Goa, The Tourist Paradise Revisited
ENGLISCHER BLOGTRAVELEXPERIENCE
Delhi to Goa
Some best places in the world are located either in the mountains or along the sea. This planet boasts of many beautiful beaches all over the world’s seas and oceans. These are the places associated with nature’s beauty and the peace and tranquillity they provide along with the associated fun and frolic. India has a long coast line as well as long Himalayan Ranges. Many unparalleled and beautiful places are situated along them. Goa on the western Indian coast line is definitely very beautiful and also unparalleled. Unlike rest of India it wasn’t a British colony. It had its past associated with Portugal and is a beautiful blend of Portuguese, Indian and local Konkani culture. The place is always welcoming and appropriate for repeated visits. I visited Goa once again, though after a gap of more than five years, to be in that little heaven and rejuvenate my mind, body, heart and soul along with escaping the severe winters of Northern India. Winters in Northern India can be freezing with temperatures going to zero degree and even lower. In comparison, the coastal India winters are very pleasant and the right time for vacation visits. This time I travelled with my wife and two kids. I boarded Trivendrum Rajdhani Express train on a freezing February morning in Delhi. The train left sharp at eleven AM. Rajdhani expresses are Indian premier trains, and very comfortable from Indian standards. The train reached Goa just two hours late at around two PM next day. The Madgaon railway station in Goa itself is a better looking and organised railway stations of India. The Pre-paid Taxi counter ensures smoother and no nonsense Taxi travel to any stretch in Goa, something which one misses in Delhi. My destination, the Colva beach is just nine kilometres from the Madgaon station in Goa, and it took us fifteen minutes to reach there. I had booked a room in advance in a hotel located right on beach. As we moved in to reception one could see the continuous rally of sea waves hitting the sand barely hundred meters from there. The same view was available from the room’s balcony too. A pleasing site and freshness of pure sea breeze any time one wanted.
We moved to the beach without wasting much time. The centre of Colva Beach, just opposite from the last stretch of road from Margaon appeared to be a bit more crowded than usually it was in my earlier visits. Though nowhere near to the crowds of north Goan beaches, Colva beach earlier too used to attract more visitors towards latter half of the day. But definitely it had more people than what I used to see earlier.
The number of tourists from overseas too appeared to be remarkably up. But it was lively and pleasant there, as it used to be earlier. It was low tide time and sea was pushed back by fifty meters or so, but I was amazed to see number of people, mostly day visitors or of package tour parties daring to go further twenty metres in the water and braving the waves there. Not a very good thing to do in low tide. But they were not bothered and were enjoying and so were people loitering and playing on the beach. Some, including grownups were playing in sand. We walked on both side of this central area. Children had taken their slippers of and walking in ankle deep water, while I preferred to stay out, as I generally do in evening time. It was difficult to motivate children to leave the beach and its water. They were really enjoying, but we had to have a look on rest of Colva before dinner. The lone life guard was having problems in motivating the persons braving the waves to come out. The sea is too rough today, and its low tide too, he complained when I spoke to him. There were no boats either running at this time due to that reason. I checked likelihood of sea condition for next morning. There would be high tide and a bit better, he informed. We moved around with our children in the small market and the built up area, which has grown up in past few years. The number of taxis, shops, and restaurants, all has gone up.
Still despite of tremendous increase in the tourists the place was not overcrowded, though definitely more lively and with more options to dine and wine especially for vegetarians like us. In fact there were number of internet cafés and ATMs of private banks also opened there, including, to my comfort, branch of the bank in which I keep my funds. We later dined on a restaurant on the shacks right on the beach. I had my customary beer before that. We had similar routine all three evenings we spent there. Though, we switched restaurants every day. We also frequented a Terrace Restaurant, offering Indian Vegetarian Food of all types, few yards away from the beach. Not only the food was good it was also very economical also. There were number of Europeans too relishing Indian vegetarian meals. There were now few restaurants with good Indian vegetarian menu, which I used to miss earlier at Colva. After dinner there was a nice walk back to the room in the cool sea air every evening.Starting next day we planned to spend mornings on Colva itself. The sea was better but still not good enough for the boats, especially involved in pleasure rides and sea sports, to go out in the sea. We found our favourite spot roughly hundred meters away from the central area to sit and let children play in the sand, while we enjoyed the beautiful site of sea and the beach.
Morning hours, as earlier, there was not much of crowd. Though overseas visitors were all around, mostly walking and jogging while some lying in the sun on the bunks provided by the shacks restaurants on the beach. There was hardly anyone in the sea. Though some newly wedded Indian couples, mostly first timer on the beach, were trying to battle the rough waves in the shallow waters of high tide. A group of European young persons, two girls and a boy were enjoying in the waves slightly inside. They appeared to be good swimmers, and we saw them on all three mornings of our stay there. Other overseas tourists were mostly walking on the beach, or lying on bunks in their smallest swim suits gaining their tan. Tan was not our requirement, in fact prolonged exposure to direct sunlight was not very comfortable. After sometime we ventured into the water. Waves were really strong, but were not non negotiable. Other than the European trio, there was an Indian woman with couple of kids inside the water, and there was a newly wedded couple too. That gave me sufficient idea to move how far into the sea. There were some rogue boys too, but they were at a safe distance. But one has to keep an eye on such elements, especially if they try to come too close. Though not a real problem in Colva at least, some boys, especially in groups do tend to come near women in water, especially if they are Indian young women. One big reason along with cultural restrictions, that, Indian girls prefer to go into water on public beaches well covered. A number of such men do loiter on beaches to ogle at overseas women who are generally in bikinis, but they maintain a safe distance from them. But these are occasional deterrence and genuine tourists, Indians as well from overseas have no such intentions and enjoy the beach and the atmosphere in real sense. It is in fact good to see people from different parts of world and different cultural and social backgrounds enjoying their stay in their own ways. Staying close to the beach permitted us quick fresh water bath and change before lunch. A little afternoon rest, we could spend the evening again on the beach in similar fashion as the day earlier. We enjoyed a beautiful sun setting in the western skies over Arabian Sea.
