Our Goa Trip

Too much of anything is bound to get one bored. Ever since we came to Bangalore, we were seeing too much of Mountains or Hills. It started with Nandi Hills and followed till Coorg. We needed a change. 

  So, we decided to change the theme of our next trip; change it straight to beach. India has several beaches all around its coastal line, However, only one place in particular has practically become the epicenter of our thought process when we think of beaches in India. Yes, its Goa.

  Obviously, we hit the road with our Good old sparky. Going out on a trip with our sparky gives us the indulgence to stop anywhere anytime, relax and enjoy the journey just as much as the destination.

  Though the Goa trip was actually a medium sized trip, given that it was only from Thursday of one week to Tuesday of the next, it was a heavy duty one. There were so much to enjoy; and we did enjoy. So we decided to break down our Goa blog into five individual blog posts.

  Here are the links to the individual blog posts. Enjoy.

  Karwar Blog Post

  North Goa Blog Post

  Old Goa Blog Post

  Blog Post on the Churches of Goa

  South Goa Blog Post

Sunset as seen from Mandovi River cruise.

Sunset at Colva beach

  The Route:

  After consulting several blogs and articles, we decided to travel on NH4. And it was a good decision. The road is very good. The only problem with the road is that from Hubli to Devanagere, there is practically no restaurant/dhaba or petrol pump. So keep this in mind so that you can take break and food before and after this zone. From Hubli we came down to Karwar through NH67. And from Karwar to Goa it was NH17. The road from Hubli to Karwar passes through Anshi National Park and its really beautiful. Just don't stop and don't be too curious to click a monkey, because they get curious too.

  The unplanned halt:

  We never planned to halt at Karwar. But when we reached there by the late afternoon, we were awestruck by the beauty and peace at Karwar. It was like a Bonus prize for our trip. So we spent one night at Karwar before moving on to Goa.

  From Karwar we moved straight for North Goa. North Goa is very crowded. But that doesn't mean that its not enjoyable. Its fantastic. We stayed at Calangute and visited the nearby beaches like Anjuna, Vagator. We also made a quick round of Aguada fort. 

  From north Goa we moved to Old Goa. The churches of Goa are magnificent. Spent a lot of time seeing each of these churches. By the evening, we were on the Mandovi river cruise on Santa Monica. The sunset from the cruise is so relaxing that you have to be there to know it. We stayed at Panaji, the capital city of Goa. 

  Our last destination on Goa trip was to see the beaches of South Goa. We decided to drop the anchor at Colva beach, the famous long stretched white sand beach of Goa. Its far more beautiful than the descriptions in travel magazines. When in Colva, its a good idea to wake up early and hit the beach. You can see fishermen doing there daily chores which is a great thing to experience. On our last day in Goa trip we quickly detoured to Palolem beach for a brief hour long break in our journey. Palolem is very beautiful and a little different from the other beaches. Its concave shape gives it a distinctive look. 

  We reached home(Bangalore) at around 1 O' clock at night. 

  The Drive:

  Goa is around 700Km from Bangalore. It took us 11 hours to reach Karwar from Whitefield, Bangalore. However, on the day of our journey back home, it was around 10 hours from Goa. As the road is very good, you can easily keep constant speed and the fuel efficiency would make you happy. Just be cautions as the same road back to Bangalore has some pot holes; so better to keep your high-beam on.

  The Stay:

   Throughout our Goa trip, we stayed in GTDC hotels. The hotels are safe and clean and strategically placed very closed to the sea beaches. In Karwar, we stayed at Hotel Premier and the experience was really good. 
   Here are the details of the hotels:
   Calangute - Calangute Residency(Annex) - 227-6009
   Panaji - Panaji Residency - 222-3396/7103, 242-2974
   Colva - Colva Residency - 278-8047/48, 278-1139
     Karwar - Hotel Premier -  (08382)-229 925, 094481 39962

   STD code of Panaji is 832, Marmagao is 8342, Karwar is 8382. 

  The Experience:

  Goa is very much crowded and commercialized. However, even in the crowd and chaos we did find relaxation. Maybe that is the nature of the sea. It does make feel you relaxed. Our over all experience of Goa was fantastic. From the Gothic churches to the casual beaches, from the mouth watering sea food to the charming river cruise, it was fun and relaxing all the way. The overall nature of Goa and Goan people is very relaxed and happy. So when in Goa you naturally become a goanese. And that's the biggest gift you get from your trip.

