A few random thoughts fror our early visits to Goa. I first came across Goa in the late fifties when the Portugese were still in charge I was an engineer in the Merchant Navy Only the Mates and Engineers were British, the deck and engineroom crews were either Indian or Pakistani, and the catering staff were all Goans. We called in to Marmagoa for some cargo and to change our Goan crew Sad to say I've very little memories of that visit.
I next visited Goa in the late Eighties when the package tour business to Goa was in its infancy. The company was called Inspirations and they used British Caladonian aircraft and Tristar planes You refueled in Amman in Jordan and were not allowed to leave the plane One year they even tried a flight from Edinburgh, picking up passengers in Newcastle, but they dropped it soon after.
Calangute was very different then. The main street was lined with palm trees, only half the buildings there is now. Kasmmiri traders simply spread a sheet at the side of the road to sell their wood carvings. We stayed in The Alphaville Hotel, much chaged now and under a different name, opposite the Mira Hotel (which had'nt been built then). For our arrival meeting we were given a small map and you had to make your own way up to the market, then along the Candolim Road, to a large villa, roughly where Domino s is now! Changed days indeed
There was only half a dozen hotels used, and the scene was very different from now Everyone was on half board and there were only a few restuarants. A few still survive, Lobos on the beach, The round Lobster Pot close by called something else now, and further up the street, Capricorn, which we still eat in to this day
The beach had very few shacks but was full of fishing boats. They ran their nets out from the shore and the holiday makers helped haul them in, a process which took an hour or so and the catches were huge. Today the catches they land are tiny in comparison. I'd walk from the foot of Holiday Street along the beach to Candolim and never pass a soul At sundown we'd sit on the beach steps at Calangute and watch the sunset They would only be a few dozen people there, an old lndian lady with a brazier selling peanuts, and hardly a local tourist in sight
The roads were empty then very little traffic, no scooters as i remember it, no roundabouts or any other traffic calming devices, a few white taxi vans ouside the hotel and that was it.
When i walk along the beach every day now to watch the madness of the local tourists at the watersport site beside the steps, its almost impossible to imagine what it was like all those years age And a closing memory, when a plane made a night landing at Dabolim somene went along each side of the runway and lit little open oil lanterens, as they were numerous powercuts and no emergency lighting. Ouir Captain on our first flight said in a lfetime of flying hed never seen the like before. Happy days indeed, much changed now but we still love the place and cant wait to get back
alan