West coast retreat

Having spent a strange Christmas alone in Mumbai, I met my girlfriend at the airport after a break of 4 months - strange that she could jump on a plane and get here in 8 hours, after it had taken me 6 months to get this far. Naturally, the beard and long(ish) hair had to go, which was fine by me. We planned a quiet New Year's further down the west coast, and got a night train south........

When we woke up the next morning, we were in a different India to the one I had spent the previous 2 months travelling - this was an India of coconut palms, rice paddies, and jungle, proper jungle!!! The landscape was a lush green the shade of which I'd never witnessed before. The train was rattling south towards Goa, but our stop came first.

The tropical landscape, beautiful beaches, generally friendly population, and relatively liberal attitudes are just some of the factors that have drawn western travellers to Goa for the last 40 years. The influx of tourists to the state has been such, that today, no Goan beach remains empty, deserted. This was why we jumped off the train early. I got a tip about a little fishing village on the coast between Mumbai and Goa, where we could have a quiet New Years on a beautiful beach. My source, a Goa veteran, has sworn me to secrecy, fearing a repeat of what has happened to his favourite beach further south.

Enough to say then, that we found a charming little village, a huge beach backed by palms and pine trees, a deserted island, great sea-food, and an overwhelmingly friendly population waiting for us. We spent New Years watching an Indian cultural heritage show, where we were the star attraction. We spent our days wandering the beach or the village, or going for drives to the next town. And all this time, we met just 6 foreigners - 4 Austrians, one of which lived there for 6 months a year, and an English and a Scotsman travelling together, up from Goa. It was the perfect place to see in the New Year, and having avoided the Christmas rush in Goa, we now headed south to that state.

Arambol was our chosen destination, a thriving centre for backpackers, old hippies, and many long-term stayers. It was here that I met my mate Niall, just flown in to Mumbai a couple of nights before. And it was here that the story gets boring. How exciting can you make lying in a hommock, or on a beach, seem? And this is what we did for the most part. Occassionally we would break the routine with a moped drive out into the surrounding countryside, which was, of course, lush, green and beautful. Or maybe we'd go for a walk up into the jungle behind the smaller beach, to where a group of hippies lived under a tree for 6 months of the year. The tree was actually a temple, and I'm not sure what the story was with these guys - they didn't talk much.

Of course, we drove into the flea market in Anjuna, and spent an afternoon engaging with the shopkeepers, teasing and being teased, as well as seeing an excellent rock group playing Hendrix and Zeppillin. By this point we had also hooked up with Peter, a 50-going-on-18 year-old English barman, over on a one-way ticket. Peter was going to Palolem next. Would we like to join him? Why not?

Palolem beach, being the most idyllic in Goa, and hence, probably the whole Indian mainland, is the star attraction for many backpackers heading to the state. A perfect cresent-shaped belt of whit(ish) sand between two headlands, and backed by countless coconut palms, the beach is understandably busy. Wall to wall bamboo huts dominate the beach from end to end, neon lights crawl up the tree trunks, fire works are a nightly event, and at night, you can hear the 'dung-dung' sound of dance music from almost everywhere on the strip. My source for the mystery beach had come here 9 years ago, when there were just four restauraunts on the entire beach. No wonder he was anxious to keep his new discovery secret.

There's no denying the beauty of the setting though, and of course, having done a lot of 'dry time' in the last few months, the bars and cheap booze were much appreciated - not to mention the food, the best I've had on the trip so far. Add to this the frisbees, racket ball, late-night black-jack, more moped trips, dolphins, and a whole lot more, and you can see why Palolem is such an easy get-away.

The Lonely Planet urges 'experience beach culture at Palolem' - the question for me being whether beach culture is the lifestyle we got a glimpse of at our mystery beach, a life which is based solely on fishing, or if it means getting stoned and hanging out in a hommock all day, before heading to a bar to get drunk. At this stage in my trip, both were very fine by me, thank you very much.

Conor

P.S. To Saunders, Fitzer, Niall (of course), Aspiring Nomad, and all the rest, that's too bad about the other night, Rio getting one over on yis........and if Fitzer is reading this, that's too bad about that 70 quid...........

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