There is alot of hype about Goa.
Many tales go around and live in the whispers of travelers.
Unfortunately, I got to experience a different reality.
This old ‘Goa’, this paradise of naked hippies raving on the beaches, peace for everyone, eternal festival, this place where one can escape from the madness of India and relax, feel home, bond with people, it seemed to me that only the story of this remains.
The story of a Goa that died.
Many things must have changed, from hordes of russian tourists coming with chartered flights that are all canceled since one year ago, to the sudden strictness of the motorbikes having a plate and the drivers having a license.
It might be just that I arrived at the wrong time, but what I found there, was the opposite of what I expected.
The hotels seemed to abuse the reputation and asked for prices too high; motorbike rental stalls were very much available, in fact they were all over the place, however the prices were so as well.
And a single foreigner I did not see. I ended up spending ~5 days in Goa, and only saw Indian tourists.
Yes, this did imply that the streets were extremely dirty. Touristy Indians throw more trash on the ground than Indians at home.
Or maybe it were the cows on the beach opening up the few trash cans that were there…
For the Indian tourists, Goa is now a place where you can walk around on the street with a beer in your hand. In many places in India this is not allowed, only drinking in private would be allowed, and in some places a total ban would be in place.
So here they can ‘go wild’ and drink a beer while walking on the street.
While I was having a coffee on the beach, a random Indian guy came and asked me for money, because the day before he was going wild and fell asleep on the beach, where a thief in the night took all his rupees and his Samsung Galaxy phone.
I was a little bit in doubt, for a multitude of reasons.
1. I’m very frustrated with all Indian people thinking I am rich. I worked for this and lived in great sobriety to save every euro I could, I’m using all my money, and might very well have given up a good old day, just to make this travel happen.
2. I don’t like giving random people money. If I give to one, it’s injustice to all the rest.
3. I don’t have money to spare, and every rupee I give I certainly will not get back. As friendly and nice as many Indian people are, they would not give me money or treat me.
4. If I give money to people asking for it, I’m supporting a begging system. It is a capitalistic society after all, which means that every bit of money one spends, goes into the support of what you are spending it on.
5. He spoke Inglish. It was extremely hard to figure out if he was actually in trouble or just spouting out some nonsense to get free money.
6. There was a friend next to him who didn’t say anything the whole time. And they both still had their backpacks.
So, dear reader, what would you have done?
I ended up giving him money for the bus, and letting him make a call to his father.
He could then take the bus to the next city where a friend of his father could borrow him some money to get home.
However, the same night, I saw him again, that friend of his father wasn’t home.
Now it was getting even more fishy. Am I just treating this guy free beers or is he even more in trouble than he was?
Anyway I took him to a restaurant for some food and gave him a bit more money. But this was enough.
His name was Raj. And he lived in Mumbai.
After a day or two I did settle down and just relaxed. Took some walks on the beach and did enjoy the sea very much.
It was a bit of a special sea, the waves were very bright and white, and they randomly flooded very close or far from the sea.
So I could enjoy the place, but in general I must admit it was a bit of a disappointment.
Though lesson iterated: Expectations can diminish or even crush our experiences.
