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Christmas at Vagator Beach, Goa

Christmas at the Beach: North Goa (part 2/2)

Read Christmas at the Beach: North Goa part 1/2

 

Baga, Anjuna… and Gangnam Style!

Once Calangute wasn’t really that relaxing and now we had bikes, we decided to go and explore the beaches of north Goa.

Fist stop: Baga. This is where Goa’s fame as party land started, way back in the 60s. In good north Goa style, it’s overcrowded and even more during Christmas and New Year’s, considering this is the peak season.

Anjuna beach

Anjuna beach

 

Anjuna beach, on the other hand, feels like a good compromise between action and peace. During the day the beach is calm enough, there are cows lazying around and reminding you that you’re still in India, there are families, young people… a good mix of “a little bit of everything”. The Anjuna wednesday flea market is over-rated though. They have whatever other souvenir places have by the beach (clothes, hippie accessories, decoration items, etc), but just that there’s more of it! And at night Anjuna feels like a different world! The vibes go from chilled to psychotropic, the lighting goes neon and the crowds behave like they’re always hungry for more.

Anjuna Flea Market

Anjuna Flea Market

The kind of creatures people see (and therefore paint) when they are on drugs at Anjuna

The kind of creatures people see (and therefore paint) when they are on drugs at Anjuna

Cow chilling at Anjuna beach

Cow chilling at Anjuna beach

 

Talking about “hungry for more”, our friend Ayush arrived in the meantime, opening doors for the usual craziness that tends to happen when he’s around. Just to give you a preview, this is what one of our evenings looked like:

 

That was the night when Gangnam Style became the official song of this trip. Call me commercial or pop or whatever you want, but I do think that Psy (and this song) rock! Is it that special, is it such an out of the world musical composition? Probably not. But the fact that, for once, one of these pop phenomena comes from Asia instead of the USA, makes me happy. It means, on a fairly bizarre level, that the world is increasingly opening up to other cultures. So this phenomena is not as stupid as it might seem on the surface. And I like the happy contagious vibes of the track too!

 

Candolim

We spent some hours in Candolim beach on the same day that the famous Sunburn festival was taking place. Although Ayush was eager to go and shake it nicely like he only knows how to do [they say he probably learned with Shakira...], we opted for spending the evening at the beach, watching the sun go down and eventually stuffing ourselves with tandoori goods.

Enjoying Candolim beach

Enjoying Candolim beach

Fishing boat at Candolim beach

Fishing boat at Candolim beach

Paragliding at sunset

Paragliding at sunset

 

Vagator and warming up for South Goa!

Vagator was our good-bye spot for north Goa and it was actually a great beach to hang out at!

The fruit lady that sold us our afternoon snack

The fruit lady that sold us our afternoon snack

A day can't get much more chilled out than this...

A day can't get much more chilled out than this…

The Vagator beach life style!

The Vagator beach life style!

 

Not nearly as visited as the previous spots we had been at, it reminisced of the good old hippie times that Goa must have once lived but that have meanwhile been buried in the hype that surrounds this coastal area.

Ayush is a poser!

Ayush is a poser!

Ayush is a poser... and it is contagious!

Ayush is a poser, yes… and it is contagious!

 

North Goa: you were good to us. But the south awaits us, with its chilled vibes that can’t ever stop luring us into that delicious thing that goes like “do nothing and enjoy every second of it“!

 

Read New Year’s at the Beach: South Goa


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