Baga Beach, Goa India - 18 Nov 2010
I finally found where we are definitely going next time thanks to a somewhat distressed Russian hitchhiker.
It was a real day for hitchhikers. I picked up on just out of Baga, an Indian pilot for Kingfisher Airlines who couldn't get a taxi that time of the morning (about 8am). Not much happens here before 9am, mostly I think because everyone stays up so late. People don't seem to dine before about 9pm and the clubs only really start to wind up around 10.
My first hitchhiker was off to a business meeting in Anjuna about opening some sort of powered, para-glider business. He was very chatty, I guess Indians are quite used to holding conversations on the pillion of a motorbike.
After I dropped him off I went through Mandrem which is beautiful and very alternative, lots of Yoga and Ayurveda and huts on the beach. I was tempted to swim as the beach was the quietest and most pristine I've yet seen but I decided to wait for Arambol.
Arambol ended up being a little disappointing, very busy. Lots of dreadlocks as promised but too many shops and restaurants on the beach. I was heading out of Arambol and back toward Mandrem for a swim when I was flagged down by the young Russian man. He was covered in cuts and bruises and begged me to take him to a bus stop so he could go get his motorbike. I asked where it was and he said Keri, about 10km further north so I offered to take him. He was also pretty chatty, told me he'd been in India for 2 months and was planning to stay another 6! Apparently a lot of young Russians do this.
I asked him if he was drunk last night and he said, in a wonderful thick Russian accent, "I am drunk EVERY night and most days, today I have already one bottle of beer."
It's been a while but I could definitely relate.
He told me (in what English he had) that he had had a debauched night in Arambol and woke up sleeping on a table in a cafe and that on awakening he looked under the table and there was a packet of cigarettes, a bottle of beer and 25Rp so God does indeed still look after drunks.
Like all those who stay long he was renting a house right up near the Mahastra border in Keri. I took him to his house but neither his bike or friends were there so we continued to the beach.
We found his friends and bike at a little cafe on the beach and he abused them for a couple of minutes (I presume it was abuse as the F word featured prominently). I think he was angry they took his bike. I had a chai and let his friends tell me how he is a famous drinker and the last person silly enough to try and drink with him is now in hospital. 20 years ago I would have been up for the challenge but not today.
I left them to it, went to the beach and found it most beautiful. A couple of beach shacks, a lifeguard, a few Europeans and not a hawker in sight. And so quiet! After a swim I sunbaked for a while and soon I realised I was truly peaceful for the first time since leaving Perth. There has been plenty of excitement and joy but an open beach, the solitude and only the sound of the water lapping on the shore without the hubbub, hawkers and Jet Skis of Baga made me feel almost drugged with calm.
I went back to the Cafe later and the Russians were gone and there was a man from Wales. We chatted for a while and he told me he works over the Welsh Summer as a gardener and then spends 6 months in India every year. He's ridden a motorbike from the tip on India in Ladach to the tip of Tamil Nadu in the south and everywhere in between over the last 7 years. Now he just comes to Goa and chills out. Apparently a house in Keri can be rented for AUD$250 a month. I had a look at the menu in the cafe and a fish curry with pickles and papadums was about $1.30 and a chai 30c. I can see how it would get quite addictive to come here every year.
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