TambdiMati

Note: tambdimati: the Goa review does not endorse many of the claims in this sensationalist, error-strewn article in this week’s India Today. We present excerpts here for you to decide

Yaniv Benaim aka Atala, the most colourful of Goa’s Israeli drug dons, made headlines with a video on YouTube. His Swedish model-girlfriend named Lucky Farmhouse alias Amori posted the grainy, shaky video clip that became an instant Internet must-watch.

In the video, Atala speaks about his drug operation and how Goan police on his payroll advised him of ways to avoid getting caught – don’t buy a cellphone in your own name and change phone numbers frequently because your calls are monitored. “This is the mafia,” is how Atala describes the confederacy of crime between the police, politicians and the drug cartels.

The amateur video shows him speaking candidly about his arrangements with Anti-Narcotics Cell policemen, including Senior Inspector Ashish Shirodkar. “Nobody can touch me because I pay a lot of money,” said Atala. He was arrested immediately. So were six policemen, including Shirodkar. Twenty-four kilos of hashish had disappeared from the anti-narcotics warehouse on their watch. Atala confessed that the police had sold the drugs back to him. Goa’s Home Minister Ravi Naik explained that the vanished drugs were “eaten by white ants”.

Continue reading →

In 2009, the flow of Russian tourists to Goa reached 80,000 people, of which 1,400 people overstayed their visas, according to India’s embassy in Moscow. This is just one of the reasons why the Indian authorities reduced visa validity periods for Russian visitors and introduced a number of other tough restrictions.

The new visa regulations took effect on 1 February 2010. Visas are now issued for 55 days only, though it used to be very easy to get a double entry visa for six months, or even a multiple entry visa to India. And now, application for a new visa can only be submitted following a two-month period after the applicant leaves India. Those needing to enter India within two months following their latest exit from the country have to apply for a permit to India’s embassy or consulate, providing persuasive reasons for their repeat visit within such a short period of time.

Many seek alternative ways, such as going to Kazakhstan in Central Asia or Israel, hoping to find less strict visa regulations. It is hard to say how effective these methods are, since Israel and the CIS countries have a checkered reputation with Indian diplomats. In general, а two-month pause in trips to India affected almost all countries issuing Indian visas.

The revisions in India’s visa regulations have had a very adverse impact on both fans of South Asia’s largest country, and India’s tour operators. In other words, it became a disaster for many.

Continue reading →

With effects of the global economic slowdown wearing off, tourism seems to have got the thumbs up. Going by initial estimates, the current season could see the arrival of around 780 charter flights, the highest so far.

“The final number should hover between 780 and 800. There are a few more landing slots that are going to be booked, but there could be some cancellations too,” said Bush Miranda, airline representative, Condor.

The tourism department, too, is optimistic. “Give it a little time, we could touch the figure of 800 flights this season. It will be the highest ever,” tourism director Swapnil Naik said. The previous highest total of charters received was 758 flights in 2007-08.

Read the full article here.

According to Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) spokesperson Ralph de Souza:

- 740 charter flights have been booked (up from 626 last season).

- 15% increase projected in tourist arrivals

- 232 flights from UK (up 15%), minimum 266 flights from Russia.

- 22 flights from Switzerland , 35 from Germany, Scandinavia 78, CIS 41, Poland, Iran and Estonia each 25.

by Matthew Schwarzfeld

When Israelis complete their mandatory military service, many of them take flight to the beaches of South America, Asia, or India, where an informal network of veterans, hostel owners, and rabbis shepherd them back to civilian life. This is the first in a three-part report filed from Goa, India.

Maor Hagay is homesick in India. He’s a handsome young Moroccan Jew from where Jaffa used to be who avoided his Israeli military service through a series of weird injuries that he would rather not explain. The real reason he ran away, his friends told me, was that he would have had to serve behind enemy lines in Gaza.

Maor loves Israeli music, food, the whole bit. He is so homesick that he can barely leave his room.

The weather is perfect: Sunny, cloudless, and 90 degrees with very little humidity, as it is almost every day in Goa, a small state on India’s western coast.

He is at a beach resort, but he doesn’t swim because of his new tattoos, which include lines of barbed wire across both biceps and a word in Indian script that he believes is his name inscribed along the length of his spine.

Instead of going swimming, Maor sits alone in his room at his computer, looking at photos and listening to music by Israeli pop artists. The photos on his computer screen are from his first month in India, before he was arrested.

**

There is no shortage of Israeli head cases in Goa. There are said to be 30,000 Israelis traveling in India between October and March of each year, during which time the IDF could easily muster a unit of Israeli backpackers for a Goan field operation.

The Israelis who are most screwed up after leaving the army—those who served in special brigades like Nahal, which combines military service with social welfare programs—often enclose themselves in undemanding protected spaces within Israel proper, working on a kibbutz or delivering pizzas in their hometowns.

Everyone else goes to chill out somewhere beautiful, warm, and far away from Israel.

Continue reading →