Hippying it up in Goa.
Trip Start
Sep 14, 2008
1
21
28
Trip End
Ongoing
Goa, Goa, India
Saturday, December 20, 2008
We started in Panjim, a town in North Goa. Here, we walked around the pastel shaded buildings and admired the small overhanging balconies, mosaics and large shuttered windows. India really is a place of contrasts; we'd travelled 14 hours North of Kerala on a train and it was like we'd been transported from the Mediterranean to Latin America!
After a few days here, we were well and truly ready for the party spirit of Goa we'd heard so much about. Again, on arriving to Baga, the effects of the Mumbai events were evident. The beach parties had been cancelled, and hotels were quiet. One bonus of this was that we got an extremely cheap rate at a four star resort. This luxury was so appreciated after months of roughing it!
Baga consists of a long strip of beautiful beach which runs parallel with the main street which hosts a plethora of clothes and souvenir shops (and accompanying 'look here'/'small things you like'/lovely jubbly things for you' callers) Throw in 8 measures of holiday makers, one measure of European chavs and one measure of hippies (that came in the 60's and never left) and you've got yourself a Goan treat. Or not. An Indian Costa Brava sprung to mind. However, it had it's highlights, and we ended up using it as a base from which to explore other, more pleasant areas. Renting a moped in Goa is cheaper than taxis, and so we braved it and adventured around Goa on our trusted little Honda.
The flea market at near by Anjuna was definitely a highlight. How I wished I had more bag space! Me and Layla had decided to get each others Christmas presents for here, and had set a limit of a tenner. To give you an idea of how amazing it was, for that price I managed to get a dress, silver ring, a leather bound journal, billabong flip flops, bracelets, jewelled pens and more. It really was a shopper's paradise, and reason enough to visit Goa in my opinion! Other highlights included trips to relatively undiscovered and idyllic beaches in the North, the parties (that went on regardless), the fresh seafood and the awesome people we met.
CHristmas day was spent in about as far a detached way from a British Christmas as you can get. We went to a stunning beach and lounged about drinking mojitos after swimming in the bath warm sea. We had grilled tiger prawns for lunch at a beach shack for under two quid a head. THe only blip was having to politely drink vodkas an obscene man brought us. AS we drank these, we had to endure his outbursts of 'over there, 3 o'clock' as various women passed us. This would've been acceptable if he hadn't been in his 50's, and if he hadn't continued his outbursts about various women with such comments as 'Oh it's a f*cking Russian, and she looks like she's been beaten up with a meat cleaver' (she had some marks on her back) Nice. It seems you can't escape wallies like this wherever you go in the world!
Anyway, this aside, it was a perfect day and I didn't miss old Queenie's speech, overeating or the Eastenders Christmas special at all! In the evening, we met up with friends for Christmas dinner and wine, and then sampled various cocktails at various beach shacks.
On New Year's Eve, we went to Arambol (and discovered where all the other travellers were!) This was my favourite place in Goa, with narrow streets filled with market stalls,juice bars and music joints winding idly down to a perfect stretch of beach. Once there, we played like kids in the sand and kicked back with the other lazing people, and dogs, and cows..
Then, back to Baga for the infamous New Year celebrations, and oh-my was it. On arriving back on our moped, we couldn't move for traffic flooding in for the event, and I suddenly didn't feel like a hell's angel anymore! There were hundreds of cars, bikes people and traffic police all shoved in to the sardine tin of Baga town. We hadn't expected this, and it was daunting at first!
But a grand feast and a few sips of champagne with friends later and we soon got into the swig of things. The atmosphere on the beach was electric- thousands of people, beach shacks throbbing with lights and music and fire eaters and other entertainers surrounded us. We met up with some other friends, and all saw in the New Year together. I've never seen anything like the fireworks at midnight- they went off from every direction, and went on for at least half an hour- it really was spectacular. I realised past half midnight that I hadn't 'Happy New Year-ed' anyone I was with because of all the friendly, excitable locals who had run over to hug us whilst exclaiming it. The celebratory atmosphere was awesome, as was the hors (and hours) of dancing to reggae and hip hop that followed.
The next day, with an extra-ordinary hangover, we boarded our flight to Ahmedabad in the North of India.
Summary:
If you go to Goa (which you should) DO:
Hire a moped, watch the sunsets, swim in the sea (sooo warm), drink a mojito (or two), Go to the flea market in Anjuna (every Wednesday), go to the beaches in the North, eat fresh seafood, be open to meeting lots of different people, party at the beach shacks, stay in Arambol!
DON'T:
Stay in Baga, take opium and find yourself still there in 2014, talk to a man called Kevin (meat cleaver man, late 50's, Essex), become a hippy, buy a sari and then pretend you've embraced the culture when actually you're staying in a $200 a night hotel to do a yoga course, (and you haven't actually left that hotel, and you're called Tara and you're business executive from Hampstead), go to an Israeli trance night (dire), go into a shop unless you're prepared to buy something (because you'll be trapped in there on entering!), get offended if you're being stared at on the beach by locals (not used to seeing flesh in the open) when you're wearing a luminous orange thong and nothing else (twit).
End.
