Goa trip, 2010

Onward journey (Day 1): Bangalore - Tumkur - Shivamogga - Honnavara - Murudeshwara - (Day 2) - Karwar - Panaji - Anjuna
Return journey  (Day 6): Anjuna - Karwar - Udupi - (Day 7) - Kottigehara - Hassan - Nelamangala - Bangalore
Total distance travelled - 1996 kms.
Vehicle used: Zen
Road travel: Good

Day 1 (Feb 28th)

We got up early in the morning, got ready quickly. I wish I could have followed the same a bit more during college times, probably my marks card would have read another 5% more :-). Bags packed, both of us had a refreshing hot drink, prayed to God for a safe journey, loaded the car with our luggage and started off at 5.25 am!

We stopped for breakfast at Matha sagar for about half an hour. Had hot idlis with tasty sambar, and refreshing coffee and tea. We drove to River Tern JLR to have a glimpse. The greenery and the catchment area there is beautiful. We did bird watching for a while and captured a few interesting birds including the River Tern and the Dove; could hear the birds chirping too! The Kingfisher was gorgeous. It’s a weekend getaway for anyone who wants a break from the hustle and bustle of city life. We stopped over at Samrat Ashoka upahar in Shivamogga for lunch.

On our way to Honnavar, we decided to check out Jog Falls. We were hoping to see Raja, Roarer, Rocket and Rani falling down the 830 feet rock face in its glory. Our hopes were lifted when we saw pretty decent water levels from the Sharavati Bridge. Our expectations were shattered when we saw the falls from the view point. It looked like Raja was on a vacation (gone hunting may be), Roarer was completely lost and may be had forgotten where to roar, Rocket looked like was running low on fuel and Rani was absolutely lazy since Raja was on a vacation alone.

It was non-stop till Murudeshwara and we reached at the right time before the sunset. “The journey to the destination is more important than the destination itself”. Yes, the whole journey to the destination was very good! There was no hurry or worry to reach the destination. We checked into the hotel, freshened up quickly and rushed to the beach to catch the infamous sunset. My husband had a brilliant idea to take the car onto the beach and do some photography of the car and the sunset. We feared it will happen and it did happen, our car got stuck in the sand and didn’t want to move. It seemed like the car wanted to take some rest on the beach after a tiring journey and watch the beautiful sunset. A beautiful orange ball as if you drew it with a compass! A breathtaking sunset indeed! Took a walk on the beach, had a good time, shared laughter… Suddenly, we realized we have to take the car off the sand. We thought it was time to move our beloved ZEN out of this mess. A couple of men, saw us struggling, came for our help. Pradeep and the two men pushed the car while I tried hard to accelerate. We could make it finally…We went for a short drive on the shore. Pradeep took a few shots of his love. I mean, the car :-). Yeah, he thought she had bared the maximum at the end of the day. He appreciated her for her effort. He believes you give love; it gives back the same to you. Later, we visited the giant statue – Lord Shiva. One should appreciate the art, charm and finesse of the face of the statue. It looks like Shiva is in peace and brings a sense of calmness if you look at his eyes; very detailed and bold. He looks handsome too.

It was dinnertime! RNS residency has a very good vegetarian restaurant that serves Indo-Continental food. After much discussion, we decided to have soup suggested by the manager. The restaurant was in no hurry to serve the food, which is good but we were so hungry that the rats running around in our stomach were hungry too. After much wait, we received our food and it was delicious. Folks in the restaurant are very helpful and hospitable. Service is excellent and not too pushy. We had a great dinner with dessert to complete the meal. After a long travel, spectacular sunset and tasty food to top it off, it was time to hit the bed for a well-deserved sleep. With an expectation of another great day of our vacation and the sound of the waves hitting the shore that we could hear from the balcony ensured we slept like babies. We even wondered how beautiful the sunrise would be!?




