For the last few days, we guys have been planning a trip to Goa. There were varying opinions, some guys wanted to go now itself where as others wanted to go after the internship, in November. Anyways, we decided to go now itself. It was planned to be a 3-day trip – October 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Prabu took in charge of booking tickets. He booked tickes for Sep 30th. So, we had to bunk our offices for one day. Anyways, we planned that six of us (Prabu, Saba, Arovit, Jeevan, Gopi and me) leave on 30th and the others leave on 1st. Rest of the guys planned to come by Sumo.
Oct 1st: Finally, The journey date has arrived. Unfortunately, Gopi couldn’t join us due to personal reasons. We booked a bus of “SeaBird” Travels. It was @ 5.30 PM and the boarding point was kalasipalyam. We reached there by 5.15 PM. Jeevan was already there waiting for us. We waited for around half-an-hour and the pickup bus arrived. It took us to their main office at Gandhi Nagar near Majestic. Again, we had to wait for quite sometime as the driver said the bus would depart @ 7.30 PM. All of us were hungry. So, we decided that we will have some snacks and come back. We just went through some lane and found a hotel where we ate idli and dosa.
We came back @ 7.30 PM. India–West Indies and Australia–Pakistan matches were going on simultaneously as a part of Champions trophy. I was surprised to see Dhoni bowling and getting a wicket. So, Indians were doing well. But at the same time, Australia was also doing well. If Australia wins, India will be knocked out. Hence both the matches were interesting.
The bus departed @ 8 PM. All of us slept as we were little tired. The driver stopped the bus at some dhaba. It was about 10 PM. It was raining. We had some rotis and paranthas, then tea. Hot tea in cold climate - it was very good. Again the bus departed @ 10.30 PM. Next day, we reached CanaCona – 75 Km away from panaji @ around 11 AM. We stayed at the resort called ‘Mamoos’ (Not sure abt the spelling) in the Palolem beach. The room was decent. It was a fantastic view from our room towards beach.
We wanted to roam around. So we hired three Activas for rent (Bikes were not available on that day). We went to atm to withdraw some money. On our way to resort, we found a dhaba. So, we went there and had a good lunch.
Here starts the series of adventurous bike rides. I say adventurous because of the following reasons.
- We didn’t know the proper routes to any of the places.
- It was raining so heavy that it appeared like we were being hit by stones.
- Some part of the route was covered with fog, we couldn’t see anything in front.
- It was a ghat road. There were deep valleys to one side of the road.
- There were hardly any people visible expect for one or two dhabas and tea stalls for almost every 6-7 Km.
Day-1: On our enquiry on near-by places to visit, we were told that there is a wildlife sanctuary, which is a good place to see. Even though it was raining heavily, we started to the sanctuary. On travelling for around 6-7 Km, we reached the place. There was a guy who told us routes to various places over there. Those places included two Treetops, ‘Kuski’ waterfall etc. We were also told that we can see animals including Panther, Lion, Cobra, etc. Later we found that it was not a properly maintained sanctuary- it was just some forest route where rarely few animals are seen. We started to Treetops. The road was very horrible, one of the worst roads I have seen. Also, there were no people visible. We just kept on going with the help of milestones. At last, we saw a board written ‘treetop – 750 m and Waterfall – 15 Km’. Since treetop was at shorter distance, we went towards the treetop. Unfortunately, even after 1.5 Km of travel, we couldn’t find any treetop. So, we headed towards Waterfall (in spite of hesitation from Saba and me as the road was horrible and we were lack of petrol). With some difficulty, we reached the waterfall. Even though it was small waterfall, it was a very beautiful scene. We took few pictures there (Thanks to Jeeva who risked bringing his digicam in spite of heavy rain). Later we were told that this is not the ‘Kuski’ fall, where we intended to go. It was about 5.30 PM. We started back to Palolem. On our way, we found a tea stall. We decided to have some hot tea and Mirchi bajji. Hot tea and bajji in cold weather was too good (Even now, I feel mouth watering on thinking this). After spending half an hour at the tea stall, we started again (This time, the guy in the stall told some other short route). Unfortunately, one of the Activas had some problem. Initially, we thought it was due to rain. Then there was some mechanic near by, who said it was due to lack of petrol. So, Prabu got petrol from a near by shop. With some difficulty, we could start the bike. Without any stops in the middle, we directly went to our resort. Thanks to tea stall guy, the route he said was really much better. Unfortunately, jeeva met with small accident and he was hurt.
On that night, we went to a restaurant called ‘Cheeky Chapathi’. The restaurant was full of foreigners (including the people serving), we were the only Indians there. The food was not as good as expected (we expected more spicy food). Then we came across a Pool table at Cuba Residency while going back to our resort. Saba and Prabu played a couple of games. We came back to our resort by 11 PM and slept.
