Today I had a beach day. I seem to be having quite a lot of those lately!
I got up at the brilliant time of 9am and had breakfast on the veranda. I didn’t realise that I could order room service, but this meant that I didn’t need to move from my morning viewpoint. Following this I went to the beach and chilled out for the whole day! As I was settling down on my comfy sun loungers I heard people making funny noises next to me…the people had spotted Dolphins! They were really close to the shore and were diving and jumping really high up into the air. This went on for about half an hour, before they simply stopped and swam away. I was amazed to see dolphins this close to the shore, I know that you can take boat trips out but I think I were very lucky to see them so near.
It was nice to talk to the group of American tourists next to me. I am amazingly lame because I have forgotten their names…sorry if you are reading this! They have come to India on holiday from New York City, travelling to Delhi, Agra and Udaipur before coming for a rest in Goa. I was very jealous to hear that they will be staying in the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai when they move on. I want to stay there!
I happily people-watched for most of the day with them, swapping stories and generally having a lovely time.
There was a large group of Russian women who spent the entire day posing in the sea and taking photos of each other. I’m not just talking about general holiday snaps, some of these photos could easily have been in the pages of Playboy or Hustler! One apt comment from our neighbours was that these women were copying photos from ‘Sports Illustrated’.
Another interesting instalment of the day was when two women and their man friends turned up a few sun loungers down, they (the women) were wearing what can only be described as Bum Floss. Seriously, the bottom half of their bikinis was a triangle of about five centimeters across and then just string…string for as far as the eye could see…it was almost indecent.
Next were two middle aged Indian men in thongs…enough said!
Finally there was a man in his girlfriend’s beach wrap, wearing it like a loin-cloth. I’m not sure if this was on purpose or if he had forgotten his swimming shorts. Who knows!? But it was not really very pleasant, you could almost see testicle through the material of the wrap.
Later on, in the evening, I decided that I would walk along the beach to either Arambol or Mandrem. Asking the staff here which way to go to I discovered that Arambol was easier to walk to, as Mandrem town didn’t meet up with the beach. Off I went, armed with only a head torch and a stick with which to ward off the dogs! It didn’t take very long to get to the town, about twenty minutes, but before you get into the main part of the town you pass lots and lots of beachside cafés and restaurants all playing music and generally trying to get you to eat there, which is always fun. I ended up in a place called ‘Loekie Café’ which had a man playing an acoustic session on his guitar. He was really very good. I was drawn in because he was playing ‘The Boxer’ by Simon and Garfunkel, but he went on to play classics by Neil Young and U2, then Bob Dylan and even some by Taylor Swift. He mixed these in with some of his own songs and invited others to the stage to play if they wanted to, at one point there was a man with a Didgeridoo, one playing the Djembe and another on the Bass Guitar; it was interesting to say the least. Basically a hippy free for all!
Arambol seemed very much as it had been described: beach town interspersed with mellow Hippy bars giving off a distinct ‘traveller’ vibe. Apparently people have been coming to this ‘…blissed out corner of Goa…’ since the 60’s and in some cases they have never left. It’s clear to me that Arambol must have witnessed a lot of drum circles in its day!
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