Anjuna Flea Market

The mecca of markets in Goa is the Wednesday Flea Market in Anjuna. We can't resist.


It doesn't look like much from the outside.


But pretty soon you're in a maze of bags, bedspreads, trinkets and tricksters. These bags start at 400 rupees ($8) but if you are Mark, you can get them for about 150 rs each -- that's $3 -- or less.


A decorated cow.


A vendor.


The prices and the quality are a little worse than we expected, yet there are some amazing deals....Maggie and Karma score a pile of colorful sarongs for 50 rupees (about a dollar) each. After an hour of haggling in the dusty rows, we've had enough, and need some lunch.



Near the market entrance we find this little oasis of shade and hip called Johnson's Cafe.


Karma and Maggie are excited about the menu. They have a wood-fired brick oven for pizza and bread!


Happy Matt.

We aren't sure where we are staying, so we drive around looking for a hotel, particularly one that two guidebooks recommend called Yoga Magic. The locals keep shaking their heads, but we keep looking, and down an unmarked dirt road we finallly find a construction project that will someday be the Yoga Magic Hotel. We get a great tour from the owner, and he shows us the pool, under constrution.


Sculpted concrete, almost ready to become a swimming pool.

Eventually, we find a room at the Presa Di Goa, a historic Portuguese mansion, and feel quite lucky to be there. Late in the day we get a ride to "the beach", but can't find anything that seems like a place where people would want to stay....


Sadly, the beach in Anjuna is littered with garbage, and the cliffs are filled with grim shacks selling trinkets and alcohol.

We drive on to the Vatagator beach, and though it has a reputation as the party beach for foreigners, we find lots of middle-class Indians walking and taking a dip.


This is called Disco Beach. No wild parties here today.

Matt takes a photo of Mark and Jen.

On the shore of the Arabian Sea.