South Goa, beach lovers paradise

After the fantastic time we had in north Goa, we headed for old Goa and it was even more majestic. Now it was again time for the beach. So south Goa was where we headed next. Well, in case you have directly come into this blog post, you might want to visit our posts on north Goa and old Goa and the churches of old Goa.

  When we left Panaji and drove towards Colva beach, the surrounding slowly became very quiet until we reached Marmagao. Marmagao is a city in Goa full of hassle and bustle. If you are coming from north Goa, you have to take a right at Marmagao to get to Colva beach. We chose Colva because of two reasons; one was that it is famous for its long white stretch of beach, the other was that Colva also had one GTDC hotel right by the beach. 

  When we reached Colva beach, the first thing we did was checking into the GTDC hotel. By far, it was the best GTDC hotel among the ones(Calangute and Panaji) we already stayed in this trip. And to our surprise we were given a cottage with nothing except a very low fence to block our view of the see. And the view was breathtaking. 

  Withing half an hour from checking into the hotel, we were on the beach. This was a different beach. Wide spread, bright white sand and colours everywhere. When we reached the beach, it was around 4 O' clock at afternoon. The beach was full of small creatures of sea. The majority was of star fish and hermit crab. They were in hundreds, if not thousands. 

Varieties of sea shells

A star fish and a different kind of crab

A star fish among thousands of sea shells

  We strolled across the beach almost till 6:30 pm. Although the evening was cloudy, the sunset was pretty relaxing.

The Colva beach

Watching over everyone, always

The beauty of Colva beach

One of the fishing boats at Colva beach

Sunset at Colva beach

Two fishing boats at Colva beach

  Walking and that also on the beach is definitely going to do one thing to you for sure. Its going to make you hungry, very hungry. We got hungry after our close-to-four hour walk on the beach. So we decided to go for some snack at one of the shacks by the beach. The experience with the shack was mixed. We liked the innovative and casual way they designed the shack. There was a projector and a cricket match on it. There were dresses on sale as well. The thing we did not expect was the price of the food. The sea food in these shacks generally don't have price printed by them. Rather you would find something like "price according to season and size" next to each food item. They brought a plate of fresh fish(uncooked) and told us the price if we wanted those cooked. And to our surprise, it was around 5 times higher than the price we found in Calangute. Anyway, we were hungry so we ordered something. 

  It started raining by the time we finished our overpriced meal/snack. So we got kind of drenched on our way back to the cottage. For dinner, we went out looking for reasonable restaurant and we found one. Though not absolutely reasonable, it was not that overpriced. We enjoyed a good sea crab dish. After that, it was a good night's sleep.

  The next morning, we hit the beach pretty early. And the beach was much less crowded. But the sea creatures were also gone. Maybe they appear only during the afternoon. The surprise, though, was something we never expected. It was the time for the fishing boats to return to the shore and bring the last night's catch to the wholesale market. The wholesale market is also right on the beach. Fish was everywhere. We saw how the fishermen clean their net, how they clean the fish right at the market, how they sell fish. And there were different types of fish; prawns, king fish, mackerel and many more.

A fishing boat being pulled and pushed to the shore

Stacks of fishing net by the beach

Cleaning of fish at the wholesale fish market.

Thousands of prawns at the fish market

These fishes are being dried

 

Arrangement to make dry fish

Spreading fish to be dried.

  The morning on the beach was fantastic. However, we had to keep an eye on the watch as this was our last day in the Goa trip. We quickly grabbed some breakfast and tea and were ready by 11 am, ready to leave Colva. 

  We decided to visit Palolem beach on our way back home. We've heard so much about this beach, that we just couldn't miss seeing it. 

  Palolem is about 40 Km from Colva. So it was a nice break for the journey. Parking fee was Rs. 25 (approx).

  The beach of Palolem is just beautiful. Its kind of different from the other beaches. The shape is a bit crescent, so perfect for taking breathtaking pictures. One part of the beach forms a kind of island and we could spot some huts in there as well. We also noticed several water sport arrangements on the beach. The number of shacks seemed more on Palolem. Palolem is a smaller beach than Colva. And personally we liked Colva more, mostly because of its vastness and the sea creatures on the beach. However, Palolem has its own beauty and is distinctively different from the other beaches. There are resorts and hotels available in Palolem as well, so spending a night there should be worthwhile.

Palolem beach

Fishing boats and other arrangements at Palolem beach

Boats for water sport at Palolem beach

Palolem beach

  So with the closure of our quick hour long trip to Palolem beach, we returned on the highway. Almost 10 hours of drive was ahead of us. We reached home(bangalore) at around 1 O' clock at night.

Karwar, on our way back home