Can you really kick up your feet and relax when vacationing in a new town, particularly in a new country? More importantly, should you?

The botched-up investigation into the death of a 15-year-old British tourist last month on the spectacular Anjuna beach in Goa, India, comes as a grim warning to tourists who become too relaxed to keep it real. Attacks on foreign tourists (sexual assault on women included) have been hitting headlines for a while now. Goa --  a west Indian coastal state known for its gorgeous beaches, hippie lifestyle, Brits, Israelis, Russians and, more recently, free sex, drugs, drug cartels and crime --- tops this trend.

Briefly, the case: (I am leaving out names of people to stay focused):

•  Scarlett Keeling from Devon, UK is traveling abroad for the first time with her mother Fiona MacKeown (who is on State benefits), MacKeown's boyfriend and eight other siblings.

•  MacKeown wants to visit the rest of India. Scarlett insists on staying back in Goa (this is also debated). Mother agrees and leaves her in the "care" of a 25-year-old tour guide (her "boyfriend", we are told), with whom she was allegedly having sexual relations.

•  Scarlett in found dead on the beach, all drugged up. Cops say she drowned. MacKeown smells foul play and pushes for a fresh autopsy and investigation.

•  Story hits headlines. Cops had to reopen case. Autopsy finds she did not drown but was drugged and badly bruised. Probably raped and then killed.

•  Two men are arrested and they reportedly fess up that she was inebriated when she entered a shack/bar on the coast. She was further drugged and then repeatedly raped and left unconscious on the beach, where she probably died due to drug overdose.

•  MacKeown says the real culprits have not been caught and there's more to this. She says the cops are continuing to cover up someone or some people, probably a drug cartel. (Her demand/request for an independent inquiry by the country's Central Bureau of Investigation has been turned down by the state government).

•  Cops are still on the lookout for a British national who knew her.

•  MacKeown says she still wants to settle in Goa.

I think she may be right about a further cover-up. Why a drugged and semi-conscious woman would land up with so many bruises when being raped isn't quite clear. According to the police, witnesses who saw her with the accused at the shack/bar thought she was a "consenting partner", meaning she wasn't resisting. So there was no need to force or assault or bruise her.

Now, as was expected, people (including some Indian officials) have blamed the mother for leaving her minor daughter behind in a new country, amongst strangers. (Read I don't blame myself for an insight into MacKeown's world). Some have demanded that she be charged for negligence.

From India's point of view, the police have no business questioning her parenting skills or social mores. This is rape and murder and the law is clear on that. Whether the victim "invited" trouble or not is not the cops' lookout.
I hope justice is done. All tourists (and locals) have the right to be protected by the law and the police.

Having said that, I do wonder if this is the kind of tragedy a tourist can avoid. No matter how relaxed the social or ethical norms may be, no matter how safe it feels, there is no way you can know all about a place in a few days. Letting our guards down in unfamiliar surroundings is simply not worth it.

Granted that Goa is a bit ... well... off the charts when it comes to "relaxing". Drugs are illegal in Goa, but it continues to be the place for raves and easy access to LCD, ecstasy and other drugs (Fear and loathing in Goa), and is reportedly infested with Russian mafia.

I think it's fair to say that some foreign tourists head for Goa precisely for this -- to have a "good time". All the more reason to be cautious. A little reading about the place you choose to visit could save you a great deal of heartache and maybe even your life. There are plenty of sites warning about the dangers of illegal behavior in Goa, like this and this. O, and get this from the horse's mouth.

I tend to agree with Alsabella here:

How do we get these people to take their brains with them on holiday and realize that a foreign country is not the place to decide to emancipate their children, be they 3 or 15?

Chrissynb wonders at Sweet Nothings:

The whole Scarlett Keeling episode has left me wondering where does one draw the line.I am totally aghast at the fact that a mother would leave her 16 year old daughter alone in Goa! Of course this is no excuse for what happened. Going to goa on holiday, I've always found it to be a very safe place for women. But I have never been there alone! Now I am seriously thinking of doing a project on the way women travel across the world , because I think cultural differences have a lot to do with it. I don't know....

One of the articles about the incident quotes a tourist (who had been raped in Goa) saying it's easy to get lulled into a sense of false security. That's a deep dark pit to fall into: projecting our own sense of what's safe behavior and what's not in a new place. After all, if you are a tourist, everyone will try to please you, make you feel comfortable. But social norms, local practices and dangers don't skirt around the tourist.

Err on the side of caution. Travel safe.

Danuta Kean on British media's class bias while reporting "negligent moms"
Nita on the case and why Goa is paradise lost
'Not so Incredible India' says Ayesha Aleem at Confessions of a Diva