Interestingly, the name dominates two lists, one is places to visit and other is most cancelled trips to a particular destination. Your thinking-hat can stay put at its place as I am going to reveal the name right away, Goa, it is. The name envisages beaches, shacks, booze and mostly importantly a pub vibe. Not surprising if you are wondering what a teetotaller like me has to do with a place loved by someone opposite to that. My reasonings to love Goa goes beyond what the place is famous for. I loved the place when I visited the first time, but the fondness has intensified on my third trip. The first two experiences blended into an excitement for a full-fledged exploration which resulted in an awesome experience.
When dug deeper into the generalization of liking the place, my analysis had to bifurcate it into two North and South. My research on the best places to visit before the first trip made me stuck to the Northern part. Going alone to the second trip provided with an opportunity to explore the not very well-known part of the state. The Third has manifested the contrasting differences between the two parts.
Environment
My intention in using the term is not to constrain it to the weather conditions but to apply it to beaches, traffic and the crowd because of the interlinkage between the three.
Unless, one has been to the place a couple of times, the chances of visiting the beaches such as Colva, Palolem or Benaulim, which are in the southern part, are very little. This makes the stay at these places very pleasant. The less traffic on roads and the fewer number of people at the beaches have little to no impact on your mood. One can leisurely walk on the roads and enjoy the music from the dancing waves at the beaches.
Beaches such as Calangute, Baga and Anjuna, located in North Goa find mentions in every article written to help the first-time visitors. So, most of the taxi’s tyres spend relatively more time in this part compared to the other. Focus while walking on the roads would be on the vehicle movement rather than the stores around and the music from too many beach shacks and restaurants dominate the sound from the waves.
Food
We were very fortunate to find some of the best food places in South Goa. I spent two days only at Palolem during my second trip and relied on a small udipi hotel due to higher costs at other places. But that was not the case the third time. Irrespective of whether it is a cart or a hotel, the food places were too good. The goodness must be attributed to the authenticity of the ingredients used and the cooking style. The pizza I tasted all my life was the one that rolled out of an electric oven but the pizza made on a wood fire at Firestones Woodfired Pizza at Varca, South Goa has a unique flavour. Not just the way it made, but the fresh ingredients, vegetables and little cheese topping made it mouth-watering.
We also encountered, a couple of breakfast places while going towards Karnataka. Though the items cannot be labelled as Goan, but the preparing methods didn’t rely on any shortcuts.
The popular destinations in the North Goa offered food which is no way different from what we find in any restaurant in Hyderabad. Variety of rotis, gravy curries and rice items such as biryani and fried rice prepared in the same cooking format made the act of eating fall from a nice experience to compulsion. I might not have explored enough to find best food spots in North Goa but it is very easy to overlook such places due to crowded food joints.
People
From the way you are greeted at the hotel reception to the way food is served at the restaurant, a visible difference can be observed between the two sections of Goa. The reasoning must be the people we interacted with. South Goa has the homestays and food places mostly run by the locals who seemed to be relaxed and enjoying their job. Genuine care and concern for the guest and customers can be understood from the way they are treated. I personally feel that less crowd and greenery play a great role on how one carries themselves. The brain nerves never push to rush when signals sent by the eyes and ears are occupied by calmness of nature.
The stays at Calangute, Baga and Anjuna were run by migrants who treat them as a typical business venture. Worrying about the occupancy rate has no place as they can easily pull crowd during peak seasons. So, getting into details of the customer treatment is often not considered to be a critical one. It is just another job for the staff who hail from different parts of the country. Expecting them to go beyond the job responsibilities would be ambitious.
My aim for the next trip is to spend maximum of the time at South Goa to explore more food places and to make the vacation nothing but pleasant.
Would love to know your thoughts. Would you vote for North Goa or South Goa?
