I spent a lot of time in India, it started with Goa. Actually, it started by seeing an article in “Mixmag” about places to party in the world. I liked the look of Anjuna in Goa. I liked the look of Anjuna for a long time even after being there 94 to 96. I kept going back for several years for several years. Both living and working in India.
Anjuna and Goa was a special place then but I can see the decline began at the start and 94 was the high point. I suspect that the decline started long before I first arrived. In 94, though it was superb, there were issues. The police were keen on stopping people and searching them, the place was quite dominated by police then. Rooms were often raided by the police too. Often drugs would be conveniently found. There was a high level of robbery from rooms. It was illegal to hire a motorbike. There were many other issues but at that time it was still a great place to be, I don’t want this to be a negative post. By the time I was last there in 2014 I relised I never wanted to be there again. Anjuna had been quite ruined. Even Calangute wasn’t bad then in 94-6 but we always knew the future of Anjuna would be to turn into Calangute. So by the time Anjuna was like Calangute what would the latter be like? New Delhi?
I did see a lot of India and in 96, Bangalore was a nice city, in 2014, some of it was still ok but most of the old place had gone sour. The vibe had changed so much. India mainly was a laidback place, especially Anjuna in 94, even Bangalore was nice then, in 2014 it was heaving with web designers on motorbikes.
more to come…