The charms of Goa are known to most travelers, even those who have never visited this paradise as this tiny state of India is well represented in travel shows, blogs, guide books, documentaries and movies. Goa has much to offer to people belonging to different age groups, cultures, countries and social status, with desires both mundane and adventurous. Gorgeous white sand beaches with the sea always inviting you for a swim and beach shacks serving some of the best food on this planet with fine cocktails. Charming villages lined with coconut trees and interspersed with rice fields. Beautiful Portuguese villas and mansions of different hues and colors with an old world nostalgic charm dot this green landscape. Waterfalls, verdant jungles, churches, forts, museums, flea markets, a bustling nightlife, casinos, pubs – everyone coming here will find one or more things to do and see to their liking. No wonder, Goa is also home to exotic villas and vacation homes of many of the rich and famous in India.
Goan cuisine is heavily influenced by Konkani and Portuguese culinary styles. Also many people from different parts of the world have settled here and started their own restaurants bringing in the flavours of their home country. Like most coastal regions, coconut is an important ingredient, added in one form or the other while preparing several Goan delicacies. Xacuti, Cafreal, Reacheado, are all exemplary curry preparations in Goan cuisine with a mélange of spices and flavors which can be made with chicken, fish, pork, prawns and seafood. The humble, quintessential Goan fish curry – that tangy, spicy yellowish-red curry is the local staple as well as a delight for the tourists. It can be made with any fish but Kingfish and Mackerel are more commonly used. Many traditional dishes are served here with kokum rasam as a side. Kokum, also known as Malabar tamarind, is a kind of superfood rich in vitamins B, C and antioxidants and believed to be having several therapeutic benefits such as aiding digestion, losing weight, and fighting infections.
Learning from past experiences, I personally don’t check out restaurants based on their ratings on Trip Advisor or Lonely Planet as I feel food is a very subjective experience. Often restaurants recommended highly on online forums have served me food which turned out to be pretty average and at times even disappointing for my taste buds and food experience. As travelers, we all need to find our own favorite eating joints. Of course checking out some of the recommended names doesn’t always hurt. Thalassa is widely known to serve some of best authentic Greek food in India with stunning views of the Ozran beach. Tuscany Gardens in Candolim, Ourem 88 in Palolem, La Plage in Morjim and A Reverie in Calangute are just some of the highly popular names in the international gourmet cuisine space of Goa.
Goa’s culinary delights however, are best explored when you randomly stop your scooty somewhere and check out that small family owned café or restaurant tucked away in one of the pretty village lanes at a diversion from the main road. At one such small restaurant in Morjim, the owner served me a delightful crab xec xec curry prepared with fresh crabs caught by him in the morning sea and some of the ingredients such as chillies, turmeric, peppercorns, coriander grown right in his own garden. Instead of splurging at Britto’s in Baga, it is more fun when you just stop by a roadside bar like the Mango Tree in Vagator and get chatting with an English tourist about cricket. Away from the loud party atmosphere, with the cool sea breeze ruffling your hair and mellow jazz tunes mingling with laughter of travelers from all over the world, conversations flow effortlessly. Bernard, my fellow visitor from UK, had just landed in India and Goa was his first stop. He had however, no fixed plans of where to go next and was considering Hampi, Kerala, Varanasi and the Himalayas as his options. Travelers while on the road often prefer to try out food which is not usually part of their daily fare back at home. It reflected in Bernard’s and my dinner choices; while I ordered a stuffed chicken with cheese and mashed potatoes, he went for a simple Indian style chicken curry. Over Goa’s local King’s beer, we chat about Brexit, the English weather, the Ashes and who is better between Joe Root and Virat Kohli.
