Soooo, THIS is Goa...

Hm... I went to some of the most famous Goan beaches alright... Let me put it this way: not my kind of beaches. OK, leaving my totally subjective point of view aside, let me try to describe the experience, as... objectively as possible. First of all, the bus ride from Panaji to Sinquerim, the closest beach to the north, takes almost three quarters of an hour, exactly as the guidebooks say, even though it is a very small distance. Now I know why... The buses stop everywhere, as in... e v e r y w h e r e, THAT often that it felt as if we never made more than 100 meters without stopping. By the way, I got on the bus last, it was already F U L L, and those 45 minutes felt like being in a moving, groaning sauna on wheels... Sooooooo, I got off at Sinquerim, walked to the beach (there is a ship lying pretty close, rotting, a ship that got stuck here a few years ago and offers a weird picture opportunity), and my first impression was... so-so, because I was waiting something like Kovalam, meaning a long beach where palm trees would reach out to the sea. Nope. There are palm trees alright, but they are a hundred metres away from the sea, which of course is not terrible, but kind of... spoilt the dreamy image I had in mind. So, I started walking with my feet on the edge of the water, and in less than ten seconds I started being approached by touts, or should I say by an army of touts, persistent ones, almost grabbing my hand to go sit "for free" at their sun beds. If you want to know, they were not lying, occupying a sun bed was for free indeed, given of course that you bought something to drink, BUT, you paid for the drink the same price as if you didn't occupy the sun bed, so, the sun bed was for free indeed. Subconsciously I fell in the trap to compare things with Greece... Here, in Goa's hottest beaches, you can occupy a sun bed for hours, paying only 30 rupees for a pint of Kingfisher (the biggest local beer). Something more than half a euro. In Greece... oh my-my-my... let's not talk about the prices... I kept walking, walking, walking, I had fun with a bunch of kids who wanted money because they sat and let me take a picture of them, I got bored saying "no, thank you" to touts begging me to go sit at their beds, took pictures, more pictures, dealt with more touts (OK, I say you get the picture), and after hours of slow, lazy walking, I reached Baga, having passed from Candolim and Calangute in between. We are talking about lots of walking, but it felt... wow, despite the non-stop annoyance of the touts (there were also ladies selling clothes, fruits, guys offering me water sport rides, some Rajastani who is on vacation here and was looking for company to have a nice evening..., and then there were more beach shacks' touts who kept complimenting me on my hair and height, obviously trying to pump my ego and make me their client. Almost forgot: other ladies were offering "good massage" as well... Hm...). The beach covers the sea side of three back to back villages, so it is looooong, it is WIDE, and it had a good number of westerners who were enjoying the morning sun. There were some Indians too... The woman would normally hold the camera, a little outside the sea, fully clothed of course, filming the husband and the kids having fun in the water. Only a couple of Indian women I saw "daring" enter the sea, fully clothed, of course... When I got a little tired, I had a beer, kept walking, made another beer break (anything but a beer fan, but since this is Goa and Kingfisher RULES, I thought I should follow the local trend), kept walking (back to Sinquerim), had some snack, another beer (unbelievable, for my standards, three beers in a matter of a few hours), and late in the afternoon, having watched the sun kiss the Arabian Sea, I took the sauna on wheels... eeeehm, the bus I mean, back to Panaji. Walking along the sea, I was thinking whether or not I would do what many Europeans do, buy a package and spend two weeks in Goa, in Christmas time... Is it worth making such a long trip just for the beaches? Yes and no, because right now, in Finland, it's winter-winter, while here the weather is totally summerish. But on the other hand... I don't know... coming to India for two weeks and spending 15 hours a day lying under the sun is something I wouldn't do, even though I can see the point of them who do so. Just for the record, most of the foreigners I saw (and they were TOO many), were Germans and British, while I also saw a good number of Russians, which caught me by surprise, though it shouldn't, given that an ever growing number of Russians can now afford mid winter holiday at summerish Goa... Soooooo, that was my Goan beaches experience, the first one. Tomorrow I am going to two more "hot" beaches, not too much walking will be involved, so most of the time I will just be lazying in some chair, people watching, drinking more Kingfishers... Aaaaaaah, it's a filthy-filthy job, but somebody's got to do it... (devilish grin on my sun burnt face...). As always, thanks everyone for dropping a line or two, and for following my trip. Feels nice having this... virtual company of all you...

PS Last night there was a Ghazal concert here, at Panaji, and apparently the guy (Jagjit Singh) who was performing is damn good, unanimously accepted to be the best Ghazal (type of Indian music) performer alive, so I didn't miss the chance. The ticket was 500 rupees, expensive for the local standards, something less than nine euros, but I thought it was worth it, and it was indeed. Attending this concert in an open theatre full of people was one of the highlights of this trip. Also, before leaving Kochi, I attended a Kathakali (dance) performance, which, to be honest, didn't thrill me. The audience was 99.9% tourists and it felt kind of... fake. The performers did a good job, though, I think, so as an experience it was interesting. Yesterday I saw only a small bunch of westerners, the vast majority of the attendants were locals, so it felt much more "original". And the money went to a good cause, to some organization that helps homeless kids, so the money was extra worth it.