- Yet to post Pictures of GOA
Everything was planned for 14th of August in advance " Itenerary to GOA".
Plan:Sajith,Ajith,Sunil,Kartik,Vinuthan and me.Go to Londa by train then catch a bus to Panjim before noon.
Execution had a huge offset from the plan though, first nature had it's say with heavy downpour in Bangalore leading to chaotic traffic jams everywhere. As if that was not enough, we made of mess of it by waiting for train at Yeshwantpur stop when Rani Chennamma express does not have a pickup stop there :-), it just slows down to 20km/hr. So we decided it was not worth taking risk to jump into a running train at slow speeds, that too on a slippery rainy day. Anyway I would never do that unless something like DDLJ happens in my life ;).
Then came Plan B , go to Anand Rao circle and look for some pirvate tourist bus to Goa. It was a boom time for taxi/auto, they got whatever fare they demanded on a busy rainy night with travellers everywhere trying to reach on time. Luckily we got a direct Volvo to Goa, the bus left almost at midnight , a troublesome 16 hrs saga infront of us.It rained quite a bit next morning,so it was not that bad as expected.It was a video coach saw two films back to back.Thoda Pyaar thoda Magic was good .. I do like kids stuff , while Money Hai Tho Honey Hai a complete bakwass.
We reached Panji,Goa at around 4pm on 15th of August.A travel agent came to us , we asked for a resort for six people, nearby calangute beach. Agent told that he has some sort of resort like cottage, with a beach view from balcony Joy Guest House, our eyes lit up. Just like our IT industry ,wherin the client never gets what they expect,the resort was almost upto our expectation but not quite :). It was not like a balcony facing the sea with warm sea breeze at us, but we had to look side on from our balcony to get a small two feet glimpse of sea horizon.
Got fresh , and set to calangute beach in a complete beach attire ,
just 100 steps from our cottage. I had a terrible headache by evening. Somehow I maganed to go to calangute shopping area, did some shopping,luckily got a pharmacy store and took a strong headache tablet. Dinner was at [Restaurant Name] , by the time we finished it was almsot 1 am. We took the sea beach route back to our cottage. It was an amazing experience to walk bare footed on calm deserted sea beach with sound of waves gushing past our ears, and it is much more fun to walk on the beach leaving our footprints, which would not last the dawn :), in fact footprints would be wiped with next high wave.
Saturday the 16th August: As planned , we woke up from the bed very early and set to beach. The dawn had already broken. Played on the steep sea shores for about an hour. We came back to room took a nice shower to get rid of sand trapped in our heads. Breakfast tasted too good after taxing hour in beach. Luxury was at highest priority, so we booked an open top Gypsy for entire day. We went to few beaches nearby, did some sea side shopping, colletables, hats, chains, shades, footwear, rangeela kurthas, fancy T-shirt- bermuda with Goa prints on it. We had lunch at [Restaurant Name] on the banks of dano paula.
The last item was Cruise, we booked a cruise for 6:15pm. The booking agent told its hardly two minutes walk, So we did not take Gypsy with us, only to find that it was good 15+ minutes walk to the boarding point. We missed 6:15 trip and managed to catch the next one at 7:00 pm. Cruise was good, it had two storeys, open to sky at top while dance floor on the lower one. Cruise went around for about 30 minutes. When it was over, we had to walk all the way back to parking point..:-(.
We headed back to our room on Gypsy and zoomed to Calangute, It was a fun drive back to room. We returned the Gypsy back to the travel agent by 10:30pm. Had dinner at [Restaurant Name]. The fun of walking on the beach at night was too good on previous day to miss again tonight, so we did it again :).
Sunday the 17th August: We woke up late , we did not have any plans as we anticipated a tiresome journey waiting for us. Packed our bags cleared the cottage dues. Took a bus to Ponda, then Ponda-->Belgaum. The journey from Ponda to Belgaum was the surprise, unexpected bonus!!!. The weather was very nice,cloudy and remains of previous night heavy rains was evident on the entire way back leaving us with a superb pleasant journey. Anmod Ghat was the highlight,beautiful scenery on either side of the road. We came across lot of small water falls on the curvy ghat sections. I could not resist and took the first seat in the bus. The turns in the ghat seem very dangerous when seen from the best seat of bus, it really scares at lot :). Managed to take few snaps from my Sony Ericsson's W 700i.
Reached belgaum by 5pm.Sunil left us from that point, he went to his home in Hubli. Five of us boarded the train at Belgaum. Chit chat for a while , then we had railway pantry served dinner. The train was jam packed, as expected everyone returning to Bengaluru for work and face Monday morning blues...So here I am....done with the draft version,Soon to post after spell check. Unfortunately there is no grammer check on sentance formation here :( .
Last but not least, few lesson learnt
- Always double check the boarding point/station and journey dates.
Everything was planned for 14th of August in advance " Itenerary to GOA".
Plan:Sajith,Ajith,Sunil,Kartik,Vinuthan and me.Go to Londa by train then catch a bus to Panjim before noon.