Day 2

After a very sound sleep, I got up early and opened the balcony door to see a beautiful fresh morning waiting for us! I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep long breaths. The feeling is still afresh! A lovely sunrise, the blue sea and the birds; as if it was gift-wrapped for us. What a treat for the eyes, unlike seeing the regular traffic jams, the dust, the unbearable honks and the noise!! I sat down in the balcony for a while to take some fresh air and sunlight. Well, “some things money can’t buy, but, for everything else there’s Pradeep’s credit card”:-). Then, I got the camera and took a few snaps of the sunrise and the sea. I woke up Pradeep to show him the sunrise. Somehow I observed, in the middle of the sea, there was movement and continuous splash of water in a particular area. I screamed in excitement thinking it should be dolphins!!! I took a few shots of them in the SLR small lens!! I called Pradeep in excitement to see the dolphins!! I changed the lens to get a better picture and zoomed it to see no dolphins, but still there is water splash! I came to know it was something else… By then, Pradeep had come to see the splash of water was on a small ROCK!!! Hahahahah! Oh! This was the joke of the day! :-). Poor me..Ok, it was time to get ready. We had lovely coffee and tea and got started for the day. We visited the temple there. The Gopura is very tall. We saw the fishermen heading for fishing next to the temple. Breakfast time, we chose to go to Naveen restaurant, which is right next to the sea. Pradeep suggested having juice at the end. We had the tastiest orange juice and moosambi juice.

We took off from Murudeshwara at 9.50 am. I opted to drive and with a second thought Pradeep said ok. It is tough to drive in the highway and it was my first one on the highway. On the way through Karwar, we found a few people on the streets wearing weird costumes for Holi and got some good photos of the Karwar naval base too. I drove till the Goa border.

We reached “The flushing meadows”, Goa at 2.30 pm. This resort is in an amazing location. The website says its 5 mins from the nearest beach. It takes 5 mins to reach the main road leading to the beach itself. The resort is located in some interior parts of Anjuna. It is an ordinary resort. It seemed like we were the only guests there. The resort was dark, may be because there weren’t many guests. But nevertheless, this place didn’t impress both of us and we wanted to move out of it asap. We were told that we would be shifted to another resort the next day, which was supposedly a very good one. First thing we did was to keep the luggage in the room and go to the restaurant to have a sumptuous meal. Lunch was fulfilling with bajjis/pakodas for starters and Kashmiri pulav and veg biryani for the main course. To ease out the travel, we rested for a while. I was a little restless actually, thinking about when to reach the beach! :-). Around 6 pm, we thought to visit the nearest beach – The Vagator Beach. The sun was already setting, we were having a look around, and then, a seller gets me trapped. Haha! I dint expect to start shopping this early too. He had a bunch of chains and earrings. He told me a price, I bargained mine. I told him a ‘No’, again he comes back with another price. It went on for a while..Finally, the sunset was almost over :-). I decided to a buy a few things to end the conversation. I felt pity for Pradeep; he had a lot of patience.

Next, we thought to visit the Calangute beach shopping area. It’s one of my favourite places in Goa till now. I had visited Goa once in my college days, and had thoroughly enjoyed it then. We parked the car and started walking. Little did we walk, we approached the main shopping area. Man! I went ‘gaga’ over the colourful lights and the endless shops! Each little shop is lit up with decorated lights there. It looks beautiful. I totally enjoyed the glitz n the glamour there! Later on, I kick-started my favourite hobby, shopping! :-) Well, bargaining is a must in Goa. We came back well planned for the next day.




