New Moon at Holi

The light of a nearly full moon reflecting off the sea woke me this morning at 5:30.

 

There was not a human sound to be heard.  It felt as though I

was the only person seeing it.

Camera experiment

I'm spending Diwali on a beach, relaxing and enjoying the break.  I still wake ridiculously early, 5am is the norm.  I decided to spend some of this time experimenting with slow shutter release and low light.  This is what I ended up with:

I'm quite pleased with the effect.

Beach Party Animals

Indian beaches are working beaches.

You'll find fisherfolk landing catches, cows grazing or just wandering and the local dogs marking out their territory. On the more tourist developed beaches you'll find hawker selling bedsheets, bangles and clothes.  Almost everywhere you'll find food and drinks on offer.

it's less likely that you'll find horses, but my beach of choice for Diwali has seven of them that happily mingle with the tourists and make the effort to appear at sunset for photo opportunities.

The end of an era?

For the last two years me and the man have been happily trundling down to Goa a few times a year for some fresh air and a recharge. 

We have a favourite beach.  It's not much to speak of really, just under three kilometers of clean sand, a few friendly cows and a few more friendly dogs. 

Accommodation on the beach is mainly huts.  Some are a little swankier than others, I've heard tell that some even have hot water.  There are restaurants dotted along the beach with very decent food and lovely cocktails to be had all for prices that would make a Mumbaiker choke with delighted surprise.

That's it though.  There are no beach hawkers, no fire twirlers, no dance parties and precious few sun loungers. There's a road that runs through the village which is pretty bumpy at one end and might entertain the thrill seekers.

It's one of the most relaxing and friendly places I have every stayed and one of the few I've returned to time and again.

However, I'm writing this with a little sadness.  Tripadvisor have just named it Number 1 Beach in India and Number 2 Beach in Asia.  Bugger! I sense change afoot.

If anyone knows of a similar spot please drop me a line.  I promise I'll keep the location a secret.

Diwali Break

I'm a big fan of cultural tourism.  At least I used to be, these days it's getting more and more obvious that I am just a big fan of sitting on my bum reading.

I packed the camera, an extra lens, a laptop a pile of books and a overly ambitious list of things to do on the Diwali break and settled myself into a beach hut with a pretty little sit-out area.  The camera got one half hearted outing.  The laptop remained in the case and the books got devoured.

I spent quite a lot of time watching a shell on a string sway in the gentle breeze and the most energetic thing I did was walk the beach early in the morning choosing somewhere for lunch later in the day.

It was bloody brilliant.

Desperation Juice

Now if I opened a booze shop I'd probably call it City's Liquors, or Good Libations or Hit and Rum or any terrible punning name I could come up with. However I would not call it St. Jude. Especially if I lived in Goa where a large portion of the population being Christian would get the reference.

St Jude is the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes. Mind you, I'm not adverse to a drop of the desperation juice myself and they did have a good selection.

Beach time

Agonda Beach, South Goa, India


Simrose Shacks, quite upmarket beach huts with a lovely garden restaurant attached.

There's not a lot to do. Accommodation is very simple, mainly just huts. Seafood is served in shacks. There's minimum shopping or entertainment. The beach is quiet, barely a soul in sight. Take a pile of books and prepare to relax.

Beach time

I wasn't sure about how I would take to Goa. For sure I was up for a bit of in-your-face tourism with all the cocktails, beach loungers and eating places geared to the international beach bum. I wasn't too keen on the by product of all that, lots and lots of other people looking for the same thing but as it turned out I struck lucky. A guesthouse backing onto a busy beach at a part of the beach that wasn't too busy so if I angled my book right the place looked almost deserted.

I had a hammock at my beck and call

Visitors were few and very cute

Beach vendors were photogenic and not not too pushy


with just the right amount of creative framing the beach looked lovely

I've just realised, I didn't have one cocktail! Just as well I'm going back to explore another part of Goa in a week.

Branding Nightmare

There are times I am entirely stumped by the brand names that appear on things. This is one of those times.

Who thought this was a good idea? Who agreed? Why has no one pointed out the error of their ways? And generally, WTF?