Goa, India
Trip taken: Dec 2009
An old church near Calangute
If you’ve heard people say Goa is out of the world, and wondered how good it can be or how different from the rest of India, well, they meant it and it is everything that a good break can bring to those close to it.
Mine was a similar short trip, one that said, “Let’s see what all the fuss is about Goa”. So, having done very little research, having no idea if I was going by myself or not until the very last minute, I landed in Goa on a Thursday evening, not sure if my time was going to be filled enjoyable until Sunday.
The drive from the airport to Calangute (North Goa) is about an hour flat. So my guess is that the drive from North Goa to South Goa is a two hour drive down the coast. The first day was hectic and long, but I didn’t want to miss the sight seeing aspects of Goa and be just a beach bunny!
Co-incidentally, the Saint Francis Xavier festival that takes place around his death anniversary was in full swing that weekend so there was plenty activity in and around the church. So I started my lonely tour there. It seems strange to be going in to these very Portugese structures, including the names, and seeing things that just don’t seem to go along with the rest of India.
Proceed from there to the St.Augustine tower in the lane right across from St.Francis church. As I walked through the ruins, there was a feeling of immense loss of what must have once been a magnificent structure and church with different prayer halls and beautiful Portugese tiles in their typical white, blue, yellow and red colors. Just the bell tower remains of this huge church.
Relics of St. Augustine Church, Bell Tower
There are a couple of temples that are popular and tourists seem to visit. The architecture or beauty of these was lost on me. They were very modern, white, brick and cement structures that lacked anything I was used to in temples I saw in the South. Maybe I was too stuck in the old style temples I missed the significance of anything in these.
Further down the road, there are spice gardens and a trip into plantations. Ask your guide or driver to take you to a real plantation, a not so tourist driven or busy one. The one I went to was the Tropical Spice Plantation. Although the whole experience wasn’t bad, it was Rs.300 for a twenty minute tour with twenty other people into a well landscaped spice garden. It included lunch at the hut in front of the plantation, and they sold some very good, fresh spices too. It was a good trip, I just would have preferred to go into a more rustic and natural plantation.
A long drive down the coast took me past the famous Vasco da Gama beach and down to Margoa. Truly a beautiful part of Goa, it feels like a village mixed with different flavors and brings forth a relaxing feeling. There is a large market there that should not be missed. Fruits, flowers, vegetables, poultry, pork and sausage products, fresh fish including hammer head sharks and lobsters and several other eatables that are regional and a delicacy in that area are available. Easily an hour or so will go by as you walk through the stalls and take in the smells.
In Goa, the sunset is not to be missed! So I settled on the Colva Beach to take in the different colors of the Arabian Sea. A few Para sailors drifted by and
Para Sailing at Colva Beach during sunset
made for some interesting pictures during the sunset. If I was having so much fun taking pictures of the, I could only imagine how much fun they were having up there!
As luck would have it, two of my friends did decide to take me up on the offer and come down for the weekend. So, after the sunset, I drove up to the airport, picked them up and drove back north to Nagoa, where we were staying.
Dinner was at the Taj facing the Baga Beach. Drinks followed at the main strip and then continued at Tito’s lane, which was suggested by one and all. Some shopping along with drinking added to the vacationing-by-the-sea-side feeling.
The next day started with a boating trip to see dolphins, which we did. Beautiful, graceful, playful, pink nosed creatures in two different colors: dark grey and creamy white, bouncing in and out of the waters all around the boat. Then, we headed off to do the real beach stuff to Baga Beach.
Some beaches offer all the water sports, some offer only a few. But the list is
Yes, those are my feet. Yes, I did it!
para sailing, jet skiing, snorkeling, diving, fast jet boats into the ocean. We did a few of those, got tired, showered, repeated Friday night at the night strip, bought a lot more things for myself and headed home at 3am!
A tiring trip to Goa, it is going to have to be repeated at a leisurely pace, and less like a glutton without food for a week! That way, I am not trying to admit myself into a hospital for IV when I get home! But 4 pairs of heels, 3 dresses, 2 pairs of shorts and a partridge in a pear tree… Not bad shopping for Christmas, I’d say.
Cost of the trip including the guesthouse shared by 3 people for 3 nights, a car and driver all day and evening (12 hours a day), beach activities: Rs.18,000. Not bad when you have so much fun!
