Just back from a 4 day vacation in Goa. First things first, I don’t who’s claiming all this tourist dip in Goa. I had gone on a bloody Monday and found it more crowded than some Mumbai locals. If this is tourist dip, I’m scared what happens in rise. Even foreign tourist didn’t seem as low as the narratives suggest. Goa is doing fine. If anything I just regretted my decision to believe all the Internet hype and deciding to try North Goa, veering away from my standard place of peaceful stay, Cavelossim. Not a great call from the kind of vacation I usually like, but still, overall I enjoyed only. Great seafood, relaxed vibe, decent alcohol, pool time, what’s not to like. Goa, end of the day, is the best India has in terms of beach chilled out stay, which is why we all love it. Yes, hotels/resorts are expensive now, but why won’t they be, isn’t it standard demand supply logic. Plus, hasn’t India overall become more expensive now? Now, the logic of Goa ill-treating domestic tourists. I honestly don’t buy this. Respect is a two way street. You smile, respect space and behave politely in a non-entitled fashion, most people will do likewise to you. I feel that cases of us desi tourist behaving like absolute idiots are far more than Goans treating desi tourist in an inferior fashion. We somewhere have to get our act right, domestically and internationally. I see countless corporate guys casually say how foreign clients/managers are way easier to deal with than desi clients/managers, then how come we don’t see that as a discriminatory statement, but when Goa feels so it’s blasphemous. Of course, one of people will be there suffering from Xenophillia, but personally, I feel best is to have ownership, understand we all are representing our people/country with everything we do and try to behave in the best manner to improve our image. The infamous taxi-mafia. I personally don’t find it as threatening as most people seem to put. The word Mafia and all makes it look like some Goan cab guy is putting a gun to your head forcing you to take you to Baga. I actually feel most Goan taxi drivers are nice only and honestly, the driving is better than most of India. Rule obeying, lane following, giving way for Ambulance (saw this to a crazy level, twice whole lane of cars made way), polite chatting if you want, not yelling on phone the whole ride; from these aspects I find most Goan taxi drivers better than most other city drivers. Yes, of course there are strong unions and probably politicians that pander to them. I don’t know what’s the solution to it, but I’m sure if things go that out hand, again it’ll just reflect in nos and things will be controlled. Plus, which are the other tourist places where Uber and all are used to travel around for spots? Aren’t all desi tourist places non-uber Cab centric. Overall, Goa is stil Goa only. You might suddenly see more news articles of tourist violence but mostly that’s narrative driven. When there’s any narrative to any news in topic, suddenly more news like that are highlighted. Financially, yes if it’s a 8-10 day trip and you’re planning for decent 4-star or 5-stars stay, probably a Vietnam or Thailand will turn out to be same cost. But this is also because India overall is more expensive now, and most other Indian cities also hotel costs have gone through the roof. For a small break from our usual city lives, Goa is the best we got and for sure I’ll look forward to being there again. Just, probably back to Cavelossim or even more south next time.