Go Goa!! Will Go Again :)

On Friday 21^st Feb 2014, we had planned to go to Goa for a Bike Trip, but due to unavailability of Bikes we had to skip the plan (Many Bikes were not in Proper condition for Long Bike Trip), we thought of visiting other places nearby Hubli, but fortunately none were good for the season. Fortunately?, Because I wanted to go to Goa :) . Later, we had made our mind that we will be going to Goa at any cost either by Vehicle or by any Public Transport (Bus/Train).

1.Waiting for the Train in Hubli Railway Station

Finally, we decided to leave Hubli the same night by Train, so we (13 members from Sankalp) were energized to travel to Goa.  For me, it was the first time in Goa so I was super excited J . For Train , we had less time to book sleeper as it was a quick plan,so we made mental preparation for General seat. As usual, Train was delayed by 10 mins and General Bogie was crowded. Fortunately, with our Train traveler Experts like Rakesh TR and Dayanand Sagar we managed to get seats.

2.Sleep Tight in General Seat :D

But it was difficult to be comfortable as there was suffocation due to the large crowd and we had few strange guests who wore bad perfume of Alcohol and Urine in their body and Pant. Then , our rescue boy  ‘Vishwas’ who was sleeping with safe and sound in the upper seat of a train suddenly jumped and behaved as a policemen to get rid of the bad Perfume guy and undoubtedly he was successful.

3.Goa :) 

We arrived in Goa around 6.30am , the place of arrival was Madgaon. But the Destination in Goa was Calangute , Baga Beach. So, we hired a Winger Vehicle through a broker. As we were waiting for the Winger to show up, Broker disappointed us as there were no Winger ready at that time. In Goa, as soon as you arrive you will be surrounded by 3 or more Brokers who will manage to get you all sorts of Vehicle from Activa to Imported Vehicles. As, we were waiting for the bus, the other broker came and promised as the first one. We agreed and we were waiting for the second broker's Vehicle . Here comes the twist, now the first vehicle guy showed up with Winger and there was no sight of second vehicle also. So here we are, with first Vehicle who denied initially and with a Broker who promised a vehicle in 15mins. Here, we became selfish and wanted to reach destination as soon as possible so we choose the first vehicle . Ha-ha ,then the drama started , there was initial war of words between two brokers and then the second broker was trying to get us out of  the first vehicle. Shrinivas our hero of the trip, who had just come after relaxing :)  missed the initial drama , he was the one who had made the agreement with second broker . As he was not present he did not know about the first/second vehicle . As he sat in the vehicle in which we were seated already ,to our surprise the second broker got serious and he pulled Shrinivas out of the car and started behaving aggressively. This was the time for our entry, we came for his rescue and also had heated discussion with the second broker . Finally, Boss of second vehicle came and calmed the broker and we left the railway station in the first vehicle.

The Journey from Madgaon to Calangute was about 90mins, Sushanth (Lover boy) had been to Goa multiple times and he knew a Home for rent in Calangute. So we reached to Calangute around 9:15am and the Guest house was named “Kanta”, not sure why. Thanks to Sushanth we did not wander more places for Room. Since we were 13 members we bought 4 rooms for 1,100 rs each (3+3+3+4 members/room). Rooms were decent with TV ,Fridge and Spacious.

4.Bike Trip

We freshened up quickly and set to roam Goa . We left room at 10.30am and had breakfast in nearby Hotels. The cost for Food is high in Goa compared to Manglore/Hubli. We all had a decent breakfast. The next task was to get a Vehicle for our travel  in the city. We bought 5 Activa for 600rs each and 2 FZ bike for 800rs each for 2 days and 1 night .  I was riding FZ alone as we were an odd numbered gang.

5.Dona Paul 

8.Panjim Church

Our first destination was Dona Paula,Panjim and our bike trip started. to this destination. The distance was about 25 Km from Calangute to  Dona Paul. Dona Paula is a former village and tourist destination . It is the beautiful and calm place to visit, lots of Tourist were also present. We stayed here for about 30mins and headed towards Miramar which was at a short distance of about 4Km from Dona Paul. Unlike other beach in Goa, Miramar attracted only few tourists and beach was almost empty . Next we visited Panjim church “Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church” , which was so beautiful structure. And it is one of the oldest churches in Goa, existing from the year 1540. Here we concluded the first half of the day.

6.Miramar Beach

7.Sand Sculpt near Miramar Beach

 Lunch Time!!! J We were exhausted and divided our 13 member Team to 2 Teams . That was Veg and Non-Veg. Veg Team was having higher strength of about 8 members. This is because, couple of our members don’t eat non veg on Saturday’s. As there were no Non Veg hotels apart from Lounge, so we all decided to go to Veg Restaurant . We found Kamath Hotel nearby Panjim church. We had a good lunch and took a few minutes of rest with fresh breeze in front of the church, which had bench sitting.

Next, was Vagatar Beach J, This would make all boys happy. Yes, finally we found the beach where a lot of expected tourist were present. Ahh J we enjoyed this a lot. Few of our members (Praveen,Dayanand,Swapneel) got down onto the beach. Others enjoyed sight seeing. Overall it was lot of fun. Goa follows different culture compared to India and it was all new to me to see live J . Since we didn’t prepare to get into beach earlier , most of us thought of going to Baga beach and getting wet there, I mean getting down onto beach. So, after spending 1 hour on this beach, we gave our eyes rest. I and Vishwass had a beer here. J Since we had to ride , we kept our temptation for the night.

