Partying
I have to say I've been very pleasantly surprised by the party scene. It's certainly nothing like the white-wash of psy-trance I expected and whilst that is still the dominate genre of music here (and some how just seems right for the vibe of the place) there are plenty of parties playing all kinds of music. After a very quiet new year's day we went out to meet up with Maren's Indian friends for another night out. The first place was a stereo-typically Goan venue, an open air club up on a cliff looking out down to the beach called Nine Bar, which was unsurprisingly playing psy-trance. It's cool venue and after a few beers, we were all dancing away to pounding psy-trance along with the ever increasing crowd until things closed at ten. However, the next party took me completely by surprise. We drove half an hour north from Anjuna/Vagator to a bar located in the hills in Morjim. 
The venue was on two levels, the lower half normally being a restaurant was the chill out area, whilst going upstairs took you on to the roof, where there was an open air dance floor, along with a swimming pool and bar. The crowd was largely made up of trendy looking Indians and Russians and once again to my surprise they were playing techno. I soon discovered it was the same DJ that had been playing at Curlies on NYE, he along with two other DJ played five hours of sort of techno I dream about with at least ten tracks from my own personal mixes alone. An amazing night dancing in the moonlight. And it seems that this is not abnormal, with bars and clubs playing all the kinds of music you'd expect to find in Ibiza. Perhaps Goa is losing it's dance music soul, but I for one am not complaining. Beach Huts
The day after the party in the hills we had to check out of our nice hotel in Anjuna. We planned to head about forty minutes north to Arambol where one of Maren's new friends, Marlen, (who she'd met on the train to Kerala) was staying. It was time to downgrade to more modest and sustainable accommodation and we checked into same place that Marlen was staying on the beach called Om Star, however we quickly moved to some beach huts located on the hills at the north end of the beach for various reasons, one of which I'll go into more detail shortly. The huts whilst very basic are romantic. You can clearly hear every wave crashing on the shore (which I can hear as I write), and the view (as you can see) is beautiful. 
Dogs and Cows
There are lots of dogs here which roam the beaches and streets most which seem to have no owners. Whilst most of them are dog-eared mutts that probably have fleas, they look like they get enough to eat and seem healthy. They are also seem well socialised and rarely cause a nuisance, normally looking for little more than some shade under your sun bed.
During our last night at Om Star one of these dogs found it way in the alley beside our rooms in the middle of the night and was from the sound of it's howling in incredible pain. I have never heard such an awful sound of suffering from any living thing. It wasn't long before the people in the rooms closest to the stricken dog came out to investigate. There was no obvious physical damage and so it was thought that the dog was badly poisoned. I was pretty certain what needed to be done from the start before those that had gone out to see the dog had exhausted all other options. Calls were made to try and contact some sort of animal rescue, but predictably there was no answer given the time of night. Attempts were made to make the dog more comfortable but they rarely resulted in anything more than a minute of calm before the unearthly howling began again. So there was only one option to end the suffering which is why I didn't want get involved as I didn't want the responsibility. A Israeli guy planned to put the dog out of it's misery by smashing the dog's skull with a huge rock but couldn't bring himself to do it and so began get himself drunk so that he could. However, after several long hours, it was one of the long term residents, a retired middle aged east Londoner called Dave that took it upon himself to strangle the dog, and with a final grotesque howl the night was silent once more. Everyone involved, including ourselves were traumatised, it was a horrific night.
The other animal you'll regularly find on the beaches of Goa are cows. It is certainly an odd sight to begin with as it's not the kind of environment you'd think they'd even like but they seem pretty happy to spend the day by the sea in the hot sun.
