Where's The Party
Your best bet for finding a good party is to hang out around whatever appears to be the most popular beach shack of the season, and chat up the locals (but be wary of getting lifts to unknown venues with strangers). Other excellent spots for picking up the scent of out-of-the-way parties are Ingo's Saturday Night Bazaar, Anjuna's Wednesday Market, or the ever-popular Tito's (tel. 0832/275028; closed off season) -- this local institution has been going for years and attracts anyone and everyone who's up for a party. The most happening clubs competing to attract the who's who with great let-your-hair-down ambience, fabulous music, and terrific cuisine are Club Cubana (Arpora Hill; tel. 98-2323-2910) -- beautifully located atop a cliff with a swimming pool open at night and the focus on hip-hop and R&B music -- and Nine Bar, also on top of a hill overlooking the beach, which furiously belts out deafening trance and psychedelic music -- a haven for trippers and a nightmare for the rest of the world. For a less rocking atmosphere accompanied by fairly good food, check out Kamaki (tel. 98-2327-6520; 6am-6pm recorded music, 6pm-6am DJ), a lounge bar up the road from Tito's that's open 24 hours; or hang out at Mambo's, an open-air pub where DJs Ajit and Yuri spin 1980s rock music (but no trance). If you find yourself in Anjuna on a Wednesday, ask anyone for directions to Shorba, which is where the revelry takes place after the flea market shuts down.
Psychedelic Journeys
Rave parties are now almost as synonymous with Goa as hippie culture. If you want to attend one of the winter rave parties, held around the full moon, you have to ask around at shacks (at little Vagator, Anjuna, or Arambol). Location is often kept secret until late in the evening to avoid harassment from cops and generally disclosed only a few hours before the party starts. These underground dance and music parties start around 11pm and go till at least 8am. Various intoxicants are freely available and consumed, and local women set up stalls outside selling chai and snacks. DJs play techno/psychedelic/trance music (or "psy-trance"); ravers often dress up in old-fashioned costumes and wear rave belts and colorful clothes, all part of setting the mood for their psychedelic journey. Regulars insist that these are not just massive techno freak-outs where everybody is "tripping," but a mystical, devotional experience akin to a spiritual encounter.
