THE road from Calangute to Baga Beach is Goa�s Sunset Strip. It is a narrow, twisting road that winds its way past eateries serving cuisines of the world beneath shady palm trees, around white-washed chapels and shanties housing sun-tanned hippies, alongside tavernas playing jazz and roadside stalls selling metal curios, wooden artefacts and Tibetan lanterns. It is a colourful and interesting road at sunset, when the lights come on and Baga�s night life creeps out of the woodwork.

A most happening place, all the action is here,� says Restaurateur Anuj Joshi agreeably. His night spot Valerio�s is at the end of this road, perched almost on the edge of the sea. Wednesday and Saturday nights, when he has live musicians jazzing up the place, Valerio�s is also the noisiest place in all of Goa to be. Happily, the neighbours don�t complain.

At the mouth of the Baga Beach Road is a chapel standing forlornly on the outskirts of a football field. Some of the rowdiest soccer you will ever see in your life is played in this little patch. Jose Havelenge of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) would not like it at all. But in Goa, he would probably be told to eat cake. The football king here is former chief minister Churchill Alemao. His writ, and his team, Churchill Brothers, runs large here.

But setting the pace and tone for the business down Baga Beach Road, is Cafe Infantaria. It is a busy hub of whites, blacks and other coloured people all getting their rations of scrambled eggs, pork chops, chicken savouries and beer. The menu for Infantaria runs literally as far as the eye goes. It is written on the wall, and you have to strain your eyes over the heads of the other customers, over the Aunties buying brightly coloured Goan sweetmeats, to read and decide what to order. But leave space for more. For, the Baga Beach Road has more eateries per square mile than any other city in India.

There is the Pagoda ahead serving Cantonese cuisine, and a Goan eatery by the quaint name of O�Pescador. The Octopus Inn beckons with all of eight arms, and the Cave looks suspicious. But the Steak House is a hot place and so is the Grill House next door. The Europeans love these places... they would. Then there is the Restaurant By Mistake which takes some daring to venture into. And an imaginatively plagiarised Four Seasons. Alex�s Bar & Restaurant seems more in keeping with Baga, really, and the German Tropicana Bakery with the kind of people who have made this place their home.

But across the road is a tattoo studio and jewellery house. And there are cold storages, garment shops, tailors, e-mail studios, guest houses, rooms-n-restaurant establishments and bar-n-restaurant ones, flats-for-sale and the Association of Charity of Calangute. Jostling for space with the lobster-like Europeans are the placid Tibetans selling lanterns, wooden artefacts, metal curios, silverware, clothes, gems and promises of cures to all sex disorders.

Bharat Bar-n-Restaurant is a hole in the wall, but look at the action there! You would think George Lucas is shooting �Mad Max III� here from the number of bikes parked outside. There�s also a Taste Of Goa Restaurant & Pub that gives off strong smells of vindaloos and cafreals. And Chopsticks, not good old Chef Ming�s for sure, next to the Casa Portuguese Restaurant. The Togo Restaurant does not seem to know what it wants to specialise in. But the Cavala is a quaint place where you eat under an almond tree in the garden. You can hear the clatter of cutlery out on the road, which is a sure sign that many tables are occupied with people enjoying good food.

Closer to the sea, there�s Squeeze Bar & Restaurant (ahem!) and the popular landmark, Britto�s. St. Anthony�s Bar opens out onto the beach, one of Baga�s most trusted nightspots, perhaps the good saint has something to do with its success, because its menu is not sensational or exciting... nor its ambience. And, at the end of the road, the dull throb of base guitars and muted grunts of trombones producing jazz, and the louder voice and laugh of proprietor Anuj inviting people to Valerio�s.

Off the Sunset Strip, on a road that slowly sinks into the sand dunes of the beach and is not advisable taking your vehicle into, is what has come to be known as Tito�s Lane. When the rest of Goa goes to sleep, it wakes up to a range of international food ranging from Belgian to Malaysian. Club Tito itself is a Bollywood film set, two bars, restaurants, game and dancing rooms, the food a wild variety, the service friendly, the crowds - that�s what you go to see.

There are two makeshift restaurants near the club, already on the foody grapevine. The Calypsa is literally a tent, but with a lovely soft dark ambience of flickering candlelights and the aroma of chocolate sauce. The food is mainly Belgian, which means French, but richer than French in thick creams and sauces. It�s proprietor is Rahul Shah, who otherwise manufactures and sells Bentex watches.