Day 3

It was a relaxed day. We lazily got ready and had a heavy breakfast. Bread omelets were tasty and filling; not to miss the refreshing coffee and tea. The hotel did fetch us great food. We had little more time to shift to the other resort, The Country Clube De Goa. We watched TV, had cold drinks and relaxed for a while. We checked out of the hotel and reached The Country Clube De Goa. It is a beautiful resort with lots of greenery inside, a nice pool and a lovely restaurant. Soon, we had lunch and a short nap and got ready. We reached Calangute beach at 5pm. It was sunny and we were excited to go for the water sports. A guy approached us for the water sports. A set of five sports for 1400rs – parasailing, jet scooter, boat ride, banana ride and pumpkin ride. We didn’t want the banana ride as Pradeep had already experienced it and was scared to do it again.:-). After a lot of negotiations and bargaining he offered us 4 sport rides for Rs. 700 per couple. Don't you think it's a fair deal? Yeah, I know, the credit goes to me :-). Heartbeats bouncing for parasailing, we got into the boat! I was a bit nervous. Last time when I had gone for it, we had to take a short run from the shore and you fly. This time, they took us to the centre of the sea and you take off from the boat itself. It was fascinating!! We screamed our lungs out! The ride lasted for about a couple of minutes or so. It would have been more exciting if we had gone much longer..Done with it, we started off for jet scooter. I sat in the front and Pradeep at the back. The scooter went thumping on the sea. Water splashing on you all the way through, the turns and the thumps were really good. Pumpkin ride comes next, held tight to the float, we started. It was a jolly ride, we enjoyed a lot. I wanted this kind of break; something exciting, something sporty and more to do with water! We got into the beach to play around with the waves. Every wave was literally throwing us on the sand bed. Get up and fall back again. It was priceless! Also, jumping along with the waves gave us resistance. The guards there came alerting everybody after the sunset. There was also a lifeguard jeep that was patrolling. Time to relax, we went to a shack. Pradeep had a beer and I had a port wine. The drink was good and the music too. The ship lights were glittering from a far distance. A tattoo guy came to us. I had two minds and I didn’t go for it. I asked the tattoo guy to draw a small Om, but his price was exorbitant. Pradeep did tell his funny past experience with the tattoo how he got blasted at home when they thought it’s a permanent one :-). Had a great day, we left the place.

Day 4

By now, Pradeep had become an expert with respect to directions. It looked like he knew these places from a long time. Today we decided to visit the Anjuna beach and the Flea market, which is only on Wednesdays. It is also called the Wednesday flea market. We had a good breakfast and headed to Anjuna beach. It is a rocky beach, very blue and not very crowded. We walked a long way on the beach to the reach the flea market. Markets in Goa are unbelievable! You name them, you get them. Right from Kashmiri clothing, artificial and silver jewelry, Rajasthani bedspreads, ladies tops, skirts, frocks, footwear, beach wear, accessories, hats, leather products to a variety of sunglasses, you get them all. In other words you can sell anything from lemon to livestock. Sunglasses are very fancy and cheap. A couple of places we were the first customers for the day and it worked when we bargained. It was totally an enjoyable shopping experience.

Next, we traveled to Old Goa, to visit the St.Francis Xavier’s church. They say, it’s a wish come true church and it is my personal experience too. I bought candles to light inside the church. The interiors of the church are beautiful. We had a look at the art gallery on the 1st floor in which, more to it was pictures than art. Next, we thought to visit the Dauna Paula beach. The viewpoint from the top of the beach is great! We saw the governor house, the Tsunami house, Vasco da Gama port and a five star hotel through the telescope. We sat down on a bench for a while. It was around 5pm, quite sunny. This was the seat where Pradeep and his friends had a great time when they had come to Goa during college days. We shared a good laughter listening to his good times in Goa. While on our way, we visited the Panjim market. Nothing can beat the Calangute and the flea markets! We bought cashewnuts and Pradeep wanted to have hot masala dosa in Udipi bhavan. On the way back, we saw a lot of cruises by the seaside, and the roads were beautifully lit. Pradeep trained me to take night photography. The photos came out very well.

