Our First Stay in a Government Hotel

A local bus that soon became overcrowded took 45 minutes to travel the quite short distance to Mapusa. (I don’t think I will ever not appreciate a UK bus ride from now on.) We had decided to stay in our first ‘government run’ hotel. There is a network of Tourism Corporation hotels across the country but the Tripadvisor reviews had put us off until now. There was not a great deal of choice though so the Mapusa Residency it was. The hotel was enormous and reminded us of an old hospital. I wish I had taken some photographs of the interior now. Every single item in the room was numbered; the furniture, the remote control, the phone and I can just imagine all the paperwork that goes along with running the place.

The town of Mapusa is the biggest in northern Goa and is really centred around a permanent market that gets really busy on Fridays when all the local fruit sellers descend at once. We stayed in Mapusa for 2 nights and 2 days and the market was the highlight. We did not buy much; some fruit and a silk sarong to replace the one sacrificed to the mercury clean up and a new vest for Henry. He has been enjoying wearing the first vest from Panjim so much that he is now a convert to vest wearing.

Sleepy Time!

The market was busy and vibrant but there was still time for a nap for some…

Hard Sell at the Market

We were ‘befriended’ by a brother and sister team on our first visit to the market. Firstly, they took Henry to get some medicine (he was still suffering) then for a drink to take it with then, after lots of chatting and joking, we were taken to each of their stalls to endure a really hard sell with reference to how we were their friends! They were trying their hardest to guilt us into a sale. The man kept getting our names wrong and when I tried to leave the woman’s stall she physically grabbed me so I had to raise my voice to get her off!

Also, I watched ‘Black Swan’ on HBO in our room and I loved it! It took me a long time to get around to watching it, I know, but I can now highly recommend it.

Mapusa, Goa:  24th – 25th February 2012