There is a lot more to Goa than beaches and raves. The coastal state may be most well known as the last stop on the Hippie Trail in the 70s or the epicentre of the 90s psychedelic trance scene. But there is plenty to do and see if your partying days are behind you and your idea of a good night is being dead to the world by half past nine.

Even though its the smallest state in India, it can still take three or four hours to drive from the bustling chaotic beaches in the north to the quieter posher resorts in the south. Goa is more like a collection of small villages than a typical Indian city, and the most fun way to explore it is by hiring a scooter and zipping around its narrow country lanes fringed with swaying coconut palms. You could probably see most of the major “sights” in a long weekend, but if you stay a bit longer the laidback Goan vibe (termed susegad) is bound to get under your skin…

Goa Travel Diary Part 1: Old Goa 

I found a local tour company online called “Make it Happen” and joined two of their heritage walks – one in Old Goa and one in Fontainhas – two areas which were respectively the first and second capital of the Portuguese Empire in India which lasted from 1510 to 1961. My guide was a young archaeology PHD student who also freelanced with the Archaeological Survey of India and was full of interesting anecdotes. Like the fact the Portuguese chose Old Goa as their capital because of its location deeper inland along the banks of the Mandovi river which meant it could not be easily attacked by sea. That Goa became a key trading hub on the spice routes that connected Lisbon with the Portuguese colonies in Mozambique, Macao and Nagasaki. That the Goan economy generated so much wealth for the Portuguese that legend has it that the profits generated from one year’s trade were sufficient to rebuild the city of Lisbon after it was hit by an earthquake-tsunami in 1755. 

Perhaps because the Catholic Church was a key financier of the early Portuguese expeditions to India, the only major monuments they built during their time here were churches. There is a smattering of these in Old Goa and they form the focus of the heritage walk. The first church we stopped at on the walk was St. Cajetan Church, ironically built not by the Portuguese but a group of Italian priests in 1661. Its supposed to be modelled on the lines of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and has an impressive dome and an intricately carved Baroque altar and wooden pulpit. There is a vault below the altar where the dead bodies of Portuguese people used to be stored before being shipped off to Lisbon to be given “proper” burials. Near this church according to local legend is the main site of the Goa Inquisition which lasted from the mid 16th to the mid 19th centuries and during which time thousands of local Hindus who had been newly converted into Christianity were imprisoned, tortured and killed following accusations of secretly practicing rituals and ceremonies of their former faith. 

The next church on the heritage walk, the Se Cathedral, also has its share of unsavoury history. The garden in front of it that has a marble Christ statue is said to be the former site of the main marketplace where slaves “imported” from Mozambique were regularly auctioned off to wealthy local Portuguese families to work in their houses and on their ships. The cathedral is the largest in Asia and its Tuscan-style lime plastered exterior is imposing even though it is relatively plain and lacking in ornamentation. It once had two bell towers but one collapsed in an earthquake. The remaining one still houses a giant golden bell that rings out every hour. 

The Church of St Francis of Assisi which is right behind the Se Cathedral has a striking gold-flecked altarpiece and colourful floral frescoes painted on its arches. Across the street is the baroque monstrosity, the Basilica of Bom Jesus, famous for the mortal remains of St Francis Xavier which apparently defy the laws of biology and have not decomposed in over 400 years despite not being preserved using any chemicals. The Basilica, built in 1594, is one of the oldest churches in India and stands out from the other whitewashed churches in the neighbourhood because the lime plaster that once covered its exterior facade was removed, revealing its reddish-brown laterite stone masonry.

A short walk away on a small hill is the less famous but quieter and prettier Convent of Santa Monica which houses the chapel of the Weeping Cross (the Christ statue here is said to have wept tears of blood in 1636) and the Museum of Christian Art. 

