Anybody returning from Goa post 2012 New Year’s revelry would have experienced one thing for certain traffic snarls, extortionist rates for accommodation and almost no empty spots available on the beach.
With the holiday season becoming a free-for-all in the sunshine state, many city slickers have decided that they’ve had enough.
Chartered accountant Sanket Oswal, who’s spent New Year’s Eve in Goa for three years in a row, says, “We’ve always stayed in Morjim, which is not as crowded as Baga and Calangute. But this year, even that area was full of people.”
Oswal adds that the main reason he’s decided against going back to bring in 2013 is the rowdy crowd that seems to have taken over. “The problem is the kind of people that now come there. They get drunk and wild, and you don’t feel safe anymore.”
Jewellery designer Queenie Singh adds, “I last went to Goa in 2009, and it was much better then. I think people have realised that Goa is the hip place to be, so they throng there for its cheap thrills.”
Radio jockey Llewelyn D’mello, who returns almost every Christmas to visit family and friends, pegs the problem on the lack of infrastructure “The roads are anyway narrow, and now since everybody drives down in their cars instead of riding around on bikes, traffic has become hellish.”
{{/usCountry}}Radio jockey Llewelyn D’mello, who returns almost every Christmas to visit family and friends, pegs the problem on the lack of infrastructure “The roads are anyway narrow, and now since everybody drives down in their cars instead of riding around on bikes, traffic has become hellish.”
{{/usCountry}}Student Sooraj Nambiar, who’s been attending the electronic music festival Sunburn since its inception, adds that a bar brawl, topped with being caught in traffic jams everywhere means he needs to look for a new spot to party.
“Some men in a bar tried to grope a girl in our group, and when we intervened, the bouncers turned on us because we weren’t locals. This was the worst New Year’s Eve ever, and I’m certainly not going back.