60s to 2004 hows it changed???

Canada Paul

I'm sorry. Now that I think about it, I believe that the words were actually "A Plane Of Consciousness", and not "A State Of Consciousness". There is a difference. I wouldn't want to skew the original author's meaning, whatever that is.

A friend of mine said that he was looking at that sign when he was really, really "peaking" and he had a sudden epiphany (imagine that). That sign really is another way of saying "What am I doing here?", and it sums up the the entire experience of living this life on this world.

Like I said. Some of us were really be-goggled and that was the sort of thing that we sat around and talked about. .

So, what is it like in Today's Goa? Besides all of the technological advances like electricity and TV, can anybody describe the atmosphere? For example, when we entered a restaurant, we sat down in any vacant chair. If there were other people seated at that table (and there usually was) it was not a problem. Everybody said "hello". We introduced ourselves if we didn't already know each other, and the conversation continued. If a chillum was being passed around, the newcomer was included too. Is it still pretty much like that?

Anjuna was a nude beach. Is it still? I believe that I have seen some recent pictures of Anjuna and it looked like there was a lot of commercial activity, like beach chair and umbrella rentals (I'm guessing; I don't know for sure) and vendors. Am I right? So, I'm thinking that the answer is probably "No. Anjuna is no longer a nude beach." Am I right, again? That would really be a shame. All of that nudity is one of my fondest memories. What can I say? I was a 19-year-old Canadian male. We were all bundled up from the cold where I came from. But I guess what I'm saying is that we were free spirits in the '70's in Goa. Of course times change, and of course modern technology has arrived. That's ok.

But what is the spirit, the atmosphere, Goa today?

And the rest of India, too. I didn't just spend all of my time in Goa. I managed to visit many other places in India, as well.

There I go again. I tend to start rambling and don't know when to stop. I will keep a close eye on this thread. It is quite fascinating. Thank you India Mike, whoever you are, for creating this remarkable Web Site.

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Canada Paul

Ikuru

Canada Paul, you wouldnt like it man... Its not like that now...
Anjuna beach, last time I was there (7years ago?) was a bit of a dump... Kind of dirty, some lost charter tourism in one end and a bit of a washed up trance scene with no spirit left in the other...

If one wanted to get any of the good vibes one had to go to Arambol, or better yet gokarna for that. but even gokarna was getting internet and hotels... (dont know if they built a spoken of huge hotel there after that).

Even the fleamarket isnt that nice anymore, ollot of junk beeing sold there these days, and vagator that used to be a more remote beach on my first trip, had turned in to what you describe, the umbrella/rent a chair sort of thin now, with fat pale charter tourism sort of thing.

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Roxy1

Canada Paul, there are still a lot of the old folks still around in Anjuna, though the group is getting smaller and no the beach is no longer nudist. Alejandro died a few years ago, ditto Mary. Remember Eric, he died also. Sitaram is Rampuri (rampuri.com). Eddie is still in Joes every lunchtime, hes 84 now. Its all a far cry from the old days, though the locals (Anjuna) are still very cool, and the next generation is running the chai shops and generally looking after us oldies. Yes we could all sit and bemoan the changes but at the end of the day there is nowhere quite like Goa, and south anjuna was, and still is a one off. If there was anywhere else to go maybe we would have moved, but there isnt and we havent. I cant think of anywhere else in the world you can sit in a beach bar smoking chillums. Only Anjuna. Bom Shankar.

wonderwomanusa

I knew about Mary, but hadn't heard about Alejandro. I spent a lot of time with him in Baga and in Kabul, and think of him often. Thanks for letting me know.

machadinha

Owww... Ouch. A hug, WWU. And I'm sorry for you, and all those others, and their friends...

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Canada Paul

Dear Wonder Woman,
You replied to my post that you knew Alejandro quite well. I was just looking for your email info in your profile. I wanted to contact you and reminisce about my old friend. Right then, my own email notification came in with this news from Roxy1. I was going to say, if you lived with Bombi the Great (Alejandro) in Goa, and you enjoyed the experience enough to live with him AGAIN!! in Kabul, you truly are Wonder Woman! You called him an amazing fellow. Indeed he was quite a remarkable individual. He was a formidable presence. Anyone who could live with him, and then live with him again, had to be strong-willed, self confident enough to match his own powerful energy on his level. Once a person met Alejandro eye to eye, he or she was rewarded with the friendship of one of the most open and honest and loyal and generous people in the world. In the time that I spent traveling with Alejandro from India to Pakistan to Thailand, where our paths parted, hardly a day went by that I didn't have a good laugh, either with him or at something that he said or did. He was just so...real, such a no B.S. kind of a guy. For example, do you remember how he hailed a taxi? He stepped out into the middle of the street, right in front of the approaching cab, and stretched his arm straight out in front of himself with his palm up, in the universal pose for "Stop!!!" The taxi could either stop, swerve around him, or run him over. They stopped. Every time. And he walked, calmly, around to the passenger side and opened the door and got in. Then he gestured to me and our other traveling companion to "come on, get in, let's go. We're holding up traffic here".
If you lived with him in Kabul, I'm thinking that it must have been after his trip to Thailand with me and James. And Your time with him in Baga must have been before Thailand, but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago. Maybe he spoke about us? I was Paul, the young kid from Canada. I was 20 years old in 1976, when I knew Alejandro. I think it was 1976. It was the year Elvis Presley died, I remember that. Alejandro liked me, I think. He absolutely hated James, our other travelling companion. He referred to James as "That Mother F***ing Texas BAS-tard Mother F***er!!" I never heard him call James by name. He was "That Texas M-F'er"
I could go on and on about Alejandro the Great. He was a great man, a Goa legend. I, too, think about him often.

