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Published: June 24th 2009
Palolem!!
Divine Abode!Goa trip : Dec30th - Jan4th
30th:
Celebrating the New-Years or christmas in Goa has become a norm for our group. It wasnt a surprise then, that people had applied for leaves as early as a year in advance(ref.Arnie). Amidst fears of terrorist attacks and last moment cancellations we managed to finally set sail for Goa on the 30th. We had booked a Toyota Qualis from one of Vivek's 'reliable' friend's friend. We were lucky this time that this fella was actually reliable and reached on time 😊. Sai,Vivek,Raj,Saju and Me left from Marol and we picked up Arnie from his office in Vikroli. 6 of us in a Qualis was comfort, any more would have caused pain. Going was good till about an hour and then as luck would have it, disaster struck. The engine overheated and failed to start. So much for the checks you make before a long drive. That was the 1st indication that Ulhas(the driver) was'nt as reliable as we thought he would be. Everyone scattered about ;some to get water, some in search of a mechanic. Raj managed to get water from the other side of the highway. He had a tough
Hotel at Vashi..
"Main apna mooh dikhaane laayak nahi raha"-Sai time crossing over though as the vehicles were zoomin past in top speed. Vivek suggested that he should cross the road without fear, as the cars would go over him anyway ,coz of his height 😱. We had a nice laugh about it -laughing at other people's expense is a trait in the group. Ulhas somehow managed to get the vehicle till Vashi where with the help of some taxi drivers(who charge for help that is..) we managed to fix the issue. It was already past 12 and we thought having dinner would be a good option. A round of beers,wiskey and food followed. It was past 1 when we finally moved on .
30th gone on the road... 31st: Calangute & Baga
Arnie sat on the front seat next to Ulhas. He could stay awake the most amongst us and keep company to Ulhas and prevent him from sleeping and us from sleeping forever😊- The ghats dont give u a chance to survive if u manage to fall. Raj managed to fit himself at the back and slept full-length (according to Vivek there was still place left on the seat after him sleeping full-length 😱). Vivek had his
Reaching Goa!!
Breakfast Break.. head on my shoulder and his legs on top of the front seat. So much for my comfort. Saju ,Sai and me managed to stay awake and witness some of the closest shaves of our lifes. Ulhas- the exuberance of youth if u may call -I would call it foolishness, was on a rampage. He drove like there was no tomorrow. Cutting and overtaking as if his life depended on it. I had never imagined playing 'RoadRash' in real-life. It was around 5 when we took our first break for tea n biscuits n loo. Time just flew by ...literally. It was quite chilly outside. Sai managed to spill more tea than he could drink as he was shivering that badly. Twas quite a sight. RoadRash continued till 9 when we stopped for breakfast at Narayan Rane's restaurant. It was not remotely close to the fivestars he owns. Though we savoured on the misalpavs and omelletes on offer. It was past 1 when we finally reached Calangute.
Since we had not done any bookings in advance, it was quite a struggle to find a suitable place to stay. Finally we settled for a place close to the beach. It was
Calangute!
Sai ,you can leave ur breath now!! an Ok-ish motel with enuf space to accomodate 6 of us. First rounds of beer started off in the room itself..There is something about Goa which makes you long for beer more than water. We then made our first rounds on the beach for lunch. Calangute is not Goa for us.It is just like juhu or chowpatty albeit the foreigner count is more. But other than that its just as crowded with loads n loads of people, family in tow and also voyeuristic men feasting on the bare-skinned foreigners. The streets of Calangute are packed with shops offering a wide range of goods, namely souvenirs, metal crafts, leather items, clothes and jewellery, not just from Goa, but from other parts of the country as well. The beach stretch is full of shacks, hawkers selling sarongs or astrologers or fortune-tellers waiting eagerly to read the fortune of the tourists. We had food and of course beer for water. From then on started our fixation for prawns-curry rice and prawns biriyani. On the way back to the room we did some window-shopping at the different shops. All of us were damn tired after the afternoon sojourn on the beach. There were no
Calangute-2!
Saju's photography.. plans for the newyear's party. Everyone thought of having a sober-party this time around. So trekking for couple of hours,crossing 2 hills ,passing cliffs in the dark and getting to a rave party (things we did a couple of yrs back) were out of question. Some of us had a quick nap and then we had a quick shower and were all set. We walked the stretch from Calangute to Baga but could'nt find a good setting for our liking. The beach parties were either too sober or too expensive for our liking. Finally we managed one open-beach party with DJ blasting bollywood nos. We drank our hearts out, danced like crazy and to top it all there was an awesome fireworks display to bring in the new-yr. The only bit that was'nt that good was seeing good foreign babes with no-good locals. We were so freaked out -raj even attempted his hand at getting close to the goris, but to no avail..as usual 😊. It was past 4am when we reached the room. Had a small tiff with a panwaala on the way back. People try to sqeeze every penny out of the tourists in Goa. If you aren't
Baga Beach
New Yrs nite. street-smart ,you will be taken for a ride or charged 150/- for a packet of cigarette costing 90. Though sometimes even street-smartedness does'nt work. We had to still pay that much anyway😊. !@#$ him.
