Goa- destruction in paradise

Doing the gap year thing- being ripped off for henna tattoos!!

View more photos 

Paradise

From Kathmandu I got a flight to Delhi, where I stopped over for the night. I found a place close to the airport and 'splashed out': treated myself to a 6 Euro a night room. And what a treat it was! A double bed to myself, a huge bathroom to myself with a nice shower and best of all - a tv! With HBO showing!! Unbelievable! I hadn't actively missed western trashy culture at all until then but once I got an English voice on the box I realised it was making me very happy! And watching Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen have a love affair was just amazing! Much enjoyed that! Then the next day I flew on to Goa to meet Jacqeline. By happy coincidence she'd ended up in the place that I'd been recommended and which sounded lovely. In the southern part of Goa, still secluded from mass tourism and very chilled. And that it was! It was so lovely to see Jacqueline there and be reunited. Much much catching up was done that night, we just talked away for hours!! And then moved into a little beach hut literally on the palm fringed beach, made of coconut leaves. It even had a little bathroom and all. Blissful!! Our world revolved around lying on the beach and sitting in the cafes on the beach having fresh milkshakes and yummy food. The hardest decision of the day was where to lie on the beach. Unfortunately it's a really late monsoon this year and the weather is not doing what it's supposed to so we actually got rain aswell and it was often cloudy, but the water was still really warm and it was just nice and relaxing. Bliss! Even went for a cheeky midnight- well more like 4 am- swim one night! So warm still. But to be fair I have say that thee rain got pretty bad at times. Funniest was when we were in the one beach bar there is and the roof was just completely leaking all over the place. It was actually torrential horizontal rainfall outside and the roof was caving in at places to completely drench people! Pretty funny

Our cosy beach hut

View more photos 

Destruction

We'd been hearing rumours for a few days about how the beachside places didn't have their necessary licences and would have to close down but didn't really think anything of it....until one morning we got up to order breakfast and were evicted! We were told we had to leave within 2 hours so that it would look to the police like there hadn't been any tourists staying and it wouldn't get ripped down! A very stressful bit of news early in the morning in Goa! :) But we were of course happy to oblige and even more happy when we found a place literally two metres on, so still on the beach but made of concrete so not subject to any licence. (Only later were we to find out that there was no running water and there was a hole in the roof right above my bed! So I got my shower after all!! Literally, positioned right above my head as I was asleep..the joys! :) )

And local life passing by our front door

View more photos 

But what happened then was crazy to see- armies of Indian men gathered at the beach in anticipation of the police arriving. And that they did. In huge helmets and with sticks. And everything was torn down! And I mean EVERYTHING! All the beach side hut villages and restaurants and the bar, all razored to the ground. even though we'd moved out and all. Even the little stalls that had been erected on the main road selling souvenirs. It was like a different place afterwards, there was just nothing left. And all the locals could do was watch. At one point there was even a bulldozer that attacked the foundations of a particular place. So sad! But it was all very peaceful, and the locals did no more than watch in resignation. Apparently they had been warned but no-one took it seriousy. Thought that with a nice baksheesh, a bribe, all would be god as it had been in the past, but no. Crazy. The sene was so surreal, the locals, the police, and in between the tourists in their tiny bikinis taking pictures!! What had happened was that the local government is trying to curb tourism. In the last few years Palolem has gone from being a sleepy fishing village to quite a backpackers hub and they want to try and contain the development. So the idea is to grant only 6 month licences and no more. The official season was only to start on October 15th. Which I can understand and is completely fair enough but there was no need to be so ruthless in the destruction! There had been people constantly working on new huts and new villages while we had been there and now there were armies of people working away just as hard to undo it all, only to start again next month. Very sad. Ah well. So soon afterwards everyone left, pretty much! Another funny thing that happened though was our shower...as we didn't have running water the people of our original beach hut were very apologetic and sorryt that they had to kick us out and so they let us use the old shower, one that was just about still standing. But it was really grotty! And had no light. And because there were about 100 indian men working away at tearing everything down aroudn us, Jacq and I went in together...so there were the two of us in a little hut in the middle of rubble and destructive activity, taking turns with holding the towels and taking a shower by  the light of my head torch that we'd wedged into the ceiling! Moments you won't forget! :)