Beach life in GOA

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After 2 weeks up north in Rishikesh and a one night stopover in Delhi I fly to Goa. I was ready to explore the beaches of India. The moment I stepped off the plane I could breathe clean air again and see palm trees everywhere. Was I transplanted in Costa Rica?? India's various terrain is pretty amazing. After feeling out of place up North, I instantly felt at home in Goa. It reminded me of my Florida roots. Being near the ocean water is very comforting to me.

The first beach I went to was Calangute. It was a crowded beach with wooden beach shack restaurants and beach chairs up and down the sandy strip of beach. The water was choppy, but fun to play in the waves and the beach was fairly clean (not great but anything was an improvement to the pollution of Delhi). I had a clean little room feet from the beach which cost me $12. I spent my days shedding my winter clothes and stocking up on cool cotton pants, sarongs, hat and aloe vera. I spent my days walking the beach in the morning, under the umbrella during mid-day, and watching incredible sunsets. Umbrellas and chairs are free if you order a drink or food from the beach shack owner. People watching was fantastic because other than me the bulk of the tourists were British, Scandanavians & Russian retired couples. It was the West Coast of Florida - India Style! Except that these couples were fierce. The women were loud and proud in their string bikinis at age 65 and up. The men were completely comfortable in their banana hammocks. All the couple were a dark, dark brown and super sexy in their golden years.

I explored Anjuna Beach, which was on the Hippy trail during the 60's and 70's. Then it was on the "Ecstasy" map for Rave parties in the 90's. Now all of that is pretty much dead and it's just another mellow beach. It was nice to be away from the tourist crowds, but the beach wasn't really up to par in my book. The sand was a reddish brown and the water was too choppy to play in. The waves broke with a loud crash on the shore.

After leaving Anjuna I stopped over in Panjim and visited Old Goa. Goa was invaded by the Portuguese traders/sailors/missionaries in the 1500's, so much of the Indian population is still Christian (Catholic). There are several old cathedrals with amazing architecture and it's interesting to see a Christian population, where I assumed there only to be Hindu or Muslim.

My final stop and the best beach by far was Palolem Beach. It was the ideal picture of a beach. Soft white sand, calm blue water, palm fringed shore. This is what I wanted to see -- I'm a beach snob being from Miami. So I had a really relaxing 2 weeks here. I met up with my friend Sebastian, took morning yoga classes, sea kayaked, rode moped to nearby beaches, had reiki treatments, ate really good fish dinners and worked on my tan.

I was ready to move on and see some old ruins or ancient culture, so I boarded a train to Hampi. I had a 7 hour train ride in Sleeper Class, which was the most scenic ride I had yet in India. We passed huge waterfalls and fields of sunflowers. Halfway into the trip the older Indian couple who occupied each of the lower berths in our compartment wanted to lie down. This meant that everyone had to get up from sitting on the lower bunk and each hop into their respective bunks the rest of the way. It was a bit of a bummer having to be horizontal for the rest of the trip --but the person with the lower bunk has an affect on everyone else in the compartment.

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