Palolem: My Experience (8 - 11 Oct 09)

niteshsingh

Thursday, 8th Oct 09: Reached airport around 4 PM.

Went to check the rates at prepaid taxi booth which was inside the building (There is one more prepaid booth just outside of the gate). They showed the chart where the fare to Palolem was written as 1250 for non A/C and they offered me 1100 Rs. I asked if I can get further discount (just to try my luck) and it worked they agreed on 1000 for Maruti Baleno (compact sadan).

Headed towards Palolem. Driver was friendly. The road was superb with no potholes. And view was lush green and was a treat to eyes as it was just after mansoons.

Reached Om Sai Guest House at 5:40 PM. Had called Gaurav in the morning for availability. Checked into the room. I didn’t check much about the available amenities. I will provide feedback about the guest house later. According to OmSai, the beach entrance is exactly 170 m from the guest house.

Went to beach to watch sunset. Oh man what a view. I was flattened by the beauty of Palolem. We walked toward monkey island but didn’t cross the river as it was getting dark (though, I had flash light with me, I didn’t want to take chance as everybody was returning and I was with my lady). It was low tide so one can reach Monkey Island without any trouble.

We started looking for restaurants as we were hungry. Draupadi was full. The guy at om sai recommended to try Sameer Restaurant. But it was far from the place and we entered in SIONA restaurant. Ambience was good but I didn’t like the food there.

Second day morning around 8AM we came down on street to have a cup of tea. Came back on the beach around 9:30 and enjoyed the shallow water of Palolem. This was the best beach for swimming among all the beaches I have been to till now. We played in water for around 1 hr and went back to guest house to change.

We were on a small holiday so decided to spend our rest of time in Palolem only and hence didn’t hire any scooter. We wanted to enjoy lazy beach life.

Returned back to beach around 12PM and entered Draupadi. Since, we entered the restaurant a little early, we were lucky to find the seats with breathtaking view of sea. Ambiance was just awesome. We wanted to have some sea food item. The waiter quoted Sea Crab Item’s priced as 700 Rs, I asked the waiter if he can show me a live crab. He went inside but came back empty handed. He said, “We had tied the crab with a rope but it seems like he has cut the rope and is free. I do not want to catch it as I feel scared? “ I asked him for fish items. He showed me King Fish, CocoFish and Promfret. I ordered King Fish (Tandoori with lemon rice) which costed me 500Rs. I also ordered one chicken tikka (125Rs), two 30ml Goan Fenny (2x25), one limca (20Rs). Total coming out to be 695 Rs. The king fish was nicely decorated and tested heavenly. Chicken tikka was good as well. The best thing I like about all the restaurants in Goa is there is no additional service tax (or VAT). So you will know how much you are going to pay the moment you have ordered something. You don’t have to calculate by adding some 12.5% or 10% service charges. Just add up the price quoted on all the items you ordered and add the tip you will be offering and you are done. Another best thing I like about all the restaurants (Draupadi and Palolem Beach Resort) is that they don’t sit on your head all the time. Enter the restaurant, enjoy the view, take your time in deciding the items, and enjoy the food slowly (2hrs). They will clean the desk once you are done with eating but they will not come with bill unless you ask them for it. They know that people come to their restaurant not just for eating, but more importantly to enjoy the lazy beach life. Oh , I am feeling so lazy while typing this. I don’t know how boring this would be to read, but I don’t care. I am enjoying myself.

After spending around two and half an hour in the restaurant, we started walking on beaching towards the south (left side) end of the beach. It was very sunny and I had to take my hats on. My wife had to use umbrella. While walking towards south, sometimes we were walking on wet sand, sometimes in the water, sometimes resting on sand and sometimes creating sand sculptures without any idea in mind. Most of the time I was thinking NOTHING. Even my wife was able to think NOTHING for some period of time (which is probably very difficult for girls :P). I can never forget those carefree moments. We went till the south end of the beach and climbed on the rocks. We saw gray crabs running away and hiding beneath the rocks (it was now low tide).

We headed back to north end. Stopped a draupadi to have a cup of ginger tea (2 x 15). And it was again the sunset time. We walked toward Monkey Island while enjoying the sunset view. Goan people were playing football on the beach (there was now enough ground available due to low tide). While walking towards island, we captured all those beautiful moments in handycam. We decided not to take dinner outside and we settled with one packet of bread (10 Rs) . Jam (33 Rs), 2 CocoJal (2x15).

