“The sun was slowly rising behind the palm trees, their black silhouettes against the orange sunrise. We walked back, along the beach. The ocean was calm that day and the jungle of Goa was slowly waking up, with bird calls breaking up the silence, and with the leopard nowhere in sight. It was a low tide, ocean floor exposed, and the hard sand easy to walk on, with thousands of tiny little creeks forming on the beach as if the jungle floor was draining into the ocean. On the way back, we had to cross a river, rivulet actually, just a foot or two deep, a stream that cut our path along the beach.”

On the Road Again – Dragan Ralulovich

Goa is my happy place, when I’m there I feel elated and alive, ready for anything and I dream about the future and its possibilities.

When I’m at home in the UK and its raining or I’m feeling down, I think about dancing on Arambol beach with the hippies; and I smile inside, knowing it won’t be long.

“I used to hate it when people used to ask me:

What are you running from?

I used to protest that I was running to things – mountains, parties, deserts, islands, adventures – things most people dreamed of.

I wanted to live in the dream.”

Tales of a Road Junky – Tom Thumb

Goa changed my life, it made me the hippie kushi person I am today; it woke me up and made me happy again.

I love the markets and the crazy bars, I love the trance parties but most of all I love the people, the locals but also the people I meet from all over the world; its wonderful.

“I don’t know if we ever really find ourselves. Each time we think we have it all worked out it seems to slip through our fingers. But I do know that meeting ourselves is a journey we make every day – but then it’s no longer about running away, it’s coming back home.”

Tales of a Road Junky – Tom Thumb

On January 20th 2020 (seems the number 20 is significant on this trip) I am travelling to Goa on a four week trip that will be something a little different from my previous visits to India.

Normally for me it would be all about party, party, party, with a few touristy things thrown in but on this trip I am spending the first week in the South with my good friend Geoff in an area called Benaulim. This is quite a quiet laid back area and I intend to fill this time with rest, meditation, yoga and swimming. I really need that mind cleaning time after a difficult year.

I have been coping with a cough and chest infection that has been reoccurring several times over the year. It turns out I have had a reflux issue which has finally been diagnosed and I now take pills for it and it has now completely cleared up. But this has been tiring and depressing and has messed up my plans this year a lot.

As soon as this health problem was resolved I have managed to break my foot. So, you can see I really need some time out.

A beach in Benaulim

After Benaulim I am moving on to Palolem also in the South of Goa. Palolem is famous for its beautiful beaches and beach huts on stilts. Its a bit busier than Benaulim but still fairly quiet and peaceful. This is said to be a good spot to go out and see dolphins and other wildlife.

There are lots of retreats there and places to do yoga, have a massage and to meditate. This will be the second part of my meditation rest and recuperation before the madness of the North of the state.

Palolem

“The resident characters that really made the ambience in Goa were the animals. There were vagabond cows who ate the flowers off roadside shrines and who chased you for your bananas on the beach. Sometimes the beach dogs would hassle them and they’d break into a run, sending people diving out of the way.”

Tales of a Road Junky – Tom Thumb

“The beach dogs themselves were a motley crew of canines in varying degrees of health. Some of them were mangy beyond hope and they gave birth to pitiful batches of puppies that would never survive the rainy season. One night I was tripping with a friend on the beach, staring at images of Shiva dancing in the moonlight on the waves. We slowly became aware of a paw that had landed on each of our shoulders as one of the mongrels had come to pay homage, too.”

Tales of a Road Junky – Tom Thumb

After this replenishing time in the South, I will take the train up North to Anjuna. I love this area with its wonderful Wednesday market, its trance parties and cliff top/ocean-side bars; it is full of life and vibrancy.

I intend to find accommodation once I get there and probably go on a few tours out of the beach resorts. The temple tour and spice farm is always a good day out.

I find the food in the beach shacks in Anjuna is pretty good and the bars are a great place to meet new people. Then its a case of keeping your ears open for the next party; and party I will.

Anjuna was the home to the hippies long before I got there

“The snakes were an abstract concept until you actually saw one. After that you didn’t walk barefoot at night any more. A snake bite could cripple you for life or even kill and so it was a good plan to stamp your feet as you walked and use a torch to see the small ones that were too slow to get out of the way”

Tales of a Road Junky – Tom Thumb

“In India you ended up believing everything!”

Tales of a Road Junky – Tom Thumb

The exciting thing about this part of the journey is many of you crazy people are coming over to Goa and out to Anjuna at this time because of Hilltop festival. I am so looking forward to hooking up with people like my friend Louise.

Hilltop is the big event of this period, its a trance party and its going to be wild. Who wouldn’t want to be dancing amongst the palm trees under a tropical moon.

After the craziness of Anjuna my final week will be in my happy place: Arambol.

Home of the hippies, the drum circles, yoga and Tai Chi , meditation and all night hippie parties, I love it These feel like my people and it is here my hippie kushi journey began; oh, and there’s some really good restaurants and a great market too.