[KartikeyaL]

Vasco da Gama municipal market :Goa 1958

[virgovencat]

Kartikeyal - Fabulous photographs !! Thank you for sharing, I have never seen GOA's old photographs earlier !! Goa looks so neat and clean compared to now :-)
Those Jeeps and Bikes ( ARMY) looks superb !!

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Vasco da Gama municipal market :Goa 1958

A great collection of photographs! The white ambulance with the inverted reg. plate and the BMW flat-twin of an earlier era with the (cop?) astride it, are particularly evocative. It seems that Fords of the vintage (Consul, Anglia) were popular too. Thanks once again.
Shashanka

[virus4bikes]

This is a very good collection. Thank you for sharing. I am from Goa. I showed this to my grand parents who cherished old memories (good and bad, courtesy: Portuguese rule). I still get to see some old cars still living and some resting in peace. Thanks again. Cheers !!

[KartikeyaL]

Thank you all for your messages but the real credit goes to Facebook page and the people who have shared the pictures there.

Here is another one

View of a street in the city of Margão

[akshay380]

Wow quite a few Goans here. We should all meet up!

[smooth indian]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

Even though Goa, Daman, Diu, Dadra and nagar Haveli were Portuguese colonies, people drove on the left and many cars were RHD. There were a lot of LHD cars too.

Back in the days until 1920s Portugal, Spain and Netherlands used to drive on the Left.

[KartikeyaL]

Portuguese soldiers arrive at the port of Mormugão

Mormugão :Goa 1950's

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Vasco da Gama municipal market :Goa 1958

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Here is another one

View of a street in the city of Margão

All 3 buildings in the 2 photos are still standing.

Originally Posted by akshay380

Wow quite a few Goans here. We should all meet up!

We do have a group who meet sometimes. I think you met most of them.

[Sawyer]

Very interesting.

I started my career in Goa a LONG while ago; in 1978. Back then, it wasn't the over developed place it is now, although Vasco wasn't very pleasant even then, as an annexe to a port that employed a lot of dock labour. But the rest of it was paradise. The first bridge over the Zuari was under construction, and remained so until I left at the end of 1981. Once it was completed, the one over the Mandovi fell down, so the ferries just moved across the headland between the two rivers!

Arlem beer was Rs 3 to the bottle. Feni, at a couple of rupees a large peg, was cheaper than food and I was lucky to cultivate a liking for the cashew varietal which is all I imbibe now when in Goa. Strangely enough, I don't like to drink it anywhere else, even if I carry it out, so I don't bother to do that anymore. Calangute in the rains was a sight to see, just a long wind and rain swept beach with few people around. The steamer from Mumbai still used to come to the wharf at Panjim. The sight of whitewashed churches in green green fields was a lot more easily seen then because of little construction to block the views. Being required to commute by bus to work, the rains weren't as welcome as they are now as a tourist, but they were not the nuisance they can be for the same kind of people in Mumbai now. There were no Israelis or Russians anywhere. No charter flights non stop from Europe, so the overseas tourists were largely harmless hippies.

I remember with some amusement being corrected when I was discussing the liberation of Goa in 1961 with some locals. I was gently corrected to be told by one that it was a conquest. I also came across many locals with some ancestral lands that had no interest in pursuing higher salaries or money. Food - fish, rice, coconuts - was cheap as was the feni, and they were perfectly content. Who is to say they were wrong?

As someone from India, what struck one immediately were the hoardings, few as they were, for alcohol. And that if one chose to hold one's breath while walking in cities from one bar to the next, it wasn't very hard to do so.

I had my trusted Yezdi with me, so I was able to explore every part of the state. And even riding at night or day on lonely roads, one never was too far from assistance if it broke down on the rare occasion - the first vehicle to drive by ALWAYS stopped to help.

Lovely, lovely state and people. Still so, but the place is now terribly abused by one and all. I prefer Vengurla/Malvan now for unwinding by the sea or to see Konkan in the rains.

[KartikeyaL]

Few more from the same source

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

....But the rest of it was paradise.....

Very true! - Goa as it was (no offence, disrespect intended to the people there now) was deeply evocative. My first visit there was in 1978 too. I had just got married, and was 2nd Engineer on a Tolani general cargo ship & we were on our first voyage together. We still look back with wonder on our experience at the La Paz in Vasco (I don't know if the eatery still exists) where we paid the princely sum of Rs.25/- for a Lobster Thermidor! Paradise indeed.

[Sawyer]

La Paz is still there; back in 1978 I stayed in a lodge in Vasco for a year, and La Paz was a special treat whenever the budget afforded it. There was also a coffee shop near the entrance, Cafe Noir. And a more commonly afforded breakfast place, Welcome.

Vasco was and remains a town with just 3 parallel streets, a hill and a railway station!

[KartikeyaL]

Here are a few more pictures

[travancore]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Here are a few more pictures

The last car (registration x-6662) is a Peugoet 403, 1959