Next Morning (Saturday), we entered in little Italy, ordered one masala omelet (55Rs), two ginger tea (2x15). Masala omelet was not worth the money.

We booked a boat trip to butterfly island and honeymoon island (around 11Am) for 1000Rs. The boat started from a small beach (Colamb Beach?) between Palolem and patnam as boating was still now allowed from Palolem beach. It was quite late, hence we could not spot dolphins. Some fishermen were saying that they had spotted a group of 15-20 dolphins around 20 minutes ago. We went in the direction told by them but no luck. Anyways, I didn’t cared much as I was enjoying the boat ride. The sea was a little rough and water droplets were coming on our faces after colliding with boat. The view was breathtaking. The boatman took us near to butterfly island but we didn’t get down there as water was deap and dangerous because of high tide. We got down at honeymoon beach (just 2 minutes away from butterfly beach). Lots of rocks offering spectacular view. I spotted a big crab (200grams) which was trying to hide itself beneath a rock. Captured it in my handycam. There was a small but beautiful waterfall (very small) with very clean water. And the water was not salty (:P. I tasted it). We spent around 1 hour and swam in the sea for some time. We were wearing life jackets and went to deep water as well. While returning back the boatman showed us two boat shaped rocks (which they call God’s boats). They were pretty much resembling to normal boat. As per the boatman, these rocks are quite old. All in all, we had very good boat ride despite not spotting a single dolphin.

After returning from boat trip, we took bath in the guesthouse and returned on Palolem beach. Draupadi restaurant was full as expected. We decided to give a chance to Palolem Beach Resort . The waiters were well dressed. This restaurant was not so full and we got the table with front sea view. I asked the waiter about crab. He told that crab dish starts from 500 onwards. We ordered one crab (500 Rs), one chicken masala (120Rs) and one steamed rice (50). Total coming out to be 670Rs. Once the food arrived we started comparing it with the taste of draupadi. I must say that I found these tastier than what ate in daupadi. For apple to apple comparison chicken masala of Palolem beach resort was better than chicken tikka of Draupadi. And crab was absolute winner. It have not eaten any non-veg item tastier than that till date.

After lunch, we went back into beach water (after taking rest in the restaurant for about 30 minutes) and played with water till sunset. Returned back to guesthouse. Had shower. Took rest for some time. Headed back to Palolem beach resort for dinner. Before this we went to check Sameer Restaurent. But they didn’t have anything interesting and there was no crowd. We returned back to Palolem beach resort from there without eating anything. We were already full with the heavy lunch. Settled with French fries (50 Rs), three 60ml Antiquity (3 x 90Rs), two limca, one mineral water and some ice cubes. Total coming out be 400Rs. Spent some time on beach and came back around 10 PM.

Next morning (Sunday), woke up around 8, went to beach. draupadi was closed. Palolem beach resort was open. 3 gingar tea (3x20), one masala omelet (40), one spinach omlet (45), one plain omlet (35) and we were full. The breakfast was really awesome. Walked on the beach towards northern end. Catching the beautiful views and hearing magical thuds of the waves and thinking about our next holiday plan to Palolem beach.

In my opinion, the crowd at Palolem was just ideal. It wasn’t crowded at the same time it wasn’t lonely. But considering the crowd at the start of October, I guess this beach would be over crowded in peak season. There were no beach huts open on the beach. Many roadside shops were building up. Book a maruti van for 800 (from Palolem to Airport) Rs.

Om Sai Guest House: As already said, I reached the guesthouse around 5:40PM. Gaurav (owner of the guesthouse) was not present there. Some other guys (they take care of cleaning and maintaining the rooms) were present. They showed me A/C room 1200 Rs per night. I didn’t investigate much about the current condition of the room as I was dying to watch the sunset. After, I came back to my room. I noticed following.

1. The room looks nice. Not so spacious but ok

2. The bathroom looked clean

3. There was no towel provided. I had to ask those guys for towel. For that I had to search them out as they were not available in guesthouse premises. I went down at least thrice for this. There is no reception.

4. There was no blanket provided. After asking, they gave me one bedsheet. I used it as blanket.

5. In the window, there were spider nets present behind the curtain.

6. There was not dustbin provided. I didn’t ask as I didn’t want to waste my holiday. I made a temporary dustbin with polythene pack.