1st: Palolem & Chalo Palle
Getting up early was out of question with all the binging at night. But we did manage to get our asses ready by 12, checked out the room and left for Palolem. From then on started Raj's wonderful hindi linguistic mishaps. He announced --Challo Palle ..which means Palolem-Challe😊..wah re duniya.. We thought of having brunch on the way to save time. It was past 3 when we reached Madgaon. We had a hearty Goan meal at the famous
Longinos restaurant. If you dont mind being served good tasty goan cuisine by arrogant goan waiters, then this is the right place for you. We did'nt dig much into the nature of the waiter's as we were busy relishing the food. Journey from Madgaon to Palolem didnt take that long. We managed to reach Palolem before sunset and that was what we were longing for.
Palolem for us is Paradise. Everyone who plans to visit Goa must definately include Palolem
Longinos!!
Waiter trouble...maaf!! in their itinerary, atleast we do. Since the time we have started our goa-tours, Palolem has been an integral part of our tours and it always manages to stay the same. The Palolem beach is the most photogenic beach with its crescent shaped shoreline and white sand. The picturesque blue water lapping on the white sand of the shore, which is dotted by coconut trees here and there, makes it the perfect beach to relax and take it easy. Despite being frequently visited by tourists, the Palolem beach remains clean and looks untouched. A major attraction at the beach is the ferry service, which takes tourists on a ride into the ocean to spot Dolphins.The beach has some seaside shacks that offer cheap-stay and local seafood and snacks. Raj (the bargain KING--he can put women to shame on it) got us a good bargain for 3 days at the WAVES shack. It was a big joint- double room which could easily accomodate 6 of us. We unpacked and made a headway into tempting waters of Palolem. If there is one beach in Goa where you can actually wander 200 mtrs into the sea and still chest-high water with the surface
Yoga on the beach!!
Knock Knock..
Who's there..?
Yoga..
Yoga who?
Yoga to try this....[:)] as flat as a swimming pool, its Palolem. You can swim and stay in the water for hours together and not get bored. It had become dark and so we reluctantly went back to our rooms, had shower, changed and left for a stroll to the market. Market simply means 'Wine shop' for us ..Got the nights dose of whiskey and vodka and were off to the Waves restaurant for dinner. Alcohol with fish ..and that too a huge black-snapper ..awesome combination. Topics became debates and we all had a healthy discussion about women in our lives, commitment, marriage etc etc. There were some shocking revelations by a few (remember anything Arnie 😊) and a lot of secrets of others revealed.
"There are better things in life than alcohol, but alcohol makes up for not having them"
..After the heated session, we went off to the beach .Vivek had called our bluff on trying to fool him by messaging from Arnie's cell pretending to be a girl. He got sucked into it in the beginning though..Anyways good fun..We got back into the room and Vivek went back to his phone-calls ..I won't be surprised if he has a hearing problem soon, with the amount of time he spends on the phone. He does'nt listen to anyone
Palolem II
WAVES shack..!! anyway.....
2nd: Camping trip & Dikkan mein Dukke
Day 2 in Palolem ..and the plan was all set. We were gonna go camping to some place close by. Boat visits to Butterfly island was stopped coz of terrorists treats; b******s. So we had to think of an alternative and fast. Breakfast of eggs, ham and toast followed by rounds of beer...We left for Galgibaga beach. Galgibaga is famous for its Olive Ridley Turtle nesting site, making it an environmentally sensitive area. People eagerly await the flocks of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles that frequent the beach each year to lay eggs. It was just about 40 mins drive through picturesque settings. Calm, serene with an empty
beach lined by palm trees, two parallel rivers, a patch of lush green fields, it is a sight to behold. We found an ideal place to camp in. Photo session followed. We had to make a headway back to the room to get our stuff ready for the camp. On the way back we bought hammocks on rent so that it could serve for a person to sleep in as the tent would only be enuf for 4-5. We had asked our
Hmm!!!
My friends thru my eyes... hotel guys to marinate 2 chickens and give us. We also arranged for charcoal, skewers etc required for barbeque. Arnold and I went ahead to get other stuff like kerosene etc. Thats when Raj brought out his 2nd gem -
Dikkan mein dukke..which means Dukaan mein dikhenge in proper hindi 😊..Now beat that...😊. It was almost sunset when we reached back at Galgibaga. We changed our camp site as that was too close to the entrance of the beach and easily noticeable. Since the beach is a protected area we did'nt want the officials to spot us and wreck our camp.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing..
