Vagator Beach

Vagator Beach

Vagator is rocky beach. It is located amongst a huge cover of palm trees. One can see the Chapora fort from the vagator beach. It is one of the very famous beaches of Goa. It has a very busy night life here with a lot of beach parties. The foriegn tourists are dominant here and one can find good accommodation, restaurants and facilities like internet and banking are readily available. It is very close to the Anjuna beach where the flee market is organised. It basically is a fishing village.

A majestic view of the vagator beach Goa, from the chapora fort

A view of the Ozran beach from the top of Vagator, Goa


A foreigner parasailing from the hill top at Vagator, Goa



A view of the vagator beach, Goa

Basilio Magno - (Journalist-Songwriter)

Basilio Magno

Basilio Magno is essentially a journalist but he is better known as a composer-lyricist. He started composing and publishing songs in English in 1950 and was dubbed by critics in Bombay as "Irving Berlin of India". Among his many published songs are viva el rey, beloved England's sweetheart, Friede Komm, O Rock de portugal, Polle Sndor ti, Folk-operetta, a day in Goa, 10 folk songs in English, audio and cassette by basilio.
It was in the month of February 2007, I had read an article about Basilio Magno in the newspaper, and I was particularly interested in two of his compositions "Proud to be a Goan" the anthem of the World Goa Day, which was composed at the request of the founder of WGD which is celebrated annually on 20th of August, since the year 2000 and his prized song 'Friede Komn' dedicated to his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Its a ballad on Peace. I wrote to Basilio an email to him asking him for the songs. I had an instant reply from him and not only that he sent me his compositions by post which included "Proud to be a Goan", "Meet me at Calangute", "Lets sing and pray for Blessed Joseph Vaz", "A Hymn to Xavier" and many more of his musical pieces. He has been a good friend of mine fover the course of time. He is son of the Goan soil - a "pakkha-goan". After his retirement in Germany, as a pensioner he is presently living in Spain along with his wife Rosa Maria Lopes Gonsalez (Rossi). He Celebrated his 84th Birthday this year on 14-06-07. He was a special invitee to the Convention of the "Goan Diaspora in Lisbon" where he was asked to make a presentation about his work and his understanding of Goan Music and about all his new songs composed, including the World Goa Day anthem. He played his compositions the song that caught everyone's attention was "Come to Goa" - a mini story of Goa told in words and music, meant more for children, adapted to the old Goan air. Proud to be a Goan and his latest production-flock-rhapsody "Ring Wedding Bells (a 10 minutes boy-girl duet) the other pieces of his music played.
Basilio though in Spain his heart is in Goa and for Goans has also been writing a column "Konkani corner" on www.melgoans.com.
You can write to basilio on basiliom@adinet.com.uy

Baga Beach

Baga Beach

Baga once used to be a very quite fishing village. It is situated to the northern end of the Calangute beach. But today with the boom in Tourism, It happens to be one of the most crowded and frequented beach in Goa. All along the coast baga is lined with beach umbrellas and beach beds with foreign tourists sun bathing's. You can find lots of water sports here. Compared to the Calangute beach, Baga beach has a more interesting landscape. Anjuna is the next beach after Baga. In baga one can see the meeting of the riven and the sea. It has lots of beach shacks all along the beach. Baga is famous for its night life as the world famous discotheque " Titos" is situated here.

A fisherman casting his net in the Baga river

A group of tourists having an early morning exercise at the Baga Beach