Agonda Beach....Goa, India

Goa, in the south of India has some of the top beaches in the world and since we were close off to the beach we went!

On the way we saw lots of rice fields...

Roadside fruit stands...

And many nice looking houses...

The beaches of Goa stretch for over 60 kms facing the Arabian Sea with the North Goa beaches being more developed than the ones in South Goa. We opted for a quiet beach in the south and were not disappointed by our choice of Agonda Beach. It was clean, quiet and totally chilled out...just what we needed after two months of travelling.

We stayed in a little bamboo hut located in a coconut grove just across the road from the beach. It just recently opened so everything was new and fresh...

Everyone used the porch rails to dry their laundry...

We thought we would stay for a week, that turned into two and finally into three weeks. One of the positives of not booking too far in advance is being flexible with our schedules and finding the time to do nothing when required. So this post is not too exciting but will go down in our memory as the best beach holiday ever!

There were walks on the beach...

Beautiful sunsets...

Time to read...

Swim in the waves...

We also liked the beach because many of the locals also enjoyed it there....

Indian women do not uncover on the beach and often will swim with their saris on

These kids could not get enough of the fresh water shower to rinse off so Don finally had to join them...

These boys were enjoying some big waves off the rocks...

The beach had its’ resident horse that we saw going up and down every day, often eating the straw from the beach umbrellas...

In the evening people would ride their horses on the beach, that time of day was lovely...

Agonda is a small village that is dependent on fishing as well as the tourist industry so lots of activity on the water...

Fishermen take tourists out to see the dolphins...

The fishing fleet which some days had up to 30 boats just offshore...

Everyday in the restaurants there was fresh fish for sale and we ate our share...

This was our favourite fish place and one of our last nights there we splurged on a big meal with wine...

This is the meal we shared...

Tandoori kingfish, BBQ prawns, butter and garlic calamari with grilled vegetables, one of the best meals we have had in India. Speaking of food there was a lot of it eaten in the three weeks at the beach so much we both agreed we had to move on while we could still fit into our clothes!

This is our go to meal since we have been in India...plain rice, butter chicken and aloo gobi which is a potato cauliflower dish...

A lot of people come to Agonda Beach to do yoga classes as well as teacher training and as a result there are lots of vegetarian restaurants including this cool one with a great interior...

In India it is easy to be a vegetarian as the food is so fresh and the seasonings so varied, this dish is a vegetable pad Thai so instead of rice or wheat noodles they are made of zucchini. This is as tasty as it looks!

The food scene here was very diverse so lots of choices every day! 

Also lots of places to get cheap Kingfisher beer...

Don at one of the roadside bars...

2 for 1 frozen strawberry daiquiris...

Our routine everyday was cottage to beach to eat to beach to drink to cottage to rest to eat to entertainment on the beach and repeat! It’s a good life...

Lots of great musicians from all over the world...this duo was from India and Russian and played very different sounding Indian Classical music.

This guy from England was a singer of soul music...

It was a great way to end the days...

The town basically stretched on a road parallel to the beach with lots of shops and restaurants...

  

Every morning and evening the cows would go through the streets...

Some street scenes...

The food cart that sold Indian snacks in the evenings...

The bread man doing deliveries on his bike...

The flower guys pushing their cart...

Beautiful flowers all around...

Agonda is a very Catholic town so there were lots of services as it was Easter week. The church at night...

We went to Easter Sunday service and have never seen so many well dressed people, they all looked like they were going to a wedding. These young people had on their Sunday dresses and suit...

And the choir was very lively and loud and all looked like they were starring in a Bollywood movie!

So a glimpse of life on an Indian beach, another first for us but maybe not our last!