Chillin' in Panjim

We take a really long walk around Panjim, which is really quiet because almost everyone is in Old Goa at the Feast of St. Francis Xavier. We stop at the post office to mail some postcards.

At the post office, we find that stamps don't come with a sticky side. You have to go around the corner to paint glue on them at this handy glue-painting table.

We pass a park where women are playing India's national pastime -- cricket. First time we've seen this!

We decide to have lunch at the Goa Marriot, a really fancy tourist hotel where they have all their Christmas decorations out and the security is stricter than at the airport. They check under the rickshaw with mirrors, we get body-scanned and all our bags are opened before we are let into the open-air lobby. All the gifts piled under the Christmas Tree have "CHECKED BY SECURITY" pasted over the wrapping paper. We have a nice lunch, where a bottle of water costs 100 rupees, instead of 12, down the street.

On the way home, we stop in at the local movie theater, which is finally open to the public since the film festival has ended. Maggie, Karma and Jen catch a showing of "Apna Sapna Money Money" which has several songs, a plot involving a cross-dressing small-time crook, a pop-singer who hides the diamonds in her high heels and young love thwarted by a near-sighted uncle. Of course, the cross-dresser winds up with the heels and a police chase ensues, followed by a double wedding. We love Bollywood, and the theater looks exactly like Destinta inside, except that tickets are on a reserved seat basis, starting at the back of the house, so the back two rows are stuffed, and the rest of the theater is empty. Tickets are only 120 rs each but there's 50 rs tax (that's a total of about $4.50).

Outside Inox, the movie theater in Panjim.