The first part of the week was largely focused on the two parties I was playing at, both of which were a lot of fun. The first on Tuesday didn’t really go to plan though. Maren, who could never be called shy, enthusiastically flyered up and down the beaches (which I can’t thank her enough for doing) on the day of the gig and the day before. I have to admit I was too embarrassed to flyer for myself, but as Maren seemed to be generating quite a bit of interest, I put in a fair few hours getting together a set list, which for when you play for four and half hours takes a bit of time. In the evening we enjoyed an early meal together before heading out to the bar to setup. When we arrived there was bad news. Overnight there had been a heavy rain storm (which our little beach hut just about weathered although we did have a minor leak) and the main subwoofer for the bar had stopped working properly and was making an awful sound. This has only been discovered half an hour before we arrived and Kosta (one half of the couple that ran the bar) was trying his best to fix it. No matter what he tried the sound was awful. Jane (the other half of the couple that ran the bar) apologised and said she’d understand if I didn’t want to play. It was almost unplayable and I briefly considered leaving, however people had already turned up and I decided to do the best I could, if only because of the effort Maren had put in trying to get people to come along. Maren in the meantime had already gone off to see about commandeering another sound system from one of the other bars. Alas, it wasn’t to be and she was unsuccessful, however everyone she approached had really made an effort and as I played back at the bar, everyone had been understanding and supportive, especially those that had come along especially to see me which was heart warming. 
However as the night wore on and the drinks flowed it still turned out to be a positive experience. A decent number of people turned up and whilst the sound prevented much dancing action, we both had a great time, talking to lots of people and making new friends. There were even fireworks and a show with a performing dancer and if nothing else we enjoyed free drinks all night.The day after we hired bikes again so we could travel down to Anjuna for the flea market on Wednesday. It’s quite a spectacle, stretching from the beach front for what must at least half a kilometre. It is however something of a tourist trap, with most of the sellers trying to take advantage of shoppers with many selling their wares above the price you’ll find at the many stalls along any beach in Goa. However Maren certainly wasn’t going to be taken advantage of and when seeing a black top she wanted she bargained hard. An initial price of 350 rupees (a good 100 Rs over any price we’d been given before) was offered, which Maren laughed at and told the seller that she’d give no more than 150 Rs rupees. After several minutes of hard bartering the seller finally gave in as Maren, having not budged from her price one inch, showed him the hard cash and he grudging accepted her original offer.
After wandering around we headed off to the bar at the end of market on the beach, which has a live band every time the market is on. Despite some very dodgy pronunciation of English lyrics (the funniest of which was the Oasis song Wonderwall sounding something like Wanderball), they were excellent. The lead guitarist notably playing some amazing solos in every song they played was genuinely talented. Then afterwards we headed to Curlies where we’d spent NYE. Never one to miss an opportunity, we spoke to guy that was running the place and how easy/hard it was to play a DJ set there. It turned out, that we were in fact speaking to Curly himself. Unfortunately, due to a police raid there was to be no party tomorrow and Saturday’s line up was complete but he’d let us know and he got someone to listen to one of my mixes that I had on my phone. 
In the meantime we sat down on the beach to enjoyed a cold beer and we bumped into the beggar with the missing leg that I’d given money to on NYE and after we offered him a drink so he excitedly joined us for beer and we got to know him a little better. Not long after we also spotted Manoj (pronounced Manush) walking along the beach who was one of the new friends we’d made at Psy Bar. Manoj was on holiday in Goa before taking up a new job in Bangalore. Originally from Mumbai, he had just moved back to India having lived in San Francisco for the last twelve years. We invited him over to hang out for the sunset. Afterward we introduced Manoj to a “Bread Omelette” (which I described in an earlier post) and headed back to Arambol together.
Thursday was the day of the second gig, this time at Coco Loco. This is the main party bar in Arambol and I had no worries about the sound system this time, since we could hear it booming across the beach every night from our hut till late. Maren worked the beaches again in the afternoon and I, having not really played much trance recently, spent a long time re-familiarising myself with my tracks and building up a set list. We had an early dinner again and this time we hoped things would go better. On arrival, there was an initial panic over the mixer since it was one that was designed more for live music rather than DJing. However, other than having to cope with an unfamiliar clunky mixer with far more inputs than required this time I had a real system to work with. Things started off slowly, but as it got later more people turned up and after being given the green light for more “boom boom” from the bar owner, I began to unload with some of my favourite music. Maren had sussed out that the bar owner and staff didn’t really have much understanding of dance music genres, so I played a couple of spells of techno along with everything else. I had so much fun and it seemed quite a lot of other people did too and at the end of the night the dance floor was rocking. 
