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A Topping On Tourist Pie
A mere 45 minute bus
ride up the coast from the capital, Calangute is Goa's busiest and most
commercialized resort, and the flagship of the state government's bid for
a bigger slice of India's package-tourist pie. In the 1970s and early
1980s, this once peaceful fishing Village epitomized Goa's reputation as a
haven for hedonistic hippies.
The Town And
The Beach
The road from the town to the beach is lined with
Kashmiri-run handicraft boutiques and Tibetan stalls selling Himalayan
curios and jewellery. The quality of the goods - mainly Rajasthani,
Gujarati and Karnatakan textiles - is generally high. Haggle hard and
don't be afraid to walk away from a heavy sales pitch - the same stuff
crops up every Wednesday at Anjuna's flea market.
The beach itself
is nothing special, with steeply shelving sand, but is more than large
enough to accommodate the huge numbers of high-season visitors.
To
escape the hawkers, head fifteen minutes or so south of the main
beachfront area, towards the rows of olf wooden boats moored below the
dunes. In this virtually hawker-free zone, one'll only come across teams
of villagers hauling in hand nets at high tide or fishermen fixing their
tack under bamboo sun shakes.
NIGHTLIFE IN
CALANGUTE BEACH
Thanks to repeated crackdowns by the Goan police
on parties and loud music, Calangute's nightlife is surprisingly tame. All
but a handful of the bars wind up by 10.00 pm. One notable exception is
Tito's at the Baga
end of the beach, which stays open until 11.00 pm off-season and into the
small hours in late December and January.
Unfortunately, the only
other places that consistently stay open through the night are a couple of
dull hippy hang-outs in the woods to the south of the beach road; Pete's
Bar, a perennial favourite next door to Angela P. Fernandes, is generally
the most lively, offering affordable drinks, backgammon sets and
relentless reggae. Further afield, Bob's Inn, between Calangute and Candolim,
is another popular bar, famed less for its court around a large table in
the front bar.
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