Claiming the Right to Say No-30 Nov 09-EQUATIONS - Equitable ...

Tourism Report: Vagator and Arambol
Food Habits
Regarding their food habits, a shack-owner said that they order anything like
watermelon juice mixed with papaya juice and so on. They said that they order
and eat a lot and when the bill is given they are bound to pay the bill and hence
they cannot cheat. As far as I noticed, the shack-owners are responsible for giving
Ganja (drugs) to the tourists. It was surprising to see that all the shacks were
owned by the Goans.
Night Life
At night, all the tourists move into the ‘9 Bar’ party in Vagator, no one is seen on the
beach. Here, all types of tourists are entertained and Goan youth come here to
enjoy the party. Here, they see all types of bad things. For instance, if there was
any person (male or female) sitting alone, there was a man (a foreigner) who was
coming with a sheet of paper with these words, “would you like to have sex?” If you
see the rate of things sold on the beaches, they were quite higher than the rates
outside. In the middle, there were people who were taking drugs openly. There
were also Indians as well as Goans who were taking drugs. To make the disco
party fuller with more members, they had ‘Item Girls’ in the middle who were
arousing many men from the surroundings to dance and drink a lot. There was a
small cabin for relaxation. But, there were nonsense things that were happening in
the cabin. We had a great time in clicking the photographs as photographing was
not allowed. If you just go into the toilets, there were foreigners who had sex very
openly.
The Banyan Tree
On the last day, as we had moved to Arambol in search of the Israelis, we were
stunned to see all the tourists moving to the place called the “Banyan Tree”. This
is a place on the Arambol beach and far in the forests. Here, all types of tourists like
Germans, Israelis, Russians, English, etc. come together and share their problems
with the Indian Baba, who sits in the middle and gives solutions. There were two
ladies (both foreigners) sitting there. When we interviewed them, they taught us the
philosophy which states that “all come from the single source and that is the Banyan
tree”. She informed us that anybody can join this gathering. They come together
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