. Everyone got into action. Dry wood was collected for the bonfire. Barbeque was setup. The tent fell in place beautifully. It helped that Arnie and I had done a dry-run on setting the tent just before arriving. Hammock fell in place ideally between 2 coconut trees just next to the tent. It was tiring but a very satisfying job. Sai and I took the responsibility of screwing the chicken with the skewers 😊 and grilling 'em. It was good fun. We arranged for some more stuff to eat from a home-cum-restaurant close to the beach. No points for guessing that
Camp site I
The enlightenment!! Prawns-biriyani figured among the list 😊. It was close to 10 when we were finally set. Our first camp and what a setting at that.
Any man, in the right situation, is capable of murder. But not any man is capable of being a good camper..
. We definately passed the bill of good campers. Vodka and Whiskey were flowing .We were having our drinks at double the speed. The chicken turned out really well 😊. It disappeared in no-time. It was 12'O'clock and time to celebrate Raj's bday..We had bought some pastries on d way which served as our cake. The pastries were cut and we celebrated with Tequila shots (which turned out to be our biggest mistake on the camp 😱. Vivek had got it from Dubai and Sai had ensured that we had tequila glasses to drink it from. 2 rounds of shots on top of 4 rounds of liquor was a bit too much. We decided to go for a stroll on the turtle beach to try our luck at finding some olive-ridleys. Ridleys were not to be found, all we got was the cool sea-breeze hitting our faces and compounding our miseries with the xtra kick along with. Nobody was in their senses. Saju even managed to drop his spectacles and obviously not realising till much
later that he did. Back in the camp and it was a different picture alltogether. Mine was the 1st wicket to go down. I threw up ..not one or 2 times...around 10 times in succession ..All different places and I made sure it was as far away from the camp as possible. I was on all fours, crawling to get to a perfect setting where I could throw up my misery. At one point I even thought of calling someone on my cell phone to gimme a hand to stand up 😊..Poor saju was there with me all along. I dont remember a thing what happened afterwards. I could hear Sai in the background saying ..Saale ko Tent mein bussa..which apparently means 'Tent mein gusa' 😊. I should have figured that Sai would be the next wicket down. The rest continued drinking and even managed to finish the Prawns biriyani. But everyone went down like nine-pins ,one after the other .Saju and Vivek managed not to throw up and as things would have it Saju had to do most of the cleaning. He had to clean the tent also as even that wasn’t spared- the downside of remaining in your
senses in a group..
3rd:
The next day everyone was on a detox mode. Most of us just lazed about in and around the beach. Some brave ones hit the sea but overall everyone just took their time to come out of the Golden Tequila hangover. Vivek will always be remembered for it, Im sure. Raj treated us that night- It was low key as we just had wine. Took a stroll to
Café Del mar—our favorite club, though no one was in a mood to swing after all the swings we had the nite before 😊.
4th: aggu-paggu
And the party was over. Everyone hit the waters for the last time, packed, had a hearty brunch and left Palolem with long-lasting memories in tow. While packing I realized the toothbrush I was using, was’nt mine afterall ..It was Vivek's..Can you imagine 4 days .😞.I felt like washing my mouth with soap, Listerine, Tide with bleach or anything that could provide my mouth with sanitation ..I even thought of pulling my own teeth out 😊..Geeez it still gives me the creeps when I think about it😊
We got off at Panaji for some shopping--obviously liquor ..Got hold off everything
The cake pack!!
Vivek with the INFAMOUS TEQUILA!! from vodka, whiskey, wine, irish-cream etc etc- enuf to last us a lifetime (dats a week apparently 😱)..The trip wouldn’t have been over without another of Raj’s gems..
’aggu-pagu’..which means ‘aaju-baaju’ for normal beings😊.
So it was back in Bombay on the 5th morning. Tired, tanned, weary, worn-out, drained, fatigued.. but happy and satisfied 😊..
It is good to have an end to journey toward;but it is the journey that matters in the end
..Quite a memorable trip it turned out to be..Got our first experience of camping out, which I’m sure is the beginning of loads to follow. Two things that I will take back with me ,etched in memory :
One- Never drink Tequila which is golden in color and imported from Dubai and
Two:-Make sure you sleep with the toothbrush in your pocket when on a trip 😱
20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that u didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover -Mark Twain
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Simone femme
Simone
Intresting...
eeeks... Shylesh u used another guys toothbrush for 4 days.... yuck... lol........... You were too frekking wasted Shy... Shucks.. Good writing btw.. :)