As the sun set we heard good reggae music being played in the parking area. As Goa was observing carnival, a party from Vasco town had arrived with dance and music groups over small trucks and pick up cars. We moved there and enjoyed the fun, which many others from beach had come and joined.
Second morning the only difference was that boats and water scooters were out there too as sea had become all right for these. There was Para-sailing and micro-light flight also available.
We avoided these, as we were really not too sure about their safety standards. Numerous offers came for a sea ride with dolphin view. And the crowd was really enjoying them, and in fact there were more people near these activities than elsewhere on the beach. We left the beach somewhat early by eleven thirty AM, for early lunch in room, as I had hired a taxi to see more famous north Goan beaches.
Trip to North Goa
When we started we found the talkative driver an interesting person. Equally interesting was the second horn in his Suzuki Wagon-R taxi. It has shrieking noise, and he used it effectively in crowded areas, and with absent minded people walking carelessly in the middle of roads.We crossed rivers Zuari and Mandovi bypassing Panaji.Our first halt was viewpoint at Fort Aguada, an erstwhile Portuguese fort, and now central jail of Goa. It hosted biggest lighthouse of the continent as told by our driver. My reason to be there was the view of river Mandovi falling into the sea.
Spending few minutes there we moved to Calangute, the most popular of goan beaches. On way we had the view of Coco beach, and took a short halt at Sinquerim Beach, where a huge tanker, beached in a storm earlier was dominating the sight. The more we moved to Calangute, the more upmarket the surroundings began to appear. The look appeared to be of a market place of some European city. Overseas tourists were all around. Reaching Calangute, the road towards beach was heavily overcrowded. From parking to the beach it gave a look of a downtown crowded market of some north Indian smaller city. On reaching the beach, the scene was no different; it too appeared overcrowded.
We stopped short of beach to take a couple of photographs and a cold drink, before we returned to the taxi in a hurry through crowds of Indian package tourists and day travellers, who come to beaches just to see the sea than for anything else. Quickly we moved to Baga. Much quieter than Calangute, it has slightly calm market area and the beach too was calm, but there was hardly any moving space at the beach as it was crowded with bunks on which people, mostly Europeans, were sunbathing. But overall it was a better beach. Having really nothing to do, we moved ahead to Vagator. Vagator is much quieter, with hardly any real market place next to it, though there have few middle and low budget hotels and eating-places at a short distance. Look wise I find Vagator, the best of Goan beaches I have visited. We spent some time here taking pictures of the beach and overlooking Chapora Fort. Then, we headed to Anjuna, our last halt. It’s a rocky beach, earlier a destination for hippies, but now everyone less hippies visits there.
Wednesdays the place is livelier due to weekly flea market. We avoided that to avoid extra taxi charges for usage after six pm. We did reach Colva back after an hour’s drive but twenty minutes late, but the driver who got us late by same amount of time was decent enough not to take any extra charge. Instead he gave me his card and requested to call him for our return journey to station.
Fun at Beach
Third morning at beach was similar to the other two, but an interesting event happened. As we sat on the sand, two young women, apparently from some European country, in bikinis were playing ten yards from us, taking pictures, a normal routine in Colva.
After few moments it became quite funny, as a group of men, came walking over there. Either they were, day travellers, or workers from other regions working in the numerous new factories, which have come up in Goa. Probably they were first timer on a Goan Beach. On reaching the two ladies next to us froze them, it appeared they had seen women with so few clothes first time in their lives, and that too that close. They stood next to these ladies, simply watching them without sparing a look elsewhere. Couple of them took out their mobile phones, pretending to have halted for making a call, or impressing these ladies with their prized possessions. The two women have sensed their puzzled state, and were staying close to them. The group also decided to halt their walk and settle there itself. Few sat astonished, while a couple of them headed into the sea for a holy dip, displaying their various under garments, and bathing as they would do in Ganges river. The duo in bikini was also not giving away, staying close to that group. However, a local girl, who came out of the shacks, and guided the two playful ladies back into the shack, saved situation. The group took turns for their dip in to the seawater; some were having beer bottles on the public beach, which did worry me. The ones on the sand kept looking in the direction of the shack of those ladies, till they finally went from there.
The Journey Back
Last day we watched the sea from our room’s balcony, as we got ready to leave. After breakfast, I checked out, this time paying my bill through credit card in Colva, whereas earlier I had to carry traveller’s cheques. I found the same taxi driver, who took us to Madgaon Station. Again he did not ask any extra money for the baggage we were carrying. The Rajdhani Express came half an hour late, to take us back to the freezing weather of Northern India to Delhi.
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