A Change of Mind

By now, we were accustomed to all adversities. Things could not go downhill from here.

We continued walking through the museums and the churches.
Halfway through, we both realized we were not enjoying but instead, we were worried about the car.
There were ways for things to go downhill from here.
What if some lad decided to scratch the car. The crocodile guy would not be happy at all. As soon as we realized that we both were deeply troubled, we decided to take the car back.

Verum DT alla... Al DT!

On the way back, DT realized she didn't get the chance to put on her shades anyway. It would be better to just sit in the car with the shades on. At least in the car. She put them on and sat there, while I silently drove back.
Not at all how we planned.

I was in a hurry to reach the rental and place the car safely in the guy's hands. Halfway through, DT told I was speeding. I didn't feel so, but I slowed a bit to respect her wishes.
When we reached the place, I took a right even though I saw a car come far off. The opposite guy could have slowed down, too. But he was adamant to get ahead of me. I did not stop. The guy had to call it quits when I blared the horn loud and we were thiiiis close to bumping into each other. (Papa and Mummy, if you are reading this... this never happened.)

If he hadn't stopped, an accident would have occurred and well... little crocodile guy would have been upset.
Finally, we took the car and I parked it neatly at the narrow lane. We rehearsed the arguments a dozen times in our head on how to get a refund. And also ask for petrol refund too.
Crocodile guy came and asked the matter. We both said that I wasn't comfortable driving this car, though in reality, by now I had gotten the hang of it. He scratched his chin and walked out. He checked the car while my heart thudded.
Outside I maintained a cool composure and remarked to DT, "How on earth is he going to find a new scratch amidst those scratches?"
He came back and gave a nod.
We got our refund but he said he wouldn't pay for petrol - it wasn't done usually. I was relieved to give the car back and get the refund.

DT got her PAN card back.
The guy seemed to feel sorry for us and asked if we needed a lift till Hard Rock. I declined the offer because I just wanted to run from there. But DT was quick to accept.
The guy dropped us. And that's when I realized, it was a bit long till Hard Rock Hotel.

We changed into something more comfortable, charged our phones and decided to walk till Calangute beach. It was just a 1 km walk from there. Google maps kept showing a longer route. Finally, when we checked with someone, we found out we were headed towards Baga beach. We stopped and asked and walked over to Calangute.

The beach was slightly crowded and it was drizzling. After a long day, the cool wind blowing on our faces and legs felt very refreshing. The sound of the waves hitting the shore was soothing. We sploshed around the water and took pics till it started getting dark.

On the way, DT bought a kaftan and in another store, she spotted a bag she liked. We asked the cost to find it was 550. That was too much. The lady asked how much would we pay. I said 350.
She said that was too less. She raised our bar to 450. DT decided she didn't like the bag because... she actually didn't like it much. The lady lowered the price to 400. Finally, she said she was going to the temple to pray. She would lower the price to 350, provided we offer a prayer for her in our hearts. She felt like being generous on Ganesh Chathurthi. That seemed like a very good deal. I forced DT to take the offer. DT bought it.

We walked back towards the hotel. As we neared, we decided to have dinner. So, we got into a restaurant - Chillada Bar and Kitchen. We sat down only to realize we were short on funds. DT had taken only some amount with her and she had bought some stuff. I just had change with me.

At one point, I thought this would be the case. :)

We went over the menu and saw that it was very expensive. We decided to order just one item. Pasta. It was around 200 Rs. I wasn't sure how much the GST would come up to. So, we didn't order anything else.
The pasta was heavy with cheese. We split and ate and we were filled to our content. If we had more money, we would have wasted.
When the bill came, it was exactly 200. No GST. What a relief!
Before leaving, we asked the guy at the restaurant, to take our pic. He obliged.

We enquired with him on how to move around by bus if we needed to go to Chapora Fort and Vagator beach. He said to take a bus to Panjim and from there we would get any bus to anywhere.

As we got out and walked back, we could not find the pathway to the hotel. We kept asking shop owners where it was. They kept saying to go inside some galli nearby.
We looked at that galli. It was pitch black inside. Gulp! It didn't look like the hotel was there. Google maps also showed that direction.
Summoning all our courage, we walked forward when we saw a couple walk into that galli. And as soon as we saw some light, we could identify our hotel.

We reached the hotel, had a shower and decided to go down to check if there was a DJ as the receptionist had stated.
We went down, only to find the DJ was for the next day.
Anyway we were dressed up. So we made the most of it, by taking selfies.