across the Mandovi

We were still searching for the Portugese legacy in Goa. A local at the church yesterday gave us some directions. But we were totally disappinted on reaching there - it was all about Govt officials' bunglows. We asked and found some old houses on the way and that's when we saw one gentleman entering one of these houses. That was his in-law's house but he had an older house soem 5-6kms away. He said that his house is about 500 years old and has 5 feet thick walls and huge heavy wooden doors. "Great! Can we see the house? Also, we were looking for some authentic Goa food so will it be okay if we come over to your place for lunch? Your wife wont mind cooking a good meal for us, will she?" - that's what I wanted to say but didn't. He was happy to know that we want to see the real old Goa. Everyone else comes, goes to the beach and think they've seen Goa. He asked us to cross the Mandovi river and head to a village called Parra - that's where you'll find the really old stuff, maybe close to what you're looking for.

We did cross the river and soon found ourselves crossing local settlements. The road and the neighbourhoods we crossed were most beautiful. There were coconut trees and narrow road winding through between lush green paddy fields. We were at leisure and as usual, stopped at every nook and corner. We found this very old red building and ended spending about an hour shooting in front of it. The locals got totally confused and probably thought that some professional modelling assigment was on (pixelart was our model :)). The road to Parra was short but it took us hours to reach there. We did reach Parra after noon but then thought we've already seen the real Goa on the way. THe journey itself was the destination.

We had a bus to catch in a few hours so decided to head back. The choice for a lunch place was obvious. While coming, we had marked a nice authentic looking restaurant just after crossing the river. We camped their for lunch and that was probably one of the best decisions of the day. That food had to be the best that we had in these 3 days - a perfect close to a really enjoyable trip.