Panjim, India

Killed the day yesterday being lazy in Hampi and then shared a rickshaw with a French guy for the 30 km trip south to Hospet, where the main bus station is. We had Indian food and banana splits in Hospet before out departure times. yummmm! nice to know banana splits can be found in every corner of the planet...or at least the corners I have visited so far. The sleeper bus wasn't so bad- it was just a bunch of us touristas, all about the same age, all with gigantic backpacks trying to figure it all out. I have to say though, there was very little sleeping on the sleeper bus. It was dark out, but I didn't need to see the road to know how bad it must have looked. I was flying all over the place with each turn and pothole and swerve. That was by far the longest, bumpiest ride I have ever been on. I think it may have bruised my guts. Got into Panjim at about 8am and found a guesthouse pretty quickly. Not much in the way of quality accommodations in this town, but I did the best I could. Panjim is the capital of the state of Goa and is has a nice river running right through the middle of it. I could almost forget I am in India, because this part of the country was ruled by the Portuguese once and the architecture here is colonial. There are whitewashed Catholic churches, bright red colonial school houses, and little villas with terra cotta tiled roofs. Many of the buildings are old and falling apart, but with the colonial architecture, they look really creepy. I wandered around Panjim for a bit, which has a few cute districts of narrow roads and lots of tailor shops, but it was getting hot out, so I went back to the room to just lay down for a bit and wait for the weather to cool down. Well, I must have fallen asleep, but when I woke up, I noticed a bug biting my arm and then when I got off the bed I noticed lots of bugs. no bueno!!!!! There were two types of bugs, one was the size of a tick, but the other was teeeny tiny. definitely bed bugs. The bigger, darker one was an adult and the little, opaque ones were babies. You know, I am all about rolling with the punches when it comes to the different levels of comfort offered in countries like India that are so poor, but I draw the line when it comes to bed bugs. A couple of the babies must have already gotten to me cause they were bright, blood red. gross. Ok, pack up my stuff and now to plan B. I didn't bother saying anything to the guesthouse manager, I will just accept it as a 350 rupee loss and move on. So, took a cab about 15km up the coast to the lovely beach side community of Candolim and found a gorgeous place to stay right on the ocean. This place is 3x the cost of the bedbug place, but I will sleep much better tonight and the beach is a 2 minute walk away. The room is tiled and CLEAN and has a balcony, and let me tell you a little about luxury...this room comes with toilet paper AND a towel! living the sweet life now. And I am in dire need of a beer. The whole Hampi area with all the temples and such was too sacred of a site, so there was no alcohol sold for hundreds of miles. Time for a liquid dinner. later!