Get a scooter
A couple of days after settling into our beach hut we decided to rent scooters so we could properly explore North Goa. On the first day we set about heading back south to Calangute, stopping along the way for refreshment in Anjuna and visiting the beach at Baga. Calangute is probably the most commercial part of Goa popular with those booking package holidays back in Europe and the new wave of middle class Indians. On the second day we planned a more daring trip to Old Goa. To get there would take us over an hour and through one of the busier towns in Goa, Mapusa, and along one of the few highways thus requiring the compulsory wearing of helmets. Aside from having to negotiate a swarm of traffic in Mapusa it was a fairly easy ride though we must have taken the long route when confusingly we didn't leave Old Goa from the direction we'd came in. 
Old Goa itself was interesting. We expected that it would be like visiting the "Old town" of a Mediterranean island, but that wasn't the case. Old Goa is largely a monument to the Portuguese occupation that lasted over four hundred years, the Portuguese having only being finally kicked out in the 1960s. At it's peak Old Goa rivalled Lisbon as a centre of power and was bigger in terms of population than many of the major cities in Europe including London. The main visitor attractions are the churches which still stand of which we saw three. One is still in use today, another which has been turned into a museum and a third which is in ruin and the site of a major archaeological dig. These along with much of what remains of the city have been a world heritage site since the 1980s. The striking thing about Old Goa is how much the place reminds you of a European city with wide straight roads, open grassy spaces and Mediterranean trees spread out between the important buildings.
After Old Goa, we headed west towards the coastline along the Mandovi river towards the Aguada Fort, one of the many and the strongest of the Portuguese forts that can be found along the coastline of Goa. The views across the river mouth are quite spectacular and the fort itself is quite impressive being largely intact.The beaches
As the afternoon began to draw on, we headed along the coast north back towards home with plans to check out a couple more of the beaches in Goa, this time in Morjim and Asvem to catch the sunset and check out a warm up party at one of the beach clubs for a major event that was happening later that night. The beaches are amazing in Goa, and there sometimes seems no end to the wide sandy coastlines. Morjim and Asvem are no exception, in fact they are probably two of the most beautiful I have seen. Morjim has become a popular destination for the Russians and has a largely unspoilt beach that stretches for a good couple of kilometres. At Asvem beach you can walk out a few hundred metres in the shallow waters and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and a cocktail at a bar called Shanti.Being Ill
So, if you are now green with envy back in the cold at home, let me give you some small consolation. Our stay in Goa hasn't been perfect as unfortunately Maren and I have both being suffering from a stomach bug for the last few days. Hence this is why my guide to Goa doesn't have much to say about the food as we've been largely sticking to safe dishes whilst we get better, but I'm keen to eat more of the freshly caught fish that is cooked up along the beach restaurants here in Arambol every evening.
The hippification process
Perhaps I haven't mentioned, but Goa has a large hippy (read crusty deadlock deadbeats) element and hippy merchandise is on sale wherever you go in Goa, from clothes, to necklaces and earrings, all kinds of colourful fabrics for sarongs, bed sheets and whatnot. Maren has already added a couple of kilos to her backpack since she has been in India and having run out of things to buy herself, she's started encouraging me. So far, I have a couple new sleeveless tops, a couple of necklaces, a bracelet, a new silver ring with a mantra (OM Namah Shivaja) engraved on it and pair of Thai fisherman's pants which she was determined for me to wear. Also, since my watch finally gave up working I'm in no rush to get a new one. Worryingly, I've been quite happy to go along with things and it might not be long before I'm able to seamlessly blend in with the hippies.
Getting Gigs
Lastly, I have to mention that tomorrow I'm going to playing at my first ever DJ gig at one of the main bars in Arambol and just a couple of days later I'll be playing again at another venue (perhaps the biggest for DJing in Arambol). There isn't a massive party scene here unlike down in Anjuna and whether anyone will come remains to be seen as the number of people on any given night seems to vary wildly, but Maren and I will be flyering up and down the beaches over the next couple of days. Either way I'll get to play my own music for at least four hours each night, playing techno on Tuesday and trance on Thursday and enjoy a couple of free drinks at the bar. Check out my very first flyer below! I only wish some of you could be here to enjoy it with Maren and I.
Here are the links to the latest photos.
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