VAGATOR (GOA), INDIA

I wanted to buy the most expensive ticket from Mumbai to Goa, but I was told they were sold out. The most expensive are 2-tier berths in an air-con car, but I had to settle for a 3-tier air-con berth. India is a really screwed up place and parts of it are inhumanly disgusting so I wasn’t sure what to expect from any of this. It turned out the 3-tier car was quite nice. Even though this was a daytime trip all the air-con seats were actually berths (beds). I had a top bunk in an open compartment with 3 bunks on each side and 2 more across the aisle. Fortunately there were only two other people in my compartment and they each had the lower bunk so I had the high altitude part of the compartment to myself. They even provide fresh sheets, blankets, and comfortable pillows. It was so early that sleeping for a bit made sense, but overall I would rather have a seat. The only view from the top bunk is a sliver out of the far window so I could only really see a thin strip of the ground just outside the carriage.

At least it was comfortable and that is important for an 11-hour train trip. We pulled out of the station on time and made a couple of stops at nearby stations and once outside of Mumbai we only stopped a few more times. I slept a bit, but there was a near constant stream of train employees walking through the car selling various food and drink items. I ordered coffee a couple of times and that consists of a guy with a kettle of hot sugar milk strapped to him who puts a spoonful of instant coffee in a cup and then shoots some sugar milk into it. The coffee was as delicious as you’d expect with that recipe and cheap at under a dime a cup.

The trip was far less nightmarish than I expected or feared. My favorite part of the trip and something I doubt I will ever forget is when I took a walk in the train and discovered that the side doors (the ones you get on and off the train with) were flung wide open in some of the cars. I think the employees mainly did this for air conditioning since that part of the carriages is not air conned, but the effect was amazing. The scenery along the tracks on the way down to Goa is really amazing with lush hills and farms and small towns and countrysides dotted with the occasional temple. I grabbed the bars next to the door and hung myself half out of the car for long stretches. Looking out a window is nice, but this was a completely open door so I could see even the area all the way up to the train itself.

The train had at least 20 carriages on it and most of them were like cattle cars with bench seats and bars over the windows and no A/C. Those were filled with Indians, of course, but my compartment was also filled with Indians too. They were the middle-class types I’m sure, but it was still strange. The only other “westerner” in my car was a shaved-head guy dressed in traditional Indian garb who looked like a Hari Krishna. I figured he was also going to Goa and I assumed he probably had been there before, but shortly before we arrived he came over and asked me which stop Goa was. I had to explain to him that it’s actually a state, not a city, and there were about 5 stops through the area. He admitted he hadn’t done much research yet and didn’t know where he was going. I told him I was going to Vagator, which is the capitol of the European trance music scene.

The shaved head guy was an English guy named David who had just come from the spiritual area of Pushkar and was going to Goa on a lark. We got off the train together and shared a 30-minute taxi ride to Vagator. I told him I was planning on staying at a hotel attached to a French restaurant with rooms for about $9 per night. He said that was too expensive for him so he found a room at a house with a rooms-to-let sign out front for about $2 per night. My room was quite nice and had a TV, a mini-bar filled with cheap beer and water, but no A/C.

I got settled and quickly headed out to a place called the Nine Bar, just down the road from my hotel. The Nine Bar was a big reason I even wanted to go to Vagator since the description in my guidebook said it’s a great place to spend the afternoon listening to a DJ with a packed dance floor that goes off until the 10 pm curfew for outdoor music. Not only do I love the music they would play, but the fact that there was a DJ and a crowd in the afternoon and evening instead of starting at midnight was impossible for me to resist. I trotted down the dirt road looking for the Nine Bar, but I couldn’t find it. I asked a guy I spotted near an empty building and he told me I was standing next to the Nine Bar, but it was closed about 2 months before due to some code violation. I was devastated.

