Animals living in harmony...

Trip Start Sep 22, 2004
1
6
11
Trip End Dec 13, 2004


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of India  ,
Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Still in Anjuna, I met Steve and Jenn, a friendly and down-to-earth young couple from Nottingham. My having been in Anjuna for over a week and still not ventured down to Paradiso's twice weekly parties did not escape their attention, so when I mentioned they might have to drag me down there, the thought had clearly already occurred to them. Anyway they were really great and had had just three weeks off work to tour through Nepal and India -- not nearly enough time, of course -- getting engaged along the way (something they'd both secretly planned beforehand. Great minds really do think alike).

Still being fairly quiet in Anjuna the party was a fairly low key affair, but the location of the club - several levels in a cliff face overlooking the beach, surrounded by palm trees is pretty serreal, and I'm sure the mid-season parties must really go off.

Steve and Jenn flew out the next day, and a day later I decided to relocate to Palolem after all. It turns out Palolem is the most happening place I've yet visited... and to think I wrote it off earlier because it looked like it might be too quiet. Still, it's early season and the roadside stalls which had been disassembled for the monsoon are being reconstructed and so new stalls and shops open on a daily basis.

Over the last two weeks I have become something of a lazy traveller. Actually I feel like a bit of a cheat coming to India then hanging out in Goa, which, for all its charms, could be a tropical resort anywhere. I lie on my bed and look out through the window at the palm trees and I'm a shifty person who's dodged the authorities and escaped to Central America. Palolem, however, is the busiest place I've been to in Goa. Dozens of beach huts line the beachfront. It'd be picturesque but for the blue tarpaulins draped over them all. Some places have made an effort by placing palm leaves over the tarps to hide them, but the remaining ones make for an overall impression of beachfront slum rather than tropical paradise. In any case I found myself a nice clean room with attached bathroom (cold water only) but it has the necessary ceiling fan and TV... and at only Rs.300/night it is having a beneficial effect on my budget so I have been a bit loathe to move on. The restaurants here are head and shoulders above the few in Anjuna and Colva. There are dozens to choose from and all have extensive menus with seafood being the local specialty, but also other Indian and international foods. So yes, I can see why people come to hang out here and never leave.

I love the local animals. From my balcony I watch the cats having their afternoon naps under the palms, while pigs and chickens wander around them snuffling and pecking away without drawing any reaction. The dogs are everywhere too, and they sometimes get a bit stroppy with each other, but it seems that all the wildlife lives together in harmony. It pretty much sums up the whole feeling of Goa.

However I will catch a bus to Margao tomorrow and the 7.30am train to Hospet and Hampi on Friday, assuming I can get on.
Print this entry Goa hotels