After a long phase of discussions, plannings and deliberations, we finally decided the time for the Goa trip! We planned for the long weekend on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. With our entire group on board, Goa in the monsoon became all the more tempting. By the time our plan took shape, the train tickets were already sold out. So, we took the option of taking a flight from Bangalore to Goa.
Goa can be broadly divided into North and South. North Goa is typically known for the lively crowd, the cafes, pubs and a variety of water sports. In short, it is the happening part of the state for which Goa is known. In contrast, South Goa is calm, quiet and scenic with its fair share of hills and sparsely occupied sea beaches. Given that we were going during monsoon when water sports would anyhow be not available and we had only 3 days in our hand, South Goa looked like the better option for our stay. We booked the Palolem Beach Resort. As the day for our trip approached, and the upcoming event kept on showing the Flight to Goa, you can well imagine our excitement!
Finally the fateful day arrived. We were divided into 2 groups. One group of 4 were to catch the 6:05 AM Air Asia flight. The other group of 7 were to catch the 6:30 AM Indigo flight. Accordingly, our friends started at 3:30 AM, picking us up en-route the airport. We reached Goa at around 7:45 AM. Rest of the group was waiting in the airport. By the time we collected our luggage and met them, the airport was almost empty as there were no more flights at around that time. This was our opportunity. Out came the tiffin carriers with aloo paratha and dam aloo. It was quite a sight, a group of 11 gorging on the breakfast. By that time, it was almost 8:30 AM. We finally came out of the airport and queued up for airport taxi. Our usual trips involve booking cars for the entire trip. However, this time we decided otherwise given the exorbitant prices being charged. By this way, we saved payment of daily driver bata of almost Rs.700 per day, for 2 cars. Also, we didn't find much option for bigger vehicles like Tempo Traveler or Swaraj Mazda in optimal cost. We took 2 cars at an average of Rs. 2000, for drop to our resort which was around 60 kms from airport down south. The road from airport to the south was nothing short of a beautiful hill station, with clouds touching the hill tops! We reached our resort on the Palolem beach at around 10:30. Even though the official check in time was 1 PM, we got our rooms immediately.
Palolem is one of the most southerly beaches of Goa. It is a natural bay surrounded by lofty boulders on either side. The clean beach and water makes it perfect for a swim or two. We had taken 5 AC rooms in the Palolem Beach Resort, which is right on the beach. rooms were of decent size, clean and tidy. The only problem was some insects coming in from outside, but given the greenery, this much was expected.
With breakfast already done, we just took 15 mins to freshen up, and then jumped right into the sea. It was time for high tide, and the waves were pretty big. We thoroughly enjoyed in the sea for couple of hours.
We came out of the sea, albeit reluctantly, at around 1 o'clock. By that time we were really hungry. We headed towards the Dropadi restaurant, next to our resort. As we all know, food prices in Goa is over-hyped. It is even more so in the South Goa, as the options are comparatively on the lesser side. We went for sizzlers, which just tasted like chilli chicken in a sizzler platter. But I really liked the chocolate shake! We were a hungry lot, with all the travelling and swimming, and gorged on the food once it arrived. That made a post lunch walk necessary. The weather was also perfect for a long walk down the beach. We walked all the way to the end of one side of the Palolem beach. During that time, our friends went in search of cars for rent. After considerable bargaining, 2 Ertigas were booked for Rs.3200 each, for a trip to the popular beaches in the south of Goa. We planned to start at 4 PM after taking a much needed break for an hour.
Day 1 Trip
It started raining by the time we started our sight-seeing, but luck was somewhat on our side that day. It was mostly raining while we were in the car, going from one place to the next, but stopped whenever we were getting off! Our first stop was Cavelossim Beach. We pit-stopped at a beautiful unnamed location on our way. It was a bridge on a river surrounded by mountains, with people fishing. After some photo-ops, we continued our journey.
