India: Rainy Days and a Cow Attack - Palolem, South Goa!

Normally when you think of Goa you imagine picture perfect, palm fringed, sandy beaches by day; sunset cocktails, beach bars, music and parties by night. From what we'd read that's pretty much true...at least in high season, but what about in low season, during or at the tail end of monsoon? This is the time when most of the resorts and beach huts are shut down or closed for maintenence, swathed in blue and yellow tarpaulins. A high proportion of the beach bars and restaurants also shut up shop due to the drop in tourist numbers.

Visiting Goa in Low Season

Many people avoid Goa during low season and would ask why on earth visit Goa when you're likely to spend much of your time drenched? Well, due to the timing of our trip to India we ended up doing just that. We spent four days in South Goa, in a beach hut just back from Palolem Beach in low season. To be fair it wasn't the middle of monsoon but towards the tail end, even so we still got wet...very wet; but, and it's a big but, we still loved it. The rain didn't put a dampner on it for us...except for in the literal sense of course.

We opted for South Goa over the North. North Goa is said to have more of a backpacker/ party scene. Whilst we love a good party we're more into lower key bars and restaurants rather than the trance and all night beach parties North Goa is renowned for.

Our taxi dropped us off in Palolem after a very rainy ride from Goa airport. The second we'd left the terminal building the heavens had opened and drenched us with a deluge of warm rain. This continued for the entire hour long journey, showing no signs of letting up!

We'd pre-booked four nights in Palolem Beach Resort. It probably wasn't necessary to book anywhere, but we didn't want to leave it to chace. It was the end of the Ganesh Festival (Ganesh Chathurthi) and we'd heard on the grapevine that the limited accomodation was getting booked up.. The resort was okay although a little run down, mainly beause of the off season maintenence going on, I think.

Everywhere was green and lush and the usual high season throng of tourists was now depleted with just a handful of westerners, outnumbered by a slightly larger number of Indian's visiting to celebrate Ganesh Chathurthi. This meant uncrowded beaches, less traffic and lower prices etc. It also of course meant there was less accomodation and restaurants, but this didn't ruin it for us at all. It turned out to be just what we needed after a very busy few months and hectic three days in Mumbai. We were ready to relax and take it easy for a few days.

The town itself is a typical beach town consisting of a couple of streets filled with stalls and shops selling clothes, handicrafts and other souveniers, along with a few restaurants, a bookshop and a couple of internet cafes. There are also some places you can go for yoga classes or an ayurvedic massage, we didn't partake in these though as it's not really up my street, I don't like being mauled about and don't have the patience for yoga.

Once you've had your fill of beachcombing and pottering around the shops you can always jump in an auto-riskshaw to one of the other beaches nearby such as Patnem beach, which we discovered one day in hammering rain. Within seconds of leaving the auto-rickshaw we both looked like drowned rats and briefly considered going back, then thought sod it we're wet now we may as well carry on with our little exploration. Patnem almost looks like Palolem in reverse, but almost completely deserted. We found one restaurant open where we escaped from the rain for a short time and had a soft drink.

Other nearby beaches are Agonda and Butterfly beach which you can reach by trekking through the beach from Agonda. I really wanted to do this but the weather was just too bad and it would have been dangerous. Word on the street has it though that Butterfly beach is beautiful and well worth the jungle walk,

Monkey Island

A highlight fom our rainy days in Goa was a mini trek to the top of Monkey Island at low tide...again in sheets of rain. I'd recommed this but remember to take your insect repellent as there's some nasty biting flies at the top at sunset and also wear some good footwear as the rocks can get very slippery. Walking back afterwards, just as the sun started to set we noticed the beach appeared to be moving slightly in front of us and under our feet. On closer inspection we realised it was covered in millions of tiny baby crabs scuttling everywhere giving the illusion of the sand moving.

During our time in Palolem we were also lucky enough to witness two Ganesh Chaturthi immersion ceremonies. These happened around 11pm and were basically when the locals bought effigies of Genesha the Elephant God down to the beach in trucks covered in bright lights accompanied by loud music and lots of firecrackers. They then performed a ceremony on the beach before walking the effigies into the sea, where they disintegrated and were taken away by the waves.