Quite a 1st Jan

31st of Dec was approaching, all eyes were on me. All the friends were more excited about me being in Goa on the 31st, than I was myself. 31st was pretty toned down but. Just a small gathering at the boss’, a barbeque (or is it barbecue), some beer, some wine and lots of witty stories. It left me a little dissatisfied, but, and I decided that I have to go to, the much hyped, Palolem beach, which is the only place in Goa that I hadn’t been to earlier.

We started at 10am from Dona Paula (yes, I did get up. Yes, I know it was a Sunday) and reached by 12. I was under the impression that the place would be close to Margao, and was all set to wind up the journey when we crossed Margao city. But it was 35kms from there, no and not that I am complaining. Those were the best 35, had to cross a ghat or two. The best part of driving on the ghats is that the bike is never at straight up, it is always at a tilt. And then you have to keep shifting the direction of the tilt. Its so much of fun for the driver.

When I reach my beach, I like to see as much sand on the length, no red, blue, green disturbances, but only sand. That is why I somewhat don’t like Goa in December and prefer it so much in July. But, Palolem did make me happy in December.

The moment we reached, these boatmen thronged us. They wanted to take us into the sea to watch dolphins. We got a good bargain, I am sure the Firangs on the boat paid quite a bit. So we saw dolphins. Now one would think wow, but by the end of the day we didn’t even remember that we saw dolphins. It was nowhere close to ‘the high in the day’. Somehow, the chronology of highs in the day just kept going higher and higher till the day ended.

At this point, let me talk a bit about the beach. It is at the end of a bay; three sides covered by land and is almost like a huge lake which is quite calm, no big waves. From one end of the beach, a stream enters the sea. An island of sorts (which looks like the one you picture when confronted with the question “Whom would you like to deserted with on an uninhabited island) on one side which has a huge hill and a lot of palms. And lovely thick forest of palm, behind the beach.

We walked to one end of the beach (the end with the stream) and spread out our sheet and went off to sleep. It was so quite that we could hear the bird’s wings fluttering when they flew above us. Not that we were in deep slumber or something, but we were just relaxing there for about 2 hours. Many people come to Goa for the wrong reasons and especially so during the New Year-Christmas season, but Goa is an amazing place to relax, to unwind, to be with yourself.

After a beer and some eats, we went for a dip. Now Palolem is the place if you love going into the sea and swimming in there. At rest of the places, I fear drowning, but this sea was so calm and quite. Were just standing there in the middle and feeling the current gently nudge us, again and again.

The sun had set, it was time to go and it was a long way back. No one I knew was in the mood of going. We lingered for a coffee at a shack that played excellent Goa Trance. It was dark that night, very dark and since the waves didn’t make too much of a sound at Palolem, you didn’t really know what was in the dark. It was fascinating. Maybe it is the sand, or the sea or the palms or don’t know what. But I never feel like going back if I spend an hour on a good Goa beach.

Surprisingly, now started the best part; the drive back. It was dark, it was cold and the sky was very starry and clear. We had to do the ghats again, and they had no street lights. The tilting of the bike from one side to another, except this time it is not that bright and it’s colder. No horns are used, only dippers. Many places in Goa have this 500m space between two ghats where they have paddy fields (one such place is just before Calangute). These places are fun to be at night. You can see a dark outlines on the hills and the starry sky on the backdrop. The color difference is so subtle that I don’t think any camera can capture it.