9.Arpora Market

Baga Beach was more like a Puttur Jatre (Puttur is my place and Jatre means market), It was filled with Tourist and Localities for about 3 Km wide. We finally got into the water, it was a good feeling. We also played volleyball with strangers which involved fun from both sides. We all  enjoyed by jumping against the wave in beach, felt like freedom jump :P . Finally before the sun would set, we decided to freshen up for the night. The Night was Beautiful , which is what we had heard about Goa J. And Night is Young too :P.

After a Quick shower in the room , we all set to go to Arpora Market. As other places, Arpora was filled with crowd. There were lot of shops which mainly had Handmade Garments and Idols. There were few shops owned by Foreigners also. I believe there was collaboration between Foreigners and Localities. Crowded Market with concert was not a bad place to spend the evening/night, but we had different plans. We roamed the entire  market, and decided to have a dinner together before getting split, as members had different plans.

We had dinner at Local hotel, and thank to God, the hotel service was good and fast. Here we had two team here, unlike during lunch. We had good dinner here and as expected the cost for the dinner was very high.

10.Discussion in Baga Beach

After dinner, few of us went to market again, few went to beach and others went to Pub. And yes, I was in the team who went  for Pub. Pub was local and lower than expectation. Along with me , Sushanth, Dayanand,Vishwass and Swapneel were there. But Swapneel left early due to some reason. I don’t remember. We four danced and drank Vodka (I and Vishwass) with the beat. We were dancing in the Pub from 10pm to 1am J. It was good experience. I didn't enjoy Pub environment much but with friends any place would be the wonders of the world. Here we were , done with Pub .

The other teams continued to be in there respective places, i.e. Beach and Market. We four planned to go to the Beach with full bottle of Green Apple Vodka. Vodka was chosen as majority voted it . In beach , there were many shacks which were playing good music. We were dancing in Beach for that same beat. We met other  Sankalp team - ISD ,they had been to be Goa also for their Team Outing. We had a little fun together and departed for respective departments. With dance and talk in the beach, the Vodka got over with four members. We all were full high, when we reached room at 3.30am. Had a quick tight sleep .

11.Aguada Fort

 Next Day, Sunday J I woke up at 9.30am. We checked out our room and kept all the luggage's in the Owners shop. We had to cover few more places. Actually ,we did not have a correct plan of when to go back to Hubli. Initial plan was to leave Goa before 4pm, but later it didn’t happen. We had our breakfast in Sagar Hotel,Calangute.Breakfast was delicious .

12.Calangute Beach

Our first destination for the last day in Goa was Aguada Fort. Aguada Fort was constructed in 1613 to guard against Dutch and the Marathas. Aguada Fort is huge and the construction needs applause. I personally enjoyed the Fort. Next we had been to Calangute beach adjacent to Baga beach. Had some relaxation for the body but not the eyeJ.  After spending almost an hour we left to Calangute to have lunch in Sagar Hotel. In the mean time, I , Avinash and Swapneel bought 2 Liquor , as Liquor cost was cheap here. I bought Teachers and Black Dog. After having lunch , we re-collected the Luggage’s and gave back the rented bike .

We planned of going to Madgaon for Kart racing, which was about 1hour journey from Calangute. We hired Qualis and set to go to Madgaon. After an Hour we reached Go-Karting club. As time was 4.30pm,we had to do this quickly and get back to hubli via bus/train. Train choice was eliminated as we did not have sleeper  tickets and we didn’t wanted to travel in general seat as before.

 A go-kart is a small four-wheeled vehicle, we had to pay 250rs for 10laps. And one Lap was around 700meters.We all enjoyed it very much. It was a good experience. Vishwas was star player of the evening as he tried to jump his Kart of the road but fortunately he was not successful J. We finished Go-Karting at 6.30pm and headed towards the Madgaon bus stop with the same Qaulis.

We were lucky to catch the bus ,which was from Madgaon to Hubli at 7.30pm. It would reach Hubli around 1am. And we did not have any other choice, so we choose to go with this bus. We had to cross Goa – Karnataka check post where the checking was done. Since we had Permit, we informed Police about taking liquor legally, but the officer charged 100rs per person. And we preached anti-corruption as we did not want to give bribe. We had a heated argument with Police, finally we gave up by giving 100rs each else they would take the bottle which would cost 1000rs each. But later, we got to know that it was Orissa permit and there is no legal permission to get Liquor from Goa to Karnataka. We also had debate on this internally and we got to know that it was mistake from both the sides. Getting liquor was our mistake and asking for bribe was their mistake.

Finally we had a stop in Ankola, where we set to have dinner. I am not sure , whether we were so Hungry or what, but the Non-Veg items were so tasty. We had lot of food and with our tummy fully loaded we went back to bus.

And finally we reached our Home Hubli at 1am.

It was an Amazing Trip, I enjoyed each and every moment of it. There is lot of learning you get when you travel to new place . Thanks to all 12 awesome friends for making this trip memorable J

Love to all J

Prashanth M