It was a warm, somnolent day on Baga beach, Goa, when my dog decided to transform from Lassie to Cujo. The lazy December sun looked down gently on the sands buzzing with winter vacationers.
Interspersed among the usual crowds of foreigners were dark-skinned locals, offering oil massages, chatting up flaxen-haired young things, and selling all kinds of trinkets (best described as ‘beach junk’) in at least five different languages.
My husband and I were sitting on the sands with Simba, our mixed-breed mutt who had a dachshund and a German shepherd in the DNA mash-up (no idea how they managed that). We fondly referred to him as ‘the long and the short of it.’ He didn’t mind. Simba had better things to occupy himself with than such ethnic slurs.
We were enjoying the sun, the waves and the sand. The faint strains of reggae wafted over from Britto’s beach shack, a few meters away. Meanwhile, Simba ran into the waves, wet himself thoroughly and then ran back to roll in the sand. He was covered with the stuff from tip of nose to tip of tail, until we couldn’t tell where sand ended and dog began.
Always a sweet, happy mutt, he was especially excited on this visit to the beach. The crowds of foreigners and Indians milling around had got him a little worked up.
In those days, Baga was well-known for the topless foreign women who chose to make it their personal tanning booth. Pretty young (and also not-so-young) things that would probably not have dared or cared to bare back home, readily shed their bikini tops and lay down to tan themselves on Baga’s benevolent sands.
Back then, no one objected to such behaviour, and a lot of Indians appreciated it thoroughly. The cops ignored the impotent ‘No Nudity Allowed’ signs in favour of watching the topless girls, jostling for a better view with other Indian males.
Indian women like me were, depending on the width and depth of our personal perspectives, either mortified or indifferent to these goings-on.
A generously padded, curly-haired redhead – possibly an Irish woman seduced away from all dietary strictures by Goa’s wine and vindaloo ethos – walked across the beach in front of us.
She too was topless and it was hard not to notice that, as she scurried across the sand. For some reason, my otherwise sweet, docile Simba decided to take offence. He chased after her, nipping at her ankles.
The lady (let’s call her Sadie) squealed at the sight of a furry, brown dog apparently determined to take a chunk out of her leg, and scurried even faster. I watched her work up the sand trying to avoid my mutt, and I wasn’t sure whether to be mortified or mirthful. A little bit of both, I decided.
I chased after Simba and leashed him. I had no idea what set him off – her size, state of undress or some other impulse known only to Dachshund-Alsatian crossovers. Either way, he had no way to communicate to me why a topless, white foreigner would merit such a reaction from him.
Sadie rode off into the sunset at a fairly decent clip, never to be seen or heard from again, while my husband and I returned to our spot on the sands laughing and wondering at Simba’s unaccustomed behaviour.
Perhaps he was overcompensating for the lack of policing from the cops gawking at women on a beach where toplessness was clearly not allowed.
For the rest of our vacation, we kept our canine fashion critic on the leash as long as there were foreign women around. It was a needless precaution, though – whatever had set Simba off, Sadie had taken with her.
Note: As this is a family website, we are unable to provide images of topless redheads. Not that we have any…
Also read: A Road Trip With Dogs To Murud Beach, Dapoli
A lovely nostalgic trip back in time when Goa truly was the land of Sun, surf and susegad before it was pillaged by commercialisation and the invasion of the great Indian tourist hordes. These days you can barely see the sand and is now replaced by what India has too many of.. Single horny Indian males! It’s what can now officially be called out for what it is, a sausage factory.
I was hoping to keep this a family-friendly website, but our family takes the ‘family’ out of ‘family-friendly’.
Literally laughed out loud at Rohan’s “sausage factory” comment…! Visited Baga last year, can’t say it was my favourite part of India and there’s no chance in hell I would ever go topless there (not that I would anywhere other than the privacy of my own home, to be honest). Still got plenty of unwanted male attention, despite covering everything up! Your dog’s super cute by the way. Wouldn’t have minded some attention from him 🙂
Lucy, I’m sure Simba would have loved some attention from you. He was a lovely chap. No idea why that particular lady set him off. 🙂
That’s a lovely dog. 🙂 To be honest, never knew much about beaches in India. My friends visit Goa from time to time, and all I hear is party party party. But travel bloggers like you show it to me in a different perspective.
Yes, it is quite a party destination, if that’s what you’re looking for. Especially Baga, where this incident took place.
Hahaha, I wonder why he chose that particular woman to chase after, she must’ve been mortified, I can only imagine. I did not know they allowed dogs on Baga. Or topless women, for that matter. But like you said, it’s India and many things get overlooked, despite signs on the beach 🙂
I know, poor thing 😛 Topless women on Baga have been a fixture for a very long time. The cops are very lax and don’t even bother to look the other way. LOL 🙂
I have heard so many things about Goa but never been there, I would like to go there one day!
It’s a lovely place if you know where to stay. Also, it depends on what you’re looking for. Parties or peace. Can’t have both.
Hhahaaahaha this was such a funny content. That dog is lovely though but poor woman, oh God! hahaha! Thanks for making me laugh!
Glad you enjoyed the post, Shreya. Not many seem to have grasped that it’s Travel Humour. 😛
I would have loved to meet Simba. He seems to have been a jolly fellow. We went to Goa nearly a decade back – spent most of the time in Vagator and it was lovely. I loved the cliffs there.
Yes, you would have loved him, Deeptha. He was a sweetheart. We had the good fortune to enjoy his company for over 13 years and we took him almost everywhere with us.
This is such a sweet (and funny) tale 🙂 I love personal posts like this, I think it’s what sets you apart from other travel bloggers 🙂 more posts like this please (and more pics of Simba!) x
Thank you, Becca. It’s nice to be appreciated. I will definitely try to write more stories featuring Simba 🙂
Simba is such a cutie, and clearly playful too! It’s a good thing you didn’t publish photos of the topless redhead haha, that would have been a sight to see. Goa looks so beautiful too!
Yes, Simba was an adorable and much-loved member of our family. I was just kidding about the topless redhead photos. 😛
This is such a funny story! I wonder what set poor Simba off? It’s so hard to know sometimes, at least it is with our dog. Luckily no one got bit or traumatized. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it, Kristie 🙂 No idea what sets dogs off sometimes. Thankfully, there were no lasting consequences.
Such a funny story! Oh Simba!
Goa sounds amazing and the beach looks lovely. Hope to visit one day.
Thanks
Thanks, Emma. Goa can be a lot of fun if you know what you want from it.
Actually, I think that on many European beaches, topless is not considered ‘nudity’; nude is nudity.
However, I enjoyed reading this, I like your witty style of writing.
That’s true, Renata. However, this was in Goa, where toplessness is the same as nudity. 🙂