to a couple of Swedish women and a couple of English guys - and we had great craic sharing stories about the Danish booze boats that the Swedish get on to get hammered; one of the guys even professed that he was an alcoholic who had worked in the wine trade but stopped drinking 4 years ago when he spent a week in the hospital because his pancreas was shot to shit and was given the option of death or continuing to live for some considerable time. It was a real social club outside, something the staff couldn't help noticing from the amount of laughing going on ;-)
When Claire got out she told me that they would make and fit a fake tooth for her missing front tooth that was taken out the other day - they will have it ready for Tuesday when she's getting her last filling done. It should last for 1-2 years so that she can get a bridge or an implemant made at a later stage.
Afterwards, we were contemplating what to do today while walking past Madhu after our breakfast and we decided to find out how much a scooter was for the day - R.250,- (€4) - and that was it, we rented a scooter there and then. No need to see drivers licence, ask for point score on said licence, fill out forms or even accept advance payment - too much bureaucrazy indeed - just got up on the scooter and drove off - wahay ;-)
In the meantime we had also been speaking with Nelish about whether we could extend our stay in Om Sai for a final two nights before we leave - when I mentioned that I would give an even better TripAdvisor review if we did he called his boss and promised that he would be around in the evening time to talk to us about it. However, always have a plan B, as they say - so we decided that if we couldn't extend with Om Sai we would splash out on the final two nights (from savings from original accommodation budget) on H2O Agonda, the Taj of Agonda beach. We therefore went to H2O and had a look around - very nice indeed, including hot water and air condition in their huts - but we decided to opt for the "village" part rather than the beach-fronting huts given that the village undoubtedly is quieter and because it's 33% cheaper at R.4.000,- per night. We agreed with reception there (yes, they have an actual reception there ;-) that we would give them an answer by 18:00.
So, back to our scooter trip, we decided to head south to see some of the other beaches we have heard about. First off was Palolem; and it was every bit as busy and had exactly the party-going, vain/strutting and potentially loud clientelle as we had expected - we were very happy not to have booked in there indeed ;-) We spent about 30 minutes there walking around and took a few pictures before heading onwards to Patnam beach. Patnam turned out to be somewhere in between Palolem and Agonda - potential for party atmosphere but undoubtedly quieter; seems like it has a bit of an identity crisis, really.
We decided to head to Sea Land on Patnam for lunch - and that really turned out to be a major letdown. We were served by really unhappy and slouching staff - and we were literally served "crumbs" when we ordered a fish Tempura, consisting of two prawns and a bunch of scallops - and Claire had cheese and jalapenos rolls with Salsa sauce - there were 5 tiny little rolls, not even worthy of a designation of a "starter". We're glad we didn't book accommodation for this beach either - we are obviously spoiled rotten where we are - as we have so far not had a single bad food experience there yet (a few so-so's but filling nonetheless), knock on wood.
As we were about to leave Patnam we spotted a stall that was selling bootleg movies and went for a look. They did have some rather new movies and we ended up buying a few after I vetted them on IMDB ;-) There was a lot of haggling involved and we actually at one stage got up to leave when the stall keeper finally caved in and asked how much we'd really pay. We ended up with nearly 50% discount - so each movie ended up costing around €2.
Afterwards we headed off on our scooter again and decided to head further south on the main road towards Karwar to feel the wind, get the sun and enjoy the scenery - there was very little Sunday traffic on the roads and so it was a perfect day to explore. About an hour further south and nearly 2/3 of the way to Karwar we finally decided to turn around and head back - although we had spotted no coppers we decided not to tempt fate by entering a major town. After all, i have no bike licence ;-)
At around 17:00 we were back and Claire went off for a leg waxing appointment. Nelish's boss Gaurav was around so I had a chat with him and Nelish for about half an hour before they gave up trying to piece a scenario in their books together whereby we could stay in Om Sai.
So I took the scooter (with Nelish on the back as he was going to copy some passports down town) and drove down to H2O Agonda and booked us in for the final two nights here at Agonda beach.
On my return we went to Omkar and ordered a beer - but outside the local hospitality staff were gathering for their nightly beach volley and I decided to join in while Claire was watching from the restaurant.
It was great fun and took nearly an hour before the sun had set to the point where it was hard to see the ball - and they all had to return to work anyway. For a Westerner who hasn't played Volley ball for some considerable time I didn't do too badly, actually - well, at least I wasn't boo'ed off the field ;-)
We then had dinner in Omkar and ended up talking to a male couple (yes, as in couple), one from Derbyshire and the other from Frankfurt. We ended up talking to them about Europe, life and India for about 2.5 hours while eating and having a few beverages in the form of Kingfisher and Tuborg. It was a great night and it finished at around 22:00 when it was lights-out time in both the restaurant and outside Om Sai - and we simply scampered off to bed by then.
