Goa

Our huts were just behind these picturesqur boats

Pete and me fishing

An elevated view of Palolem beach

Some cows chilling

After the rather tame lights of Anjuna it seemed perhaps that Goa would be pleasent rather than hedonistic, pretty rather than beautiful. I was due to meet Pete in south of the province so caught a series of three colourful buses down to Palolem, sharing them with school children and locals on their way home or to the market.
After rendez-vous and a nice beer Pete and I stayed in a basic yet well kept set of huts on what is the most stunning beach I have ever seen. Sure, it was commercialised, the whole beach front clustered with bars and restaurants but each had its own charm, especially in the dusk as fairy lights coiled round trees and supporting posts set up while enterprising businessmen let off fireworks to attract tourists to their establishments
The week there we divided between fine food - sizzlers and sublime veg curries and fish tadoori roasted straight out of the ocean - renting scoters and visiting nearby deserted stretches of sand, and attending a couple of silent discos spilling over with westerners and local Indian guys ever hopeful of getting lucky (without much luck) with the foreign ladies.
On a fishing trip Pete and I met a couple - Angie and Dean - from London and on the homeward stretch of an epic 18 month round the world trip. Both thirty they had married two years before and visited North America, South America, Australia and Asia. I was pretty jealous, but then there is no way that I could go away for that long alone! One of the many advantages of a balanced couple I suppose.
Angie was kind and pragmatic with a real sense of humour and a humanity about her. Small and angular from Blackpool, a trained pharmasist. Dean was very different, from the Malvern Hills, a professional musician by trade, a constant laugh and an open heart. He carried a little guitar with him, the names of all the places they had visited carved into the back. We only hung out together for a couple of days but they were very good people. Their wedding sounded exotic and fun, in took place in the main cathedral in Dubrovnik, sixty of their friends and family flew out!
In Palolem the sunsets were subtle and shaded in punks and purpes and greys, and the sun rather than slipping over the horizon would dip and then disappear as if into fog.
Goa is not India as everyone says. And I am discovering that as I have left. The (occasionally) gleaming toilets, pristine beaches and sunny attitudes of this most westernised state are not prevalent once you go out to Katarnaka. But Goa is a playground with natural beauty and colour in abundance. I am certain I will be going back.