If ever you are planning a vacation to North Goa, don't. We were lured there by the promise of crazy Isreali party beaches that we later learned were made illegal because people kept getting raped.
We took the ten mile, hour and a half long journey at the height of my sickness, when my head was stuck in a vice that made my nose leak and my balance faulty. Ad
d to that Goa is very hot, around 90 degrees plus humidity. There're more trees and fewer roads in South Goa so I didn't notice the heat as much, but in the north it's unbearable. Of course nothing has air conditioning.
The driver who was bringing us to the north said he'd cut us a deal if we visited a couple stores. I sat outside for the first store but the second I checked out because I saw a running air conditioning unit taped and nailed to the outside. Here is where I learned that
Indians don't understand air currents. The A/C unit was on the bottom floor, next to the entrance, pointed at a wall. Maybe it's because of my spoiled American upbringing but I think if you're going to spend all that money powering and maintaining an A/C unit you should put it somewhere useful. Instead we were stuck in a sweltering top-floor showroom looking at fine silk carpets that sold for around $900 U.S. dollars. After hanging around for a respectful half hour and listening to the store owner's sales pitch we politely declined to buy anything.
Geckos really are man's best friends, not dogs. Geckos are small, eat bugs, live on the ceiling and walls, and stay out of my way; dogs do the opposite. I tried explaining this to Tori at the thatch-roofed hut we were staying at in the peasant town of Anjuna, but she couldn't get past the sound of scurrying above her as she tried to sleep.
The next day at 4 am we woke up and went for a walk to the beach. Some kids and I found volcanic looking rocks with nifty tidal pools by the sea. I tried to catch some creatures but they were too fast, then we walked to a beach where cows were lying aroun
d and dropping grenades in the sand. Back at the hut, Tori rented a moped, i think. I was feverish and a little delirious. She disappeared for the day and came back with cold medication while I sat in a hammock and hung on to consciousness by reading comic books. At some point in the day Luther, Tauti, and Evan stopped by and talked to me. Later that night we moved to an air conditioned beach side hotel.
My main problem with North Goa is that it's almost impossible to leave the house. As soon as I stepped out the door fifty people would surround me and try to snake my money. Constantly, everywhere I went, people just wouldn't leave me alone. At one point I was sitting on the beach, trying to enjoy th
e tide's ebbing, when a gang of gypsies pounced on me. I lost my temper and threatened the lot with torture and ruin, but they just didn't get the point.
Eventually I figured out that I had to store my stuff at a restaurant and buy something, then their staff would chase the gypsies, beggars, and crap toters away.
Swimming was an option too, but barely. There were nazi life guards posted every 20 yards on the beach an in the water. We weren't allowed to go deeper than our waists and we had to avoid "rip tide" zones. It was crowded too and creepy Indian men kept trying to to
uch Tori.
One of the saddest things I saw was the cruelty of higher caste people to lower castes. There was one kid making sand castles while two higher caste kids ran around him playing soccer with their dad. Every once in a while the high caste kids would intentially run through the castle or kick the ball at the kid. The dad not only didn't care that his kids were total shits, but he stepped through the castle once too. The sand castle kid's dad was nearby too, but he couldn't do anything because he was a lower caste. I wanted to get in the soccer dad's face, tell him to clean up his act, but Tori advised me not to. Guy probably didn't speak Eng
lish anyway.
That isn't to say that Goa is all bad. As whiteys my crew and I were invited to exclusive clubs that played Euro trance with laser shows while transvestite looking ladies danced on the balcony. When not partying we could sit on the beach side, smoke hookah, and get drunk on weak martinis.
The oldest and biggest eastern churches are located in the town of Old Goa. Composed of one room big enough to fit a blue whale, intricately decorated and painted w
ith at least 5 different colors per square foot, all hand painted, and sitting on the verge of collapse, the churches of Old Goa were really nifty. They also have a cool museum devoted to 500-year-old paintings of explorers and magistrates. Some of the paintings had disturbing depictions of Christians being dismembered by natives and it made me wonder how these burnable paintings survived so long.
We saw some army guys at a local restaurant. They had soviet looking assault rifles sporting patches of bare metal where the black paint flaked off and stood a foot taller than most other Indians. When they came in the whole staff stopped what they were doing to wait on them. I don't think they paid either. I was surprised by how old they were too. they all had gray hairs and lines on their faces.
After 5 days it was nice to leave Goa, the beach bum life was wearing on me. Little did I know the greatest trial was yet to come when we made for Delhi.
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