Goa

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Have been in Goa about a week with the majority of that time spent one of the quieter areas in South Goa called Benaulim, which has a white sandy beach stretching for between 22 - 35 km depending on who you ask. Life is more peaceful here and we have managed to do hardly anything at all except visit the spice farm near Ponda.

There were only a few beach front guest houses and restaurants which was perfect for us as we found a good one straight away that produced the best fresh fish we have had so far.

The nearest village about about 3 Km up the coast was busier and catered more for Indians on holiday than Benaulim which is mainly for tourists. On our last night in the area we biked along the beach to see the Colva religeous festival which apparently involved making a wish and having a baby kiss you. The whole thing was much more like market day however, there were thousands of people there and hundreds of stalls selling everything from ladoo (milk based sweets) to sorpital (pigs heart and liver) and sausages to clothes, kitchen utensils and assorted plastic goods. It was kind of like a frenetic Walthamstow Saturday market with the exception that everybody was wearing their Sunday best. The queue to get into the Church to see the baby was about 3 miles long so we thought we would give it a miss and had dinner instead.

We moved down the coast a short way to another beach called Palolem, the whole atomsphere is a bit more upbeat with more restaurants, bars and beach front shacks catering to the tourists but the beach here is not as long, more crowded and generally not as nice as where we were.
It was the place they filmed the Goan bit of "The Bourne Supremecy" so I am on the look out for any would be assassins.

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Photos

Benaulim Beach
View from one of the places we had lunch

Sunset 1
Kept on missing the sunset by about 30 seconds

The Spice Farm
They check flowers on you and give you coconut water to drink when you arrive

Beach at night
We rode down the beach to the Colva festival.