Escape from Within: Goa

After sitting inside the school gym for twelve hours of parent conferences over two days, we were more than ready to get out of town for the long weekend.  Goa is India's richest state and for about 450 years, it was a territory of Portugal.  The Portuguese influence in the area remains evident in the architecture (brightly colored villas), religion (churches!), and food.  Goa is just a two hour flight from Delhi and despite an air traffic delay, we got to our hotel in time for a late lunch on Saturday.  Afterward, we walked this pathway to the beach:

Of course, there were some cows along the way.  We saw lots of cows on this trip.

The sky was bright blue and the beach was beautiful (but the the surf too rough for swimming).  However, we quickly learned that while we had escaped Delhi, we were surely still in India.  As we walked down the beach toward town, we saw plenty of trash, had to step over big chunks of "bait" along the shoreline (an even more compelling reason to stay out of the water), and observed many facets of everyday life - large quantities of fish being processed, bathers, piles of kids playing in the waves, and just so many people.  We did not take photos during this part of the afternoon - it seemed such a touristy thing to do.

Once in town, we had three goals:  ice cream, a hat for Jonah, and mehndi (traditional skin decoration - India's temporary tattoo).   We were about to give up on the third thing on the list when a woman selling sarongs out of a tiny shack said she could do it.

While the boys got painted by the daughter, her mother made the case for anklets.  Lots of them.

In the end, we all got mehndi'd.

We made the classic newbie mistake of not determining price beforehand so for sure, we paid triple what anyone else would have.  But that got us thinking about how to bargain - which is practically a sport here - in front of the kids.  Can they understand the process of negotiation as part of the culture, and not see it as simply being disrespectful to the seller?  We are still working on how best to answer this question.

Anyway, this photo was taken as we walked back to the hotel.  Despite the sign, trash, trash, and more trash.

And a cow encounter.

 

Fishing nets leading the way:

On our last night, we saw this water buffalo being led down the beach.  I was nervous that he was being sent out to sea for being old or sick.  It turned out that he was just due for a bath.

Our four days in Goa were a great combination of experiences. We got a taste of Southern India and  a big dose of quality family time by the hotel pool. Asa and Liam are both champion travelers and it's fun to hear their ideas for future trips (Thailand and lots of snowy places currently top the list).  While the vacation plans for the next school year have yet to be made, what we do know is that the next time we see the ocean, we'll be landing at Logan airport.

And you can click HERE for even more Goa photos with captions.

Thank you for reading!