Love "living" in a new city or town for a while. You get to know the area, the people and the way of living. There is time to try different restaurants (and pick a favourite - Poisson Rouge!!) and to meet the locals. Shailendra invited us for dinner at his home. It is a very special night where we eat delicious home cooked food with his family by mysterious candle light (due to a major power cut).
You also get familiair with the local daily rituals: early morning the fishing boats head for the sea, buses with local workers arrive at the rice fields, builders pick up their painting brushes, people perform yoga and puja. Around 11am the tourists wake up and head for the beach. From 1pm to 4pm it is siesta time - shops are closed and streets are empty. Around sunset, little markets pop up everywhere. The fishermen sell shiny kingfish and prawns on brightly coloured saris, women carry heavy baskets full off bananas, pineapple and papaya on their heads, cages full of tiny white chicken await their beheading. At sunset, the Hindus head out to the little altars that you can find everywhere in the streets to pray. Immediately after sunset, it is mosquito happy hour - you must stay inside or drench yourself in strong anti-mosquito repellent, after 9pm the music starts playing and the party gets started...
The people in Goa are getting ready for high season. New guesthouses are being built from scratch (women transport buckets of clay on their heads, the clay is made into bricks, a few days later a building is erected, a few days later the walls are plastered and last but not least, the walls are painted in bright colours), existing guesthouses get a layer of fresh paint, coloured papers with adds for yoga and cooking classes appear on every tree, restaurants (re)open... The rice harvest is slowly progressing as well and tons of rice grains are drying in the sun on big blankets. Hard labour in a temperature of 35 degrees celsius.
Got ourselves a nice daily ritual as well: Shailendra's morning ritual at 6.30am, two hours of yoga at 7am (first in an old Portugese house and now under a tree with lovely white flowers that smell amazing) followed by a few laps in the pool, shower, breakfast with fresh pineapple juice and watermelon, a bike ride through the rice fields and little towns to one of the beaches, a bit of swimming and sunbathing, fresh seafood for lunch, a bit more swimming, watching the sunset, a drive back (at this time you can smell the fish from the markets and you have to be careful not to bump into the cows on their way back home), reading a book with a glass of wine on the balcony, finishing up with a nice dinner while enjoying live music. The relaxed beach vibe of Goa is contagious!
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Location:Baga - Goa province, India
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