Goa: The land of sun, sand and song
Throughout the last couple of years, Goa has been working toward becoming a tourist destination for the rest of the world. It finally seems to have completed the transformation and is now gathering tourists from every part of the world.
About: DSI
Goa has always stood apart from the rest of India since it was ruled by the Portuguese, while India had a largely British influence. The architecture, food and general traditions followed around the state are clearly different from most of the other cities in India. The state has a lot of churches and forts that have their own elegance among the rest of the infrastructure in the state. The forts that are currently protected architectural marvels initially guarded the state from any intruders, deciding which ships would approach and which ones wouldn’t.
Culture is usually ingrained into a community. Being a Portuguese colony, Goa has a largely Catholic population. A lot of the celebrations, feasts, activities, dressing practices still match the ones carried out all those years ago. Recent days have seen a greater western influence thereby changing and modifying most of the trends in Goa. The languages spoken by the people in Goa are ideally Konkani and English, however, during long conversations, Portuguese words start making their way into the lexicon.
Tourism has always played a giant role in Goa’s development. In fact a giant chunk of the states revenue currently comes from tourism, while there used to be an equally large part being made through the mining sector. The entire state from the northernmost tip to the southernmost end touches the Arabian sea giving Goa more than 20 different beaches lining its western border. Some of these are popular like Calangute and Candolim, while others are not as heard of and classified as virgin beaches. There are other tourist sites in Goa as well, forts, waterfalls, trekking paths, smaller inland rivers, all these provide for an all round entertaining holiday to Goa.
Goa is not as developed as many of its Indian counterparts like Bombay and Bangalore, but it is definitely on the higher side of the scale. It does have its fair share of development with some developed cities like Panjim, Mapusa, Margao and Vasco. Panjim is the capital of Goa and is connected to the rest of the state by two bridges, Mandovi to the North and Zuari to the South. Margao is seen as the commercial and cultural capital of Goa. Vasco on the other hand is the largest city in the state.
Most tourists prefer hanging out around Calangute and Baga. However, this only works in North Goa. Tourists heading to South Goa have the beaches of Colva and Majorda for their share of warm white sand and sun. Other interesting places to visit are Old Goa, where there are ample Churches which have survived the test of time, while being maintained very well. The Tiracol fort, Aguada fort are among some of the forts that should be checked out too. Tambdi Surla is ideal for temples and Dudhsagar for interesting nature trekking paths.