Where Goa Goes to Hide

The newly-minted Larisa Ashwem offers the best of Goa but in a surprising, yet delightful, package.

- CHUMKI BHARADWAJ

Goa’s treasures are easy to sum up: sun, sea, sand and, of course the famed Susegad. Simple pleasures and attainable highs are practically low-hanging fruit for the Goan devotee. This may be the prime seduction for revellers for whom merrymaking and crowds are two sides of the same coin. But for those who enjoy immersive experiences but cling to the temporary detachment of solitude, Larisa Ashwem is the oasis of calm that offers the perfect refuge. Even though it is located in North Goa–typically the more boisterous side of the state divide–it is unusually quiet and joyfully stripped of the usual Goan clichés. The sea is just a 1-km (10-min) amble away, but cossetted between the gorgeous, green jungle of 2.5 acreage, you’d be hard-pressed to believe it.