Hilltop Heaven

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Chilling at the Nilaya Hermitage

Finally the wedding celebrations had come to a close and it was time to move on. We had a leisurely breakfast down by the beach on another beautiful morning. The weather had been superb since we arrived; blue - very blue - skies, about 28-32°C during the day and humidity probably in the 40%!r(MISSING)ange, dropping to a very comfortable 23 - 24°C at night. And these perfect conditions would continue for the rest of our stay in Goa.

Donna had booked the four of into Nilaya Hermitage, a boutique hotel on a hilltop near Arpora village about ten kilometres north of Sinquerim Beach. The Nilaya driver picked us up at the Taj Holiday Village and we were soon checked in by the highly efficient Dorothy and shown to our rooms. Lisa and I had the Sun Room beneath the pool terrace, and Donna and Rami were next door - not that it mattered much since the Nilaya only has eleven rooms.

Donna had selected the Nilaya after searching around on the Internet but I had learned a few weeks ago from Ash and Yves in Burma that the owners were very close friends of Niki Fry who used to live in Singapore, now in Pune, and whom I had known for many years. Quite a coincidence given the plethora of hotels that Donna might have booked.

After Johnson the Sri Lankan chef discussed with us what we might want for dinner that night, we lunched lightly by the pool, enjoying the panoramic view along the coast. Later, Lisa and I napped in the room, she had an Ayurvedic massage and I had a swim and caught the last of the sun as it sank into the sea below.

Which was a perfect time for a few leisurely cocktails followed by a dinner of freshly caught lobster, a nightcap or two and a contented collapse into bed about 1am.

Lisa and Donna managed to rouse themselves for an early Yoga session and Rami and I joined them for a spanking breakfast nearby the small lobby. We then took a Nilaya car and driver to Old Goa, about forty minutes drive away, stopping on the road south of Mapusa to browse the Nilaya’s shop crammed with some quite delectable furnishings.

Five hundred years ago Old Goa was larger than London and was a significant player on the world stage. This is quite hard to take in, as today it comprises several three to four hundred year old churches, convents and palaces around a large open garden. Other than that there are a few half-hearted tourist stalls and cafés; very few people seem to actually live there any more. It is a World Heritage Site, but the churches are not wildly exciting, frankly, and most visitors to Goa clearly come for the beaches and the nightlife rather than its Catholic heritage. The tomb of St Francis Xavier in the Basilica Bom de Jesus is grandly impressive; they display what remains of his body every ten years - next show is in 2014, but I wouldn’t rush to make reservations.

Later we moved on to Panaji, which - like most towns in India - has two names: in this case, Panjim. It is the Goan State Capital, a pleasant large town on the banks of the Mandovi River. Panaji has a few old colonial buildings that we did not seek out, but is largely a fairly sedate modern Indian town of perhaps 100,000 people. The shops were somewhat uninspiring and, since Rami was looking for interesting examples of Indian textiles and furnishing accessories it was, I suppose, an unsuccessful visit.

Back at Nilaya we chilled for a couple of hours before changing for an early Goan dinner that we had opted for in our daily menu discussions with chef Johnson over breakfast. At eight-thirty we left for nearby Ingo’s Night Bazaar, held every Saturday during the season and billed as “The Mother of All Indian Nite Markets”. Ingo’s really lives up to its slogan! It is huge, noisy, vibrant and quirky, and there must be close to a thousand stalls selling everything from textiles to jewellery via leather ware, soaps, spices, magic tricks, lanterns, hashish pipes, and on and on. Plus hair dressers, nail artists, alternative medicine, wine bars, beer bars, and a huge choice of food stalls offering every conceivable cuisine. A lot of the stallholders are resident foreigners from various parts of the globe: ageing hippies, young peacenik punks, budding entrepreneurs who came for the beaches and stayed for the business. It seems like there is great integration of the locals and foreigners and the atmosphere is very laid back, chilled out.

It was a great night out and a firm favourite of all of us, but we eventually had to drag ourselves away as we had completely run out of Rupees. Back at Nilaya the security guard opened up the bar and served us a nightcap - a great illustration of the exemplary service attitude amongst all of the staff at the Nilaya.

The weather continued to delight us every day, as did the lack of crowds wherever we went. Apparently, the high season in Goa ends at the end of March (unless Easter falls in April), so after April 1st it gets much quieter, hotels are not as full, and room rates drop. Weather-wise, we were told that all of April is similar to what we were experiencing, although it must begin to get hotter towards the end of the month. Most hotels in Goa, and its beaches, are closed June/July for the rainy season and I would imagine May and August are pretty hot and rainy, too. October through mid-November are also said to offer lovely weather and low season rates.

The whole of today was spent relaxing at the Nilaya, with interludes for yoga, massages, breakfast, naps and dinner. Lisa also had a tour of all the rooms and announced that her favourite would be the Star Room, under a dome near the pool, if we were to make a return visit.

We also got to know the appealing Nilaya pets better as the day passed: Otto the Rottweiler cross and self-appointed guard dog, Carly the lazy black Labrador, and Monique the ginger cat who carefully avoided getting too near either of the dogs. Each of them characters in their own right.

The next day we decided to drive north along the Goan coast and left in the late morning with driver Rupesh. After crossing the wide Chapora River at Siolim Bridge we headed down to the coast at Morjim Beach, a vast stretch of sand which we found rather hot and not wildly pretty. Asvem Beach was much more pleasant, and we stopped here at La Plage restaurant where we lunched on excellent tapas off what Rami described as an “intelligent” French menu.

Later we meandered further north along the coast through the villages and beaches of North Goa. It was largely rather pretty, much more rural than I would have expected, and - in the off-season, at least - very quiet and uncrowded. We stopped at Arambol, which seemed the largest of the beach villages, and took a stroll along the shop-lined main street; it was all very laid back, and despite us being practically the only tourists around, we never felt under any pressure to look or buy.

As we drove even further north, there were no tourist facilities at all, just small farming villages. Eventually we reached the Tiracol River where a small car ferry took us across to a tiny outpost of Goa surrounded by the vast state of Maharasta. Here, on a hilltop overlooking the estuary stands Fort Tiracol, a 16th century castle built by the Portuguese, and elegantly converted into a seven-room hotel by Claudia and Hari Ajwani, also owners of the Nilaya. It is a delightful spot, and would be ideal for a real chill-out few days. We were shown around some of the rooms, which are named after the days of the week, and decided that the Friday and Sunday suites would probably be the nicest.

Claudia and Hari had not been around at the Nilaya Hermitage so far during our stay, but they were at Fort Tiracol today and we sat with them over a few beers and had a long chat about mutual friends, the Goa tourist business, and everything else under the sun.

Later we drove back south and arrived at the Nilaya around eight, just in time for a welcome shower and another delectable dinner served up by Johnson. Next ➤ ➤

Howard's Goa Gallery at PBase

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Photos

Arambol Beach
Rami gets interested in a cow

Lisa and Otto
Nilaya guard

Mr. Nice
Arambol Beach