Day-2: We decided to wake up early so as to get bikes. We left our resort at 10.30 AM. Again, it was raining heavily (In fact, it didn’t stop raining from the previous night). Still, we decided to go for a ride. We planned to cover three places- Agonda beach, Cola beach and Cabo de Rama Fort. We started to Agonda beach, as it was the nearest among the three. We were warned not to go into the water as the heavy waves might kill people. This road was also bad, due to heavy rains. We easily reached Agonda beach. There was no one in the beach as it was raining. The waves were very fierce, as warned. We stayed there for half an hour and started to Cola beach- This is supposed to be one of the best beaches in Goa. We were told that it is about 15 Km from Agonda beach. We travelled for a long distance but we couldn’t reach there. Finally, some guy said it is still 20 Km away and the fort is very near by. So, we decided to go to fort. As the guy said, it was very near by. There were only very little remainings of the fort. We had some bad experience with a dog there. It followed us until almost we reached the top of the fort. Then it started barking at us. It jumped towards Saba. We thought there was something wrong and so headed back to the entrance. But we were not ready to give up 20 Km travel just for a dog. So, we waited till it followed us to the entrance and some how Arovit lead the dog out of the fort and locked the entrance door. We hurriedly reached the top of the fort. Wow, what a beautiful scene it was. It was an excellent view of the sea from the top. Without wasting much time, we had few pictures taken. We had to give up the plan of Cola beach as it was already late and also we thought there would be no one there due to rain. So, we came back to Palolem at around 7 PM. As the bikes were in good condition, We wanted to use the same bikes the next day also. So, we talked to the owner and he readily agreed. This night, we went to Cuba Residency. We were very hungry but we had to wait for a very long time to get the food. As there was power cut, we bought few candles. It was 8.30 PM. We started playing cards (Minima). It was very interesting. We played around 20-25 games and slept at 11.30 PM.
Unfortunately, due to heavy rains, the road between Karnataka and Goa got blocked and the other guys, who started the previous night, couldn’t reach Goa.
Day-3: We didn’t have mood to go anywhere in rain. But we had bikes. Also, climate was much better compared to first two days. So, we decided to go to Margao and go to beach there. It is actually 35 Km away from Palolem. We had lunch @ 'Calcutta Book House & Dhaba'. Then, Without wasting much time, we started to Margao (Saba was reluctant, but somehow we could convince him). There were two routes- One is along NH-17 and the other route is the one travelled on day-2. We chose the second path as we thought that would be a better ride. By 2 PM, we reached the city and explored for about half a Km in the city. Beach was still 15 Km away. We started towards the beach, but on sight of the board ‘GOA KART RACING’, we stopped there and decided to go for it. The place was very interesting. It was on top of a hill. Kart Race on a track top of a hill- it was fantastic. First to go was Arovit, Prabu and Saba followed by Jeeva and me. Due to rain, the track was slippery. We spent about one and half hour there and started our return journey to Palolem. This time, we chose NH path. So, the road was very good and we could reach palolem (about 45 Km from that place) within 1 hr. We went to the Calcutta Dhaba again for dinner. Then, we went to cuba residency to have some light refreshment. At around 10 PM, we reached our resort.
On Day-4, the climate was too good. It was little sunny and also cool. We thought we could have come a day or two later. But, anyways we had good fun in rain. The boarding point for our return journey was at Panaji. We Checked out our rooms at 11.30 AM. On a local taxi, we reached bus stand and waited for 10 minutes before Margao bus arrived (There was no direct bus to Panaji. We had to go to Margao and then to Panaji). It was like travelling in a local city bus. We had to travel for 2 hrs for reaching Panaji. It was 2.30 PM. Then Arovit went to meet his cousin. We went to a restaurant nearby. We had to wait for 15 minutes as it was heavily crowded. The food was good. It was 5 PM when we came out of the restaurant. Then we went to the travels office to find out the exact boarding point. It was a nearby place where usually all private buses arrive. Arovit came back in 10 minutes. It was about 6 PM the bus has arrived. We quickly settled ourselves and started playing cards. After playing a couple of games, we found it difficult to play. Also, we were tired. So, we slept and woke up only @ around 9.30 PM when the driver stopped at some restaurant for dinner. Since the lunch was heavy, we just had sugarcane juice.
Finally, we reached Bangalore at 10.30 AM the next day. It was an amazing trip and we enjoyed a lot. It would have been more fun if the other guys also have arrived. Anyways, I have heard that they too enjoyed well @ Jog Falls.
To view pictures, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/g.sreeharsha/GoaTrip
