India Guide
Goa
Benaulim
According to Hindu mythology, Goa was created when the sage Shri Parasurama, Vishnu's sixth incarnation, fired an arrow into the sea from the top of the Western Ghats and ordered the waters to recede. The spot where the shaft fell to earth, known in Sanskrit as Banali ("place where the arrow landed") and later corrupted by the Portuguese to BENAULIM, lies in the dead centre of Colva beach, 7km west of Margao.
Twenty years ago, this atmospheric fishing and rice-farming village, scattered around the coconut groves and paddy fields between the main Colva– Mobor road and the dunes, had barely made it onto the backpackers' map. Since the completion of the nearby Konkan Railway, however, big-spending middle-class Indians have started to holiday here, in the luxury resorts and time-share apartment complexes that have mushroomed in the rice fields. As a result, the village has lost some of its famously sossegado feel. Even so, if you time your visit well (avoiding Diwali and the Christmas peak season), Benaulim is still hard to beat as a place to unwind.
Benaulim's tourist scene is neither particularly "alternative" nor alcohol-driven. The seafood is superb, accommodation and motorbikes cheaper than anywhere else in the state, and the beach breathtaking, particularly around sunset, when its brilliant white sand and churning surf reflect the changing colours to magical effect. Shelving away almost to Cabo da Rama on the horizon, the beach is also lined with Goa's largest, and most colourfully decorated, fleet of wooden outriggers, and these provide welcome shade during the heat of the day. The only bugbear here is the hawkers: despite repeated clampdowns by shack owners, you can expect to be hassled every five minutes by Karnatakan girls selling lunghis and fruit – it's good natured, but intrusive nonetheless.