The only Mary that I can think of was Sitaram's Mary. Is that who has passed away, or was it a different Mary? I have visited Rampuri.com and have noticed that Mary is not there. I wondered what had happened to her. I assumed that, in the long run, she was less committed to the Ashram lifestyle than he.

Now, Dear Roxy1,
Thank you for putting it in a nutshell for me (us). What you said about Anjuna was exactly what I was hoping to hear from someone. Everybody misses the old days and would like to see things back the way they were. I, for one, learned a long time ago that times change. Times were changing back in the hippy days, they are changing now. 30 years from now they will say that it's a far cry from the turn of the century. Our favorite catch phrases were "Go with the flow" and "Keep on Truckin'". But I'll shut up. You have already put it perfectly. It makes me feel really good to hear that, after all, Anjuna is still Anjuna. Enjoy your chillums. No, there is no nudity, but at our age it's probably a good thing. No, there is no more free acid, but it wasn't really free anyway. Somebody was paying for it. But there is electricity and broadband and it will always be a beautiful place.

Another long winded post. I'm sorry. You all have better things to do than read the remblings of an old hippy once-was.
Bombalai

Scandojazzbuff

Is that the infamous 8 fingered Eddie you speak of? Met him somewhere in 1970. Can't remember. I've run into a few people here and there that are old Goa hands. Jerry Schultz, Bombay Brian, John Moon, and, a woman named Moshka I met in Penang in the mid 90's. In fact, I just ran into a guy in Mammalapuram who claimed to know all these people, Baba Free and Cool! What a character.

Tanka Baba

Just talked with Jeff (Hog Farm) yesterday. I knew Mary. Ditto
"Hollywood Peter", Gil too. Nice to wake this morn!! ARCH

rushie82

I dont know any of these ppl or places but it makes me very nostalgic i dont know why?

Tanka Baba

Why, shore I do!! Can get in touch with a few, too!! Where is
Tom Cole? Al & Lynn? Skinny Jimmy is alive & well!! Bombadillo
didn't make it. Many are STILL out here!! Lurv, ARCH

Scandojazzbuff

Last I heard, Tom Cole was somewhere in N. California, but, that was several years ago.

wonderwomanusa

Simma and I rented the house just behind Tito's restaurant over the winter of 1972. Jerry Schultz stayed with us for quite a while.

Bombay Brian is in the Northwest, somewhere; a friend is in touch with him. He's apparently doing quite well.

He was certainly an experience! I knew him from 1971 to 1973.

I can't recall Mary's last name; she lived in the little house behind Blind George's house. I think she had five kids in that house. Anyway she died in Amsterdam about two years ago.

Roxy1

Are we talking about the same Mary, known as Big Mary with the kids, used to live in Baga. If so she had three children and died the year before last in Goa.

Tanka Baba

Yes, that be her, "BIG MARY". R.I.P.

liverpool les

I don;t know what its like now, but in the 70's we had no electrics, lighting was a pump up kerocin lamp, the toilets were little palm tree huts, "you had to go in with a stick to keep the pigs at bay" or go in the fields, used a lota to shower. the drinking and washing water was out the well,which you would have to pull yourself, the well would dry up as the weather got hotter, so you would have to go to the deeper ones. i remember a animal fallng down one afew times. tv was un heard of, those were the days, kept you fit, ps is the rse garden still there.

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that should of read is the rose garden still there. ps i also spent a lot of time with Alejandro with his whip, i remember when some australian tried to shoot him. few of my friends got locked up over that

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that sounds as if he whipped me, no, i meant he carried a whip,

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oh we all used to go to mrs de'suzas instead of the hospital, she once used i redhot bar on my foot to cure me of amebic dysentery (spelt that wrong). worked great, kept me off my feet for a while, made me rest lol "Anjuna Goa"

hepititus was rife, i had that 3 times. bombay, kathmandu, kabul

i also remember being one of the first people to ride my moter bike over the hill from anjuna to baga 75 that was with hollywood and Alejandro, Alejandro didnt make it he had a bigger bike

Ps we had the big yellow bus parked in baga, "the bedford rocket" Trans arabian tours leon and myself 74/75 does anyone remember it