By the time I got over that the sun had set and it was totally dark in the small town. Vagator is set in a pretty dense forest by the beach and there are no street lamps at all so if you are in an area between open businesses it is pitch black. It was a new moon so I could barely see my feet below me as I walked. I was heading down the dark road looking for a place called the Primrose Café, which supposedly keeps the party going with its indoor disco after 10 pm. I saw another figure walking toward me and was immediately relieved to know I wasn’t the only idiot walking around this empty town. As we passed each other, David the English guy and I recognized each other. He had also found the town was empty and was wandering around aimlessly. He joined me going to the Primrose Café. We passed about 4 or 5 large patio restaurants with a grand total of about 3 people in all of them put together. This was Saturday night, but there was no one here!

We got to the Primrose and it was also empty. It was about 7:30 pm and I asked a guy there who said the DJ starts around 11 pm, but people don’t usually arrive until midnight. I asked if there were many people expected that night and he said there should be an okay crowd. We walked further and found a restaurant with four Swedish girls eating together there and took a table near them. David went over and asked them what is going on tonight and they said nothing in Vagator, but they were going to take a cab to a bar in a town 20 minutes away and we were welcome to come along. The problem was the bar had a $12 entry fee, but then drinks were free. That wasn’t a problem for me, but David was almost broke.

The Swedish girls went to change clothes for the club and when they came back they told us the taxi they hired was full. If we wanted to join them we would need to get our own transportation. We ended up passing on the opportunity and we were both regretful for a while, but later we found out that the place is pretty cheesy and it was also hip-hop night. It turns out David was just as put off by hip-hop nights as I am so it was probably for the best. I came to Goa to hear trance music, not hip-hop. After a while we went back to the Primrose and it was still empty. I was getting tired so I asked the manager if the crowds on Sunday are different from Saturday and he assured me it’s about the same all week. That makes sense since no locals come to a place like this anyway and most tourists come for a week or so, so days of the week are meaningless. I decided I would come back the next night so I just headed back to my hotel to call it a night.

The next morning I had breakfast and went down to check out the famous Vagator beach areas. It was fairly close, but a complicated walk down some winding paths before you see the water. Once I got there I felt much better about going to Goa. The beach was a stunning cove with palm trees growing out of a volcanic looking hill and wonderful rock decorations at each corner. There were a few people there on the beach, but I could clearly see that this was definitely off-season. I walked down the beach and around a corner and found another cove that was just as scenic. This one is called Disco Valley and is the sight of beach raves during the peak season around Christmas, but this time of the year it was just some sunbathing by off-season tourists. I took a few photos and then went back to my hotel to ditch my camera and backpack.

I headed right back down to the beach with my book and parked myself at a restaurant that had some really cool music playing. Everything was very cheap and the atmosphere was excellent. I read for a bit and then ordered a beer and then a few more over the course of the next few hours. It was incredibly relaxing and memorable. Making it even more memorable was the occasional sighting of a cow that would just wander down onto the beach that would then collapse and start resting in a shady patch. I spent most of the day there, but I could see by the moderate crowd that the town is almost empty and I shouldn’t expect much that evening. I asked around and discovered that Goa, India is a resort that is packed when the weather in rich countries is bad, but empty every other time. From the middle of November until Easter, Europeans and Israelis come in droves to dance to Goa Trance music and even though the weather in April through June is similar, the place is empty. In July the rainy season starts and it’s even quieter until November and then it all starts again.

I rested for a while back in my hotel and then went to the Primrose at 10 pm. It was empty, as I expected, but the DJ was setting up in the indoor disco they have just off the huge and very nice patio where the evening is supposed to begin. I hung around and waited and the music started. It was similar to what I like, but somehow just not right. The DJ seemed to have bad taste. I stayed there for about 30 minutes and the only other people who came in were two girls and a guy who started dancing right away. After a few minutes one of the girls started getting dizzy and looking sick so the other two carried her out and I was alone again. I decided to cut my losses and grab a bite to eat before turning in again.

I knew at this point that Vagator was dead. My plan was to spend as many as 6 days in the area, but definitely not in Vagator. I looked in my book and read that the most crowded and touristy part of Goa is a beach called Calungute. If there were going to be any crowds at all in Goa they would be there. The next morning I went back down to the beach restaurant to have breakfast and relax for a while, then I went back to my hotel and packed up. Taxis are as rare as hotel guests in April but I found a van and a driver for hire and paid him about $4 to take me to Calungute.