Action stops at 10pm

Goa has definitely seen its glory days as a party central. The government has set a ban on amplified music after 10pm already in 2000 but it hasn't been enforced that strictly until recent years. Now the parties have faded and only a handful of places have music after late evening hours. In Palolem there is one bar that is open 24/7 and is playing music through the night but in a bearable background noise levels. For me this arrangement with the quite strict smoking ban added to that is somewhat pleasant though and it has sprung a fairly interesting for of parties: Headphone parties.

Idea is that you pay a relatively high 300Rs entrance fee plus give a 300Rs deposit to rent out wireless headphones that you can blast as loud as you like. Usually there are two or even three different DJs playing their own beats and you can choose by a flick of a switch whose melodies you want to dance to. Of course taking off your headphones and watching people dance in silence with their headphones on is somewhat amusing. But it seems that the local businesses are bound to find a way to bend the rules and the tourists seem happy to oblige.

The drug scene isn't as strong as it was almost two years ago because then it was almost impossible to sit at a beach restaurant without being offered hashish or something even more potent, usually by the serving staff. In Palolem it has been probably a week without anyone offering me anything but during the first days of my trip in the more touristic areas of Calangute it was about every 50m of walking that a cab driver, bystander or a shopkeeper was lowering his voice in an almost growling whisper about smoking something.

What is nice though is the fact that drug pushers take a polite no for an answer unlike the legit shopkeepers or jewelry sellers in the beaches. But usually ignoring them for half a minute drives them away, but when someone is pushing a card explaining his/her poverty in front of the book you are reading it is increasingly hard to just keep your cool. Acknowledging them in any way usually just means triple waiting time for them to buzz off.