The family has two factories, in Bombay and Goa, and it was after Rahul set up the factory in Goa that he decided to continue to live and work from there while his brother looked after the Bombay part. Calypsa�s menu is Belgian, but also eclectic, probably because of the pedigree of its two young proprietors. Rahul�s father is half Indian and half English, mother half German and half Hungarian. And his girlfriend, Saskia Pas, who does all the cooking, is half Sicilian, a quarter Belgian and a quarter Zaire.

Hence the creamy tuna dip, the tomato stuffed with avocado, the fried mozarella sandwiches, the shark fillets in a garlic cream sauce, or the scampi in the garlic cream sauce, served with french fries. They serve three types of steaks, poivre, champion and a wiener schnitzel, and a fine collection of home-made pastas, including the carbonara with a bacon and cream sauce.

The other place is the Busabong Bar & Cafe (�the only place to be at�), which has, among other things, a genuine Thai chef from North Thailand. Also, a Chinese chef from Calcutta. It is amazing, while five-star restaurants make such a to-do about imported talent, these small places attract them out of love and adventure.

The young and enterprising proprietor is Nikhil Chib, whose restaurant career seems to be running on the same lines as our Rahul Akerkar�s. The proprietor is Ranjit and Mithu Chib�s son, who studied economics and finance in America, psychology in Austria, worked at the City Bank in New York, and has made his mark in Asian cooking, Japanese, Korean, Thai. In Bombay he started catering under the name of Chibb�s Food And Drinks Company and among his clients were Singhania, Harsh Goenka and Bal Thackeray.

The menu is South Asian, Japanese tempura, Thai red and green curries, grilled pomfret with Korean seasonings, Malaysian beef satays with peanut sauce, Tibetan momos, Vietnamese spring rolls in rice paper, Burmese kaukswe. The kaukswe is something to die for, the meat of your choice, marinated in an onion-ginger-garlic paste for up to six hours, cooked over slow fire for another four to five hours, with meat stock and coconut milk, served with eggs or haka noodles.

The momos also are worth a try. They are the Tibetan grandparents of the Chinese dimsums, and they are served with two large bowls of chilli sauce, one red and the other green.Then there is also Fiesta that Bombay boy and former model Manek Contractor is running with his German wife Yellow (�yes, as in the colour,� she says). Manek used to build yachts and luxury boats at one time, now, in a new avatar as restaurateur, he serves whacky Italian food in a funky restaurant right on the beach.

Driving back to Calangute, on the left hand side of the road now, you will find Ann�s Beauty Parlour and the One Touch Ayurvedic Shop (wonder what they touch!). There�s Ram�s Coaching Classes and Ladakh Handicrafts, Lina Travels and a pay toilet, Benny�s General Store and Jack�s Corner (remember Little Jack Horner!) and Jay Jay�s Books in which a messiah-like hippy searches for literature.

Dr. Connie Colaco is close to the Stay Longer Guest House. And Vell Vash Laundry near Martin�s Guest Rooms (�bath attached, cooking facilities�). The eateries include Casa Goanna and the Indian Cafe, and Kim Faa Chinese and O�Jardin Garden Restaurant. But easily the most popular place this side is Ronil�s where the talented and talkative Rui Madre Deus works his magic in a modern Goan kitchen and feeds his customers along a lovely swimming pool. And there�s Happy Eateries and Toni Dine. There�s Ticlo Resorts, Step Inn, Santiago Resorts and the Chinese House.

Then just when you think the show is over, a signboard with the Eiffel Tower announces the arrival of Le Restaurant Francais, an imaginatively designed eatery set among swaying trees from which hang dark red curtains. It is managed with great enterprise by a trio of partners, Morgan Rainforth, Serge Lozanzo and Florence Tarbouriech. They serve classic French food at affordable rates to hippies who get homesick and also cater to the local jetsets and long-stay tourists from Bombay and Delhi.

By great stretch of imagination, Le Restaurant Francais is converted into a milk bar and pizzaria in the daytime and called the Milky Way. �Don�t confuse the two,� warns Morgan Rainforth. �It is the same place but with different staff, different kitchen and different food.� Only possible in Goa.And then you are out and suddenly you hear a chapel bell ringing the Angeleus over the honk of cars and the air-horns of the bikers, and you know you are back at the start of the Baga Beach Road again.

The soccer players are dragging their feet home, the day�s last goal has been scored, the referee�s whistle blown. There�s time yet for a quick one at Infantaria. Kingfisher Beer in a chilled and frosted can, pork croquets dipped in chilli sauce and, perhaps, a slice of bebinca. Or, maybe not. For the hoarse voice of the bus conductor beckons, �Last bus to Mapusa, Mapusa, Mapusa.