Vagator

Chris, Traci and I finally arrived in Goa at about 5pm having spent several lifetimes sitting on a day train from Mumbai.
It was a dangerous train ride, sitting opposite us was India's Wobblyest Headed Man, and we were convinced that at any moment his head would finally succeed in doing what it had been trying to do for all of its 45 odd years - Detach its self from its body. For what reason it wanted to do this we were unsure, but it could only have been driven by evil. None of us wanted to be there to find out.

We left the train station and headed straight to Vagator beach, famous as a party spot since the sixties.
The village itself has a very Portuguese feel; little chapels everywhere, and large hacienda style houses made of red stone with sprawling verandas. The beach is beautiful, ringed by palm trees, and surrounded by a small cliff, on top of which is a club (one of the many).

An old portugese colonial house

During the high season the place would be absolutely heaving; people everywhere, all night parties in the clubs and impromptu raves on the beaches (only problem with this being the music: Psy Trance and other similar crap).
We were arriving at the very tail end of the season, and everything was already starting to wind down or close up shop completely. Not that we were going to let this stop us.

Little Vagator beach

First things being first, we headed straight out for a beer at the nine bar which, despite the crap trance, was an excellent club. Sat on top of a cliff with great views of the sunset, walls made of large red stone blocks that seem so popular here, a sand dance floor and tasteful decor (not a UV glow spider web in sight). I was bloody impressed... I could see that it was going to be a good week :)
All the little things that pissed us off about the Thai party scene were not a problem in Goa. There was hardly any litter, and there wasn't that unfinished feel to everything (like buildings with half a wall missing, even though they have been there 10 years, stuff like that). Anyone who has been to both places will know what I mean, all three of us had the same feeling.

The view from the 9 Bar, Little Vagator

Friends on the beach

"Fu*k Koh Pha Ngang" was uttered more than a few times.


The only problem was that the season was finishing. Restaurants, Guest Houses, Bars and Clubs were starting to shut for the season, all the good DJ's had gone home.

We spent a couple of days kicking around, drinking beers on the beach and generally winding down (for Chris a much to short get away from work, and for us, leaving India with out actually leaving it).

And then we wound right back up again...

Fear and Loathing..... Papadam Style.

We had run out of beer one night, some time around 11. The nine bar was closed. What were we to do?
Walk to Anjuna we thought... It's not that far, next town south along the beach. There's beer there for sure.
In the end we only got about a tenth of the way.

While climbing down to little Vagator beach we bumped into a bunch of Indian guys hanging out on the porch of their flash hotel room:
"Hi, Hello, where are you going?" asked one of them,
"Just off to get some beer" I said.
"Beer? No everything is closed" the guy replied "We have beer, come, sit, we will get some more.... we will send for the boy" (a phrase we would come to hear a lot)

Although hesitant at first, we thought why not? and he clearly did have beer :)

And so we met Suria, a rich Indian industrialist who was in Goa to party for a couple of weeks, but had no one to party with.
As soon as we sat down the other Indian guys left, they had basically been keeping Suria company, and we were the shift change!

Suria put us all to shame. Although he was ten years older than the oldest of our group he had been partying for eight days when we met him, and showed no signs of slowing down..... no wonder those other Indian guys slipped off so quick after we arrived!

We spent the next four days hanging around with him in his plush hotel room overlooking the beach. He would not accept a single rupee for anything, despite our protests, but we came to realise that this is perhaps the norm for him - being absolutely loaded meant that he basically bought what ever he wanted, and he wanted some party mates for a few days, so who were we to ruin his holiday!

I remember little of those four days.
I'm pretty sure we had a good time though, and all the photographic evidence certainly suggests we did.

Chris and Jemeela, who was staying at our guesthouse