Yoga in Goa - If I'm a Yogi does that make Kate Boo-Boo?

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M – My first impressions of Goa were a little mixed. We had taken an overnight AC sleeper train from Mumbai to Margao - about two thirds of the way into Goa. We then headed a little further south to avoid the more populated beach resorts frequented by the holiday packages from Europe in central and northern Goa.

The positive - the morning view from the train of the rice fields surrounded by palm trees and lush green hills boded well. I was excited, so much so that I decided to stand in/hang out of the open doorway of the train to suck in some of the fresh air. This is something you can’t do on British Rail! After a few minutes I ducked back inside before Kate saw me hanging out the window or I got a bit too excited and decide to climb up onto the roof.

When we arrived at Margao we had a choice of waiting 3 hours and taking an 8 Rupees train for 20 minutes to our chosen resort of Palolem or getting a taxi. We were too tight to pay for an air conditioned car (why I don’t really recall?) and decided it might be fun to take a Tuk-Tuk. I will admit we were a little skeptical about a taking a Tuk-Tuk for 45kms through the hills. What the hell, we weren’t in a rush. The journey took about 70-80 minutes and at times we were literally moving slower than walking pace up the hills in a sort of slow motion race with the large trucks. Our driver took to making a forward bobbing motion as we went up the hills urging his vehicle on, either that or he was praying. This was ok though, it was actually quite relaxing as it was early in the day and we were in no rush. Descending the hills was a little different. Careering round corners in a three wheel Tuk-Tuk loaded with luggage at about 40-50km is pretty exciting. Fortunately our driver knew what he was doing and all was well. A fun ride and all for only 500 rupees. This is, by the way, still part of the positive impression.

We arrived at Palolem, here comes the negative. It felt like we had arrived at a beach resort in Spain or Greece. Although not probably nearly as crowded as the European resorts get it was a bit of a shock as we probably hadn’t seen this many western tourists since Nepal. Things didn’t look good for a relaxing beach stay… Anyway for $10 a night we found a nice, quiet en-suite hut on stilts set about 50 yards back from the main beach front. The beach front had at least 20 bars and restaurants nestled in the palm trees and the sand. We decided to suck it up and see...

Long story cut short, although Palolem looks like a busy beach resort it has an odd chilled vibe to it and we loved it. So much so we extended our stay repeatedly and finally pulled ourselves away after 8 nights. The beach is a large, golden, crescent fringed with palm trees and facing west - perfect for the sunsets (see photos). There is no concrete construction, everything is wood and removed each monsoon season. The local municipality actually bulldozed all the illegal concrete stuff a few years ago which helps keep developers on the straight and narrow! The buildings are also low-rise which means the eye is caught by the 80 feet palm trees rather than hotels and although there were lots of restaurants and bars these were never remotely full.

Despite the fact that the beach was a lot more empty and relaxed than we had originally expected we still found the energy to explore further afield, either walking a mile to the next even quieter beach of Patmen or renting a scooter to go 15-20km north and a similar distance south to find virtually deserted golden beaches where we could get away from it all…...

Palolem also has a 10pm curfew for loud music which creates a different kind of atmosphere at night (if you want to party though there are a couple of ‘Silent Discos’ where you get given a headset on entry and chose the music you want from the three DJs present). We intended to give this a go but didnt quite make it - many nights by 9pm we had been virtually lulled to sleep by the sounds of the waves and were struggling to get out of our comfy waterfront sofas in whatever bar/restaurant we were in and make the few steps to bed. In fact we really couldn’t get our heads round how relaxed this place was. Maybe everyone was doing Yoga and, like us, were too tired to run around/make too much noise? Whatever it was we really enjoyed it.

The icing on the cake – fantastic and cheap food (spicy vindaloos are the Goan specialty!) and the beer in the bars is only 70 rupees for 660ml. That’s about 65pence/90 cents a pint! Where else can you sit in a bar/lounge with your feet in the sand soaking up the sunset and listening to the waves with virtually your own waiter in what feels like a 5 star setting, have a yoga lesson and eat three meals a day and all for less than $25 each a day? I think we will be back here again some-time in the future.

And finally to the Yoga - well, why not? Everyone else was doing it and it’s supposed to be a good workout without all that running around and getting too hot and sweaty. Or so I thought. We did a 90 minute session every afternoon for the 8 nights we were there. It felt great but I was wrong about the sweaty part. The sweat was rolling off be by the bucket load. So much so that my Yogi, called Krishna, started referring to the area around my yoga mat as Niagra Falls! Neither of us are particularly flexible but after 8 days we have improved immeasurably and have promised ourselves that we will try and keep it up going forward as the post exercise glow feels so good.

Scroll down to enjoy the photos.

K- I seem to remember that Boo-Boo was the smart one who tried to keep the bumbling Yogi from making too many stupid decisions? In that case I fully agree with Mark's description of our roles.

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Photos

You can't keep all the riff-raff out!
Palolem Beach