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I desperately wanted a week in the sun to just relax and do a lot of reading and have some beers. Goa is a cheap flight from Kuwait and hotels range from cheap to expensive, so I booked the flight, found an apartment to rent close to the beach, and I was ready to go. I arrived early in the morning and the owners of the apartment, which was privately owned, picked me up and a short while later I was on Benaulim beach getting a tan and drinking a beer. What a relief!
Oh wait. Here the come. The hawkers. These beautiful Goan women in saris selling their wares. And there are so many of them. Sigh. This is the one negative of the beach in Goa. These women are very persistent and they definitely have a strategy. It's similar to 'save my place.' The first one that talks to you tells you her name and says don't buy from anyone else, I will come back tomorrow, blah, blah. And she will come back. They all say the same thing. They were sweet and nice, but I did not want any of this stuff. There wasn't anything original or
unique about it. It is stuff that can be found anywhere in the world. Sigh again. I just wanted to read and tan my white self.
And I did. Every day. For six days. And I drank a few beers. Every day. For six days. And I read books. Every day. For six days. I was a happy beach bum.
There are beach shacks, non-stop, along Benaulim beach. I wanted to stay here because it is not a party beach and I wasn't going to party, especially since I was alone. My first day I walked straight to Domnick Beach Shack because it was close and had wifi. The guys working there were great, didn't hassle me, didn't come every 15 min to see if I needed anything but if I started looking around for someone, immediately they came to see what I needed. The food is okay, some of it quite good. I tried something different every day. Their wifi was definitely more reliable than other places I tried.
I did spend one day sightseeing in Old Goa and Panaji. There are three beautiful churches to see in Old Goa, all close together. All worth seeing.
Panaji has a couple of things to see, but it is a hectic, crowded, city that, from what I saw, is not very walkable. Maybe if I hadn't been alone I would've enjoyed it more, but I didn't come to Goa to sightsee really.
I also went to a Savoi Spice Plantation one afternoon. I hired a taxi for 2700 rupees. It is a bit of a drive and it is off the beaten path. Once we found it, there was a huge tour group there! Ugh! I specifically went to this plantation because Lonely Planet said not many tourists go there. Well, it has been discovered. Also, there is no mention of payment for a tour in the LP. The guys working there were really nice, but they were in the middle of feeding a tour group of about 100 Australians. Geez. So I waited about half an hour and then they said they could give me a private tour for 600 rupees. However, all the official guides were busy, so the guy that took me around the property did speak English (sort of) but he had no idea about how to give a tour, and he definitely
did not have a 'teacher' bone in his body. Oh well. Live and learn. Just don't listen to LP when it says the Savoi Spice Plantation doesn't cater to tour groups. They have definitely mastered that money-making venture.
The rest of my time was spent relaxing on the beach, either in the sun or in the shade of Domnick Beach Shack. My pictures tell the rest of the story.
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