Get up and Go-Goa

Going to Goa has a wide range of possibilities for the discerning traveller. When I first went there while backpacking in India in 2006, my American friend Tess and I joked we were like a pair of old women because we were in our beds by 10.30 each evening. Our love for swimming in the Arabian Sea must have made us too tired to party, and we were certainly satisfied by being like a fish, and then eating fish — tiger prawns, tuna steak, shark — and we never felt like we were devaluing our youth.

So do not be surprised to find Goa offers more than the typical reputation of a hippy beach-bum commune full of trance music and drug addicts — we certainly broke the mould of that tradition, and so do plenty of others. If sports are your thing, then try out windsurfing, scuba diving and jetskiing at Calangute, Baga, Colva and Candolim beaches.

If not, then one way to start your trip is to go paragliding at Arambol beach, north Goa, for about 15 quid in a tandem flight. While you’re at it you can stick out your tongue at any pushy jewellery sellers who roam this chilled out beach. Speaking of which, if you are going to buy jewellery, half the price they offer you and then half it again (I once had a very nice, but very cunning lady try to sell me two Indian style anklets for about 10 quid, but bartered them to about 2 quid — a chancer is a chancer in any language).

Arambol has random open-mic nights — Tess and I thought we had stumbled across a professional singer one evening, when it was actually some Geordie chick from the audience singing her heart out. It was here I noticed some asshole giving my Yankee friend more than the come-on eye while she closed her eyes and had a wee dance — this guy’s delusion was making him think he had a snake to charm in an Osho ashram.

So when in typical Glesga style I asked him what his problem was, I was met by his 6ft long-haired English male friend telling me defiantly, ‘We live here.’ My reply was ‘And?’. We walked off in another direction — as I said, there is definitely more to Goa than pure pish. Especially when it is up their-own-arse Westerners trying to exert more manipulative power than the Portuguese empire did, and over the smallest state in India to be exact.

Yet it pays to spot a shady dude with your warning radar — avoiding them is best (and sorry to take the PC hat off, but some Indian men on a Goan holiday have never seen white women before. The worst can be the staring, but it’s best to just ignore it and going topless is banned for ladies anyway).

What cannot be ignored aside from the heavenly beaches and rich foliage in the hills of Goa is the capital Panaji (also known as Panjim), as it is here clues of the Portuguese (who first came in 1510) are pronounced in the numerous churches, painted buildings and winding streets. You are also more likely to see Indian women wearing knee-length skirts and loud blouses with short hair, rather than the Indian attire of sari, long plait and Hindu bindi — Christianity is big in Goa (as well as the trail of Israeli stoners glad to be out their conscriptive army).

It is here in Panaji that jazz is the alternative music experience of Goa, where you can shake your thang to peace concerts with saxophones and double basses, instead of the sound of Anjuna Beats trance. Armando Gonsalves is the founder of Heritage Jazz, and he offers jazz workshops at his Gonsalves Mansion. “Goa is possibly the number one place in the world that has got such a beautiful mix between East and West,” he says. “This is what makes Goa unique. There is a lot to Goa other than beaches and drugs. Goa is culture-rich place, and even though a part of its reputation has been tarnished, there are many more things of good rather than of the ugly.” There is sense of Heritage Jazz uniting music and the more traditional aspects of Goa.

From north Goa and heading down south, the travel books will tell you it is Palolem Beach that is the most idyllic, but the best-kept secret is actually Patnem Beach. Here the punters cover all backgrounds — from families and couples to groups of friends travelling together and professionals stopping off to chill from their business trips. Ayurvedic treatments, reiki and yoga classes are easier to spot in south Goa too, and is another way to reach the natural high and put the authentic Indian experience to the test.

Back to Palolem on a 20 minute moped ride (costs about two to three quid per day on top of fuel) is where another physical sport kicks in — kayaking is about two quid for two people for an hour. Life-jackets are supplied and when my (Indian) fiancé and I tried it when we came here this year, it inspired us to eat even more fresh seafood, do even more wave jumping in the clean clear sea during the millionth swim of the day, and have even more ‘exercise’ together in our love-shack at night — getting fit in Goa is easy!

After the paddling excursion we rode to nearby Agonda beach, where we saw what looked like large garden huts to rent, differing to Patnem with its sophisticated, swanky huts, and to Palolem with its standard but quirky wooden beach-huts and string of guest houses. Certainly plenty of choice in accommodation is available to suit all tastes — like Ikea but more exotic.

Another relish of Palolem Beach is to barter for a boat ride and travel around Butterfly Island for dolphin watching. I even had one seafarer explain to me that if I didn’t see any dolphins, he would refund my R400. I do not know if he knew the dolphins personally or not, but since the locals are more than savvy when it comes to their own industries, I tend to think he just estimated the time of the day the dolphins were likely to be seen. And they were seen. A refund provocateur blew the wind in my sail, and Goa will inflate yours too — just go off the beaten track and don’t follow the rest. Follow the yogi in your adventurous heart and most certainly if that particular yogi says less (pretentiousness) is more.