Day 5

Last day in Goa. We decided to visit the Aguada fort. It was very sunny in the morning. Royally applying sunscreen lotion, we walked out of the car. There were quite a few people there. On the fort, you can get a spectacular view of the sea. On our way to the fort we observed many boats on a small beach. Lot of people were walking towards the boats. We thought it must be one of those regular boat rides and didn’t pay much attention to it. Whilst we were looking at the big ships anchored in deep sea, we observed there were many boats going towards the centre of the sea. This drew our attention. Suddenly, I saw a dolphin leaping from the water! And this time, it was the real one..:-) All the boats started gathering near that area. It was then that we realized the boats on their way was for the dolphin cruise. We hurried checked off Aguada fort. Our next schedule was to go for that ride. The ticket to this ride is Rs.200 per person. Initially we thought this was high because we believed it will be a short trip. Nevertheless, we bought the tickets for dolphin ride and sight seeing and were eagerly waiting for the ride. The boatman made us wait for 10 mins, and then we started off. On the way, we saw Jimmy Khadder’s bungalow in which, Hasina maan jayegi was shot; much further, the governor house (lucky guy having a beach facing office). I must say he deserves this kind of place, coz after a long day in office trying to resolve the rape and murder cases that are plenty in Goa, he needs a place to relax and watch the sunset to contemplate his decision politics :-). Little more ahead, we saw the central jail (beach facing!), and the jail-mates seeing from their windows and the Aguada fort. We went a long way in the sea, the water was rough. Looking for dolphins, we went much further. There you go! Dolphins!! We saw the first one! Then the second! As we approached them, they disappeared. Waiting for a while, we got a visual treat! Huge dolphins taking a leap out of the water! Pradeep was busy changing his lenses to capture the darling ones. We saw a group of them! Wow! They were grey coloured, both light and dark ones. This was the first time we saw the dolphins. They were so adorable and playful! It was such a fulfilling, joy boat ride.

In the evening, we went to Baga beach. It was less crowded than Calangute. Since it was quite late, we were in two minds, to go for water sports again or enjoy the beach waters..We decided to play in the beach. It was a memorable one. After a short while, we went to the shack to have our final bid to Goa. We recollected the whole vacation over a beer and a rose wine munching babycorn fritters. With contentment, we left the place to finish our last minute shopping. Back in the pavilion, we packed up everything to start off early the next day.

Day 6

Bidding adieu to our resort, we left Anjuna at 10.40am. On the way, I blew kisses to the beaches, markets, saying I will come back again! I thanked Goa for giving me a wonderful break! :-). There was traffic slow down near Panaji city.

Pradeep had a definite intent to reach Maravanthe by sunset. Supposedly he hasn’t driven and has never seen the stretch from Maravanthe to Kundapur, neither me. Maravanthe beach is a segment of the Konkan national highway where there is a beach on one side and river on the other. On the way, we decided to check out Om beach in Gokarna. The name itself describes, the beach is Om shaped (to be precise, it looks like number 3). The unique thing about this beach is that the water is very calm and makes a good place to swim and enjoy the waters. We had a brief stop. Around 5.30PM we reached Kumta. Pradeep wanted to purchase a Mantapa to compliment the one he had purchased when he was here few years ago. Apparently Kumta is famous for wood carving especially Mantapams. Our intent was to buy a small mantapa but we ended up buying two new set of mantapams. We thought that the price for both was a steal especially looking at the finish, quality, wood and design. By now reaching Maravanthe before sunset was a farfetched idea. We decided to reach Udupi even though it was 3 hrs away. After Maravanthe, we came across 3 pretty long bridges nearing Kundapur. Pradeep was extremely disappointed that he couldn’t see these during daylight. I had to raise his spirits by telling him we’ll cover this in the next trip. We reached Udupi at 9.30PM and halted in a hotel …….

Day 7

The day started early, we visited the Udupi matt and had a very good darshan of Lord Krishna. While returning back to the hotel, we decided to have taati ningu. This was amongst the tastiest ningus that we’ve had. After a nice breakfast, we left Udupi at 10.40 am. We took the Charmadi ghat route and Pradeep enjoyed the drive in this section. Scenery throughout the ghat section was good. Our last stop-over was in Café coffee day in the evening nearing Hassan. We needed a break after a very long drive. Frappes and burgers brought us little energy. We took the final sunset pictures of the vacation on the road. Reached Bangalore and saw a few changes in the city.;) The noise was on the lower side as it was Saturday night.