There were hardly 3-4 persons in the Cavelossim beach, apart from our group. The other beaches down south, like Betalbatim, Miramar, etc. were also similar in nature. If calm, idyllic, serene hill clad beaches are your thing, South Goa is the place to be.
Finally we reached the Colva beach. Colva is the most happening beach in this part. It is a very popular tourist destination known for its food, pubs and water sports. A small river-let runs along the beach, emptying itself into the sea. It has 2 small bridges across it at the entrance of the beach to enable people to cross and reach the beach.
That finished our sight-seeing for the day, and we headed straight for Martin's corner. Martin's is one of the most popular restaurants in Goa, with a frequent celebrity footfall, famous for its authentic Goan delicacy. Being the foodies that we are, we had decided about going to this place even before we reached Goa! I went for fish steak along with Sangria. Loved the food as well as the ambiance. There was live Karaoke with guests pitching in with Abba or Richard Marx songs. With the perfect ending to our first day in Goa, we headed back to our resort, and called it a day.
Day 2
Day 2, after having complementary breakfast in our resort, we embarked upon our journey to North Goa. We had bargained with the same car drivers for this day's trip, under the condition that they will drop us back to the airport next day, as part of a package. Today's package was Rs.4500 per car. our first stop was at the Basilica of Bom Jesus, or Borea Jezuchi Bajilika. This is a UNESCO World heritage Site. The Basilica holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier. The church is located in Old Goa, which was the capital of Goa in the early days of Portuguese rule. Unlike the day before, the weather was playing spoilsport this day, and it was pouring cats and dogs. Not that it deterred us in any manner! Even though it was off-season, there was quite a sizable amount of crowd.
Next stop was Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church located in Panjim. The colonial Portuguese Baroque style church was first built in 1541 as a chapel on a hill side, overlooking the city of Panjim. It was eventually replaced by a larger church in the 1600s as part of Portuguese Goa's religious expansion.
We decided to have our lunch in Panjim itself, before heading to our next destination. This time, all of us went for the quintessential Goan Fish Thali, restaurant - Casa Bhonsle. Apart from the usual prawns and mackerels, the thali had an item comprising of clams (ঝিনুক). After our initial reluctance, we went for it after a slight nudge from the waiter. We were in for a nice surprise! It was really very tasty, closer to prawn in taste. But you have to be used to eating fishes, or else it might be a little strong for your taste buds. All in all we loved the dish, and it was our cheapest meal in Goa by far, per plate costing only Rs.150.
After a satisfactory lunch, we headed towards Aguada Fort and lighthouse. It is a well-preserved 17th century Portuguese fort on Sinquerim beach, overlooking the Arabian sea. The fort was constructed in 1612 to guard against the Dutch and the Marathas. The old portuguese fort stands on the beach south of Candolim, at the shore of Mandovi river. A freshwater spring within the fort provided water supply to the ships that used to stop by. This is how the fort got its name: Aguada, meaning water.
Our final destination for the day was the famed Baga beach. It is one of the most popular beaches in all of Goa, with its cafes and pubs and restaurants, along with the maximum assortments of water sports (which were on hold for monsoon). this beach made us a little nostalgic, reminiscing the places visited during the earlier stays. The lively ambiance of the beach never fails to energize you. Passing by the Brittos, and other famed places, we went for a short evening walk in the beach. A tasty coolfie later, we were back in our car, returning to our resort.
We thought of having dinner in our resort itself. Dinner was an assorted affair. I went for another of the traditional Goan cuisine - chicken vindaloo, which turned out to be tasty. However, the feedback for continental food and pasta was not so good. While having dinner, we noticed a continuous procession of Lord Ganesha idols coming up for immersion into the sea. We rushed back to the sea to witness this unique experience, as we Bengali folks are used to witnessing idol immersion in the rivers only. There were no less than 30-40 idols that were immersed that night, accompanied by firecrackers. The idols were being taken deep into the sea in total darkness for immersion. It was scary to see, even though there was a good presence of guards.