Goa Travel Diary Part 2: Fontainhas  

The second heritage walk took me around Fontainhas or the Latin Quarter, known for its colourful streets filled with Portuguese-style villas, tiny chapels, bohemian cafes and art galleries. Apparently the Portuguese mandated that the only buildings that could be painted white were churches and so people painted their houses with indigo blues and pistachio greens and canary yellows. They were also mandated by law to repaint their houses every year after the monsoons, a practice that has continued in some neighbourhoods to this day. Our guide pointed out several interesting architectural features like elaborately carved wrought iron balconies, window panes covered with oyster shells, tiled roofs topped with statues of roosters. In Portugal, a rooster is something of a good luck charm because of an old legend called the Rooster of Barcelos. According to the legend, a man falsely accused of stealing was sentenced to death. He told the judge, who was about to tuck into a feast of roasted cockerel, that as proof of his innocence the cockerel he was about to eat would come back to life and crow, and lo and behold it did. 

Goa Travel Diary Part 3: Museum of Goa 

There are several interesting museums in Goa but the one I liked best was the Museum of Goa, a contemporary art museum that celebrates Goa’s history, culture and folklore. There is a series of stunning black and white photographs of local fishermen at work and another of Goan families in the 1920s dressed in their Sunday best. There is a room filled with large “chillies” covered with colourful patchwork patterns suspended from the ceiling – symbolising the spice trade which for centuries was the bedrock of the Goan economy. A little known fact is that chillies as well as Goa’s famous cashews were actually introduced to the local population by the Portuguese who shipped them over from Brazil. One particularly haunting installation is a large fork-like structure covered with cowrie shells. Portuguese agents purchased slaves from local chieftains in Mozambique and paid for them with cowrie shells, which was the original currency in that region. And slaves used to be tied to the forked branches of trees so they could not escape. Another exhibit with an intriguing backstory is a series of male mannequin torsos with Christian crosses around their necks and caste threads tied across their chests. Apparently Hindus belonging to the upper Brahmin castes who were converted by the Portuguese to Christianity could not stomach the thought of being equal to the lower castes and asked for a special dispensation so that they could continue to wear their caste threads. This was granted by a special decree by none other than the Pope himself in 1623 and thus the caste system permeated into Goan Christian society. The museum also has a lovely sculpture garden with a flaming red and orange wall framing it at one end. A lot of the artworks and installations in this museum use recycled and up-cycled materials like rubber tyres, fishing nets, plastic bottles, seashells and reclaimed wood from fishing boats. 

Goa Travel Diary Part 4: Divar Island 

An interesting initiative trying to encourage more experiential “slow travel” in Goa is B-Live which organises guided electric bicycle tours of Divar Island on the Mandovi river. The sleepy little island is very picturesque with paddy fields, mangrove swamps and cashew trees and is home to several species of birds as pointed out along the way by my young guide, who besides having a degree in marine sciences was a budding ornithologist in her spare time! The stops on the bicycle ride included a whitewashed church atop a hill and the remnants of an ancient Shiva temple called Saptakoteshwar. The temple was built by the Kadamba dynasty in the 12th century but destroyed by Muslim rulers 200 years later and the only structure that remains is the temple tank where pilgrims would have taken a bath before worship. If you sit on the steps leading down into the tank for a moment and squint really hard you can picture what it might have looked like in its heyday with ceremonial lamps lighting up the niches built into the tank’s walls and the fumes from sandalwood incense sticks wafting down from the main shrine. 

Goa Travel Diary Part 5: Forts, beaches and sunsets 

There are many remnants of fortifications up and down the coast of Goa and they make for great spots to watch the fairly spectacular sunsets over the Arabian Sea. One such spot is Lower Fort Aguada which has a large rampart overlooking Sinquerim Beach. There is also a short cliffside hike that starts behind the fort and takes you to Devil’s Finger, a rock formation that is a favourite among young Instagrammers who can be seen queuing up here everyday around dusk, some even making the valiant effort to balance themselves precariously on the jagged rocks in heels. 

Another fort extremely popular with tourists is Chapora Fort, made famous by the 2001 coming-of-age Bollywood classic “Dil Chahta Hai”, which has gorgeous views overlooking Vagator beach and the thickly forested emerald green coastline.  

My personal favourite of the beaches I visited was Calangute. Its quieter and has fewer tourists and neon-lit beach shacks blasting party music. It also has a couple of great places to tuck into spicy Xacutti curries, sip Feni cocktails (made from a local cashew-based liquor), breathe in the salty sea breeze, watch the coral sunset and mentally make a note to investigate the cost of buying a retirement villa in Goa.