Exploring Goa | Colors of Goa

It was the first time I went in an airplane, It was the first time I saw Sea, It was the first time I saw sunset like never before, It was the first time I ride scooty, It was the first time I dived into the water, It was the first time I went to disco, It was the first time I celebrated Valentines Day, It was the first time I used a DSLR, It was the first time I fly in the sky (not in plane), It was the first time I went to trip without booking a Hotel, It was the first time I went in a ship, It was the first time I went to GOA……

So guys as you can see above there is a dozen of things which happened first time in my life :D. Yes of course this was a rocking trip not so adventurous yet whole lot of fun, entertainment and laziness 😉

Day 1 – 10th February, 2010 | Delhi to Goa

Well me, my wife and my cousin left for the Delhi domestic airport around 3.30 PM, checked-in and board the flight with little butterflies in the stomach being the first air travel experience Flight was to depart 5.15 PM and reach there by 7.30 PM. Apart from those little butterflies nothing happened 😀 and we reached Goa on time. From the Airport itself we had to catch a Taxi for Baga and had to pickup my cousin’s fiancé from Paulo Travels near Mapusa. She came from Pune to Goa in morning Volvo which took almost 13 Hours to reach. After some here and there at the pickup spot we finally picked her and headed straight towards Baga. My cousin had assured that they a place to stay as they had visited Goa earlier. Meanwhile driver spotted that we don’t have any place to stay so immediately in his Goan (Konkan) language, I believe, setup the agents to follow the Taxi. We reached Baga and the agents caught us with their offering of an apartment at 2000 per night for 2 couples. The apartment had only one room but they had an extra mattress.

In the mean time my cousin showed me where they stayed and I didn’t like it at all at the very first glance. So we had no choice part from taking that apartment which was near that place for next couple of days and may be if we find a better location we will take that. As mentioned it was the first time I didn’t have the clue where I had to stay and I felt that time it was a big mistake considering the fact I had my wife with me. But nevertheless we got the room, rested an hour got fresh and out on the Baga road for the dinner. As we walked on the road we got the feel Goa with booze, beer and babes all over the place, the happening night life which inclined more and more as the night passed. Finally we came a stop at Bharat Restaurant had some beer and then dinner. The quality of food was just average or I shall say below average but yes Draught tasted great in that environment :). At last We went to the room for complete night rest as next day surely was supposed to be beach day. No pictures were taken on this day apart from this one which was just a test of whether I can use my camera or not 🙂

Day 2 – 11th February, 2010 | Baga – Calungate – Baga – Fort Aguada – Sinquerim – Candolim Beach – Baga

So it was first morning in GOA and the day to see Sea for the first time. But the first task was to get scooties on rent. Luckily just adjacent to the apartment building there was a shop which rented them. After some negotiation we rented 2 scooties for Rs 1600 for 5 days i.e. Rs 160 per day (I thought it was a fair deal). Immediately my cousin got some drinking water as in Goa  most of the hotels either charge for them if they provide water bottles or if its an apartment then you have to get drinking water for yourself. Meanwhile I came to know that I forgot the printout of the itinerary so we headed for the search of Internet Cafe. That’s the first time I ride scooty and believe me I felt really uncomfortable because of no brake paddle, no clutch 😀 … Every time I need to make it stop I pull the breaks thinking it of clutch as in scooter or bike 😉 LOL…It was fun…it took me an hour or so to properly get accustomed to it. Coming back to the Internet cafe since it was 10 AM in the morning everyone told us that most of the cafes would be closed and may open in couple of hours which was like another effect of dominance of night life. So we didn’t get the print out and it was now like from the rough sketch I had in mind we have to take on GOA.

In search of Cafe we even reached Calungate beach which was not very far from Baga road. It was the first time I saw sea and I was like OMG..it is huge huge huge…noise of waves were like amazing music for the ears..it was great. But Calungate beach I found was over commercialized and populated. We didn’t bother to stay there any further and headed to our apartment to pick girls from the room. At the beach itself there was a Goa Tourism resort we checked for room. The price was like 1500 per night and room even was not such good quality and I found it over priced.

Dheeraj Sharma

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Now rats were jumping like hell in our tummies and where else we headed straight towards Brittos, Baga beach for the breakfast. I had heard a lot of things about that place and of course it kept the promises it made. It was a great place with nice view and yummy food/tea/shakes. We ordered breakfast and it was the time for photos to be clicked. Here they goes…

First Click of GOA…

Brittos…

Catch of the day…who eats them???

After a great and yummy breakfast it was the time for Beach. The water sports guys kept coming up with their all sports package and all stuff of high-low tide etc but this was not the day for any sports. It was the day for contemplation and dedicated only to feel Goa, Sea, Beach and Water. We took 2 pair of beds after a bit of bargain at Rs 200 as Brittos don’t provide them free of cost even if you eat there. It was the time to play in water…

Getting a shock from behind…

Floating Foreigners…

Trying Depth of Field…

Baga Beach…

See what I can see…

Measuring Horizon…

After 2-3 hours of sea water fun we were again hungry and thirsty. So as said in the land of beer what else can be best to satisfy the thirst. Well beer just tastes different at beach don’t know why but it did. We also ordered the lunch from Brittos only. Guys who rent beds at beach serves the food as well from the restaurants or beach shacks. Thank god for this they don’t charge at least from us. Again the food was quite good and as we turned around the Brittos was fully packed and there was no single table. People were queued up for it. Well I forgot to quote if you visit GOa then just do try the Pineapple for sure. It is the best thing I ate in Goa and the taste was so fresh,juicy and sweet that I have no words of it. May be having it on beach is altogether different but really it tasted great. It was one of the thing I will never forget from this trip.

