8th November 2011, 02:07
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| BHPian  Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
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| This anniversary Goa it is. The time for our road trip for our second anniversary was coming up and we were deciding when, where, how? This was our first anniversary road trip http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ure-bliss.html Lot of speculations and time spent for deciding our vaccation this time. It started of from Munnar in Kerala and we decided the venue for our stay etc, but something was not right. So we changed the plan to Pondicherry and again decided against it. Wife suggested Rajasthan but we had leave for only one week each so that option was ruled out. Was just searching the travellogues thread and stumbled upon this great thread http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...here-done.html I have visited Goa way back in 2006 with a couple of friends and ended up doing what guys usually do and did not explore goa and we went in a rented Taxi, the lesser said about the trip the better as there were not so found memories from that trip. I had absolutely no idea what Goa really looked like. How do I get there and what to do was all a question mark until I found lucifer1881's thread. What do I do? I immediately PM him for his number and call him get all information on the routes and different kinds of accomodation. Thanks Rohit for all the help. Once routes all confirmed and tried to book rooms in Sand pebble but the days we were visiting they were doing their maintenance and were closed for bussiness. I call up Jo(wife) and tell her that we will do Goa this anniversary but Im yet to find accomodation online. Jo was excited as she had never been to Goa and she loves water and water sports. We were off work from 22nd Oct to 30th Oct and the last couple of days at work were really hectic and it completely skipped my mind about booking accomodation at Goa. So we decided that since it is still off season we may get lucky and get some decent accomodation. We were ready to take the risk of going without booking any accomodation. With no set plans and no confirmation of accomodation we set off on our drive to Goa which turned out to be one of the best holidays we had. Some teaser Pics After crossing Raichur   Some festival procession in Hubli   At the Ghat section near Moliem National park  Lovely Yatch  Yours truly trying skills with a water scooter  Oldest Church in Goa (Bom Jesus)  Posing on our anniversary at Dona Paula  We shall surely visit and make some money  Ravan to be burnt on Diwali night  At Calangute beach  This was super fun  We came, we played and we won  The best Pizza I ever tasted made in wook oven  We went to see the turtles at Galgibag beach  Maverick 2 in its natural habitat  At Aguada fort  We have been here   |
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8th November 2011, 23:10
| #2 |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
Thanked: 28 Times
| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. So with the destination set the day before our drive me I go to crossword in Inorbit and get a book "Maps of Goa" which is from "Map my India". Purchased a tubeless puncture repair kit to be on the safe side and bought a whole lot of snacks to go on the trip. Saturday the 22nd spent the whole day finishing our last minute chores at home and finally hit the bed at 7:30PM setting an alarm for 1:00AM. The plan was to start from Hyderbad around 2:00AM. First time in our lives I guess we stuck to the exact schedule. Tanked up Maverick 2 the previous night itself. Thus the journey begins. Jo was feeling sleepy so I asked her to doze off and I was enjoying the NH7 all to myself. It was in no time that we crossed the right we had to take after crossing Jadcharla toll booth. So stopped at a petrol bunk and was advised to not take the bridge and take a left. So off we went and took the underpass and hit the SH. It was around 5 in the moring when we crossed Raichur and for a brief moment we got lost but got back on track. It was dawn after sometime when the sky started lighting up revealing the beautiful land scapes. Initially when I spoke to Rohit he had advised me to take the Baghalkot route but in the dark we got lost and ended up taking the Hubli route via Gangawathi>>Koppal and Gadag route. Still it was no issue as the route was quite scenic with less trafiic and good roads except for the occasional pot holes. Jo gets up after a refreshing nap and starts clicking pictures and giving me company. We had packed a few things to munch for breakfast which was consumed and thought that we would have an early lunch at some nice place in Hubli. Little did I realise that Jo had already packed lunch from home. Reached Hubli around 11:30AM and we were stuck in a major traffic jam. We were stuck for more than 45 minutes in this town. Reason being there was some kind of festivities going on with a large procession with people dressed like kings and British soldiers. The traffic jam proved to be a boon as we were able to finish our lunch in the traffic jam without having to stop for our lunch. Checked with a cop at Hubli bus stand for the best route to reach Goa and he suggested to go via Karwar which we ignored and continues via SH 34 and got lost again and went through Haliyal>>Dandeli>>Ganeshgudi>>Ramnagar. At some stretches the roads are really bad. We then entered Ghat section and it was a breeze, I usually love driving in the Ghats. On the Ghats we encountered some ovely picturesque locations. We came across a water body called Supa Dam reservoir and it was a breath taking drive in those ghats. We finally cross Karnataka border around 3:50 and enter Goa  . We were stopped by Goa cops in the border and our vehicle number entered and was given free advice by the cop as to not to venture in to the sea at Calangute as the water is deep over there. I thanked him and drove on only to be stopped at