New Years in Goa

In all haste (due to some problem to getting everyone to agree etc) it was decided that we were going to Goa for New Years. We were around 20 people, interns, AIESECers and "hang arounds", that went. Somehow by luck and good connections we had found tickets and places to stay for the four days we were going to be there.

The day we were leaving for Goa there were a lot of disturbances in the city due to the death of one of the political leaders. He died of natural causes but his followers felt that there should be a shut down of the city. And so there was. I was at a clients offices all day and going back into the city there was a rush of people going home (at 4pm!) and the stores were closing down. As a precaution our company provided us with a car to get safely home to get our things and to get to the bus. Otherwise it would have been a bit harder to get anywhere. After this I realized that I need to keep up with the news here. So I've started reading a few different papers everyday and it really does make a big difference on how integrated you feel.

(If you wanna read about the incident, here's the story: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Hyderabad/City_goes_into_mourning/articleshow/2659779.cms )

Anyway, back to the trip.
The bustrip was about 14 hours and we arrived just before lunch to our appartment at Baga Beach in the north of Goa. It felt so relaxing to get there at first because of all the tourists. We blended in very well except maybe that some of us had a bit more clothes and a little less tan than the average person.

Now Goa really reminded me of Portugal. Not so strange as it used to be a portugese colony. The architecture is a bit different and the food definiently is. A lot of seafood and not nearly as spicy as Hyderabadi food. But then it is said that Hyd has the spiciest food in India. (Anyone knows if this is actually true??)

During the days we occupied out time with swimming and laying on the beach. Only moving after the sun started setting. During the nights we were partying or hanging out either at a club or at the beach. Very relaxing!

One thing here that was very good as well was the fact that it was easy to choose if you wanted a more secluded beach/part of a beach or if you wanted to be in the middle of the craziness. On the first day we went quite far away to a beach called Morjim, absolutely wonderful! A beautiful beach, and almost no people!

For the main event i.e. New Years eve, I went to yet another beach called Candolim. There I spent the evening with some other friends from Hyderabad. We had some great seafood and good wine and just before 12 we went to a club for a few hours of partying. All in all a very nice evening but not with the crazy partying I usually do. It felt like a good way to start the year.

The following day it was already time to head home again. It turned out that the AIESEC croud had skipped sleeping all together and were therefor somewhat tired at 2pm when we were leaving.

The bus ride home was very quiet but for some strange reason the bus kept stopping all the time. (seven times, as compared to one on the way to Goa!) This included one change of bus in the middle of nowhere. We arrived 1,5 hour later than predicted but still in good enough time to not be too late for work.

So that was it for this vacation. It was over much to quick.

Can wait to the next one!