Fontainhas – Latin quarter in Panjim
Besides its food, away from the beaches and party life, a major charm of Goa is in its Portuguese heritage. The Portuguese had ruled over this state for 450 years and left only in 1961. Like the remnants of the Mughal Empire in Delhi, the Portuguese have left their architectural and cultural impressions all over Goa. One of the best places to experience this is Fontainhas in Panjim. Featured in many travel shows and movies, this World Heritage site is just a delight to walk through. In the postcard lanes of this Latin Quarter are artistically built houses with walls painted with a wide palette of colors which have been homes to the locals for generations. Many of these houses have now been converted by their owners into heritage hotels, guest houses, bakeries and cafes. While there, I made a stop at Panjim Inn, a picturesque family owned Portuguese mansion now converted into a luxury hotel. The Verandah Restaurant overlooking the street corner is a welcoming atmosphere for a Sunday brunch or an evening meal accompanied with cocktails. There is the in-house gallery with antiques and artifacts from times gone by giving that air of nostalgic charm to this hotel. There is also the impressive Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception which is worth a visit in itself.
Old Goa too abounds with Portuguese impressions. The Church of St. Francis of Assisi and the Basilica of Bom Jesus surrounded by immaculate lawns are two of the most beautiful churches you will see anywhere. These areas in Old Goa are wonderfully clean and very pleasant to walk through. From the Church, I walked towards the Viceroy’s Arch where from I took a ferry for a five minute trip across the Mandovi river to the north side of Divar Island. Hardly visited by tourists, the Divar Island is a small gem of Goa’s picturesque countryside. Interspersed with rice fields, it is a sleepy little village with beautiful Portuguese villas dotting the green landscape. There is nothing in particular to see here except for a Church on the forested hillock in Piedade. There are no taxis or autos available here and one needs to bring their own vehicle for moving around. There is a bus which runs at infrequent intervals from the ferry drop-off point and takes you inside the village. I didn’t have a vehicle but fortunately the bus was there when I got down from the ferry. I hopped onto it along with three other passengers and told the conductor I will get down at wherever is the last stop. The bus ride was great fun passing through the village, rice fields, multicolored houses, small hills, and the village square which seemed to be getting ready for a small concert in the evening. At the last stop, the driver told me that the bus would return after twenty minutes. Since my only other option of returning to the ferry was to walk 6-7 km in the afternoon sun, I wandered around this tranquil setting for those twenty minutes and returned back on the bus which was again fun.
Goa’s famed nightlife alone brings a lot of tourists here. Baga, Candolim, Anjuna and Vagator are famous for their pubs with Tito’s, Curlie’s, Mambo’s, 9 Bar, Nyex being some of the popular names which remain open even during the off season. For the adventurous, the pubs are one of the best places to find a person who can sell you some weed or anything else one may be interested in. This also invites surprise police raids who check out the suspicious characters. One of my hostel mates, Johan, (who kept his roommate occupying the bunk below him sleepless, as after going to bed he often found Johan gesturing and smiling at him) got caught with LSD at a club in Baga. How did he go free? In his words, he bribed the cops, not with money but a service which gave them immense pleasure. I leave the details to the reader’s imagination.
Houses in Divar Island
Goa offers its travelers the freedom to do whatever they want to do but as my acquaintance Francis pointed out, Indian tourists often misuse this freedom to abuse Goa’s culture. I met Francis on a bus ride from Candolim to Baga when he addressed me as an Indian tourist. He was a fisherman in Baga village and felt strongly about his Goan identity which he considered to be different from the national identity because independence came to them later than the rest of India and from different rulers.
Francis talked about how true Goans like him despise Indian tourists who come to Goa thinking of sex and drugs. He minced no words about how in the past they would beat up Indian men staring at western women in bikinis and taking their pictures without permission. However, he said that Goans have become more accommodating with the new generation if they behave well. He said that Goans welcome everyone to come and enjoy the freedom and pleasures of their land but expect them to respect its people and culture and behave themselves. After all what tourists consider a hippie paradise or a premier vacation spot, is actually home to close to 1.8 million people.
I thought that Francis’ views, although right to a large extent, stemmed from his bias towards non-Goan Indians whom he considered a separate species. It also made me realize how locals in any place can feel strongly about strangers coming to their lands as tourists and having fun at the expense of their resources. While for any popular destination, tourism may be an important source of revenue and employment, it is a responsibility of the tourists to respect the place’s environment, people and their cultural values. As Francis said, guests are welcome but none of us would like a stranger to come to our home and make a mess of it.
nomadictourist.com 