7. No bucket was present in the bathroom. Please, note that dustbin and bucket was provided on third day, after I asked to clean my room as was it was not cleaned for last 48 hours. While cleaning the room, the guy who was cleaning the room said “Hamara maalik sirf paisa bator raha hai. Room mein log ko bhar bhar ke. Usko room ke condition ki parwah nahi hai” (Our owner is just collecting money by packing up rooms. He is least bothered about guest’s convenience).

8. Hot shower: I don’t know how their shower works but sometimes the water was coming so hot just after switching on the heater button and after two three minutes it was coming cold. Sometime the water remained cold even after switching on the shower button for 5 minutes. I didn’t understand the mechanism of shower. This was least bothering considering the temperature in goa ranging around 29-30 degree centigrade.

9. There was not generator backup. There were power cuts atleast 4 times in our stay (2 times in night). Hence torch is a must have. They should have power backup option.

10. Our room had no balcony.

11. Out of three mornings I spent, the water was not coming out of taps for two mornings (Friday and Sunday). I had to first go to bathroom to check if water was coming and they I had go down to wake the guy up and had to ask him to switch the pump on. The problem is that they don’t even have intercom.

I didn’t feel like 1200 was value for money considering the offseason and above mentioned reasons.

On the day of check-out, I communicated gaurav that I will leave around 12:30 as I have my flight at 4:30PM. He came back saying that checkout time is 11AM. I asked if this can be extended for 1 hour or something then he said again that even all hotel in Palolem has checkout time of 11AM and if I have any doubt then I should go and ask anybody. I said I have no time to make these enquiries. As I was not very happy with the room, I asked for discount and I raised all the issues I faced such as no towel, no blanket, no dustbin, spider nets etc. After this conversation, he extended the checkout time by 2 hrs (i.e. till 1PM). I went back to my room. After an hour he knocked our door saying that he is leaving and he has prepared my bill and has given a discount of 200 on total bill. So the total bill came to 3400 for 3 nights (3 x 1200 - 200). He conveyed his regrets about the inconvenience faced during the stay and requested to write positive feedback about the guest house. Upon which I said that I would write whatever I felt.
I am not suggesting anybody about choosing or not choosing this guest house. I am just sharing my experience. I my opinion 1200 was definitely on higher side considering the offseason. I would have been value for money and worth spending if the above concerns would have been automatically taken care of by staff. I had never stayed in a room where I paid more than 800 per day and that room had these problems. Those rooms at least had intercom and somebody was there to listen to our concerns and to act upon immediately. I didn’t bother to ask for dust bin because I had to go down and search for these guys. That was some unique experience man. Aaahh..

Please provide your feedback if you guys were patient enough to read this stuff..

Suvadeep

A very nice and detailed write-up Nitesh ...

The thing is that I am also planning to visit Goa in the 27th December this year ...and many of my friends have suggested that Paolem Beach is the most beautiful among the beaches of GOA to spend time ... do you agree with this after your experience there ???

also can you also suugest any good,clean but budget place to stay at Goa durig the Peak Season of New Year ... a non AC basic accomodation close to the sea will do ...but it needs to be safe as we have ladies in our group ...

Looking forward for your response ...

johnny five

Thank you Baba for such a comprehensive report on your stay!

Sad that you suffered the usual Goan hotelier rip-off, these people are lazy and greedy all in one breath.

On this forum it has been made clear many times that the counter for taxis INSIDE the airport has nothing to do with the one outside........GO OUTSIDE!!!!

Happy that overall you had a good holiday, wish more people reported back like this, maybe a few less would get cheated if it happened?

niteshsingh

Thanks guys.. Overall it was a great experience.

I completely agree with This. Palolem is without a doubt the best beach. But peak season might have some rush. But there would be plenty of beach huts on the beach. As per safety is concerned, it felt pretty much safe. It is advisable to carry flash light.

ananda2193

Nice write up!

And Palolem is the most pretty beach in Goa, but a bit too touristy for my liking. I prefer Agonda.

Vasko

"Oh , I am feeling so lazy while typing this. I don’t know how boring this would be to read, but I don’t care. I am enjoying myself."

This really sums it up nicely.

Palolem is a beautiful beach, indeed, despite the shacks and all.

Spando

Excellent review, i'm going to Palolem mid nov and this is very helpful, great stuff

tookatuktuk

Thanks for sharing, 'niteshsingh'

niteshsingh

Thanks guys..