I went for the usual morning run and then we went for the usual breakfast. Claire had her appointment with the professor ortho-dentist at 10:45. I waited outside and spoke to a couple of Swedish women and a couple of English guys - and we had great craic sharing stories about the Danish booze boats that the Swedish get on to get hammered; one of the guys even professed that he was an alcoholic who had worked in the wine trade but stopped drinking 4 years ago when he spent a week in the hospital because his pancreas was shot to shit and was given the option of death or continuing to live for some considerable time. It was a real social club outside, something the staff couldn't help noticing from the amount of laughing going on ;-)
When Claire got out she told me that they would make and fit a fake tooth for her missing front tooth that was taken out the other day - they will have it ready for Tuesday when she's getting her last filling done. It should last for 1-2 years so that she can get a bridge or an implemant made at a later stage.
Afterwards, we were contemplating what to do today while walking past Madhu after our breakfast and we decided to find out how much a scooter was for the day - R.250,- (€4) - and that was it, we rented a scooter there and then. No need to see drivers licence, ask for point score on said licence, fill out forms or even accept advance payment - too much bureaucrazy indeed - just got up on the scooter and drove off - wahay ;-)
In the meantime we had also been speaking with Nelish about whether we could extend our stay in Om Sai for a final two nights before we leave - when I mentioned that I would give an even better TripAdvisor review if we did he called his boss and promised that he would be around in the evening time to talk to us about it. However, always have a plan B, as they say - so we decided that if we couldn't extend with Om Sai we would splash out on the final two nights (from savings from original accommodation budget) on H2O Agonda, the Taj of Agonda beach. We therefore went to H2O and had a look around - very nice indeed, including hot water and air condition in their huts - but we decided to opt for the "village" part rather than the beach-fronting huts given that the village undoubtedly is quieter and because it's 33% cheaper at R.4.000,- per night. We agreed with reception there (yes, they have an actual reception there ;-) that we would give them an answer by 18:00.
So, back to our scooter trip, we decided to head south to see some of the other beaches we have heard about. First off was Palolem; and it was every bit as busy and had exactly the party-going, vain/strutting and potentially loud clientelle as we had expected - we were very happy not to have booked in there indeed ;-) We spent about 30 minutes there walking around and took a few pictures before heading onwards to Patnam beach. Patnam turned out to be somewhere in between Palolem and Agonda - potential for party atmosphere but undoubtedly quieter; seems like it has a bit of an identity crisis, really.
We decided to head to Sea Land on Patnam for lunch - and that really turned out to be a major letdown. We were served by really unhappy and slouching staff - and we were literally served "crumbs" when we ordered a fish Tempura, consisting of two prawns and a bunch of scallops - and Claire had cheese and jalapenos rolls with Salsa sauce - there were 5 tiny little rolls, not even worthy of a designation of a "starter". We're glad we didn't book accommodation for this beach either - we are obviously spoiled rotten where we are - as we have so far not had a single bad food experience there yet (a few so-so's but filling nonetheless), knock on wood.
As we were about to leave Patnam we spotted a stall that was selling bootleg movies and went for a look. They did have some rather new movies and we ended up buying a few after I vetted them on IMDB ;-) There was a lot of haggling involved and we actually at one stage got up to leave when the stall keeper finally caved in and asked how much we'd really pay. We ended up with nearly 50% discount - so each movie ended up costing around €2.
Afterwards we headed off on our scooter again and decided to head further south on the main road towards Karwar to feel the wind, get the sun and enjoy the scenery - there was very little Sunday traffic on the roads and so it was a perfect day to explore. About an hour further south and nearly 2/3 of the way to Karwar we finally decided to turn around and head back - although we had spotted no coppers we decided not to tempt fate by entering a major town. After all, i have no bike licence ;-)
At around 17:00 we were back and Claire went off for a leg waxing appointment. Nelish's boss Gaurav was around so I had a chat with him and Nelish for about half an hour before they gave up trying to piece a scenario in their books together whereby we could stay in Om Sai.
So I took the scooter (with Nelish on the back as he was going to copy some passports down town) and drove down to H2O Agonda and booked us in for the final two nights here at Agonda beach.
On my return we went to Omkar and ordered a beer - but outside the local hospitality staff were gathering for their nightly beach volley and I decided to join in while Claire was watching from the restaurant.
It was great fun and took nearly an hour before the sun had set to the point where it was hard to see the ball - and they all had to return to work anyway. For a Westerner who hasn't played Volley ball for some considerable time I didn't do too badly, actually - well, at least I wasn't boo'ed off the field ;-)
We then had dinner in Omkar and ended up talking to a male couple (yes, as in couple), one from Derbyshire and the other from Frankfurt. We ended up talking to them about Europe, life and India for about 2.5 hours while eating and having a few beverages in the form of Kingfisher and Tuborg. It was a great night and it finished at around 22:00 when it was lights-out time in both the restaurant and outside Om Sai - and we simply scampered off to bed by then.
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| Palolem beach - sea |
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| Palolem beach - restaurants, bars and huts |
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| Patnam beach - no much of a crowd |
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| Patnam beach - some of the bars & restaurants |
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| Palolem beach - Cafe Del Mar |
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