However, just as everyone was getting involved another police raid, this time at Psy Bar cut the party a little short. The bar owner wasn’t taking any chances with loud music past twelve so asked me to stop playing. However in short, I got to play pretty much every one of my favourite tracks from progressive house, trance and techno in one night, over a great sound system, all whilst on holiday in Goa. I couldn’t possibly moan about that. We also enjoyed another night of free drinks and made some more new friends. So a great night all in all.On Friday we headed to Panjim (recently renamed to Panaji), the capital of Goa. We’d made plans to go with Manoj earlier in the week as he was keen to take us to a really good Goan restaurant that he’d been given a recommendation about and it was a good excuse to have a walk around the town. Also, coming along for the ride was Maren’s friend Malen and one of our new friends from the party at Coco Loco, Matja, a back packer from Slovienia who had been in India for the last four and half months. Maren had however been introducing him as being from Finland and after much joking we decided that we must all be from Finland and so the Finish Touring Group was born. Initially there didn’t seem too much going on when we arrived late in the afternoon. The town itself is more than just a tourist town but is still heavily influenced by tourism. This is the main port for fishing boats, which supply the majority of the fish to the rest of the state, particularly North Goa. There are also some large cruise boats that leave here so tourists can go to gamble, which is normally illegal on the mainland. The most notable building in the town itself is the Christian church, which with its Portuguese heritage gives the place a bit of a European flavour.
We all split up to walk around the place and after getting back together, Manoj had found a tiny bar that he wanted to take us to so we could sample the local liquor of Goa. After a quick visit to the Hindu temple around the corner, we squeezed into the bar and the couple that ran the place provided us all with a glass of Fenni. It’s a rather odd and not particularly pleasant drink, almost clear white which is made from cashew nuts but with a mixer it’s not undrinkable. I enjoyed the pickled mango that that we ate with the drink far more. The old couple, Susan and Francis were also really nice. Susan and Francis aren’t the names you’d typically associate with Indian people but it’s common in Goa due to the Christian population. Afterwards we headed off to the Ritz Classic Cafe, the restaurant Manoj planned to take us to. It was far more upmarket than most of the places we’d been to in Goa with smartly dressed waiters and air conditioning cooling the rooms. However, it was certainly no more expensive. 
In fact after ordering some of the freshly caught fish that were presented to us on a platter, we’d got twice as much fish as we would have done at one of the beach restaurants in Arambol and had far too much food. That said we did a pretty good job of eating most of the red-snapper and king fish that we had ordered which was served up both grilled with a tikka marinade and as a curry. It was easily the best meal that I’ve had in Goa and India so far.
On Saturday, the Finish Travel Group got together again this time to head round the beach to the Sweet lake and follow a path into the jungle to find the Banyan tree, which was an large old tree where some Indian hippies supposedly hung out, along with Westerners that found their way there. Goa’s brand of spiritualism is much like you’d find elsewhere in India with people sharing food, singing mantras and gathered round a fire. However the Goan twist (at least in this particular case) involved chillums being passed round at very regular intervals, led by the Indian Baba of the group inhaling as deeply as I’ve seen any man smoke
Afterwards we made our way along the path to stop for a bath in the stream that flowed back down to the sweet lake. Some locals helped out in applying what is said to be a very beneficial mud all over our bodies and then we dried off in the afternoon sun before washing off (with the frogs) in the water. As you can see this made for a great photo.Sunday was our last day in Arambol, having decided that we were going to south to Palalim. We were sad to be leaving having got very comfortable at the Coco Huts. It was a pleasure to be looked after by the extended family that ran the place and we loved starting the day having breakfast at the restaurant with the view over looking the beach every morning.
Our final meal there was one of the best. Manoj and Metja joined us and we enjoyed a nice bottle of Indian red wine which Manoj has bought as a gift a couple of days earlier after Maren had said it was one of the things she had missed.
The next morning we were up early and enjoyed our final breakfast at the Coco Huts, before setting off to take the bus to Palolem. Despite having to change three times along the way in Mapusa, Panjim and Margao, it wasn’t a bad journey and we arrived just in time to enjoy the best sunset we’ve seen since we arrived in Goa. We now have a new hut, and a new breakfast sea view and having already made a few friends, it looks like we might get very comfortable having swapped one paradise for another.
To check out the photos there are new images added to the Arambol and Anjuna photo sets along with 3 new ones.
http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Arambol
http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Anjuna
http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/PsybarAndCocoLoco
http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Panjim
http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Palolem
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