ANJUNA, GOA, INDIA
Rather than staying in one place for the next few days, I figured I'd work my way down the coast to experience as many of Goa's towns as possible. So yesterday I took a bus five kilometers south to the town of Anjuna, which has a longer sandy beach than Vagator, but isn't quite as ruggedly scenic. It's a small town that's known for its Wednesday flea market, which I dutifully visited this afternoon. Every week vendors from all regions of India set up stalls under the coconut palms, selling everything from spices to Kashmiri textiles and wooden elephant carvings. It's all really colorful and busy, and even though I didn't buy anything, it was a good place to wander around and people-watch for an hour or so. When I got tired of the hawkers, I walked down to the beach and watched the sunset, which was nice, no doubt due to smog.
Also today I met two American college students on the "Semester at Sea" program, a guy from Alaska and a girl from California, and we traded travel stories. I think they're the first Americans I've seen here, actually.
Later at night I walked down to check out Paradiso, supposedly one of Goa's best dance clubs. It was a pretty interesting place--it's on the side of a hill, right by the beach, and you enter by walking onto the roof, which is the "chill out" area. It's covered with straw mats, and about a dozen locals were sitting there with kerosene lamps selling cigarettes, coffee, and tea, and some had little cooking setups to make fried egg sandwiches for all the ravers. Very bizarre, but kind of neat. The dance floor is downstairs, and it's made to look like a psychedelic spider's cave, painted in fluorescent colors and illuminated with UV lights. The DJ was actually really good (he played techno and trance, as you might expect), although the crowd, which I'd say was about an equal mixture of Indians and Europeans, fell just short of reaching critical party mass. It's apparently the very beginning of the season, so I guess things are still a little quiet. Plus it's a Wednesday. So I had a couple of King's beers, danced a little, and walked back to my guesthouse for some sleep.
Rather than staying in one place for the next few days, I figured I'd work my way down the coast to experience as many of Goa's towns as possible. So yesterday I took a bus five kilometers south to the town of Anjuna, which has a longer sandy beach than Vagator, but isn't quite as ruggedly scenic. It's a small town that's known for its Wednesday flea market, which I dutifully visited this afternoon. Every week vendors from all regions of India set up stalls under the coconut palms, selling everything from spices to Kashmiri textiles and wooden elephant carvings. It's all really colorful and busy, and even though I didn't buy anything, it was a good place to wander around and people-watch for an hour or so. When I got tired of the hawkers, I walked down to the beach and watched the sunset, which was nice, no doubt due to smog.
Also today I met two American college students on the "Semester at Sea" program, a guy from Alaska and a girl from California, and we traded travel stories. I think they're the first Americans I've seen here, actually.
Later at night I walked down to check out Paradiso, supposedly one of Goa's best dance clubs. It was a pretty interesting place--it's on the side of a hill, right by the beach, and you enter by walking onto the roof, which is the "chill out" area. It's covered with straw mats, and about a dozen locals were sitting there with kerosene lamps selling cigarettes, coffee, and tea, and some had little cooking setups to make fried egg sandwiches for all the ravers. Very bizarre, but kind of neat. The dance floor is downstairs, and it's made to look like a psychedelic spider's cave, painted in fluorescent colors and illuminated with UV lights. The DJ was actually really good (he played techno and trance, as you might expect), although the crowd, which I'd say was about an equal mixture of Indians and Europeans, fell just short of reaching critical party mass. It's apparently the very beginning of the season, so I guess things are still a little quiet. Plus it's a Wednesday. So I had a couple of King's beers, danced a little, and walked back to my guesthouse for some sleep.
posted by John Kuge at 11:57 PM
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