Goa!!!!

Spending the long weekend (of 4 days holidays) in Goa was really exciting. Thomas too liked the idea. He asked a few of his friends, and from among them, Diana joined us. I called my brother Roshan, and he too agreed. Through a friend of mine, I arranged an apartment for us at Calangute.
So we 4 left in Thomas' Scorpio from Bangalore at 5.30 AM to beat the possible traffic jam near Peenya.
Indeed, we managed to beat the jam and we continued on to Tumkur road. After paying the toll of 22 Rs (single payment for both the toll booths at the two sides of Tumkur) at Tumkur toll booth, we continued to Tiptur and reached Arsikere. The Tumkur road is really good, but the road from Tiptur to Arsikere has a few bad stretches. But in a Scorpio, you don't feel it much.
After having breakfast at Arsikere at around 9.30 AM (that consisted of masala dosa, rava masala dosa and tea), and buying some fruits, we headed towards Shimoga. I tried to drive the Scorpio, but realised that I was in no position to control this beast. I felt that should have tried driving on the broader roads, as the roads here are narrow, and you have to go slightly off the road when a similar sized vehicle comes from the opposite direction.
So Thomas had to take the wheel again, though he was already tired. Then we reached Jog through Sagar. Again, this part of the road reminds you that you are in Karnataka. But when you get closer to Jog, the road is good. It is full of sharp curves though.
When I saw the Job Falls, I was awestruck. It was my first time at Jog. The Sharavathi river fell from about 250 meters, giving us this magnificiant view (and also electricity!!!). The glory was not at its best though. Still the Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket didn’t fail to awe us. From the top, you can look at the people near the bottom of the falls, and they don’t look much bigger than ants.
We parked the car (for 20 Rs parking fee), and decided to go at least half way down. The time was already 3, and we had to hurry up. So we trekked down on the steps created using big stones. The path is really nice. It is well decorated with the wrappers of all the brands of biscuits, chocolates, soft drinks and gutkha. So if any of you or your friends are doing some survey/research on consumables, this is a place to visit.
While going down, I saw some green thing moving near my legs. I leapt in fear, because it was a snake. Green in colour, perfectly camouflaged between the green leaves. I was just thinking how lucky I was, until a man there told me that it is not venomous and it just hits you like a whip. Whew, that's gotta be painful!!!
We didn’t go much further. We came back to the top, had some tea at a hotel there, and continued towards Karwar. This road is also good, until you hit the national highway NH 17 (that goes from Kerala to Mumbai, via Mangalore, Karwar and Goa). And once you are on this NH, your worst nightmare comes true. The road is virtually out of existence. And the movement of heavy trucks further worsens the driving condition.
After continuing on this road for what seemed eternity, we came to Gokarna Cross road. By this time it was already dark. We went into Gokarna, and when we reached the beach, it was 8 PM (no no, not the whisky... The time..).
There were many people here still. We walked along the shore towards our right side, after seeing a few lights and what looked like a celebration at a distance. It was some locals celebrating Deepavali, so they were bursting crackers and having a pooja. We spent some time there, where Diana successfully lit a cigarette after a 3 or 4 failed attempts. It must say, that's an achievement. Once a friend of mine and I had spent more than 20 matches on the shores of Someshwara beach (in Mangalore) to light a cigarette, that too while hiding behind rocks!! And she did it while standing on the shore, facing the sea!!!
After Gokarna, we hit the NH again. We stopped at a fuel station for refueling and the guy told us that the road continues to be in this state for the next 60 KM or so. But he was wrong. The road improved after some 45 KM. He had cheated us by giving us wrong figures X-)))))
The road was good once we reached Karwar. So we could continue without much delay. I called up Mr Puntu (who, being a neighbour, would help us in finding the apartment). It was already dark and we were getting desperate to reach our destination. Tiredness was obvious from Thomas' face. It isn't easy driving some 700 km in one day!!!
At the Karnataka-Goa border, the Karnataka police demanded 100 Rs 'entry fee' though we weren't entering Karnataka. Little further, the Goa police also stopped and asked for Thomas' passport and the car's documents. It was obvious from his face that he wanted money, but he didn’t ask. So we didn’t give. And finally we were on Goan soil. We entered Canacona district. Here also the roads are bad. Until then I had thought that all the roads in Goa are good.
We continued towards Panjim, but lost our way somewhere. The problem was that it was too dark, and there were no signboards. The national highway itself wasn't any broader than the town roads, so it was almost impossible to make out the correct way. Clock showed something like 11 PM. And there were no other vehicles that we could follow.
