NYE 2009 - The most magical night of my life

Wow. The first thing I need to write about Goa is my new year with Maren. It deserves a post all to itself. Quite simply the most fantastic and special night of my life. It really felt like a fair tale at times and it could not have been more perfect. After getting off the train at Thivim it took just over half an hour in a taxi to our hotel in Anjuna. I was relieved to find that the hotel I'd booked online was every bit as nice as the pictures on the website had suggested and after dropping off our things we headed to the beach to have a meal in the afternoon sun with a beautiful sea view. We'd both decided that since we'd just just arrived and that apparently getting around anywhere at night had become a nightmare due to traffic we'd keep things simple and spend our new year in Anjuna rather than try to meet up with any of Maren's friends that were elsewhere in Goa. So after we'd eaten we took a long walk along from the very north end of Anjuna beach down to the south end to check out one of the potential options for the night, a beach bar called Curlies which is something of an institution in the Goa party scene. When we got there it was late afternoon and we shared a few beers before deciding that this was definitely the place that we wanted to be. As the sun was setting we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out.

By the time we'd left the hotel, it was dark and as we walked back to the beach I started to really understand what Anjuna, Goa and the psychedelic trance scene was all about. Along the beach is bar after bar, each blaring out thumping psy-trance and each lit up with colourful lights and decorations which you can see all down the coastline against a backdrop of silhouetted palm trees in the night sky. It is truly a sight to behold. We stopped half way down the beach to have drink at one of the bars and take in the atmosphere that was beginning to build. We didn't stay long before continuing the walk back to Curlies and as we approached the place had completely transformed from what we'd seen during the day. Curlies, as with most of the bars along the south end of Anjuna beach is raised up off the shoreline. At highest point is the bar and to the right of the bar a stage for the DJ or band who might be playing. As you work your way down there are tables and chairs under cover on one side and a large open dance floor on the other until you come to the edge of marquee like cover where the descent back to the beach is made up of several large ledges on which people sit or stand on. These ledges form something like an amphitheatre to the beach. Once you are back on to the beach, there is a hive of activity, where tens of small stalls are set up mainly cooking food over open stoves and selling cigarettes. When you look from the top, it really is an amazing sight. There are colourful lights everywhere, with strips of leds in red, green and blue outlining the structures of the bars. Also an almost full moon lit up the shore with natural light along with the fires all along the seafront as the stalls cook their food. As for the people, there is a huge mixture from local Goans to tourists from the big Indian cities, along with westerners from many different countries and a strong Russian element. There are the young and the beautiful who are here to party and there are families as well and they vary from the very rich and to the very poor. All of this to a background soundtrack of throbbing pulsating basslines from the huge sound systems of the bars. The atmosphere that it creates is quite unlike anything I've every experienced before.

After getting a drink from the bar, Maren and I sat on a pair of chairs on the top ledge over looking the beach surveying everything going on in the ever growing kingdom below. Soon we got talking to man from Dubai, who as a Muslim so wasn't indulging in the same way as Maren and I, but was quietly enjoying himself. I found myself in one of my philosophical moods chatting to him about all sorts of things and sharing personal beliefs. At one stage we were talking about materialism and I was talking about how some of the best experiences in life can be free like this amazing party at the beach and some could be very expensive and I gave a driving a sports car like a ferrari as an example of one of the expensive ones. He was then asked what car I would like and I said that I would love to drive a Lamborghini and then he asked what colour and then I could have sworn that he said he would arranged it if I wanted it. I wasn't sure if I had misheard or misunderstood over the loud music or I had had one too many drinks, but as I looked at him again he did look like he had money, he was wearing a very expensive looking watch and jewellery and though his clothes were casual they were very expensive designer clothes. I suddenly felt very self conscious and explained what I just thought I'd heard to Maren. She unsurprising thought it was some what dubious, but there was a slightly strange air about him and it was fun to think it was true.

It was at this point that we started to talk about the music that was playing and I complained that psy-trance wasn't really the genre of music that I would listen to given the choice. However, Maren told me to listen and it really sounded quite good, in fact, it wasn't dissimilar to the kind of techno I have been getting into myself recently. The more we listened, the better it sounded and I realised it was in fact techno and not psy-trance so we made our excuses to the "fake shiek" and decided to head to the dance floor. Maren needed to visit the bathroom before we started dancing and in the time she left me, all my musical wishes had come true. Before I'd even had chance to ask the DJ whether he had any tracks from one of my favourite producers, Spektre, he had already started playing their remix off "P.S. You Rock" (for my fellow Spektre heads he also played Rabbithole a bit later on as well) which I have literally fantasized about playing out to a large crowd myself or just being lucky enough to hear it played in a big club. And this DJ was doing exactly that on NYE, in Goa of all places and when Maren returned we danced away to amazing techno.

