The Indian Beach Experience

After an unpromising start to my India sojourn in Mumbai/Bombay, I impetuously decided to fly to Goa as soon as possible and make my onwards travel plans from there. The laid back, foreigner dominated beaches of Goa – where many backpackers start or end their Indian trip and some just start and end there because they lost track of either the time, their drug or alcohol use, or their motivation.

With more than 18 beaches strung along the 36 miles of palm lined coastline, I chose the northern beach of Anjuna as my home base. Billed as a resort and package tour free, less developed area with a lot of yoga places, Anjuna ended up reminding me of the typical Thailand beach spot except Anjuna had sacred cows, Indian food, and Indian women who swim fully clothed if they swim at all. The restaurants line the beach and have wooden chaise lounges, sun umbrellas outside and plastic chairs and mattresses inside. The Anjuna beach restaurants only varied slightly on food choices but the music ranged from the famous Goan trance music, Indian music, new age music, and western top 100 type music. At night, two Anjuna restaurants showed free DVD movies such as Bourne Identity on big movie screens to help pass the evening hours.

Passing the time isn’t a problem on the beach as the hours just slip by easily until the beautiful sunsets. While lying on the beach, your entertainment comes to you. Men offering full body one hour massages (only US$10!), young girls offering manicures and pedicures, middle age women offering fresh fruit which they cut up for you, and peddlers of all ages and sizes selling jewelry, drums, and miscellaneous items. Most take a refusal easily except some young jewelry selling girls who mistakenly believe the more obnoxious and wheedling they get, their sales will increase. Maybe it works for more kind hearted souls, but not for me. I just never went back to that restaurant. Unlike many foreigners zipping around in motorcycles and vespas, I sauntered around the lazy, rural countryside and taking pics of water buffaloes doing their share to slow the pace and cool off in the 90 plus degree weather.

I spent five full days in Anjuna and I don’t have much to report on my activity except I looked up a few yoga places in person and many on the internet and had some interesting conversations with fellow backpackers. I also started reading the 1000 page tome called Shantaram which I highly recommend if you are into big books. Based on the Australian author’s life after he escaped from prison there, the book rollercoasts through his life in Bombay as slum dweller/doctor, a prisoner, a successful Bombay gangster and then as a freedom fighter in Afghanistan. Throw in a bunch of fascinating characters from around the world and different Indian social classes, healthy doses of cultural insights into India, and wide ranging philosophical ruminations on life, I had myself a novel to help ease my way into India and the vacation mode. I wasn’t surprised to hear that Johnny Depp has optioned the book and filming will start sometime soon.

I got motivated to leave Anjuna when I decided to register for the November 30 to December 28 intensive Yoga Teacher Training Course in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu. I finally had the beginnings of a travel plan for one of the two weeks and an immediate deadline for the trip which had started so badly.

Flying into Bombay at midnight on November 7, my taxi to my prearranged hotel was nowhere to be found. I walked past the line of 100 closely packed greeters and hotel staff holding up signs at least three times in the claustrophobic heat and noise of the airport arrival area. Turns out the Regent Hotel said it had no record of my reservation although they had confirmed it and the taxi pickup by email. They at least arranged a room at their sister hotel when I demanded it after the second callback. I then had to hassle with getting a prepaid taxi which meant using my emergency supply of US dollars to get rupees (no ATM machine inside the terminal can you believe it?) and waiting for more than 45 minutes as they kept assigning the same driver to two different passengers. Three hours after arrival, I arrived at the hotel.

So, two lessons learned – don’t fly into Bombay and badmouth Regent Hotel in Calaba for their unbelievably bad service (they later emailed me to try to cheekily charge me for the non-existent taxi) on this blog so I can get some minor revenge. Actually, a third lesson learned – avoid big cities as the acclimation zone for a country. Small is good. I decided to stay small when I left Anjuna for Hampi as all the tourists coming from there raved about its natural beauty, the small village feel, and the fantastic ruins. The real traveling in India now begins…but for just two weeks!

Long view of the main Anjuna beach

Typical beach restaurant setup

Sacred cow

Water buffalos cooling off in am

Anjuna’s Wednesday mrkt