Take a tour of the grande dames
This is the best way to begin your holiday in Goa. Drive down to Loutolim, via some scenic landscapes along River Mandovi. Here, on a tour of the old mansions of Goa you will find stories from another era. The Figueiredo House in Loutolim is highly recommended, for it is perhaps the grande dame of these. Maria de Lourdes Figueiredo de Albuquerque, the 80-something owner of the house, will welcome you from the bougainvillea-laden wooden verandah. You will have to call ahead to book a personal tour with her. But don’t miss it, it’s worth it — both for the house and the colourful owner. With porcelain skin and wavy cream-and-beige hair, it is difficult to believe that she is in her 80s. “Liberation was a botheration,” she loves to say as she takes you around her family home, which was opened to the public as a museum in collaboration with the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa. The house was built in two phases — the older part was built 407 years ago. The left wing was built two centuries later. It has an impressive collection of furniture, porcelain, Chinese silk embroidered garments, and costumes and dresses, 20th century dinner sets from Portugal, 17th century china. Maria’s stories are the most fascinating part of the tour — she talks about how several governments have tried to take over the property, and how museums (including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London) have wanted to buy the many antiques, including an old chest. “Prince Albert’s not my father-in-law,” she sniffs. “Why should I give anything to V&A?”
Loutolim’s Casa Araujo Alvares is another must-visit. It is situated opposite the highly avoidable and touristy Big Foot and its sidekick Ancestral Goa. The mansion was owned by a lawyer and is now a museum packed with all kinds of memorabilia — family possessions bought over many generations. Some of the stuff reminds you of old auction houses — the kerosene-fired refrigerator, for instance. The rooms include a nursery with a collection of charming toys from a bygone era. The old kitchen is stacked with utensils, crockery, cane baskets, earthen containers, much like a museum of archaic cooking methods.
This place is great for unwinding — located in the balcony of a beautiful Portuguese house, which is nestled among trees on the top of a hill in the village of Ucassaim. You can hear the wind blowing through the trees here, hence the name. Must-have: banoffee pie.
Lunch at Black Sheep Bistro, Panjim
Prahlad and Sabreen Sukhtankar of Panjim’s Black Sheep Bistro are using local ingredients to great effect in their menus. Try their revamped chorizo pão — served on toasted hunks of homemade whole-wheat poi with shavings of dark chocolate. They use local fish and bread for their fish cakes served with a plate of buttery-garlicky pois.
Pick up leather puppets at Sacha’s Shop, Panjim
Young designer Syne Coutinho’s boutique is housed in her father’s ancestral home near the Boca da Vaca spring. It may look like a hotchpotch collection of things but the clothes, jewellery and bric-a-brac like paper animals and leather puppets are items she has chosen carefully.
Buy your Goa gifts at Velha Goa Galleria, Fontainhas
The store has an exquisite range of ceramics, crystal and glassware from Portugal. The best pick here would be one of their gorgeous ceramic boxes. Or their famed azulejos, painted and glazed ceramic tiles used in Spanish and Portuguese buildings. These are made in their workshop in Margao and the artists are trained by experts from Portugal.
Catch up on your e-mail at Urban Café, Panjim
This one boldly declares on a huge poster that “The beach is boring”. The two-floor cosy place is located in Panjim’s Latin Quarter and is a part of the Old Quarter hostel, where you can find accommodation in dorms and rooms. They have wi-fi, and a collection of books and magazines. Browse with a cold coffee and outsized cookies, or a glass of milk served with a chocolate block on a wooden spoon.
Dine at the Hotel Venite, Fontainhas
Oodles of charm pervade every corner of The Hospedaria Venite, located in Panjim’s Latin Quarter in a 200-year-old building. You will love the shell-encrusted entrance and the walls covered with graffiti. It used to be a lodging and boarding house when Goa was under Portuguese rule. The best tables are on the overhanging balconies with a lovely view of the paved street below. Order a bottle of their house wine, with caramelised rum bananas. Absolutely yum.
Anuradha Senguptais a Kolkata-based freelance journalist