In heaven - and its called Goa...

It is warm, it is chilled, it is soooo nice.
I expected something like Thailand since Goa is such a household name and I also went to the 'most developed' beach, Palolem.

Well, Palolem itself is not my favorite beach around here, although it has nice shops and shop-owners who actually let you look around in their shops peacefully without hassling you with their selection of goods (which is usually of a taste you would not even give your grandmother as a gift) - I spend my days in Patnem beach only 10 mins walk away.

People seem to be fine, you have your usual share of pink English but they are surprisingly quiet, there are hippies, young hip families and single moms, and also retired people and/or retired hippies.

There are just little beach huts and beach restaurants, not one hotel building in sight (actually, every off-season most of the huts have to be taken down and can only be set up again in the next season, where the owners need to negotiate their spots anew).

In the evening they have little tables and cushion chairs on the beach, they light a few candles, sometimes they provide a Shisha, nice chilly music in the background and this is it. Sooo romantic, sooo relaxed. No 'Goa parties' (these times are long gone, and the police is omnipresent controlling on the one hand the 10 pm curfew for music and on the other the Indian lechers who like to stare at foreign women in bikinis).

I met up with Susi, a friend who I have not seen in ages and we have a very nice time here. Speaking of - its time to hit the beach!