India Travel 

The Hippy Paradise Of Goa

 

Before we left home many people told us that to travel India is a spiritual experience. Having now experienced India, we understand that spiritual is maybe not the right word to describe this. Instead, we would describe it as a personal journey. Using the word spiritual leads you to believe that India is of a calming nature. We found that incorrect statements about India can lead you into a false sense of security and to dangerous situations. With this in mind, it is also important to mention that India is not all bad, and it can have some positive effect on your personal journey also.

We arrived in India novices on the culture, on the way of living, and the social behavior of the people. Arriving in Goa, a tourist hub, we had the opportunity to settle into the culture with ease. Our plan was to travel as many places in Goa as we could within two weeks. In the end we only spent one and a half weeks in this part of India. The reason was that we wanted to get away from the tourism, the safety we once craved to find the real India.

Arambol 

Goa is lined with many beaches, some beautiful and some not. We recommend Arambol beach in the north of Goa If you are planning to travel India soon.

Arambol is a small beach area with a village feel. Its where ‘hippies’ descend to spend some time away from their hectic life’s. Since the 1970’s, Goa has been a place known for the hippy culture, and is a place many have settled and called home. This is still very evident in Arambol. There is a sense of freedom here. A sense of free living with the opportunity to express yourself especially if you are male! Not so easy for females.

Females Beware

 Many Indian men use any opportunity to take non consented videos of you on the beach, or continuously hound you to take a photograph with them. Keep this in mind when you travel India. They say it’s because you are western and white and they are not used to seeing this. Something we found strange considering about 75% of tourist here are western and white! We learned from a local that they take your photo for a number of reasons. Firstly, they pretend you are their girlfriend to others whom they show the photograph to! Secondly, you photo can become masturbating material!! And finally, probably one of the worse reasons, they sell your photo to porn sites for photo shopping etc! In India you will quickly notice the local men are not so keen of taking photos of male tourists, even the western and white ones! This didn’t just happen in Arambol, but the WHOLE of India. In fact Arambol is not the worst place for it, as you will read in future blogs. Unfortunately it took us a little time to find this out and we may well be the subject of the above scenarios! So future travellers …..BE AWARE!

Hippy Vibe

The beach is lined with many cafes and restaurants all offering chill out cabana still areas with the decor of hippy vill. This leads to a very artistic touch on the area and something that is pleasing to the eye. As Arambol is hippy central, drugs are of the norm here. Weed and hash especially is smoked in every restaurant , guest house, beach hut and even waking along the beach front. Please note however, that even though the stoner vibe seems to be very free in Arambol, drugs are not forced upon tourists in any way. When we mention drugs, we are only referring to weed and hash. We did not witness any other form of substances in Arambol.

Accommodation
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hut & a hammock

Accommodation is plentiful in Arambol. There is a number of fancy up market pricey hotels to cheap backpacker hostels. The beach front is lined with beach hut style accommodation, where you could spend anywhere from 10 – 15 pounds per night. Not the 6 pounds we had read about in other blogs. This leads us to mention, that most bloggers also insist that Goa as a whole is the more expensive part of India. However, on our travel of the whole of southern India we found Goa to be the cheapest. Don’t get us wrong, in terms of accommodation you get what you pay for. If you are happy with a beach hut, a wooden shed basically with a bed and toilet area with shower, then you can have the cheaper accommodation. Please note that this does not mean cleanliness will be the focus of the establishment.

Our Beach Hut

We had a beach hut in a fantastic location right on the beach, looking onto the sea. Perfect for waking up to. That view was incredible and only costing 10 pounds a night for the privileged. The hut was basic, and all we needed at that time. Our view made us initially forget about the leaking toilet in the back of the hut. Ignoring things like this isn’t always the smartest idea. We found a problem with leaking toilets in a few huts. The problem is that when you shower in the same area, the leaking toilet water spreads over the floor to the shower area. This can become a massive health risk so be aware.  We both became sick here and quickly changed our accommodation  from cheap beach huts to rooms in another establishment.

 

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leaky toilet

New Accommodation

We moved on further up the beach to a stunning place. When we walked in we couldn’t believe how clean and pristine it was compared to the beach huts. Loads of stunning little cottages.  As we spoke to reception we quickly learned that they were way out of our price range. But, the guy on the desk told us that they had an apartment just behind the beautiful cottages for 12 quid a night. Result! In our budget! This also came with air con. A massive upgrade to the fan in our beach hut. The room was luxury compared to the huts. The place also had a restaurant which served amazing food. A massive step up to Shiva Gardens dodgy belly food. We would definitely recommend this place. If you can afford the cottages then have them, they are stunning. Our apartment was just perfect though, and only a 3 minute walk along a nice path to the beach. This place was called Lotus Garden.