But luckily, a man helped us in finding our way. We were back on NH and we continued further. Once we came close to Panjim, there were enough signboards to tell us where to go. We had no problem in finding the diversion to Calangute after Panjim. But once we reached the road to Calangute, we had to find St. Anthony's Chapel. But even after driving for 7 or 8 km, I could not find it. Even Mr Puntu could not figure out where we were. Just as we thought we were lost, we found the chapel. Mr Puntu was waiting for us near the chapel, clad only in a blue coloured lungi. He showed us our apartment and went to his apartment to sleep. It was beyond midnight already. So we went to sleep without wasting much time.
Next morning, we were ready by around 9. As Diana wanted to go to Panjim, we drove to Panjim, parked the car in a parking lot in the market area (at 5 Rs per hour) and had breakfast at a small hotel there. Even though we ate a lot, the bill was very less. After breakfast, we walked to the place where Diana wanted to go, and found it with less difficulty.
After Panjim, we drove to Old Goa. The road is very straight, with the river (I think Mandovi river) on the left side. The roads in Goa, especially around Panjim and other tourist places, are maintained very well. They are narrow, but there are no junctions to cause traffic jams. And signboards are all around helping you to simply look at them and drive.
So at Old Goa, we first went to the Bom Jesus Basilica where St Francis Xavier's body is kept. St Francis Xavier is considered as the patron saint of Goa. The body is kept at a height and so it is not visible. It is kept for public display only once in ten years and the next such display is in 2014. the basilica itself is really beautiful. It is built using red stones, something that has been very common in buildings along the coast since centuries. The interiors look somewhat like the Chapel of St Aloysius in Mangalore (the chapel is in the school where I had my primary education). But I think St Aloysius chapel is more decorated (with paintings on Jesus' life) than Bom Jesus basilica.
Then we crossed the road and went to Se Cathedral. When we crossed the road, Diana remarked that the road looked like some road in Europe. Quite true. The lines on the road are clearly marked and the footpaths are very good. After seeing the old bishop's house (which is an art gallery now), we went to St Cajetan's church, which is a little further from Se Cathedral. St Cajetan is the patron saint for workers and the unemployed. But this church does not seem to be as popular as the other churches around. There were very few visitors.
It was noon by the time we left Old Goa and headed towards Fort Aguada. Diana was getting more and more restless to jump into the sea. And we disappointed her further by going to see the fort at Aguada. We trekked for about 20 minutes to see the different parts of the fort. As it was already 3 in the afternoon, we decided not to go further (though we could go for another 2 KM at least, from what we could see). So we headed towards Coco beach. A beach of glory once, now this is ruined. It seems that the level of sea increased and destroyed whatever was at the shores. Now there are only red stones on the shores; those from the destroyed walls and those dumped there to stop sea erosion.
We walked into the sea towards a sand island created by the sea water. The water was below knee level. Here we dumped our stuff, and the three of us except me went into the sea. I was feeling very hungry, so I packed all the expensive stuff in my bag, left the clothes behind, crossed the sea and came to a restaurant that is named after me (seriously!! It was called Rohan restaurant!!!). Here I ordered seer fish fry and prawn fry. By the time my mates returned from the sea, I had almost finished my dishes. We ordered more of sea food, including prawns, squid and fish.
After this, we headed back to our apartment. We stopped on the way to pick up some water, fenny and some orange juice. I also bought some bebinca. Later at home we had fenny, with me drinking the most. Diana didn’t seem to like the taste, especially because it was coconut fenny. But then, unlike most coconut fennies that I have had, this one was not pungent. It wasn't much crude, and it was smooth. And when we mixed it with orange juice, it didn’t taste much different from screwdriver. Probably because it cost us 3 times the normal cost. We paid 150 Rs for this bottle.
Later we decided to walk to Calangute beach. While walking, we didn’t take the deviation towards Calangute, and instead we walked straight. We could see restaurants on both the sides of the road, but not the beach. We were actually walking parallel to the beach (something which we realised the next day when we took a look at the map) without realizing it. Finally we stopped at restaurant where a band was playing. I had my usual prawns curry with rice while the rest had little food. The band was interesting. They were playing some jazz and blues kinda music, but using only guitars, drums and keyboards.
Later we took a taxi to Calangute beach. After spending some time sitting on the shores and chatting (we didn’t want to get into the water as we had already had bath), we took another taxi to return to our apartment. Taxis are somewhat compareable to the autorickshaws of Bangalore. They demand excess fares easily (but unlike autorickshaws of Bangalore, they don't refuse to come).
The next morning, Saturday, we headed towards Anjuna after having breakfast at a Spanish-looking bakery at Calangute called Infantaria. The food was good, but they took lot of time to serve us. There were lots of customers, so we could excuse them.