After this unexpectedly pleasant experience, we gathered back in our room for an adda session, in accompaniment of traditional Goan sweet Bebinca! It is a type of pudding having 7 layers. The ingredients include plain flour, sugar, ghee, egg yolk and coconut milk. After a solid session of chitchat past midnight (the fun of having a big group), we called it a day.
Day 3
Next morning, while having breakfast in our resort, we observed that the beach was being cleaned post the immersions, disposing off the leftover flowers and other Puja items from the beach. After breakfast, we headed towards the Butterfly Beach. This beach is usually visited by boat. But boating was not advisable during this time of the year, given the heavy rain lashing over the coastal state. We decided to go there by foot. However, we were warned that we should return before the high tide submerges the beach on the way to that beach, or there is a chance of being stranded. On our way, we saw the fishermen returning with catch of the day. There were some huge prawns and crabs in there, along with other fishes!
It was a long walk in the beach, with non-stop rain for company. There was already a little water in-road into the beach. It appeared to be shallow, but turned out to be knee-deep. A beautiful scenery was waiting for us on the other side. It was a hilly stretch, strewn with boulders and it looked really pretty. You won't feel like leaving that place. But after spending some time, and taking the mandatory pictures, we headed back before the water becomes too high. We found that within the short span of time, the water reached up to waist from knee-deep that it was. It was a little scary as the sand was also moving underneath. But we crossed it, safe and sound, and headed back to our rooms.
It was our last day of stay, and we were supposed to vacate all the rooms but 2, by 11 AM. Our return flight was scheduled for 5:05 PM departure. All of us were returning in the same Air Asia flight. We had requested for airport drop at 2 PM. This time the rate we got was Rs.1800 per car. After moving our luggage to the 2 designated rooms, the guys went for one more round of swim and we headed for the mandated shopping!
By 1 PM we were all ready, and started for the final lunch of our stay in Goa. This time we chose an Italian cafe. The Italian name was somewhat misnomer, as it very much served Indian food. We thought of having a light lunch this time around, as we had taxed our stomach a lot over the last couple of days. So, basically we started with rice and dal. But then, we being the Bongs, we ended up ordering fish finger, prawn rava fry and squid rings for starters, and then King fish as well as Pomphret fry as part of the main course. Our order became so extensive that the cafe took a long time to serve them all. As a result we were 30 mins late to start for the airport, even after gobbling up the food in flat 15 mins. After a final view of the sea, we headed towards the airport with a heavy heart and a promise to return soon, to this magical place !!
Travel Tips:
- Best time to travel to Goa - mid-November to mid-February. But August monsoon has its own charm.
- Place to stay - If you have at least 4 days in hand, it is advisable to break up your stay in North (say, Baga) and South (say, Colva/Palolem), to get the taste of the fun-side as well as the quieter side of Goa.
- Water sports are not available during monsoon season - June - September.
- Transport - After a lot of research, we concluded that hiring a car for the entire stay can be very costly, unless you want to self-drive. Hiring cars daily for sight-seeing is an optimal way of budgeting. Break-up as per our experience**:
~ Airport pickup/drop - Rs.1800
~ South Goa trip (from South) covering the main beaches - Rs.3200
~ North Goa trip (from South) covering Old Goa churches, main beaches, Aguada fort (we also had Chapora fort in our list, but had to skip it for the sake of time) - Rs.4500
~ Self-driven car/day - Rs.1500
- Food - Best place to experiment with all kinds of sea food, but food is going to be the biggest cost in the trip. North Goa is relatively cheaper as compared to South given the availability of numerous places to eat.
- You can do some research like us prior to your visit, for the best places to eat, as they are usually spread out throughout the state, and you might have to plan your sight-seeing accordingly (as food is one of the most important, if not the most important, part of Goa! :P)
** These are all off-season prices, and they are bound to shoot up during the tourist season.
