SOME LOCALS, Goa

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This year, 10 Britons have died in Goa.
The Mother of the latest victim [ 15 ] insists she was murdered and the Police are behind a sinister cover-up, of which four were due to "unnatural causes" Goan officials are prone to turning a blind eye to crime. In 2007 40 Britons died in Goa from "natural and unnatural causes" its being claimed that about 20 tourists a year were being Killed in Goa, The increase of tourists from Israel & Russia brings with it organised crime its believed they now have their claws in areas of Goa.
The state's chief minister, Digambar Kamat has been forced to say that Goa's days as a carefree, crime-free holiday paradise are long gone?.

You may at sometime during your stay on the beach or in the market place be approached by people holding out a card offering ear cleaning services ! Do not let him anywhere near your ears. They carry dirty ear buds claiming it is from your ears and try and charge you for the pleasure.

Hi , you will quickly be adopted by fake friends in Goa. Be very careful as you are the golden egg here. Drinks are often spiked using GHB which will incapacitate you , then you will be robbed and often just left for dead. Stay in a group , and do not take anybody at face value , especially taxi drivers. The police will not help you if you try to complain , they will want money to even listen to your complaint and do nothing to solve the problem you might have. In fact the police are part of the problem in Goa. An intimidating group of small men with big stick's who mock tourist when this happens. Just be aware you are on your own in this area , it is chaos. The criminal fraternity run the police. I believe that 3 tourist's have been found strangled in Goa in the past 3 months. Tourist murder's are just the tip of the iceberg . I suggest Greece for sun and sea.

i know they're only trying to make a living and that but the people who sell sari's/drums/sunglasses/beads etc on the beach drove me insane. at first it was quite nice to have a bit of a chat and get to know a few of them but in the end i was sick of it. i don't mind being asked if i want to buy something but its when they don't take no for an answer and start laying out all their stuff on your sunbed. the worst place for this was vagata by far. anjuna was quite bad as well. the only place where there where virtually none was palolem/patnem.
the trick is to look at them and politely say'no' once and then ignore them no matter how much they try to coax you with 'don't worry, looking for free' etc. it helps to have book or magazine to read then you don't even have to look at them. alot of them will say 'ok maybe later' or something along these lines and its tempting to just say yes so they'll leave you alone - don't make this mistake as they have very good memories and they will find you!

Goa has changed a lot with tourism for the past 15-20 years.

ALL locals are also angry about the crime etc that has been happening in Goa. However, these are NOT locals! These are people that have recently moved to Goa after the tourist boom.

The locals REALLY are nice people and you should try and chat to one. They are easily notifiable when you chat to them and they are VERY friendly and most speak english and Konkani or Portugese. The real locals are trying to hold on to their unique culture and are PROUD (although history will not mention this) of their portugese history. I've spoken to a lady of 90yrs old in Goa with fantastic english who told me how much better Goa was back then and how worse it is today.

Many goans will have portugese type names, Orlando, Maria, D'Souza etc so as soon as you find out their name it's a good sign if their local or not.

They may look the same but they are not, try finding a real Goan and you'll be surprised.

Reserving rooms at some guest houses at Anjuna can sometimes be a challenge - I went up there a week before I arrived to be sure I got a clean and decent room. I found the Sunset Guest House and even paid a deposit to the owner. But when I arrived there was no room for me. I got my money back, but then I had to find some other place as I wanted to be somewhere close to the beach.

And the fact that I had nausea and diorrhea coming fast did'nt make things much easier, so I just went for the only place with available rooms: The Sai Prasad at the northend of Anjuna Beach. For your own sake - stay away. First off I got a room with shower & toilet outside for one night, waiting for a bigger room with bathroom inside. The toilet was as worse as the one in "Trainspotting" - and I had a runny bottom coming that night. The timing could'nt be worse. Running back and forth between the disgusting bathroom and the unclean room I was given. During the night I woke up screaming because there were f**king cockroaches crawling on me.
I did not sleep one minute after that!

The day after I got the "luxury" room down the hall, and sprayed the place with insecticide to get rid of roaches and other unpreferable roommates for the next two nights. The owner charged me 600 rupees for the room, way too much concerning the standards. But then the room was cleaner than the first, so I figured I could live with it. Things got to a higher level of horror when I suddenly realised that RATS crawled the ceiling joist over my bed. No sleep that night either.

Stay away.

If you are a male & walking down the streets on your own, or with other male friends, expect to be approached by some pimps! Yes, proper pimps!!! They can tell you're 'outsiders', and so will pester you for a while! I was offended at first, thinking how I might have given them the impression that I was looking for 'that'?

They are clever with their wording: "do you want female entertainment?" "try our female entertainment!"

Another big Menence that exists in Goa are these "MOTORBIKE MUGGERS". They are usually people from other states and also a sizable population of Local Goan teens who try to imitate "HELLS ANGELS" ! These gangs come in huge numbers say 20-30 bikes or even much more at a time and are infamous for doing all types of crimes such as bag-snatching, pinching, harrassing women tourist, pulling off tops of women tourist or in some cases stabbing just for fun. This menence gets more during high season like christmas and new year. So Travellers especially women and young couples should be very careful. If you see a stream of bikes coming towards you, just sneak in to any adjoining restaurants/homes and wait for the bikers to leave.