While driving to Anjuna, we saw the Ingo's Saturday Night Bazaar getting ready for the night. We already had plans to visit this place in the night. As we drove on, I could remember the roads on which we (few friends) had ridden bikes on our last visit to Goa about 2 years ago.
As you know, the beach at Anjuna is rocky. So once we reached the beach, we went towards the right side of the beach (towards Vagathor), walking on the rocks and on the path created by earlier visitors on the edge of the hill. After some 10 minutes walk, we reached a place which was somewhat hidden from the main part of the beach. It was kinda secluded. We could see the boats at a distance, and one or two men at a distance on the rocks searching for crabs.
I decided to stay on the shore while the rest of us went into the water. I was too scared to go into the water because I don’t know swimming. And I know at least 3 guys (2 of them from our neighbourhood in Mangalore) who got drowned after slipping from the rocks. After spending some time on the rocks taking pictures of the three, I decided to take a nap under a small tree. I just put my floaters under my head, covered my eyes with my arms and slept. I don’t know for how long I slept. I forgot to check the time before I went to sleep.
I was woken up suddenly by some heavy thing on my stomach and some giggles. When I opened my eyes, the three were standing in front of me and laughing. Diana had kept some pieces of a big wild fruit (that looked like a pineapple, and grew on a tree whose leaves looked exactly like pineapple leaves) and a few small, round stones on my stomach and taken a photograph of me. It looked really funny :-)
After spending some more time, we headed back. Time was something like 4.30 PM, so we stopped for food at Anjuna itself, at a place called Biryani Palace. Indeed the fish biryani Roshan ordered was so tasty that I finished it off, forcing him to order a chicken biryani. Thomas also ordered a fish biryani after tasting some. Even the tea there was excellent. That was the best tea I had had in Goa.
Then we headed towards Vagathor, going in front of the house where I had stayed during my previous visit to Goa. Vagathor is just about 3 km from Anjuna. When we reached Vagathor, the sun was just setting. And we could see the fort at a distance. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go there. And I cursed myself for not going to Vagathor fort the last time!!! Guys (those who were with me the last time), if you are reading this, let us curse the guy who planned the trip!!!!
When we went to the beach, the sun had already set and it was getting dark. People were leaving, and so we got a chance to go into the water again. While I waited on the shores guarding our stuff, the rest of us went into the water again. I was just soaking my legs when I noticed a 1 litre Dettol bottle. So I threw it into the sea. And it came back to me. I kept on throwing it (taking care to throw it away from the swimmers) and it kept on coming back to me. But when it slipped from my hands and fell close to Thomas, I decided it was too risky to play around.
Later we went back to our apartment for a good night's sleep. We had to get up earlier than usual on the morrow because we had to leave for Bangalore. Though we wanted to visit the Panolim beach, we decided to take a different route, through Hubli, for a better ride. So we could not visit this beach.
And by 8 the next morning, we were back on the road. We went on NH4A through Old Goa and Ponda. After a short stop at an average hotel for breakfast at Ponda, we continued towards Karnataka. The Goan roads were still good, even when we reached the ghat section. But once we crossed the 'Welcome to Karnataka' sign, expectedly, the road condition was really bad. But then, after a few tens of kilometres, the road was good again. The same road, NH4A, continues to Belgaum. Though I was aware of a shorter route (through Dharwad) to Hubli, we decided to go to Belgaum and then to Hubli. Because, from what I have heard, the road through Dharwad is really bad.
We took a short break at Belgaum. Diana was not feeling well at all, so she slept on the 2nd row of the car. So I sat in the last row, and Roshan sat next to Thomas, who was driving. For the first time during our whole trip, the positions were changed!!! All the while, Thomas was driving, I was sitting next to him, Roshan was sitting behind me and Diana was sitting behind Thomas.
We reached Hubli and then the road to Bangalore, the NH206 (I think). This road is excellent most of the time. But there are bad stretches. They are bad mostly because of abandoned road construction. There are so many pillars and structures built for flyovers, but then the work seems to have stopped completely. At one particular stretch, about 1 meter of the road had gone down. And this is almost impossible to make out until it is too late. And it was too late for us. I was listening to the music with my laptop on my lap. And it went flying and hit the roof and its display got shattered. Boo hoo, my new laptop :-(
We missed out a detour before Harihar. Instead of taking the right part of the Y, we took the left and entered Harihar. From there we had to go through Davanagere also. But finally we managed to reach Peenya at around 10. And there was a huge traffic jam in which we were stuck for about an hour. And by the time I reached home, it was almost midnight. Thomas would have taken another half an hour more to reach his house.