Thursday, November 22, 2007

South Goa: Palolem Beach Days


Last weekend I flew to Goa with my friends Christine and Vijay. Goa is a sixty mile long beach, and the opposite ends have extremely different charateristics. The north end is full of clubs and bars; the south end is undeveloped and very laid back. We ended up in Palolem, which is as far south as you can go in Goa. The picture above was the first view I had when I arrived. The faint twilight revealed the most undeveloped beach I've ever seen.

We stayed in beach huts that were thrown together from plywood and blue tarps. They were elevated up on bamboo poles, which provides a physical defense against any potential bugs, and a great view of the beach. While we sat in the lounge chairs, people would occasionally come up and try to sell trinkets. My favorite were the people selling fresh fruit. I had a pineapple chopped up into little bits right in front of me. It was delicious!


The two pictures above were taken just after dawn. There was nobody on the beach except for me and the local fishermen. I caught them folding their nets, and preparing to head out for the day. A portion of every day's catch would end up at the restaurants for dinner that night.


Since it is India, no beach would be complete without dogs and cows. A cow even wandered into an Italian restaurant while we were eating pizza.

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