Over the years,
there has been a clear demarcation between different regions of Goa, largely influenced by
behavioural patterns of the tourists that the state largely depends on for its
bread and butter. The beach belt of Candolim-Calangute-Baga have become highly
popular with mostly the Indian domestic tourists, and the areas such as Ashvem,
Mandrem, Morjim and Arambol, located further north, have been known to be
frequented mostly by international tourists and solo/budget travellers. And
while the former is doing enough to cater to its clientele, the latter – the
extreme northern beach belt – is also keeping itself busy with a range of
offerings, making it the ‘hip’ part of Goa.
Owing to the demands
of international tourists and budget travellers, Goa was introduced to the
hostel culture a few years ago. Since then, hostels have been mushrooming along
the northern beach belt. Till last year, the Anjuna-Vagator belt alone had 42
hostels. According to tourism stakeholders, Arambol is still a very nascent
market with a great potential. After all, this is the belt where the hippie
culture was prevalent decades before commercialisation took over. Even today,
the stretch is frequented by solo and budget travellers from across the globe
and is largely secluded.
Unsatisfied with her
mundane marketing job, Vajra Aigal chose to follow her heart and took the
entrepreneurship route. When Vajra, with her business partner, Vivek Gupta,
decided to start a hostel, the relatively unexplored and non-commercial belt of
Arambol was her natural choice. With the Jamaican socio-religious Rastafari as
the underlying theme, Rasta Mansion was born out of the dying urge to travel
and meet new people. Like many other hostels in the beach belt of
Ashvem–Morjim–Arambol, the idea, according to Vajra, is to keep the hostel
operational for six months in a year and utilise the remaining time to travel.
Vajra says, “A hostel allows you to interact with a multitude of people of
different nationalities, listen to their stories and know about things that you
never knew existed in this world.”
Another place in Ashvem,
Vaayu Waterman’s Village, is buzzing with action. From conducting lessons on
watersports such as surfing, wakeboarding, kitesurfing, etc, to conducting
various interesting excursions, the place is also a hotspot frequented by
artists. Vaayu also undertakes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.
As such, The Prakti Tribe - a community of individuals who care about the
environment allows those individuals to come together and make an impact on the
communities they live in through eco initiatives such as beach clean-ups,
community gardening projects, etc.
Known as a preferred
region frequented by psy-trance lovers, various restaurants and bars/shacks
have their little music festival-of-sorts on select days of the week. Over the
years, Goa has seen a surge in music festivals of various sizes and duration,
held especially in the Ashvem-Morjim belt. GOAT, a brand new music festival
that debuted at Marbela Beach Resort last year, is back in its second edition –
this time taking place at Por do Sol in Ashvem, January 26-28, 2018. The
boutique music and arts festival is an intimate affair, where you can immerse
yourself in the music or just sit by the sea and enjoy your beer. There’s live
music, visual art, theatre, dance coupled with yoga, alternative exercising and
therapies.
From
hosting brand new music festivals to ‘accommodating’ new resorts and hostels,
the hip belt of Ashvem-Morjim is also home to restaurants serving delectable
offerings, making it the obvious choice for the experimental traveller. The
stretch is still largely unexplored and hence uninhabited by the mass tourists,
allowing for a completely non-commercial and niche experience.