Imagine a situation where a guest at your home starts disrupting the environment. He/she throws his clothes around, wastes the food you cooked, leaves the tap on in the washroom, walks in with mucky shoes, drops and breaks a glass, puts on the television without asking you or opens your fridge and begins eating anytime etc. How would you feel? Annoyed and angry right? Well, the exact same thing happens when one goes to someone else’s homeland and begins all scandals.
The Goans living in their little state love inviting and sharing their land with visitors. These Goans can be very sweet and helpful all the time; they always make sure to give the best comfort. But, if you do something to disturb their home, these Goans will roar like a lion. The nuisance that has been going on since a very long time in Goa has made the Goans furious. How can people just take things for granted? Here is a list of malpractices by tourists that Goans hate the most.
1. Getting drunk and creating a scene
The worst part of creating a scene is when tourists are totally drunk. Outsiders come to Goa thinking that drinking, smoking, Huka, beedi is allowed; especially since drinks are sold at cheap rates in Goa.
Some tourists unknowingly presume that Goans are drunkards. But they are not. It is their culture to have a drink or so; also most often they only have the Kaju Fenny as a part of the traditional lifestyle. And so what if they get drunk? They only drink inside their homes and bars.
Unlike some tourists party late, gamble in casinos, drink and take drugs getting totally out of control and then end up creating a big scene. Some even get tangled in fights, murder and some rape or get raped.
There are so many incidents that have happened on and again, yet people don’t realize. Instead, the Goans are blamed for the drinks and called drunkards. This kind of behaviour should stop, because if this goes, then probably this beautiful land would be closed to all the tourists.
2. Imagining Goa to be a California Beach
This image is a very wrong notion that people have in mind about Goa. Girls in Goa wear Bikini lying on the beaches getting tanned? Goan culture is not shallow. This is not one of California’s naked beaches.
Just because Goa has many beaches and many foreign tourists visit them in cool swimming costumes, doesn’t mean that Goans too lay tanning on the beach. Yes, there are some private resorts and beaches by stakeholders where it is allowed, but any random tourist coming and asking a passerby, “Where is that beach where girls wear the bikini and all?” is utter nonsense.
Lately, it’s been found out that some tourists from places like Karnataka and Kerala only come to Goa for this reason. To flirt around with the thought in their mind that Goan girls are tricked very easily. No dear, you have got it all wrong; the girls from Goa may be beautiful and stunning, but they are smart enough to escape from such people.
The opening of spas in Goa has also caused a lot of issues, where these tourists imagine the spas to be a prostitution home; this has caused a lot of salons and spas to be shut down. At the spa, when tourists ask the women to indulge in wrong activities and are denied, they go around spreading many wrong rumours about the spas, which then results in raiding, shutting down of the spa and giving Goan culture a bad name.
3. Littering Around
No one likes to live in a dirty environment. Due to some tourists littering the roads and practising unhygienic methods, Goa is called a dirty place by the rest. Just look at the beautiful trees, beaches, houses, and roads of Goa; isn’t it all beautiful? If so then why dirty such a good place, especially if it is not something which belongs to you.
Tourists have no right to mess up or destroy anything in this exotic land. Many people just eat and throw the garbage on the beaches or roads. How can you expect a clean beach, if one is going be lazy and not use the bin? People think that Goa’s beaches are very dirty because of some tourists who misuse everything.
Once it was even noticed that a bus coming from the other states with tourists in it, had a man peeing out of the bus. Such indecency! Vulgarity! And you call our Goans bad and dirty??? These things outrage the Goan people a lot. It’s not just the tourist, but even the people coming from the other places who are hired to work as labourers and daily workers.
There may be chances where they don’t have their private toilets, but there are public ones. The government has been building toilets everywhere. Still, even in those public toilets, people leave it so dirty and then go on to say that, ‘Goan toilets are dirty’.
Now you may say that these people are uneducated. But this is not something where education is needed, it is common sense! How difficult is it to understand a simple rule of cleanliness? When they can listen to Modi’s speech and understand ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’, then is it not possible to also understand that dirtying someone else’s hometown is wrong. The truth is that everyone knows and understands but they just act lazy!
4. Gambling in Goa
Goa is a good place for gambling. But likewise, most of the Goans do not indulge nor step a foot near the casinos. It’s all the tourists coming from different states to become rich, or probably become a beggar and walk out the casinos in the morning.
The casino business has become so popular in Goa today that everyone coming from various places rush in. Practically they assume Goa to be like Las Vegas. But actually, Goa is a simple, peaceful land that most will not understand about. This is because of the greed that has increased.
Of course, most of Goa’s revenue works from these casinos, but that doesn’t mean all the Goans are endured in this activity. Because of the few, many suffer and Goa ends up being called a bad place.
5. Goa has fewer food choices
Recently many complaints from tourists have blamed Goa for having fewer food choices. Are you serious about that? Because Goa is a place where food floods in.
There are so many choices and so many restaurants, yet tourists say that there is only Fish curry available. That’s not true, and so what, even if it has to be fish curry, it is the daily local Goan food.
If you are coming to visit Goa, then you should try the Goan food. You won’t go to Italy and try Indian food; you would eat the pasta right? In the same way, tourists should also try the famous Goan fish curry. And no one has restricted you from the other items; there is the Xacuti, Vindaloo, Sorpotel and many yummy desserts as well.
Besides that, there are so many restaurants that serve continental food and plus different food from the states of India. Goa cannot be blamed because of the inability to open Google; or when the guide misguides you. It is necessary to step out the door and explore the culture. Sometimes you have to just dig deeper to find what you are looking for.
So now you know about these facts which really annoy Goans, don’t let them close their hearts and gates of this wonderful place. As long as you respect and keep their land clean you are always welcome. Do share your comments in the box below.
Discover more from Incredible Goa
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.