Goa is a small state on the west coast of India. It is often referred to as if it is a place. This former Portuguese colony was once one of the happening places on the overland hippy trail in the 1970′s, and ever since then every hippy worth their salt will tell you that it is not what it used to be.
The previous week in Mumbai every one I had met who has been there was giving me their differing opinions on why this beach is better than that beach. In the end I did not decide which beach to go to until I got to Goa.
I got the overnight train from Mumbai to Margao in central Goa. The booking office at the train station in Mumbai looked like half of Mumbai was in there trying to book a ticket. Fortunately there is a foreigners booking office and there was only one person in the queue.
On the train I was in a compartment with a couple of hippies. They were on their way to a beach so quintessentially Goan that it wasn’t even in Goa, but just south of the border in the state of Karnataka. The place they were going to was Gokarna, a popular place for Hindu pilgrims where few tourists go to, so I was told. “Is that the place there?” I point out to them in my Lonely Planet.
There was a young Canadian in the train as well and he said he was going to Palolem.
“Ahh yes, Palolem”, the hippies said, “It was pretty good a few years ago, but it has gotten a bit busy since”. The Canadian was a fellow Goa virgin and we both agreed that any beach in Goa was still going to be more exotic than the beaches offered in our home towns, so Palolem it was for us.