Goa Part 3

Part-3

The night at VAGATOR beach was spooky and exciting. We had dinner at a place near the road that leads to the beach.There were a few foreigners, who were also in the tables adjacent to us, as some of our photography flashes seemed to disturb them. We werent into anything naughty there, but then as soon as the food started to come, our hands were more focussed on eating than on the click button. Some of our Tamil jokes, were actually understood by the nepali cook, who was gawking at us. The legend was that he spent three years at a resort in ECR(East Coast Road in Chennai).

Thats Aanand in the background who is ruing the decision that we made to come to vagator beach.His idea of a holiday was to spend the night charging the mobile at our room :-)

That's Sabari and I having drinks after our dinner(dont mind the frooti, but I dont like beer)

After a sumptuous dinner we proceeded to walk to VAGATOR beach where the full moons light basked over the wet sands and the huge rocks.I went ahead and stood near the ocean, wetting my feet in the waves that lashed across the rocks.The lovely colour of the ocean against the moonlight, made it all the more excitingto just sit there and let the waves do all the talking. The guys who accompanied me, were shit scared and wanted to return home to the hostel.One of the other reasons, they wanted to return home was that some of them were tired after a 27 hour journey. Vagator is just the place for a naughty evening. Vagator beach has 2 disco's close by 9 bar and Club Cabana, which can be accessed by climbing the hill. The hilly part of vagator beach also has a flat helipad landing place, which has a few chairs across the edge of the beach cliff.This is unofficially the smooching point for lovers.I remember many couples blissfully busy, making hay while the moon shone :-).

I heard from the locals that Vagator beach has 2 parts to it.The one we were standing was called the big Vagator beach, which most Indians frequent.There is supposedly a little vagator beach to the left, which more so has only foreigners.They seemingly have named it the"Tel Aviv" beach.

I wanted to explore the beach and the spooky streets around Vagator, but my friends had enough, they were in no mood for any adventure.So they forced me to fix a cab and return home to Mapusa, the place we were staying(actually it was Peddem, close to Mapusa).There ended the day of 28th December sitting and charging our mobiles in our room



The next day, I was the first to get up at 6 15 in the morning, and decided to take a stroll around the place I was staying. I managed to see some lovely goan houses, all decked up for the new year.There was something about Peddem, that had an air of easiness about it. There was also a playground nearby which seemed shrouded in the morning mist. I must have walked about 2-3 kilometres in the morning exploring peddem on either side of the Mumbai Goa highway and enjoyed it as there was hardly any crowd or honking vehicles. Idling was fun there after a long time.

Adding to the fun was the colourful houses that were on display there

As I was busy exploring the colourful goan houses, I didnt notice that I had 4 dogswho were silently following me.The 4 became 7 in a minute as dogs surrounded me and I knew the golden rule of "never run before a dog", and slowly but steadily made every step, swallowing a few heartbeats as the dogs advanced. Thankfully due to some cyclists and a few jeeps the dogs had to give way and I walked a little faster and took some crazy route to reach the hostel,where I was staying.I was walking in new surroundings and had lost my way, in my escapade against the dogs. I kept faith in my ability to spot the correct way back home and thankfully, joined a road that took me straight to my hostel at Peddem.


After a round of idling I head back to our room and the guys are still fast asleep. I decide to entertain myself by watching Tendulkar's innings the previous evening on the Television that is there in the reception. After a couple of hours, the guys are ready to see Goa,and we walk across the peddem road to take a bus to Mapusa. On reaching Mapusa , we decide to go to Arambol beach(Rather, I ).This must rank as one of the best decesions I have taken in my life :-).

Arambol is 30 kilometers from Mapusa,and is accesible via the local buses, which works out very cheap at 15 rs a ticket. Bikes and cabs are other options available to reach Harmal Village that surrounds Arambol beach. We take a bus, that goes in the direction of Morjim, Mandrem and Kerim and get down at Arambol an hour after we started.

It was a pretty hot day, and standing a hour in a crowded bus, has sapped us of our energies and we get down to take some liquid refreshments.Some go for Pepsi, Some for beer, while Arvind and I go for sugarcane juice.Soon others follow and also order 2 glasses of sugarcane juice and a banana to keep us fit for the activity in the beach all afternoon.

We wade through tall trees and plantations and pass through several churches and cloth shops. Some of the guys decide to stop over to shoot photographs, while some get enamoured by the various colours on display by the cloth merchants.

and then ....as the trees and the huts clear, we see a pristine beach which catches our attention.The beach is lovely, and I see people swimming quite deep into the beach.The Outlook Traveller reports that Arambol beach is safe for swimming and I stand by that, after spending hours swimming on the ocean.The beach is quite a long horizontal stretch,that also has a fresh water lake in between the beach.The beach has miles of wet sand, an indication that the low tides are in operation.

We sit down at a place near the ocean and begin to throw all our accoutres into a common bag.We place our clothes,glasses,watches,mobiles in the bag and strip ourselves down to our basic minimums.Some of the guys..want to feel the warmth before they plunge into the ocean, so they still stay put there. I walk across the wet sand and plunge into the waters.The feeling of the chill water on a hot day can just be the next best feeling to the sensuality of biting a crisp dairy milk chocalate.