a bridge whose name I do not remember. Traffic was stuck up for more than half and hour and we were getting impatient. Reason being we had to search for a room and get refreshed and hit the beach. Later we realised that the traffic was stuck because of an accident involving a Mahindra Xylo and some other vehicle which we could not see. We finally reached Calangute without having to ask for directions as there were signboards neatly placed all around Goa. Once in Calangute we were approached by a boy on a Activa and to my surprise he started talking to us in Telugu seeing our AP regsitered number plate. He was a tout who was asking us if we needed accomodation and was offering us non-AC rooms for around 1200 a day and an AC room for around 1600 a day. So told him to bugger off and checked a few places but we were really not impressed. Finally we found a home with a board written rooms available. Checked with them and found the room satisfactory and immediately took it. They charged us 600 for a day without AC with check out at 12PM next day. Freashned up and went to the beach. Went to a restaurant and hogged some food and loitered around the beach for sometime and returned back to our room and called it a day by 9:00PM in the night. Never have I slept so early in my entire life. Some pictures from the drive to Goa. Some beautiful landscapes after crossing Raichur       Some odd factory   Some Govt building we came across  Wind mills on the way   Hubli lake  Pictures of festival procession in Hubli due to which we got stuck in traffic.          Road after Hubli   Asking for directions    Beautiful landscapes   Near the Ghat section of Supra Dam reservoir   |
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8th November 2011, 23:37
| #3 |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
Thanked: 28 Times
| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. Some more pictures from the previous post. Supra dam reservoir      Traffic jam before Panaji where we got stuck for half an hour   The acccident that caused the jam   View from the restaurant in front of Calangute beach.  |
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8th November 2011, 23:48
| #4 |
| Team-BHP Support   Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Hyderabad
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9th November 2011, 00:40
| #5 |
| BHPian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Atlanta, US
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| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. Here comes Octane again..  I loved your earlier travelogues too (Karnataka and Konaseema). Keep the pics coming & thanks for sharing. How much does the rental cost for that Yamaha water scooter? In the ravan picture, a lightning club..??  |
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9th November 2011, 01:15
| #6 | ||
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
Thanked: 28 Times
| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. Quote:
 .Quote:
Lots of pics coming up. The cost for the water scooter varies from vendor to vendor. This particular vendor started of from 500 bucks for a 5 minute ride and after a lot of bargaining ended up paying 300 bucks for the same. Everywhere you go in Goa bargain hard and you will get a super deal. We actaully ended up paying 1200 bucks for both of us for para sailing, banana ride, bumpy ride and water scooter after some hard bargaining. That post would be posted shortly . | ||
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9th November 2011, 12:16
| #7 |
| BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Mumbai
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9th November 2011, 19:50
| #8 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
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| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. Quote:
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9th November 2011, 20:45
| #9 |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
Thanked: 28 Times
| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. It was a beautiful morning on the 24th minds and bodies totally rejenuvated by a good sleep for 11 hours. It has been ages since I slept for so many long hours, I guess driving for close to 14 hours took a toll on our bodies but never the less it was a good experience. List of to do things was to find a better room closer to the beach. So we packed our bags and dumped them in the vehicle and started our drive and finally come across a tout who took us to a couple of places close to the beach on the route towards Aguada fort. We booked the room at "Caith's Comfy villa" for 3 days @ 900 bucks a day. It was a newly built room with completely new furnishings and we were more than happy with the accomodation. First thing to do was we booked a Honda Activa for 3 days @ 200 bucks a day from the Villa owners and parked Maverick 2 safely to rest for 3 days. First we finished our breakfast and then headed to "Aguada Fort". On the was we spotted boats offering rides to spot Dolphins so we park the bike and buy tickets for the boat ride which costed us 400 bucks. The tides were a bit high and it was fun riding over the waves. We were shown a diamond merchants bunglow (Supposedly the movie Haseena Maan jayegi was shot in here) over a hill and Fort Aguada from the water and we were lucky enough to spot a couple of Dolphins. Happy to have seen some Dolphins for the first time we returned back and went over to Fort Aguada. We wandered around for a while and clicked some pics and started on our way back to Calangute. Stopped by at some nice restaurant and devoured one of the best spicy chicken Vindaloo with some roti and Jeera rice and came back to Calangute beach close to our place. Went on a ride on the water scooter and came back and relaxed for a while at our room. In the evening we started off to Baga beach and did some shopping and wandered along the beach for sometime and returned back and had our dinner and called it a day. Starting point of the boat ride  The boats   Nice looking Yatch  One more yatch  Diamond merchants bunglow   Light house near Fort Aguada  Lower part of Fort Aguada which now serves as a prison   Dolphins     Another view of the yatch.    View from the top of the fort.     Kingfisher villa   The best Chicken Vindaloo ever tasted    Picture's of the room we stayed in.     |