Execution had a huge offset from the plan though, first nature had it's say with heavy downpour in Bangalore leading to chaotic traffic jams everywhere. As if that was not enough, we made of mess of it by waiting for train at Yeshwantpur stop when Rani Chennamma express does not have a pickup stop there :-), it just slows down to 20km/hr. So we decided it was not worth taking risk to jump into a running train at slow speeds, that too on a slippery rainy day. Anyway I would never do that unless something like DDLJ happens in my life ;).
Then came Plan B , go to Anand Rao circle and look for some pirvate tourist bus to Goa. It was a boom time for taxi/auto, they got whatever fare they demanded on a busy rainy night with travellers everywhere trying to reach on time. Luckily we got a direct Volvo to Goa, the bus left almost at midnight , a troublesome 16 hrs saga infront of us.It rained quite a bit next morning,so it was not that bad as expected.It was a video coach saw two films back to back.Thoda Pyaar thoda Magic was good .. I do like kids stuff , while Money Hai Tho Honey Hai a complete bakwass.
We reached Panji,Goa at around 4pm on 15th of August.A travel agent came to us , we asked for a resort for six people, nearby calangute beach. Agent told that he has some sort of resort like cottage, with a beach view from balcony Joy Guest House, our eyes lit up. Just like our IT industry ,wherin the client never gets what they expect,the resort was almost upto our expectation but not quite :). It was not like a balcony facing the sea with warm sea breeze at us, but we had to look side on from our balcony to get a small two feet glimpse of sea horizon.
Got fresh , and set to calangute beach in a complete beach attire ,
just 100 steps from our cottage. I had a terrible headache by evening. Somehow I maganed to go to calangute shopping area, did some shopping,luckily got a pharmacy store and took a strong headache tablet. Dinner was at [Restaurant Name] , by the time we finished it was almsot 1 am. We took the sea beach route back to our cottage. It was an amazing experience to walk bare footed on calm deserted sea beach with sound of waves gushing past our ears, and it is much more fun to walk on the beach leaving our footprints, which would not last the dawn :), in fact footprints would be wiped with next high wave.
Saturday the 16th August: As planned , we woke up from the bed very early and set to beach. The dawn had already broken. Played on the steep sea shores for about an hour. We came back to room took a nice shower to get rid of sand trapped in our heads. Breakfast tasted too good after taxing hour in beach. Luxury was at highest priority, so we booked an open top Gypsy for entire day. We went to few beaches nearby, did some sea side shopping, colletables, hats, chains, shades, footwear, rangeela kurthas, fancy T-shirt- bermuda with Goa prints on it. We had lunch at [Restaurant Name] on the banks of dano paula.
The last item was Cruise, we booked a cruise for 6:15pm. The booking agent told its hardly two minutes walk, So we did not take Gypsy with us, only to find that it was good 15+ minutes walk to the boarding point. We missed 6:15 trip and managed to catch the next one at 7:00 pm. Cruise was good, it had two storeys, open to sky at top while dance floor on the lower one. Cruise went around for about 30 minutes. When it was over, we had to walk all the way back to parking point..:-(.
We headed back to our room on Gypsy and zoomed to Calangute, It was a fun drive back to room. We returned the Gypsy back to the travel agent by 10:30pm. Had dinner at [Restaurant Name]. The fun of walking on the beach at night was too good on previous day to miss again tonight, so we did it again :).
Sunday the 17th August: We woke up late , we did not have any plans as we anticipated a tiresome journey waiting for us. Packed our bags cleared the cottage dues. Took a bus to Ponda, then Ponda-->Belgaum. The journey from Ponda to Belgaum was the surprise, unexpected bonus!!!. The weather was very nice,cloudy and remains of previous night heavy rains was evident on the entire way back leaving us with a superb pleasant journey. Anmod Ghat was the highlight,beautiful scenery on either side of the road. We came across lot of small water falls on the curvy ghat sections. I could not resist and took the first seat in the bus. The turns in the ghat seem very dangerous when seen from the best seat of bus, it really scares at lot :). Managed to take few snaps from my Sony Ericsson's W 700i.
Reached belgaum by 5pm.Sunil left us from that point, he went to his home in Hubli. Five of us boarded the train at Belgaum. Chit chat for a while , then we had railway pantry served dinner. The train was jam packed, as expected everyone returning to Bengaluru for work and face Monday morning blues...So here I am....done with the draft version,Soon to post after spell check. Unfortunately there is no grammer check on sentance formation here :( .
Last but not least, few lesson learnt
- Always double check the boarding point/station and journey dates.
- If it rains in Bengaluru, plan to leave early to station.
- If you rent a vehicle in goa, see that it is yellow board and has proper valid permit/insurance/emmison documents etc.
- In goa when travel agent/booking agent say 2 min walk, it is almost certain to be more than 15 mins walk.
- Due to Ghat sections and bad roads[thanks to mining tippers], always have FOS on time estimates on way back,if you plan/desire to report on time to office on Monday.
