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Tourist Attractions
The Flea Market
Mascarenhas Mansion
The Acid House Party
| | Tourist Attractions | | Among the northernmost beach-towns in the stretch from Vagator to Aguada, Anjuna takes up from where Baga falls off. This is a popular beach area adjacent to Chapora fort. The fort has been well preserved except a few interesting ruins. Once, it was a domain of the Muslim rulers before the Portuguese wrested it. In 1683, the Marathas hijacked three priests from the Chapora Fort and made them Hindus.
Here there is magnificent Albuquerque mansion built in 1920, flanked by octagonal towers and attractive Mangalore tiled-roof.
Anjuna attracts a weird and wonderful collection of over Landers, monks, defiant ex-hippies, gentle lunatics, artists, artisans, seers, searchers, sybarites and itinerant expatriates who normally wouldn't be seen out of the organic confines of their health-food emporia in San Francisco or London.
| | | The Flea Market | | Every Wednesday, at around 11 a.m., Anjuna breaks into a riot of colors. There are lines of vehicles and full of tourists. From a used paperback to a haircut, one would find it here. The market is a heaven for hardcore shoppers and good bargainers, to bid on wonderful blends of Tibetan, Kashmiri and Gujarati trinkets and handicrafts, European snacks, cassettes of a noisy brand of music called 'Goa Trance', artificial ornaments carvings and T-shirts.
This is a good place to stick around for a while, make some friends and engage in mellow contemplation while the sun goes down. Full moon, when the infamous parties take place, is a particularly good time. It's worth the walk to the small, protected sliver of sand at South Anjuna where the area's long-term house-renters tend to gather.
Anjuna Beach is popularly known as the freak capital of the world and not without reasons. It claimed popularity for its Trance Parties and the Hippies who tried to synthesize the spiritual traditions of the East and the art, ideas and the music of the West. This is just the right place for lazing holidaymakers. Besides the calm waters of the Arabian Sea lapping softly on the Indian shore, Anjuna comes live with its ever-famous full-moon parties to take one on to a trance trip.
| | | Mascarenhas Mansion | | With riches and classic balcoes or balconies at Anjuna stands the monumental Mascarenhas Mansion. The L-shaped seat along the length of the porch is of expensive wood and has some of the finest stained glass floral etchings. | | | The Acid House Party | | Anjuna is also known for its full-moon (acid house) parties, held for and by young tourists. The trance party with dance, frolic, and merriment goes all night besides the fire.
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