|  Palolem's
Paradise Beach is the last major destination in Goa for those
heading south, with the Karnataka border only a few kilometers
away, and is some distance from any of the state's other popular
tourist haunts. Palolem could almost have been designed to
embody the word paradise; a perfect crescent moon beach of
even white sand a couple of kilometers long, fringed with
overhanging coconut palms and dotted with parked wooden outrigger
fishing boats in the improbably idyllic way normally only
achieved in holiday brochure images. At one end the crescent
ends in a small rocky outcrop covered in palms, at the other
is a conical island covered in lush vegetation and separated
from the mainland when the tide is in by a small channel.
Sadly, the peace and quiet Palolem used to enjoy is quickly
becoming a thing of the past, with rapidly increasing tourist
numbers and the inevitably hasty, ill considered building
projects that follow threatening to turn it into little more
than a southerly branch of Anjuna unless some restraint is
applied soon. Even after the North Goa resorts had begun to
look overcrowded, Palolem remained relatively quiet due to
its out of the way location, an hours drive south of Margao.
But with Police clampdowns on the techno parties in the north,
the party crowd headed south and nowadays Palolem has lost
a good deal of the serenity that made it so desirable in the
first place. Since we first visited in 1996, much has changed,
and by 2002 at least two hundred shacks had been built almost
wall to wall on the edge of the beach, the road to the village
lined now solid with Kashmiri trinket shops and pizza parlours,
and, as a result of the huge influx of new business, Palolem's
single beach road is being introduced to the bane of Indian
development; the traffic jam.
In spite of murmurs of discontent from some of Palolem's
residents unhappy with the disruption of village life, the
increased tourism does bring obvious benefits to the local
economy. Local fishermen in particular, who still fish using
the traditional wooden outrigger fishing boats, benefit from
tourism by using their boats to supplement their dwindling
income from fishing by offering tourists trips to see the
schools of dolphins offshore.
Despite the increasing crowds during the main season, Palolem
is still well worth a few days stay. It is not yet as commercialised
or hectic as northern beaches (in 2002 at least), and prices
are still relatively low for food, accommodation (its worth
asking around as prices can vary wildly) and of course beer.
If the beach is too crowded for your taste, other beaches,
such as Patnam, Colomb and Rajbag are a pleasant walk to the
south over the small outcrop of rock and palms. Palolem seems
especially well blessed with beautiful sunsets, best appreciated
over a cold Kings or bottle of chilled port in one of the
beach shacks. If you are touring by motorcycle, it's a good
base to visit some of the quieter beaches along the coast
such as Agonda or Polem, the old Portuguese fort at Cabo de
Rama, or the Cotigao wildlife sanctuary.
Note: Natural fireworks:
In Palolem in 1996 I saw the most extraordinary display of
bioluminescence I've ever witnessed. It was on the night of
the February full moon, and must have been influenced by the
especially high tides that come around the full moon. Every
now and again a wave would break and we would see what seemed
to be a flash of greenish light as the crest of the wave broke.
At first they were infrequent and only appeared to be a few
metres long, but grew in size and frequency as the tide advanced
up the beach.
For the first hour or so it drove us mad trying to figure
out what we were seeing, our analytical ability not helped
by the evening of serious beer consumption. The local guys
we asked weren't much help either, mostly shrugging and suggesting
the moon reflecting on the breaking waves. Finally someone
went and got an empty Bisleri bottle an half filled it with
sea water. Shaking it up under the dark of the palms, we could
see small flashes of light inside the bottle as the algae
in the water were disturbed.
The "what" question dealt with, we got the beers
in and settled down to enjoy the rest of the show, which,
at its peak, was producing flashes of green light that ran
the full 2 km length of the beach. Sometimes they came in
one long unbroken simultaneous line of light, like a green
neon strip lamp was flickering just beneath the waves peak;
sometimes in a shorter strip that would move rapidly from
one end of the beach to the other on the breaking crest of
the wave. After about an hour the effect gradually diminished
in much the same way it had developed, a few short isolated
flashes here and there.
I've never seen such a dramatic effect again at Palolem
or any other beach, and still have no idea whether it was
peculiar to Palolem (perhaps the shape of the beach?), Goa,
or just a one off freak of nature. |
