Goa Pictures

Goa is most definitely on my all time favorite places list now. It was the most relaxing beautiful warm place I've been yet. Yelena, Adrian and I headed there on Friday. We were supposed to arrive at around 6 a.m. after flying all night from Bangalore through Mumbai. But due to the Mumbai attacks, we changed our flights last minute and took a direct flight from Bangalore to Goa at around mid day. It really was a better choice anyways though, as we were able to get a good nights rest the night before and then only had an hour flight to Goa. There's only one airport in Goa, and it's more or less in the middle of the coastline. The beach we had reserved huts at was a 2 and a half hour drive south of the airport at a place called Agonda Beach, just a bit north of Palolem. The drive was scenic... plenty of cows and typical Indian roads (i.e. a major two lane highway in India looks to be about the equivalent of a one lane dirt path in the US). We had a nice A/C van though, so we were comfortable. We pulled up to the huts and were informed that one of the huts we had reserved was still being built, another was still occupied by the previous tenants, and the third was available right away. But not to worry, we were promised all three would be ready for us before bedtime, and they were. So we dropped all our stuff in the one available one, changed into more appropriate beach wear and headed out to go lie on the beach. It was a nice warm cloudy day, the most perfect kind of day to be on a beach in Goa. We were soon inundated with curious local kids who offered us dolphin swims and boat tours and the like. We declined all as politely as possible and then just ignored them. Then we did various stages of nothing, or next to nothing, for the next 48 hours. We checked out beach shack cafes for our meals and evening entertainment. Yelena and I walked the length of the beach at a nice leisurely pace on Saturday. We swam in the ocean (the temperature was like bath water), laid on the sand, slept in our huts, read books, and soaked up the sun. Sunday the sun came out in full force, so I escaped to a beach shack cafe to enjoy the view from the relative protection of shade. It was hot as hell, but idyllically beautiful. Hanging out in beach shacks was totally cliche, as we tried the local beverages and food, avoided the local smokes, and hung out with beach bums from all over, including Tibet and Germany.