Goa

South Anjuna beach is arguably where more LSD has been taken than anywhere else on the planet. It was the scene of the Goan full moon parties of the 60’s and 70’s and is still one of the last strongholds of the original freaks. There are cafes and houses hidden away in the forest beyond the reach of the guidebooks and it makes for one of the most ambient places on the planet.

Goans have awoken to that though and now beach shacks dominate the coastline here and they play trance music all day which can get pretty tiresome. They hold ‘parties’ that last until 10pm and can be a good meeting place at sunset.

South Anjuna has also become damn pricey as more and more middle of the road stoners move out to live in Goa and the poor freaks get squeezed out. North Anjuna is still cheap but is very sleazy and not that safe a place for a single woman to hang around.

There’s good swimming in South Anjuna which has a small bay but somtimes the numbers of tourist boats arriving to look at the hippies can be quite intimidating. Old freaks play racketball in g-strings and Indians walk along the sands to gape at topless girls.

Anjuna is home to the weekly flea market that first started off with a few hippies selling their home made chillums back in the 60’s. Now it sprawls all over the rice paddies and the commotion starts well before dawn as the Indian traders arrive to sell their trinkets. The fat tourists from Bagator arrive by motorboat to buy these worthless items and maybe gape at the odd old hippy. The freaks themselves sell the clothes they got designed in Bali, crystal jewellery, fire sticks and juggling balls.

The Goa trance parties used to be held in Anjuna but are now confined to the late afternoon/evening parties that are a far cry from the original spirit that brought Goa onto the world stage.

Want to meet other road junkies?
Come to the Road Junky Sahara Retreat Feb 6-11 2012 to hang out with 30 other travelers to meditate, make yoga, tell stories and dance under the full moon in the desert.

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