My Beach Trip to Goa, India
Here is my Travel Diary from when I landed in Goa, India.
Today I made it to Goa, a coastal state in India known for its “Portuguese colonization and laid back beaches”. I was pretty anxious to travel solo to India, let alone travel outside from where I landed and was going to fly out from (Mumbai). Although I am not "backpacking around India" I am still trying to see more than just one area, in the short time I have here.
Where do I gravitate towards the most? Where do I feel most comfortable? The beach. So, evidently, where did I plan to go? India’s beach (one of): Goa.
I have only read about Goa online before setting out to experience it for myself. Some good and some worrying things, but that’s the internet for you. Anyways, a short plane ride south and I was met at the airport by an airport pick up waiting for me with a name card proudly held up written “Mr. Averie”. Well, I guess that’s me. A long and winding ride toward the coast; I finally checked into my hotel, changed into some shorts, and made my way to the beach.
Currently.
As I wandered down by the water, it was late afternoon and the sun was still blazing. There were many others walking around just like me, wandering the beach.
“Lady, lady, beautiful sunbed, come, come!” a small man came running down the bank towards me yelling, “Lady, big beer, delicious food, come, come!” Begging me, and each passing person, to populate his beach bar. One bar next to the other, I am not sure what made the previous spot any more different than the next, each place seemed the same to me. After continuing to walk a bit further and rejecting a few more salesmen, I finally took one of the offers and walked up to sit on a sunbed at the treehouse-like, thatch-roofed, beach hut.
This is my observation of the beach as the day simmered down. Sitting here, watching the sun go down, people-watching everyone that passed, and narrating a life story for them in my head. When I think of “crowded beach”, this was far from what I imagined. I know India is densely populated, but I didn't expect when they say it's a “popular beach destination”, that this is what it would be like. It is hard to put my sights into words as I sit here with a $1.30 "big beer" on a sunbed, watching the beautiful sun set over the Arabian Sea.
Back to the beach part of it. When I go to the beach it is a time to relax- I sit and tan in the sun (I know, I know, wrinkles), I listen to my music, occasionally swim, maybe go for a walk.. but probably not likely, I stay (for the most part) stationary. Personally, that's what my "beach days" are like. Being on this beach right now, I have never once seen so many people so active on a beach.
Looking to the water just down the beach, it looks like the wave pool at the waterparks we used to go to growing up (or still go to- to each their own). So many people in a big cluster bobbing like apples, up and down as the waves roll in. Some unlucky ones getting absolutely smashed by the break of the wave. People everywhere running into the water clothes on in all, splashing around, smiling, laughing, screaming, running, walking, jumping, playing, big groups of people sitting and talking, but laying down and relaxing- not many. As the daylight diminished and it turned to dusk, more and more groups of people and families began to populate the beach.
I never thought twice about visiting a beach and it not being how I always treated it. Go for the sun, tan, swim, relax, etc.
Got more crowded as the day progressed
It's amazing how, the beach, something I am comfortable with, and something that has been so constant in almost every other place I’ve visited is now different. It is a place for activity, for movement, for inspiration.
It is beautiful to see that each place, country, culture can physically have the same things but have totally different views of them. I think it is really neat to see how, for me, the simple act of going to the beach and relaxing, can be such an important and active event for someone else. Not just in India, but around the world, and I think I have never noticed this before because it was never on a scale as big as it is seeing it here and now in India.
What does your typical beach day consist of, what do you enjoy doing when you go to the beach?