Goa

The Goa season begins as the monsoon dries up around the end of October. This is a beautiful time to be in Goa as everything is green and luscious. The plants are so overgrown it can be hard to find your way sometimes and there’s still the occasional roll of thunder in the air.

Things remain pretty low key until December when freaks begin rolling in for real in search of some party action. Whatever the party situation that year the New Year’s parties always happen as this is when everyone cashes in big time. They are, on the whole, ghastly spectacles where every drunk Indian tourist, dizzy backpacker, acid casualty, crippled beggar, corrupt cop and thief within 500 miles congregates. The roads are packed with motorbikes and no one gets any sleep for a few nights. Many choose to take a holiday for a week or so at this time of year.

Into January the nights grow a little cold and it’s good to have a sweater with you when driving at night. The winds pick up in February and the best part of the season begins. The tourists have mostly gone home and the travellers that are left are mostly those who have a real love of Goa and understand all that the freak scene stands for.

By March everything is burning up and all the bush has turned a dark, crispy brown. The locals burn the straw on the dry rice paddies and now is when all the season’s acid casualties begin to surface, wandering around mumbling their strange monologues.

By April the sea is like bathwater and it’s too hot to move. Everyone is trying to leave as fast as possible either back to the West or up to the mountains for the summer. The heat of May is even worse and is further aggravated by the thousands of Indians who arrive to take their holidays. They run along the beach drunk and go swimming for the first time and for a few, the last time in their lives. A handful drown each year.

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