Soon Kishore and Arvind join me in the water. A few metres ahead we see a broken bottle.We decide to have a swiming race, as to who would get it first. All three of us, wade hard through the water but are stopped in our tracks, as we sight a couple trying out various "positions" of love making in the water.We decide to not to interrupt them in their intimate moments, but cant help noticing the topless lady as she walks past us, as she makes a headway to the coast, with her partner.

Welcome to Arambol.... a rather pristine...nude beach, with no heavy indian gazers...each one does his private thing, and thats why I like the beach.Spooky as it may seem, its a lovely beach, if you just want to forget the busy humdrum of life in the city.

We spend a few more hours in the water, and I spend some time in a new beach hobby.After a session in the sea, I would come back to the coast and smear mud all over me.That would basically be wet mud to stick better, followed by a round of dried sand, and yo thats already looking like a bufoon. I did manage to attract the attention of quite a few onlookers, but I liked the feeling of mud all over me, and then I would wash the mud, by lying on the wet coast,waiting for the waves to remove every sinew of mud that was invested on my body. It felt divine, untill my stomach growled and grumbled for lunch.

We just turned back and hit a shack for our lunch.We had quite a heavy lunch, which had cheese pizza and french fries for starters.Then we ordered dal fry and gobi,for which we helped ourselves to a few butter naans, and washed it down with a glass of Lassi.Sabari was the only guy, who apart from all this had 2 bottles of Kingfisher beer and a fresh catch of roasted fish,apart from chicken biryani.

After a heavy lunch at 4 pm, we then started walking across the wide expanse of Arambol beach.We had to bypass a mountain and in the small passage across the mountains were spread numerous cloth shops.Some of the guys were busy buying the goan trance "hare rama" and "Om" kinda T shirts, while I chose to stay aloof and rested at a nearby joint with my legs firmly placed on table and my eyes gazed on the excellent view that I had from the seat where I was perched.

After some bargaining, the guys had finally bought some souveneirs, and we were finally on our way to the next beach,which was an extension of Arambol beach, called the Sweet lake beach.The sweet lake beach, was a smaller beach than the main Arambol beach and had an amazing view with tree top shacks and paragliding options available.The waves and the current are extremely strong, in the evenings and its advisable to stay floating till chest deep water and not to venture beyond that.

Some of the guys were too tired and relegated themselves to the rocks.Arvind and I, were the only ones interested in any beach adventure.We repeated the mud-bath and walked across the expanse of the beach, getting curious looks from onlookers.As we strode along, we observed that this beach had far more people in the nude, with even more ladies being topless. I guess as Indian's staying in the sun for hours sunbathing, was probably something we werenot used to, as we came from a tropical climate.Arvind and I decided to have a moon bath, where we would lie on the beach after moonlight, as we would not be able to bear the heat of the sun.

We went to the extreme end of the beach and decided to venture out into the waters.We stayed there for a little more than hour, waiting for large waves to toplle our stance in the water. Next to us, were a couple and a lone lady in her 40's. All of us exchanged a few pleasantries in the water, and some general advice on what were the safe limits of staying in the ocean. Arvind and I spread ourselves and decided to take some rest,while the couple next to us, went into passionate love making. At this point Arvind and I, decided to leave them at peace and went inside the water for another dip.When we came out the couple's clothes were near the coast and the couple were totally nude, though not into making love. I at any point did not want to disturb them, but since my glasses were not be seen on the mud, I realized that my glasses were probably masked by the clothes of the couple strewn on the mud. Errr..I had to go upto them and ask them, if my glasses were behind their clothes.And lo it was....I spent a few minutes chatting with the lady on the next beach ahead,as I realized that they would feel a little uncomfortable by or prescence. She didnt mind talking to me in her state of nudity and directed me to another beach, across the mountain. Arvind and I immideately set foot and had covered a kilometre up,when the sun set and we realized that we it would notbe safe to trek back barefoot in the darkness.

We went back and reached the sweet lake beach, and spent some time basking in the moonlight as the couple didnt seem to mind our prescence.We were in the water for about half an hour, when we saw that 6 people were now there on the coast, and were getting ready for something.Thats when my friends came searching for us, from the other side of the beach, admonishing us for straying across so late in the ocean. They came, and they drove away the foreigners to put their clothes on.

We bid bye to our friends, the firangs (??? for the past half hour)..and set back to Arambol beach.We actually in the interim period did book an accomadation that was under the stars on the beach for 50 rs a night, but some of the guys objected and we had to return back to our hostel. If anyone does get a chance to go here, do take some one of the opposite sex, along with you..to enjoy the lovely full moon evening agaisnt the dark bluish skies and the rampaging waves. The fact we were 6 stags, did no good to either of us ..all dreaming of if's and but's....

We had an awesome dinner across the beach, in a shack and this was probably one of the most divine nights that we would have enjoyed in our Goa trip. Arambol Rocks...big time for the excellent options it has of food joints,beach shacks, mountain views, the lovely water and of course a non interfering crowd.

One of the best things to do at night, is to plug your walkman, and take a walk across the wetter parts of the beach and lo you feel the inner peace and a sense of calm, that seemed to be lost in your daily journey to work.

Expect more updates soon..........(with Pictures)