Officially a local Goan?

Having sampled a few days of a/c private taxi service to see some of the sights we thought we'd try our hand at going native and travelling around the way the locals do - it's surprising just how far 25p will take you using the local bus transport, and if you want to feel the pulse of local life it's hard to beat ... although rather bumpy if you sit at the back (guess where we sat!!).
On Goan buses you can expect to share a seat with chickens, pigs, goats, and also people - our journeys only involved the latter though! On Thursday we travelled to Vasco and then onto the capital Panjim. The changeover at Vasco was beside a fabulous fish market with all the local catches on display for sale. Joe and Steve thought the stingray were most impressive. With no other westerners around for miles, we were as much a cause of curiosity for the locals as the fish market was to us. At Panjim we had lunch at a great backstreet resturant 'Viva Panjim' in a downtown area known as Fontainhas - Matt Damon fans would recognise it as the location of the chase sequence in the opening scenes of 'The Bourne Supremacy', which was filmed in three areas of Goa. A short 'tuc-tuc' ride away we visited the YMCA of Goa. The general Secretary 'Godwin' gave us a tour of his relatively newly build 'guesthouse', ideal for tourists on a budget who arevisiting Goa / Panjim. The Guesthouse will in future generate income which will be used to support the fledgling social action work of the YMCA in the area. We probably travelled around 80-100km, the whole family for around a fiver, using buses, taxi, and tuc-tuc's - very tiring but well worth the effort.