Johnny G... I agree totally!

Begs a moral question then....if you find somewhere you really like should you go on the internet and write a glowing report on it?
Or do you write a report saying how fantastic it is to stay on the Baga-Calangute Road

I suppose we should look at getting rid of the Goa forum then?
This is a sort of chicken and egg quandry. Who spoilt Goa? Perhaps it goes back to the original holidaymakers? If you move on to the more quiet parts of Goa are you just going to contribute to the ruin of those parts too? If you feel strongly about Goa being ruined would the only real response be to boycott Goa?

"If you feel strongly about Goa being ruined would the only real response be to boycott Goa?"

There are factors that any Tourist Board of ANY country would address if they want people to return. Unfortunately because Goa (India) is so corrupt that it's all talk and no action. I thought this might change over the years.

The locals in Morjim rally round and make their statements about expansion and so do those down South (a project for another massive hotel has been grounded). Building work is not on the scale of CCB.

If anyone from Goa Tourist Board reads this board, here's a few tips...

1. Clean up rubbish. When they close down shacks/restaurants get them to clear up rubbish and heavily fine tippers!
2. Impose speed limits (tourists have been getting seriously injured/killed on the Baga Candolim road). The Baga Arpora road is getting dangerous also.
3. Give Goan people more jobs (make restrictions on who gets the jobs, 85% of workers in the tourist areas are not Goan, unemployment is running an all time high amongs Goans).
4. Deal with the pollution on beaches (illegal dumping of sewage on the Nerul and Baga Creek).

I will go back but will stay somewhere in the South.

These are only my opinions and since this appears to be a democratic board I'm just sharing them.

Fiona - you ask who spoilt Goa? (I read no further) The British and other western country tour operators who have encouraged the building and invested in the awful hotels that have sprung up in and around Calungute, they belt out loud music of Karoke quality serve mainly British food a la buffet and their staff seem to encourage the tourists staying there to behave like raving lunatics by keeping their glasses full or overflowing.and you rarely see an Indian national staying in this type of zoo Calungute 10 years ago was reasonable now I wouldn't stay there if you paid me . Baga I have never liked, and when I compared it to Blackpool a number of years ago on another forum had a lot of complaints (probably from people who are from Blackpool) The sun beds are so close there and every shack has its music blaring - and the beach sellers are i n a class of their own. Candolim I still like, peace can still be found particlarly between Candolim and Calungute stretch of beach. I am sorry to say that North Goa (keep quiet about the places further North and are still a paradise) ie Baga Calungute and most of Candolim has been ruined by tourism, by greedy money grabbing officials who think nothing of the consequences of their actions on the poor Goans. Enough of my soap box but it beggars belief at how tourism has ruined Goa for the Goans that don't want any part in tourism
We are giving Candolim a two week chance in December and escaping South for Christmas two weeks. The best way of helping the Goans is by making sure your money goes in their pockets, stay in guesthouses and locally owned hotels let your money speak. Obviously if tourism dwindled now a huge number of Goans and out of state workers would be out of work and this won't help anyone. We have to be responsible tourists and hopefully those that aren't will soon get fed up and stay away

BigNeil

We're glad you enjoyed your holiday as, like us, you have become increasingly hacked off with the rampant overdevelopment, corruption and greed of some (but not all) of the Goans.

Calangute and Baga are no longer the idyll we found on our first visit. The fishing waddos are full of newly built concrete monstrosities with tarmacked roads. Long gone are the coco shanty shacks with people cooking around open fires calling to you and asking how you are enjoying your visit.

We loathe the English and Irish-themed bars, karaoke, quiz nights and televised football. The tiny darburs serving pure veg food with spitoons up the corner are being replaced by places offering draught beer and steaks. The ever-increasing hoards of tourists are of the trashy variety which we can imagine frequent the Canaries (in our opinion). The hippy-traveller type have moved on and so have we.

We have booked a charter flight from Birmingham in March from which we will travel to Gokarna and then on to the far north (Arambol and Mandrem) and we have booked flights to Trivandrum in December with a return from Mumbai in January.

Big Neil

Can you help me on this?

