Palolem, Goa

Captains log; Star Date 11042009

We’ve zeroed down on Palolem for a short break from our hectic routine of work-home-work. Palolem is a small beach town in the Canacona taluka in Goa. NH 17 which starts from Mumbai and crawls across the Sahyadri & Karmali Ghats towards Cochin, Karnataka passes through Chaudi, the district headquarters. A right just before Chaudi brings you to Palolem.

Research threw up places like the Palolem Beach Resort, Café Del Mar and Ciarans for our stay.

We’ve taken the Mumbai-Margao Super Special, which leaves Mumbai at night on Friday’s only, to get to Margao at 7 in the morning the next day.

We notice the pre-paid taxi booth and hire a cab to get to Palolem, which is about 30 km south of Margoa. An hours drive on the NH17 takes us through a hilly and forested area where cashew trees grow wild.

Café Del Mar turns out to be a big disappointment. The place reeks of beer. Perhaps the only people who would appreciate this place are people who would want to booze and dance through the night.

Palolem Beach Resort is better but we have to wait until 12 pm for a booking confirmation. We may not be able to get an A/C room and may have to settle for a non A/C room or tent accommodation. After an omelet-bread breakfast we decide to walk along the beach and see if we’re able to find a better place to stay.




Even though Ciarans told us in the morning that there weren’t any rooms available, we still walk in to give it another try. The set up is very inviting with beach beds, an open air bar and a library at the entrance facing the beach, a nice garden in the centre, huts on the sides and a bungalow at the back. To our luck, Mervin, the caretaker shows us to an A/C room in the bungalow! At Rs. 2,500/- a night it’s the most expensive around here, but without any doubts, it’s the best. The staff is an all Nepali crew who are extremely welcoming and helpful. You can see them greet guests, chat a little in English, explain the menu and go about their chores without any instructions being shouted across. The bungalow doggie – Megan, a great dane can be seen lolling about the garden or snoozing in a corner. The general atmosphere here is of peace and quiet.






The beach though is a beehive of activity. The beach is a 2 Km curved stretch with Neptune’s Point at the south end and an Island at the north end. The beach slopes gently into the sea and is therefore safe for a swim. The waves though, get pretty pushy when the tide is rising.

The beach is lined with shacks/huts/cottages which are pulled down just before the monsoons in June and are put up again just after the monsoons around September-October.

Most of the crowd here is foreign and you can see people walking, jogging or enjoying a dip in the sea or sun bathing. There are body boards and kayaks that can be rented for about Rs. 100/- an hour. If you can handle the sea, I would strongly recommend renting out a Kayak.





For off beach activity there’s the flea market near the entrance of the beach. You can also rent out two wheelers from here for about Rs. 200 a day – ask for a guy called Nikki. Two wheels is the best way to explore places nearby – Agonda and Patlem. Fuel here costs Rs. 50 per litre and is generally bought from a shack in a marketplace.

The day is spent enjoying excellent food at Ciarans and a dip in the sea in the evening.

For lunch we order Stir Fried Calamari (Squid) which is served on a mint-coriander salad and a tropical fruit salad topped with grated coconut and honey and sprinkled with peanuts. Tandoori Jumbo Prawns makes up dinner.

Captains log; Star Date 12042009

Up early we’re exploring the island side of the beach. This side of the beach is quite and rocky and during low tide one can walk up to the island. The island itself has a pretty green tree cover and you can hear forest insects humming with activity.





After a dip in the sea and lounging around in the beach bed, being Easter, we decide to head to St. Teresa’s Parish Church in Chaudi.

Thinking that we’d be zipping around a city kind of terrain I decide to hire a gearless Honda Activa. After a Pulsar this feels really different – my feet are in front of me and I want to shift gears right after accelerating.

After the church we head to Patlem beach for a look see. The gradient of the beach slope is higher here and therefore the sea a tad rougher than Palolem. There are sale boats available here for hire.

From Patlem we head to Agonda. This beach is longer than Palolem, a tad rougher and therefore less commercialized.



Greek Souvlaki opposite St. Annes Church is a must stop for a bite for some Greek street food. The set up is run by Kosmas Loumakis. We first start with a Chicken Souvlaki and then down a Paneer Souvlaki all the while chatting with Kosmas.





