Goa Culture Articles
There are thousands of kilometres of beaches along India's west coast but somehow almost all the attention came to focus on Goa. The beaches here don't compare to the white sands and crystal clear waters of the Caribbean or Thailand but they have their own character and beauty - for most people, a warm, calm sea and palm trees is enough.
The beaches of Baga, Calangute and Candolim were once beautiful but have now been utterly overrun by package tourism. Overweight English tourists get drunk in the midday sun and sexy Russian girls parade around in lingerie, quite unaware of what country they're in. Or maybe they just don't care, it's an interesting anthropological question. Behind Baga and the tourist strip are a thousand sleazy shops, bars and hotels that use up all the local water and leave enormous open tips of rotting garbage.
The last hangouts of the hippies and freaks are in Anjuna, Vagator and Aranbol. Anjuna is the least developed of these and the houses are rented by the same travelers who come back each year and many have been coming since the early 70's. There are 'parties' on the beach (they only last until ten) and a really laid back ambient as you wander between the palm tree village. At least until flea market day comes.
Vagator has 3 beaches, known as Tel Aviv Beach, Spaghetti Beach and Big Vagator, the first two taking their names from the Israelis and Italians who dominated the crowd. These days they're full of sun beds and on weekends the Indian tourists hit Big Vagator in particular to stare at girls in bikinis.
Morjim and Asvem beach have a heavy Russian feel now, with 2 week Russian tourists hitting the sands. The Russian women tend to drive their scooters around in bikinis which causes many a traffic crash and the locals take them to be working girls. Morjim and Asvem are long, sweeping beaches with huge skies and time to walk and think.
Aranbol is the most fashionable beach amongst travelers these days and has its own sweet water lagoon and infamous banyan tree where people gather to smoke a few chillums when the police aren't around. There are few nice places to stay in Aranbol and it's become very commerical but there's plenty of live music and cool travelers around.
In the South of Goa, Paolem Beach has already become developed and ugly and whilst Agonda is on the way, it's still quiet and beautiful with clear water and clean sands.