Re -Lonely Planet on Morjim
Welcome to Russia Town, for some inexplicable reason, Morjim is the destination of choice for Russians on holiday, and only receives a trickle of day trippers from other beaches
Is this true?
Thanks b

Neil and goanluv
it is something that I have wondered about myself with other destinations I have liked in the past. Where Macdonalds have sprung up or "full English breakfasts" I avoid them like the plague. I have seen two of my once favourite places go too far down that route and sadly I have not returned. Sometimes there is not a solution is there?
However, as you say, perhaps someone from the Goa tourist board does read our forum. You never know....

Fi - do you really believe that...........................????? The only thing that the Goan tourist board (which is probably run mainly by other state Indian nationals not Goans) listen to is the sound of money
Sorry to say until Goa is run by the Goans (instead of the wealthy bombayites) it will continue to be so. Incidentaly did you know that the waiting list to transfer to the Goan police force (within India) has the highest number of people wanting to work in Goa -- this is because they know there is money to be made from the tourists - legal or otherwise.

monstrosities with tarmacked roads. Long gone are the coco shanty shacks with people cooking around open fires

Shanty shacks open fires to me spells squalor tarmacked roads tend to say progress do you want the place cleaned up or not, yes corruption is rife in Goa name a place in the UK that hasn't got some one on the take.
When people come to the UK and moan about us I say if you don't like it you don't have to come here. just my humble opinion.

Alan

yes forum followers will know im new to goa and im off in april for my second visit in months but i have to agree if id have visited baga or calagute im not sure we would of been as bitten or should that be smitten with india

Alan thats a can of worms you have opened.
'When people come to the UK and moan about us I say if you don't like it you don't have to come here.'
How many of our immigrants have a good word to say about the UK or its people. Whereas most people who return to Goa year after year recognises its faults and accepts them because they love the country and the Goan friends they have made however, they are still allowed to moan about them . Hardly the same

Alan - we don't intend to go Calangute or Baga anymore!

India is a vast country and not liking two small package tourist resorts because in our opinion they have lost their "Indian-ness" doesn't mean that we are snubbing the entire sub-continent.

I live and breathe India. I spend every spare moment I have reading about India - it's past, present, future, I live on Indian veg food, listen to Indian music, practice yoga and watch Hindi movies. I can even speak a little Hindi.

Like many people on this forum I count the days till I can return to India but having travelled elswehere in this fantastic country I despise the mass development and exploitation I have seen in a small part of North Goa.

Vicky

100% with Vicki on all she says
LYN X

Goaluv that's just what I'm saying the Goans are really nice people and if we run down there country what kind of response can we expect from them? the ordinary people can do less about the way there country is run than we can. and I was talking tourists not immigrants that is a totally different thing .

Alan

Alan - Goa's a state, not a country

Correct goanmad, But I'm fairly sure it's part of India perhaps you should have said they have lost there "Goan-ness" and not there Quote "Indian-ness"
Alan

we really love Candolim, yes it's busy on the main road but you can stay on a side road and it's surprisingly quiet. we have a back room on the main road and don't hear a thing.
Calungute and Baga have always been busier,we went through on the bike and I held my breath abit, mainly in Baga as the road was narrower.
We like the quieter places to visit but like it where there is some life too...we love watching the goings on!
I do agree about the rubbish spoiling it and I often comment when we see piles of it behind the beach etc..it's a real shame and wonder why there are not ways in which it could be cleared up organised...I do get the feeling that everyone is left to get on with it and the government just comes along to take money off the business's..people have told me that there is corruption just like the rest of India and they seem unhappy with the situation too. We've been visiting for 10 years and there have been lots of changes but thats the way of the world now..it's shrunk!
All the people we know are still there and we've had so much help from them in the past with nothing expected in reurn so that makes it extra special for us..we've just come back and had a great time so look forward to our next visit.It is fair to say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but when people are a little forceful it is bound to ruffle a few feathers!! I feel sad that we are going to miss next year but I know that the year after will here soon enough! Happy holidays to all.
Dobby

Alan

I'm not well-travelled enough to distinguish between what makes something "Goan" as opposed to "Indian", having only visited a couple of states in India. Hopefully I will rectify this one day.

Vicky