We are now looking for directions for Cabo-De-Rama fort which is about 15-20 Km from Agonda. The road to the fort is a dream for a biker. The road climbs, falls, twists and turns through a fragrant cashew forest. I would have been more comfy with a geared bike on this kind of a terrain for better control especially on slopes and gravel.



There’s a kucha road that heads to Cola beach which I am told is pretty good. I believe there’s even a Pepsi beach that’s equally good.



Nothing great about the fort but the view of the coast and the sea below from the fort battlements is superb.





For dinner we dig into a bar-be-qued Red Snapper.

Captains log; Star Date 13042009

I can see Megan sniffing around on the beach in the morning. A whistle and she’s off for a walk with me towards Neptune’s Point.







About 830 hrs we hire a fibre glass boat for Rs. 500/- for a ride into the sea. The boat heads around the Island towards Butterfly beach and back. We’re lucky enough to get a glimpse of a dolphin.



Back at Ciaran’s we lounge around in the library and take it easy.



1600 hrs its time to leave. The Konkan Kanya express drops us off at Panvel at 415 hrs. the next day.

AMD Phenom II X3 720 - Black Edition

Technology has moved at a fast pace, as usual, bringing Core 2 Duo and Quad Core processors to the home segment to support software like the Microsoft Vista 64 bit edition and hardware hungry games.

Initially I thought of upgrading to an Intel Crore 2 Duo Processor like the E8400 or the E8500 or a Quad Core Processor like the Q6600 or the Q9300. Even considered the i7 processor announced by Intel.

The E8400 looked like a decent upgrade in terms of price and performance. This processor comes with a clock speed of 3 Ghz, 6 Mb L2 cache, 65 watt TDP manufactured under a 45 Nm Fabrication Process. However, with Intel announcing the i7 architecture, future upgrade for a LGA775 socket processors becomes limited.

AMD recently announced their triple core processor – the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, a AM3 processor, which exhibits a unique combination of good single-threaded performance (thanks to its high core clock speed), good multi-threaded performance (thanks to its third core), and easy-as-pie overclocking (thanks to its unlocked upper multiplier). That means it's competitive with the pricier Core 2 Duo E8400 in single-threaded apps, but it's generally quite a bit faster in both multi-threaded apps and multi-tasking scenarios. I also saw reports where this processor was overclocked to 3.5GHz with a modest voltage boost. The processor clocks 2.8 Ghz (default), has a 1.5 Mb L2 Cache, 6 Mb L3 Cache, manufactured under a 45 Nm Fabrication Process and has a TDP of 95W.

Going with an AMD platform at this stage also makes sense from the upgrade point of view. The Latest AM3 processors are compatible with AM2+ mobos. Therefore, as DDR3 prices come down in the future, you could just move to a mobo that supports DDR3. AMD, unlike Intel, builds the memory controller into the processor and therefore the AM3 processors can handle both DDR2 and DDR3 memories.

So that settled the processor choice – AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition.

The Gigabyte Ultra Durable GA-MA790-GP-UD4H looked like a good mobo for the Phenom. This mobo comes with a AMD 790GX chipset with an integrated ATI Radeon HD3330 graphics, supports Dual Channel DDR2 1200+, has a Built-in 128MB DDR3 1333MHz SidePort Memory, provides for a 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 interface with ATI CrossFireX/ Hybrid CrossFireX support, Blu-ray playback supported by high quality 106dB SNR ALC889A HD audio, support for Dolby Home Theater audio, integrated HDMI/ DVI interface for Full HD 1080 Blu-ray playback with HDCP, Patented DualBIOS with dual hardware BIOS protection.

Prime ABGB in Lamington Road gave me the processor-mobo combo for Rs. 17,500/-.

While I was looking for the Corsair 550 VX CMPSU, I had to settle for the 450 VX as the 550 was out of stock. The 450 looked better than the 650 watt Tagan as the 450 gave more amps on the 12V rail. I also liked the sleeved cables in the 450.

2x2GB Crosair DDR2 800 Mhz memory, a 500 GB Segate SATA hard drive along with my existing Antec Super Lanboy cabinet and Asus 16x DVD writer completed the set up.

Took me some three hours to put the rig together. Around 8 in the morning I was pretty thrilled to see the Gigabyte BIOS screen.

Khandobachi Jejuri

Captains Log; Stardate 07042009

Khandobachi Jejuri is located in Jejuri about 50 Km south east of Pune, a little beyond Saswad. The temple is covered with haldi (turmeric) as the devotees offer haldi to Lord Khandoba.