Goa, land of beaches, red tape, taxi mafia, hippie fleamarkets, and food to die for

It’s been a bit of fun as well as annoyance our past few days in the capital of Goa, Panjim.

Idea SIM Card

First up, I wanted to get another SIM card on the Idea network, which seemed to be more reliable along the coast of Maharashtra and hopefully will continue to be a thing as we go on. Knowing the drill, I took my passport, one passport photo, the card of the hotel manager, and some patience to one of the Idea stores in town. Even though they have a copy machine, they wouldn’t let me use it to make copies of my passport photo and visa, so instead I had to go 4 stores down to the copy man, operating out of a shoebox-sized kiosk, and for 2 rupees, I had my copies.

Another tourist wandered in and tried to ask the staff about getting a SIM card. Not getting helpful information, I explained to her the process and the documents required. Looking disappointed, she said thanks and “oh well” and left the store; I don’t think she’ll even bother. Meanwhile, I gathered all the documents, my prepaid (unactivated) SIM and signed the form three times, including one time half over my passport photo. SIM card fraud must be a serious concern with all this paperwork; the purported reason is to stop terrorists from using prepaid SIMs to coordinate with each other.

Overall, it ended up going smoothly; after 2 days waiting, I was able to activate the SIM, but I couldn’t recharge online for some reason, so I stopped by the store again and activated the plan they offered me under “my offers”, 28 days of Internet (1.5GB/day) with unlimited (Indian) phone calls and 100 SMS/day for around $5 US. Now we have coverage on the three major networks: Vodafone (which our Project Fi phones roam on), Airtel (the SIM we got in Mumbai), and now Idea. Airtel and Vodafone have nationwide coverage, but it’s spotty and not overlapping. Idea seems to have better coverage but only in the south of India; it is missing coverage in some states up north.

Taxi mafia

The last time we used taxis in India was in Mumbai, where they are dirt cheap and available everywhere. Plus, Uber and Ola have ride-sharing apps that work excellently for just a tad more but include A/C cars. We naively thought this would continue in Goa, so we chose to get a hotel in Panjim, which is centrally located in Goa but is probably only worth a day or two to visit by itself. We’re waiting for a package,  so staying in one spot for a few days was required anyway. We figured we’d hop on Uber or Ola to jump around the area, and we’d be able to explore easily.

Boy, we couldn’t have been more wrong. The taxi rates are astounding, more expensive than in the US! And there’s a super powerful “taxi mafia” (aka “out-of-control union”) here that engages in price fixing and gouging, so ride-sharing apps aren’t available and no taxis will use their meter (most don’t even have one), so you have to bargain (hard!) for what should be a simple trip. Prices between cabs vary by 2-3x, depending on how much money they think you have. Add to that, we haven’t seen any official taxi stands (there might be one at the bus station, far from our hotel), so you just have to walk around randomly until someone asks you if you need a taxi. Then you have to be prepared to bargain and most often walk away because they will try to charge you twice the “fair” price. Some have even laughed at us when we quoted a fair price, saying we’d never get that. (Last laugh was on them; at the next block, we found a guy who took us for just a tad more than the price I asked.) If you have your hotel call a cab, which we made the mistake of doing once, they will charge 2-3x the going rate, and demand you also pay for “return fare” even if you aren’t using them to go back! Transportation in Goa is a nightmare, and we are kind of bummed we ended up being stuck in Panjim with no reasonable way to explore the rest of the state most of the week.

The silver lining is that locals are really frustrated with this as well, and one person said it’s the biggest problem for tourism in Goa, and there have been recent votes trying to invite more competition, allow ride-sharing apps, and remove power from the taxi union.

If you are doing a lot of moving around in Goa, we’ve heard the best option is to either rent a scooter (scary) or hire a driver for a half or full day, which will work out to about the (still-high) price of one trip, but you can go where ever you want during the time you have him.

Panjim

It’s a pleasant city, quite a contrast from the insanely hectic Mumbai. Aside from the gaping holes that are the sometimes-covered drainage system, walking around the streets here is quite enjoyable, and there are lots of shops and restaurants (and liquor stores, a welcome change from nearly-dry Maharashtra). There’s a definite European feeling about it, from the centuries of Portuguese occupation. Some of the residents here say their parents and grandparents still speak Portuguese at home.

We’ve found some great food, some interesting architecture, and a bit of nightlife, though the nightlife gets going after midnight, well after our bedtime, so we’ve only managed to catch a bit of karaoke one night.

Overall, we wished we had stayed somewhere by the beach instead… Lesson learned.

The beach and Anjuna fleamarket

Our first taxi experience took us to Anjuna, where we spent the day at the famous fleamarket, once apparently the home of hippies selling their possessions (and buying weed) so they could stay a bit longer, but now full of vendors selling clothes, belts, spices, and trinkets of all kinds. We had a great time exploring, watching the crowds, and eating and drinking at beach side cafes.

Fleamarket and roaming cattle behind us…

Food

The Goan food has been incredible, and we’ve tried all the usual items plus a few of the less common ones. The shrimp curry rice is excellent, as is the cafreal (a cilantro-based curry), and the xacuti (coconut-based curry). The bebinca cake for dessert is also quite tasty. Oh, and the local favorite fenny (cashew or palm distilled liquor) can be quite good as well, similar to rakija or grappa but with a hint of cashew or coconut taste.

But the highlight of our food experience in Goa was taking a cooking class from Rita’s Gourmet! Her backyard is a beautiful and very clean full-fledged outdoor kitchen with prep tables, gas burners, and washing/sink area. Along with her assistant and prep/cleanup staff, she made us breakfast, took us on a market tour, taught us about all the local fruits and vegetables, picked up some fresh fish, and then explained, smelled, or tasted all the spices we’d be using.

Part demonstration, part participation, we kneaded and rolled dough for our pies, squeezed juice out of coconut pulp, sauteed onions, simmered curries, and fried fish. The final result was a hearty meal of rissois de camarao (prawn empanadas), galinha cafreal (chicken), aloo mutter gobi (potato, cauliflower, and green pea mix), Goan prawn curry, fried pomfret (fish), and for dessert, bolo mimosa (coconut pie).

We really enjoyed the whole experience, and it was great chatting with the two Australians also taking the class about their travels, as well as Rita’s daughter, who is about to start a master’s program in IT in Southern California (small world)!

Spices at the market.

Fresh kingfish.

Bags and bags of dried chilies everywhere! These are the spicy ones; others are used for coloring or a more mild flavor.

Steve working on the chicken cafreal.

Our pies!

We are ready to get back on the bikes and move on down the coast. We hope to get another day or two on the Goan beaches before entering our next state of Karnataka. We are still uncertain about the side trip to Hampi, but we’ve decided not to rent a car for now, so if we go, it will be by bicycle…