Partying In Goa

Goa is considered the party central of India, tell anyone your going there and immediately images of beach raves, acid and hippies comes to mind, although it is more like a middle class tourist resort most of the time, we did attend a few good parties.

Our first party started at about 2am, and being the vigilant types we are, we were both fast asleep and were woken by a very loud and random selection of dance music, trance, and pop followed by a cheering crowd every time a song ended. After our New Years fizzler we both leaped out of our bed at Frog's hollow (the place we were staying - actually called Chuckies but we remained it as for our whole stay we were watched over by several frogs - one in our wardrobe and one in the bathroom). Dressed and ready for anything we walked down to the beach with the another guest who had been woken up, we were going to dance, she was about 50 and going to complain about the noise which had kept her 75 year old mother awake.

Walking up to the car park that led to the beach, we were confronted by the spectacular site of six Indian boys dancing around two cars, drunk as skunks and cheering to the music of their car stereo's, as soon as we appeared they smartly packed themselves up and drove away, not wanting to look like complete nongs we walked down to the beach and dipped our feet in the water at 4am pretending to be early risers out for a walk.

Our second party was a little more inclusive, after fleeing Benaulim on our bike we ended up at Palolem which is in the very south of Goa, this party was on the 7th of Jan a significant date, being cold and depressed in Ooty for my birthday I decided I would postpone it until Jan the 7th. Of course I had completely forgotten about it but our favorite son Greggie G didn't. In Palolem we had the good fortune to meet group of Israeli’s who were staying in our shack compound, on our second night they invited us to a BBQ party, which was amazing, with little more than foil, a few spoons, a dish an a BBQ grate they managed to cook a mouth watering meal.

First course, sandwiches made with eggplant dip, prepared from scratch by them earlier, onion and cheese wrapped in foil and toasted on the fire... can't wait to try this when I get home. Then onto stock flavoured rice, baked potatoes and Israeli salad, accompanied with copious amounts of alcohol...thanks to the big speakers they hauled around with them we even had music.

At about 1am when the festivities seemed like they were dying down oceanboy Greggie demanded that we all go down to the beach to end the night, to my surprise all the Israeli’s agreed, and we promptly marched down. When we got down there Gregie with the help of the boys put on a spectacular fireworks display in honor of my birthday, I am not talking sparklers here, you can buy just about any type of fireworks here - seriously what you see on New Year's Eve at the habour, it was beautiful and amazing one of the most special gifts I have ever received, fireworks are much pretty when they are just for you.

Dropping out of India for 2 Weeks

Well Goa was certainly the rest stop we needed, after 6 weeks of what seemed like getting on and off trains and walking miles with our packs, Goa was heaven.

Goa is the most Western part of India for sure, everyone except the people working in the shops and cafes are western so although it doesn't really feel like India it was just the break from India that we needed.

The beginning of our Goa trip started a little rocky, sick and stuck in Benaulim, it seemed that Goa wasn't really that amazing, until we rented a scooter and the holiday really took off. Riding a scooter in India is the best feeling, the wind blowing through your hair, the smell of cow dung and piss watered down, bugs hitting your teeth and the open road in front of you. Having your own transport in India cuts your stress in half, no more haggling over auto fares (haggling so fierce I am surprised it doesn't end in blows), being able to stop as often as your like, toilet breaks on command and of course the freedom to ride for an hour and half just to have porridge.

You may not believe it, but our stint of Tamil Nadu and Kerala had us well and truly over Indian food, so Goa was all about the beaches and the food, because everything is prepared fresh here it takes about an hour for your order to arrive for every meal so here's how our days went, get up about 8am, ride 20 minutes to our favorite breakfast place at a quite beach called Agonda which the tourist industry has not discovered fully as yet. Order a huge bowl of fresh fruit salad topped with grated fresh coconut and honey with a carrot and pineapple juice, wait an hour for food, eat, walk along the beach, swim, reading and then have to prepare for lunch, which is at Sonia World Food, where we order and wait another hour for home made Hommus topped with fried Mushrooms and onions, with a pool of tahini in the middle eaten with freshly baked lafa bread. In this cafe we have our usual table under fan in a small cushion room, we spread out and read our books all afternoon, another swim, cold shower in our open air bathroom and then dinner, order, wait another hour, and eat fish salad in a lime dressing, followed by chili beans and tortilla bread, while sipping a pomegranate cocktail...heaven

For all the mum's and general worry warts at home, riding a scooter in Goa is fine, Goan's although at times seeming like they have been seriously sun affected actually drive pretty well, we didn't have any scrapes and only got booked by the police once for not wearing our helmets. Even nana t usually to be found behind knitting needles while complaining about my aching joints learnt to ride and am thinking about getting a scooter at home, after all if you ride in India you can ride anywhere.