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9th November 2011, 21:38
| #10 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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9th November 2011, 23:21
| #11 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
Thanked: 28 Times
| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. Quote:
Thanks Venu Saab. The route we took can be travelled by any sedan's but need to be a little careful when negotiating some pot holes. It was no problem for the Scorpio though . | |
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10th November 2011, 00:09
| #12 |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
Thanked: 28 Times
| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. I completely forgot to mention an incident that happened on the way to Goa in Hubli. After crossing the bus stop when we were driving sedately was abruptly pulled over by cops. Reason being we were speeding in a 50 KMPH zone. Tried to reason with the traffic cop that we are new to this area and we were not aware of any such thing and then the cop shows me in the camera that I was doing 56 KMPH in 50 KMPH zone and was fined 300 bucks for the same. In the challan how ever the registration number was entered as KA 29 AN 8207, upon enquirying about the same we were told that they do not have provision to type in AP . Did not want to argue much and so paid the cop and took my challan and asked the cop for directions again and because of his directions we lost track and ended up in a wrong and longer but scenic route.Would post the scanned copy of the Police challan with wrong registration soon. |
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11th November 2011, 11:29
| #13 | |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Hyderabad
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| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. Quote:
Very good deicsion of hiring the activa. It is really a pain to move around and find parking space for a vehicle of the size of a scorpio in the narrow and congested streets of calangute and baga. Especially during the late evenings. Thats my personal experience during my October first week visit. Excellent naration and nice pictures. I am glued to your TL. PS: Please share the contact details of "Caith's Comfy villa". After reading your TL, plans for a second trip to Goa are already cropping up Last edited by Night_Hawk : 11th November 2011 at 11:33. | |
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16th November 2011, 21:54
| #14 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
Thanked: 28 Times
| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. Quote:
It was a boon to hire an activa and drive around on the activa. Sent you a PM with the details of Caith's comfy villa. PS: You have posted the Konaseema travellogue and soon I planned my drive there and posted my travellogue and now you have done Goa in the first week of October and I have done it in the last week of October. Cool aint it. | |
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16th November 2011, 22:55
| #15 |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 141
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| Re: This anniversary Goa it is. 25th October our anniversary and a day to rejoice our marital life together. We woke up to a beautiful morning and we started getting calls from our families and friends wishing us. We finished our morning rituals and went to a restaurant and finished our breakfast and started off towards Old Goa to visit "The Basilica of Bom Jesus" also known as "Church of St Francis Xavier". Once we were there we parked our activa and strolled into the church and found a guide who offered us his services for a paltry sum of 100 bucks. Once we finished our tour we lit some candles and bid adieu to the guide after paying him. The guide enlightned us with some history of Goa and the churches around and was nice to know the facts. Infact I used to dread history classes in school but this guides presentation skills were remarkable. Some photographs later we started off towards Dona Paula beach and the sun was getting hotter as the day passed and we really missed the Mavarick 2. We could have actually drove in our beast rather than on the bike but never the less it was fun getting tanned. Once at Dona Paula we just checked some shops and wandered around and found nothing of much interest so we started back towards Calangute. On the way we stopped at the Casino's and found out the rates that they charge and was told that guys should be dresses in pants and no slippers allowed and since I was drssed in the exact same attire thought we would come back and left the place and reached Calangute after having lunch on the way. We freshened and started off to Baga beach. Plan was to have a quite dinner at the sea shore. Once at Baga we checked for a few tatoo shops and wandered around a bit until it was a bit dark. We settled down at Brittos and ordered some beverages and lazed around looking at the sea and watching people. We ordered and finished our dinner and came back to our room and called it a day. Pictures from the day Started our day  View from the restaurant  Our breakfast  Inside the church  Confession box  Tha altar   The altar   The body of St Francis Xavier      The robes worn by St Francis Xavier  The coffin in which he was first kept    Posing in front of the church    View of church from the side    Casino on water  Dona Paula   In deep thought where next?  A ship far away docked  posing at Dona Paula  |
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