It was the time to head for Fort Aguada which lies south of Baga. As we ride heat / sun was taking its toll on us on the road but sitting on the beach breeze was nice and cold.

Getting a shade from the sun…

Going from baga once you reach a T-point from where you take right for Sinquerim Beach / Taj resorts and left for Fort Aguada,the road was really nice. Riding on that road felt really good as sun was covered with some clouds and those were small hills. Finally we reached Fort Aguada. Nothing much to do apart from photographs and here they are…

Entrance…

Let’s go up…

The Aguada…

Sea view from Aguda…

Getting a breather…

Four of us :)…

After spending some time and a nice photography session we left the fort and outside had some Fresh Lime soda. Finally something tasted really like north there :)…Now we wanted to visit Sinquerim Beach and we had to track back till that T-point from where we took left. Enroute I found I think a view of lake (or may be it could be sea but it didn’t look like) which and seeing it I couldn’t stop myself from clicking few pictures of it…

So Serene…

Are we invited to touch the sky…

We reached sinquerim beach and here is what It looked like. It’s a beach where huge 5-star Aguada Taj Resorts sits with it’s private beaches scattered and ship which I feel is stationary there for ages. It was scenic in it’s own sense but some how it gave a feeling of rough and hard beach but that’s my opinion only… Well here as well we didn’t find the cassatta ice cream. We hunted it right from Baga till sinquerim but finding no success my wife finally agreed to quit and settle for cornetto only, 🙂 seems Goa doesn’t like cassatta ice cream.

Stationary Sinquerim and the Ship…

Again I found a Crow…

So lonely…

Twilight starting…

Clouds in glory…

Taj Resorts…

After spending an hour or so we left for Baga and to take some rest but enroute we found a board saying Candolim Beach and we took the turn for evening snacks and Tea. As soon as we entered that road it felt really cool seeing the environment with open air restaurants, projector based TV screens in them, foreigners cheering to their soccer teams, beer all over the place and it was definitely very very clean. I thought of stopping and asking for guest house which I found on road but then felt we can do it when we return from the beach. So we went to Candolim beach and of all the beaches we saw today this was the most calm and peaceful and since it was the time for sunset it looked amazing. I never expected such beauty to be offered by sea. We went to boat view shack and ordered milky tea. Don’t forget this term when you want tea. You have to explicitly say milky tea is what you want else you will end up with black water 😀 Pictures below doesn’t justify how it looked. I tried to take some silhouettes but some how failed to really take them. But never mind it is my first attempt

Dheeraj Sharma

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Beach Volleyball…

Candolim Beach…

Enjoying Beach…

Twilights and with some silhouettes which I tried ;)…

We had tea and french fries and then it was the time for heading back and searching for a room here only. I had made up my mind everytime I will come to Goa I will only put up here. It was amazingly peaceful. We went in search by that time environment had gone richer which sealed my thought of stay here. We went to Ezue Bia guest house and the soon to be 75 year old women owning it showed us the room. I really liked them and at Rs 1000 they were like far better than that apartment. Somehow my cousin wanted some cheaper room and we went further insides of the road and he found Monte Villa who rented the room for Rs 600. The rooms looked just OK to me and I never wanted to stay there but somehow me and my wife agreed. We gave the uncle Rs 1200 as advance and left for our room.

Reaching Baga we called up apartment owner Christo and told him that we will leave the room tomorrow. he said that he will come to collect the keys and we can auto lock it once we leave. We took a fresh water bath and Christo came and took the keys. He asked me twice whether we would need the keys or not if we want to go for dinner. But since it was long and tiring day we thought we would get dinner at home itself so I gave him the keys. After taking bath everyone felt fresh and my sweet wife wanted South Indian. We purchased a lock with many difficulties  and locked the room from outside and went out. Now it was 10.30 PM and as we started searching we didn’t find any restaurants serving South Indian at Baga road. Although there were many signs but all served them seasonally or I feel at availability of the cook 🙂

One restaurant at Baga road named Sagar gave reference of it’s branch at Calungate Beach entrance circle. They told us that if we hurry up we may place the order but have to reach before 11 PM closing time. We did obliged and able to get our order placed just in time. My wife seemed very happy now but meanwhile we three were hungry and decided that we will try Pizza at Pizzeria restaurant. Out of their menu we ordered the only thick crust Vegetarian Pizza available. Just adjacent to it the was a Cafe Coffee Day where cousins wanted brownie sizzler and a coffee. After that finally we agreed to go to room and rest.

Here are few clicks I tried at that restaurant and CCD….

We didn’t know a surprise mixed with our stupidity is waiting for us. As we reached room opened our purchased lock only for this  room we found that internal lock has no lever and by some complex setting from inside it is even locked. So we are out at 12.30 AM at night with everything locked in and owner Christo who lived in Vasco some 40 odd KMs from Baga :shock:…We called him, wake him up and asked to come. He had no choice rather to come and I was realizing the mistake now of giving the keys. It would take him 1 Hr or so to reach here so we went again to Cafe Coffee Day where my cousin just went to big time sleep. At 1.30 AM Christo came and gave us the keys and after murmuring few words he asked for Rs 300 as petrol cost. Since it was already had been a long day we were in no mood of anything. We gave him 260 as a change we had at that moment and he went away asking by what time we will leave. We told him we will attempt Paulolem Beach on our scooty tomorrow and had planned to leave at 6 AM morning after dropping our luggage at Candolim Beach. But because of all what happened we will postpone it to 8 AM. He told that he will come at 8AM then and I was like too furious at him. If if had to come in the morning he should have taken the keys in the morning itslef and I don’t know why did he came that very day. It was so stupid. I was under an impression that since he cannot come in morning he took the keys same day. But that was the end of first full day in Goa and it had everything as you can see 🙂

The Journey ahead-