This place had a resort feel to it.  A safer feel and the staff were on point! In terms of accommodation in Arambol, that is all we stayed in. We met friends who stayed further back from the beach in the town itself and paid about 6 quid for their room with a fan.  We heard no complaints from them whatsoever. In fact they loved their place so much they stayed in Arambol longer than we did!

The Food In Arambol

The food in Arambol is ok. It’s not five star restaurant material, but is tasty to an extent in most places. If u want master chef amazingly tasty dishes then Arambol isn’t your place. If you are happy with a meal with enough taste to enjoy the food, then here is perfect for you as it is cheaper than most areas in India and Goa. You could get a meal for two with a couple of beers each for about 10 – 12 quid. Most of the time you can get this right on the beach looking at the ocean. If you time it right….that 10 quid meal also comes with a beautiful sunset! Truly magical and most definitely very romantic.

                                Entertainment     

Evening Entertainment in Arambol is scarce. Sadly we found with the rest of southern India aswel. When we decided to travel India, we expected loads of Indian style entertainment and dancing with masses of color and culture thrown in. Unfortunately we didn’t find that in India. Except from once in Fort Kochi, but that is for another blog. Let’s just say it was an unusual experience.

The evening entertainment we found in Arambol consisted of two places. Maybe this was because we visited during the month of March when the season is settling down. One was a place called Organic Vibes, completely designed for the hippy backpackers.

Organic Vibes

Organic Vibes was a mixture loads of low tables on the ground with the odd couch. Mainly it was cushions on the ground to relax on and tree hut style chilling areas that u could climb up to. There is no alcohol served here, and instead organic style shakes with Indian tea selections and coffee. Looking around no one seemed to mind as the place was packed with backpackers every evening we visited. It probably made a difference that most tourists here smoke weed and the establishment has no issue with this. Every night there was live music from a band. A different one each time we came giving the place variety, which is needed in a small beach village place where most things stay the same on a daily basis. Once the music started, one by one the crowd would get up to dance. It was like the music just grabbed them and took over. From free flowing soft moves to the odd body jerk, the crowd responded to the music. It was so refreshing to be a part of this. Unlike other places in the world, including home, this place really seemed free. There was no vanity controlling people’s behavior or their want to dance. There was no judgmental eyes, but instead views of inspiration.

The Drummers Circle

The second form of evening entertainment was on the beach early evening as the sun sets to about 7:30pm. This is an area of the beach that is known locally as the drummers circle. Every night backpackers and local hippies descend to the area and start jamming with their drums. No pre planned rehearsals and the drummers changed every night. Anyone with a drum could join in. It was a group of talented people playing off of each others beat creating magical drumming tunes. Just in front of the circle people would get up and start to dance and do so until the music ended. In little areas around the circle there was a mix of groups of friend sitting in the sand, drinking their beers. Everyone enjoying the atmosphere that surrounded them. In other areas dotted around the sand there were little beach stalls set up by travellers. Simple little stalls made of lights and blankets displaying their hand made crafts.  We spent a couple of nights on the beach. It was addictive. It wasn’t like anything we had ever seen in real life. A must see if you are planing on a trip to Goa! Words can never do this atmosphere justice. To get the real understanding of what this is like,  you’ll have to get on that plane and go and have one of the most random, wonderful experiences of your life.

Stay Safe

One thing  we can not fail to mention was a frightening experience for us in Arambol. This is something worth mentioning to stop future travellers making the same mistake. Everything in Arambol closes early in March, between 10 pm and midnight. When everything closes, the lights everywhere go out! The place becomes dark and deserted very quickly. Except from a few locals hanging about trying to chance there luck if certain opportunities arise on the beach. As our beach hut in Shiva Garden was at the far end of Arambol beach and only accessible by foot along the sand, we found ourselves on our first night walking along a very dark beach struggling to see if our place was near. For a straight stretch of sand you would be surprised at how much we got lost and how long it took us to find our place. By no lights we really mean none! Not even an establishments name is lit up. This was a truly frightening moment for us. Every so often we would feel someone follow us and then we would walk fast in between boats in the sand until we lost them. Local men would come into eye shot all of a sudden and say something like “hello beautiful”, whilst staring at us as we walked past.  We  got home safe that night. But, we would like to warn others that Arambol closes down quickly with no warning and if your travelling in small groups or even in your own, then make sure you DON’T find yourself stuck or lost on that beach at night. A good article to read which highlights the dangers in Goa is, ” The Dark Side of Goa”.

Overall Arambol was a magical, beautiful destination for us. The positives massively out weighed the negatives, which in India is sometimes difficult to find. The area was a great introduction to India for us. It wasn’t too intense and especially as one of us is a Virgin backpacker (Kerry), it acted as a great set to ease her into the backpacker lifestyle. When you travel India…..do not miss this place out!

Written by Our World Our Life Our Way in India with cocktails in hand

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