What happens on a Goa Beach ?- Family Beach Activity Guide

What to do at Goa Beaches?  Adventure & Water Sports in Goa

My first visit to Goa on a hot summer day was in double-breasted suit; a serpent-like twin tongued tie wrapped around my itchy neck and a laptop in tow. But once I visited the beach of the Taj Fort Aguada, where I was staying I vowed to rip off my tie, burn the suit and move to Goa. In due course, the tie was peeled off, the suits dusted, dry-cleaned, mothballed and hidden in closets that were locked and marked -” Never To Be Opened”

The dream to move to Goa is yet to be fulfilled but I do almost an annual pilgrimage to Goa beaches to repeat my vows and whisper to the waves with sunset as my witness as the coconut palms cheer aloud with the sea breeze chanting with me

“I will move to Goa”

“I will move to Goa”

“I will move to Goa”

Although I recommended buying Property in Goa, in my previous post about Shopping in Goa, I was too late in implementing my own suggestions and now with the skyrocketing price of real estate in Goa, my dream to move to Goa, will remain a dream only jee. Unless somebody offers me a job to test hammocks on a beach with a book deal thrown in as a sweetener.

But my almost annual pilgrimage to beaches of Goa continues and that helps me revisit my vows and every time I visit Goa Beaches I find that gone are the laid back beaches of Goa that I visited before my marriage and till just about a decade ago with Wife Jee also. Today the Goa beaches are full of action and that job to test hammocks looks elusive.

In this post titled “ What Happens on Beaches in Goa,”, I am giving you what I saw on my last visit to a South Goa beach, the traditionally more laid back and pristine part of Goa.

Beach Shacks: Many things have changed over years on Goa Beaches but the beach shacks are still more or less same except in size, today they are much bigger, with more chairs and offer all kind of desi as well foreign drinks. Some of the Beach Shacks also act as your local friendly water sports provider also and also offer beach chairs under thatched sheds in absence of hammocks

I wonder when Goa became synonymous with action adventure and water sports from the destination of choice when you did not want to do anything. So here are some of the activities that you can do on beaches of Goa and can be enjoyed alone or with family:

• Family Boat Trip

• Dolphin trip

• Banana Ride (technically it is Banana Boat Ride, but it seems somebody forgot to mention Boat)

• Ringo Ride

• Jet Ski Ride

• Parasailing

• Speed boat ride

• Fishing Trip

This was when I heard the sounds of the kids who came for playing in the frolicking waves and opened my eyes to the other side of Goa. Meeting these kids on the South Goa beach was a wonderful experience for me and you can read about them here in this post

My Goa Blog post about Kids who stole my heart on a Goa Beach

There are a lot of other nuggets I observed on the beach, like this fellow blogger who actually found a unique way to preserve here memories on the beach. She wrote something (I am assuming her name) in the sand and then gazed at it as incoming waves slowly wiped it off from the beach. I am not sure what to make out of this, or of the sand artists who build elaborate sculptures in the sane knowing very well that come to the next wave and their art will once again merge with the grains of sand on the beach. Is there a deeper universal meaning/secret in human nature for things we do know very well it may not last forever. But then what lasts forever, when even the Stars have a finite lifespan, whose mystery was unlocked by Chandrasekhar limit. It is I only a matter of perspective and frame of reference in time and space.

I am not sure what to make out of this, or of the sand artists who build elaborate sculptures in the sane knowing very well that come to the next wave and their art will once again merge with the grains of sand on the beach. Is there a deeper universal meaning/secret in human nature for things we do know very well it may not last forever. But then what lasts forever, when even the Stars have a finite lifespan, whose mystery was unlocked by Chandrasekhar limit. It is I only a matter of perspective and frame of reference in time and space.

Like Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore said

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“The Butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”   

                                                                                                                                              ……Rabindranath Tagore

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Well after these little philosophical thoughts let us move on and share some more moments of action packed observation on the beach in Goa. The Gonsua Beach after the high tide mark is quite hard and is suitable for running and cycling and a few of the action-oriented folks were busy cycling and running on the beach. While the local vendors were selling assortment fo Goa Souveniers from beads to hats.

While I was wandering around a Jeep redder than the flaring red dress Kelly Le Brock flaunted in “The Women in Red” making the smitten hero Gene  Wilder, Wilder than he has ever been.

Ok, I will wait for those of you want to go and search for Kelly Le Brock on the web to come back.

Back?

Good, let us go back to the Beach on Goa and continue my post about the Red Jeep that was redder than the red dress that Kelly Le Brock flaunted in, “The Women in Red “.

On the bright sandy beach, the red jeep appeared first like a dot and then soon grew into a blazing inferno as it came closer. The red jeep looked hotter than the entire clan of bikini-clad firangis, in the background trying to get some tan in the blessed Goa Sun.

As the Red Jeep (technically a Mahindra vehicle but we desis call it a Jeep only jee, no matter what the real model name is ) on the beach, came closer, I realized it is a Beach Patrol, and my soon to be friend Sagar, a lifeguard popped out from the same as the Jeep continued further on the beach.

Sagar set up his station under a beach umbrella and kept a hawk’s eye on all the action happening on the beach. When the kids I photographed came on the beach he silently moved closer to them and made sure none of them ventured too deep into the waters.

One must appreciate to lifeguards like Sagar who work on the beaches of Goa keeping them safe. Kudos also to Goa government/tourism department to appoint them, it surely makes the beaches of Goa much safer both for the swimmers as well as women and families enjoying their time on Goa beaches.

While I was moving around on the beach clicking pictures, I saw a speedboat, speed away in the Arabian Sea with a Parachute in tow, with an extremely scared and screaming guy being cheered by his wife as the couple rose above the waves and became a dot in the blue Goa Skies.

Well, what is a Honeymoon in Goa without some adventure action and loud noises?

I think Goa beaches, especially the ones where Indian Families go in Goa  nowadays  much more action packed, safer and popular than they were just 10 years ago and much different from the hippie heaven they were in the 60s and 70s, though a lot of people still confuse Goa only with the same, not realising that is a very small part of underground culture in Goa, not the mainstream.

Just like Kerala Goa is also great for clicking Sunsets and there is no better feeling than watching the sun slowly vanish into the Arabian Sea as you sip on your favorite drink. No matter what your idea of Goa is you need to visit Goa as there is no other place like Goa anywhere else in India. You may like it or you may not like Goa but you will never be able to overcome your desire to go back to Goa.

Have you been to Goa? Do you want to go to Goa? Do you want to go with friends or you want to go with your family to Rediscover Goa? What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think about Goa? How about you share your views with me in the comments?

Images Location: The images for this post were clicked on Gonsua Beach, Majorda in South Goa, some with a cell phone and rest with DSLR.

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