Palolem and Patnem - another North-South Divide

Noon - Jan 29th - Palolem - Wot no sunbeds?

Wednesday was strange! We visited The Nest for breakfast and Peter said to us "Hang onto that chair:- it will be like gold-dust later! There are no sunbeds on the beach today!" We moved to survey the scene - and it was true: as far as the eye could see -i.e.most of the bay - there was not one, nor chairs, nor unfixed parasols! There were a few tourists on towels, many, many sleeping beach dogs and groups of kayaks. We made a suggestion about combining the the latter two and judicious use of a power drill, but that was not universally popular! The details are patchy, but it seems to involve a visit by the Minister for Tourism. Why he should want to confuse and aggravate tourists in the middle of the season is beyond us, but it was serious. Removal of anything useful was supervised by a dozen police officers and some items were carted off by pick-up from one of the shacks!

We wandered off vaguely looking for the right spot to lurk and were hailed by N and T (as in Paleo, Benaulim and Macclesfield). We knew they were due to arrive soon after some days in Agonda. Up there sunbeds have been banished all season, so they didn't find anything odd about our situation, and the confirmation of the rumour about it scuppered any plans we had for a day trip! We saw them for two long afternoons - including that of 31st Jan, when they had spent the morning in Patnem and come across a bar filled entirely with Brits! A quote overheard there, apparently, was "I only celebrate Christmas, New Year and Brexit day" They left - as we would have done - and we mourned together the upcoming demise of Britain in Europe! !

But an interesting feature was that this is what they had encountered in Patnem! Greyrocks thinks of it as a much less rough and/or  British resort than Palolem! On our five trips this season we have felt the dominant tribes were middle-class (and generally quiet) British and young Israeli families. On the other hand we said as much to a couple who were off for a few days there and they came back saying there was nothing to do there, and they came back everyday to Palolem!

A case of "chacun à son goût "

Footnote: On the day in question Patnem also had no sunbeds!