Goa

Hello all,
This past weekend we were in Goa, and it was probably our most relaxing weekend so far. We flew in on Friday, checked into the hotel, and walked the 50 yards straight to the beach. We took a stroll along the GORGEOUS beach that stretches for miles and miles along the Goan coast and the Arabian sea. The beach is interrupted every couple of miles by rivers or red rocky cliffs which surround smaller pristine beaches. Along the beach there are tons of beach shacks which double as bars and restaurants. Each one has chairs, tables, and some even pool tables inside, or under the thatched roof and outside on the beach they have lounge chairs and small tables. Both Friday and Saturday evening Dan and I lounged on the beach and watched the sun set. It was really beautiful, check out the pics! Our days were filled with shopping, soaking up the sun, and playing in the magnificent waves. At night we sat on the beach at one of the shacks called Zanzibar and just listened to the waves, talked by candlelight and tossed the glow in the dark frisbee. We attempted to check out the famous Goan night life, but it was dead. This was fine with us, we very much enjoyed the relaxation. The food was also great! Anyone that knows me well knows that I have never liked seafood, well Mom and Dad, you will be very proud of me, both nights I ate seafood dinners. We had Kingfish, prawns and lobster. All was surprisingly good!
Goa consists of a series of small beach towns, and during peak season (winter time) where we were staying is the party place. But due to rising temperatures and increasing cloud cover caused by the coming monsoon, peak season is well over and the number of people is declining rapidly. Most of the shops and shacks were either already closed or closing that weekend. We had sun all weekend, but the humidity was really intense, especially at night.
There were two downsides to the weekend, but nothing detrimental to our good time. We traveled to Goa with one of the other Hewitt people, Pete and his girlfriend Jen who is in India visiting for a couple of weeks. But Pete was extremely sick all weekend so we didn't see too much of them. The other downside to Goa is the amount of looks us white women get on the beach. You would think I would be used to it by now because we get looks wherever we go, but it was worse on the beach. You see, Indian women and men are obsessed with fair skin. There is advertising for skin lightening creams all over the place. So even at the beach the women are wearing saris or jeans and t-shirts and sitting under umbrellas. The few we saw actually in the water were completely covered. So a lot of Indian men come to the beach to check out all the white women in their bathing suits. Needless to say this was rather creepy, but being with Dan helped a lot and I didn't get as much attention as other goris (white women) who were without males. All in all we had a great, very relaxing time. Goa is a wonderful beach vacation and it was exciting to see yet another side of India. We didn't explore Goa as much as we have explored other places, and we definitely want to make it back during peak season some day! Hope everyone is well back in the states! Keep in touch and check out the pics.
-Courtney