Goa!

Ahhhhhhhhhh Goa. Some say it is the Ibiza of India. Well I have to correct them straight away and tell you: even if it is true that Goa used to be a hippy spot and is still somehow in some areas a party place, you know, a kind of a Costa Brava where silly European people (l’élite de l’Europe!) come to smoke hashish and drink cocktails, you can still find very nice and quiet areas, like Palolem, where we went after visiting Panjim (or Panaji) and Old Goa.

We were twice in Goa already. Bouh... some of you will tell us, why already twice in 3 months, whereas there are some many things to see all around India. See Goa is quite easily reachable from Nasik. And we went once with Greg's family, and another time to meet up some firnes who finally couldn't come, as they couldn't leave Bangalore because of riots in the city as a very famous actor died on that day. Anyway. We went once in February, and once for Good Friday.

The first time we drove from the airport to Panjim. Panjim is a very nice Portuguese styled small city, with Indian people inside. Strange impression. A flavor of the landscapes I had seen in Brazil, with the people I had seen in Nasik. Hum… After that we went to Old Goa. Anybody interested in bent trees, cathedrals and Christian religion should go to Old Goa. You can find there the biggest Christian cathedral in Asia. See?

And then we drove to the south to Palolem and stopped over at a very interesting spice farm, worth visiting. They show you a number of spice trees, how spices grow, what they are used for, what they are good for on your body, etc…
The drive to Palolem was quite long and chaotic, as we were the 6 of us in a car where 5 normal people fit. One of us had to sit on the floor at the rear, and to hide him/herself when the police was around.

We also stopped over at some famous Hindu temples (Shri Shantadurga Temple and Shri Ramnath Temple) where some ceremonies were going on. Those temples are surrounded by a beautiful landscape, very green, with among others rice fields.

And finally we reached Palolem.

Beautiful beach, extremely nice people, Indian women swimming in sari, great weather, lots of backpackers, a few hippies, gorgeous sunset on the sea… and cows on the beach. Tens of them! And dogs. Dogs playing around, fighting with one another, sitting on your towel… We spent 3 days doing nothing. Going to the beach, eating seafood and fish twice a day, shopping, sleeping, and jogging (yes we did!). Another real holiday! (Again a flavor of Brazil). I won’t spend to much time telling about this boat trip we took to see the dolphins, which you can imagine turned to be the tiny part of the back of one single dolphin at the end of the 60 minutes of the trip (the guys taking us to the tour were happy, they had told us “no dolphin, no money!!”).

A good thing in Goa for us is that you can hang around in any clothes you like. Unlike the rest of India, in Goa you can show almost any part of your body. Otherwise the country is extremely conservative. I never show my shoulders and my legs in Nasik!

More pictures? Try fotos.web.de/cam_in_india/Goa_Feb_06