The next time Maren left me alone, another amazing transformation had occured. I'd properly got my dancing shoes on by now (anyone that has been clubbing with me will know what I mean), and I was dancing on the stage by the DJ along with some of local Goans guys who seem to take their dancing seriously. As I looked around me I'd noticed that several of them were copying my every move on the dancefloor. I had an every increasing army of dancing clones! When Maren returned I showed off my new dancefloor powers. It was one of the funniest and most fun times I've ever had dancing. However, just as my ego began to get carried away thinking that I would soon have half of the dance floor under my spell like the pied piper, a wave of utterly drunk Irishmen came and destroyed my fun, preventing anyone from dancing properly within several metres as they bumped and felt over everyone around them using each other and anyone else to prop themselves up to remain vertical. Maren and I decided that only extremely camp dancing would repel the invaders, so I massed my troops in an effort to make them leave, however it was not long before the majority of us were ushered off the DJ stage as they turned it into some kind of VIP area as midnight approached.

Maren and I decided to take a breather and get out from under the cover and look at what was going on down by the beach. In the time we'd been away, the number of people had almost doubled and entire beach was a heaving mass of activity. If you enjoy people watching like me you could be entertained for hours and hours. However, we headed back inside to dance once more as midnight approached as the music was unlikely to stay the same after the DJ finished his techno set, so we ended up right back at the front to see in the new year.

When the clock finally reached midnight the music stopped and fireworks on the beach began and everyone moved outside to get a view. This only made the view along the beach even more spectacular. This was obviously the biggest night of the year for the pyrotechnic guys gathered on the beach and they put on an amazing show. It wasn't the size or scale of the fireworks that was impressive, but the intricacy and the array of colours made it so spellbinding. Also it was being electronically timed to the psy-trance sound track that now was playing again from the bar so as the music ebbed and flowed during the breakdowns the fireworks did too. And not only were there fireworks right next to us on the beach, but fireworks were lighting up everywhere along the coast as far as the eye could see. As Maren and I watched together I realised that this was the most amazing new year I'd ever experienced, made all the more special with who I was sharing it with. As the fireworks reached their finale Maren and I let out a scream of joy as loud as we possibly could along with many others who were watching.

Afterwards Maren and I found a place to sit down on the beach and I told her just how much tonight meant to me, how much I loved her, how I'd never felt so happy in all my life and that I wanted us to remember this night and how we felt forever. I just felt so amazingly lucky and fortunate. It was then another bit of magic happened. A beggar approached us, which happens regularly in Goa and many parts of India, especially when you are a relatively rich westerner. There are all types, from the religous Sahdus to young children carrying babies looking for a hand out. Perhaps the most difficult to ignore though are the badly crippled and then man that approached me was in a bad way, with a leg missing and his other limbs servely crooked so much so he was only able to move around using all three of his limbs at the same time. Maren had not seen him and told to ignore him, as we could easily be mobbed if we started handing out money, but tonight after experiencing so much joy I could not ignore him. I didn't have any small change, so I just reached into my pocket and gave him the first big note I could find but more than the money I suddenly felt compelled to give him a hug. A proper hug that I really meant and he hugged me back, and for that brief second I really felt that he understood that I really meant it. Afterwards, after I explained to Maren what had happened (and she'd seen him and understood why I'd given him money) I really wasn't sure who had got more from the exchange but it had touched me in a special way and was yet another element of the night that I will never forget.

We sat and soaked up the atmosphere for a bit longer before making our way along the beach back to our hotel. The beauty of the views along the coastline had not dimished, flurorent lights lit up the bars all along the shore and fireworks could still be seen going off occasionally up and down the coast along with green lasers shooting out into the night sky. The full moon was so bright we could easily see our own moon shadow as the waves crashes along the shoreline in front of us. We stopped along the way to buy one of the snacks being cooked up by the food stalls we'd been curious about all night. It was a kind of sandwich made from something like a pita bread, fried eggs, salad and cheese with a squirt of tomato chilli sauce. It was most enjoyable. As we walked we passed bar after bar still celebrating the new year with loud music and dancing. In fact it was almost impossible to find a quiet spot along the beach, but as we searched for somewhere to stop at for a quiet drink we came across a small authentic looking restaurant which was an oasis of quiet and calm and was the perfect place to end the night. We ordered a masala chai (which was incredibly sweet even by Indian standards) to drink whilst we reflected on the night. It was simply incredible and the most fun I've ever had. I've never laughed and smiled so much and I've never felt so happy or felt so in love with someone. The whole night had felt like the universe had made it all happen for one very special night for the two of us and we gave our thanks. Perhaps it's a bit more personal than what I planned to write here but I wanted to try and capture just a little of what the night meant to me and Maren.

Happy new year and love to you all.