[noopster]

Suhaas, excellent travelogue of a memorable trip. I must check out the Royal Orchid on next Goa trip: the towel art alone is worth it!

I really liked your narration and the fact that you posted so many pics. I guess most people would find picture upon picture of highway rather boring but I really didn't mind it! The food reviews are excellent and I will try and stop at one or two of the ones you mentioned when I do my Bangalore drive later this month.

The Jazz is an impressive car and having seen now how much more luggage it accomodates than the Swift, will surely reccomend it to friends as a worthy alternative. My Vxi gives about 15 kmpl on our Goa runs. The Vento returned about 12

Will check out your earlier travelogue later.

[anekho]

Absolutely brilliant travelogue, Suhaas!

Really enjoyed it - great narration, detailed photographs and I loved the philosophical digressions A very refreshing take on Goa

You really captured the essence of a vacation IMO. Those moments we spend alone thinking about everything and nothing, the laughter we share with friends and family and that fulfilling sense of contentment and happiness. Thanks for posting.

Cheers!

[IronH4WK]

absolutely awesome travelogue Suhaas! well written with all the details. lots of pictures and specially loved the food quotient!

i'm gonna use this as a guide on my next trip - to Goa!!

two words - loved it!

[mxx]

Great...but missed those beaches! why no beach pics?
Feeling hungry now with all that foodie pics.

The place with those windmills is amazing. I have passed through that place while coming to Bangalore from pune/mumbai/goa. It is really amazing. You can even spot this from air too if you are traveling by ATR aircraft.

[Deep Blue]

I was wondering why a Bangalore-Goa-Bangalore travelogue is getting 5 stars and then I go throught it. Wow! What a travelogue!!
Such a wonderful narrative with pictures laid out so well. And worse,left me salivating as well! I will give it 7stars.
Nice to see such wonderful roads in our Karnataka. I hope my coastal part too joins the rest of the state soon. The heavy road tax is working somewhere I suppose!

Originally Posted by suhaas307

It's time for the Juke Box update. Through the drive, there was a tussle for the auxiliary cable. My folks got to play some of their music, and so did my sister, but I dominated the stereo with my phone packed with over 1000 tracks. I played some of the best driving tracks, I'd like to believe. Here is a little something I've compiled for the audiophiles.

For those who haven't listened to some of these tracks, I highly recommend you tune in to them, especially on a long drive.

Porcupine Tree:

- .3
- Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
- Sound Of Muzak
- Trains
- Blackest Eyes
- Even Less
- Every Home Is Wired
- Hatesong
- Lazarus
- Mellotron Scratch
- Nine Cats
- Normal
- Open car
- Piano Lessons
- Radioactive toy
- Russia On Ice
- Sentimental
- Start Of Something Beautiful

Pink Floyd:

- Echoes
- High Hopes
- Dogs
- Brain Damage
- Breathe
- Careful With That Axe Eugene
- Comfortably Numb
- Hey You
- Learning To Fly
- Lost For Words
- Money
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond
- The Great Gig In The Sky
- Time
- Us And Them
- Wearing The Inside Out
- Wish You Were Here

Led Zeppelin

- Tangerine
- Whole Lotta Love
- No Quarter
- Dazed And Confused
- Stairway To Heaven
- Black Dog
- Dyer Maker
- Fool In The Rain
- Kashmir
- When The Levee Breaks

Buckethead - The entire 'A Real Diamond In The Rough' album. Instrumental progressive rock that consists of wonderful guitar melodies. Highly recommended*

We played some Phil Collins, Eagles, The Beatles, Dire Straits, The Doors, John Mayer, Peter Paul & Mary, Harry Belafonte, Jack Johnson, John Butler, Supertramp, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Santana, Scorpions, Simon & Garfunkel, Sting & The Police, etc.

While in Goa, it was the radio that kept us entertained during our short drives around the State.

Your folks bore you throught this? I would have to take the bus!

[Scorcher]

Well, what can I say? Mummyyyy! I wanna go Goa!

Brilliant write-up dude, you didn't miss a freakin' detail. When you told me your going to Goa, I expected it to be a drive with friends, Bah, nothing bad as long as you enjoyed every moment of it.

Still, Goa, with friends is something on a whole different level. You know what I mean

Did I not expect you to write about music, especially Buckethead!

[motomaverick]

Nice log. I really appreciate the effort of Royal Orchid to keep that smile going every day Also, this couldnt have come at a better time specially the pic updates about the roads and places to eat on the way I would be doing the same roads end of Oct.

[ampere]

Places dont change do they Suhaas ... ?
Only times change and so do the rides.


How could you forget the music? That is sacrilege. I dont forget my ipod even while going to office. I can forget the phone, but not the ipod.

Very nicely compiled. Jazz on long "good" roads must have been fun.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by ampere

How could you forget the music? That is sacrilege. I dont forget my ipod even while going to office. I can forget the phone, but not the ipod.

Thank you Ampere!

Yes, places don't change. People do. Cars do.

Oh no, I did forget the CD, but I was prepared with a back-up plan. like i said, my phone was loaded with 1057 tracks! I can never forget music. I need it where ever I go.

[hvkumar]

It was like watching one long movie called Bengalooru to Goa!
I am sure NHAI will want to use some of those photos of yours, never have NH4, NH63 and NH17 bee profiled so well before!
I am sure foodies also have lots of think over now that you have virtually conquered Goa's eating joints in a comprehensive manner!
The perspective pictures - past and present - were simply brilliant, did you plan the photos that way or was it simply coincidental?

Looks like the iron ore traffic on NH63 is now history, looks very peaceful.

I guess they have stopped extorting money at the KA check post while coming from Goa - for almost a decade, I have had to pay chai paani to those rogues there every time my MH car crossed the check post. The last time I must have paid is sometime in 2006.

[deepak_misra]

Suhaas

Wonderful thread. It just brought back memories of my trip last year
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-sorpotel.html when we almost crossed paths in Goa.

The beauty of writing a travelogue is that the memory of the trip is very vivid.

I unfortunately could not make my annual pilgrimage to Goa this year but reading travelogues such as yours is a very good substitute.

And did you visit Benaulim ?? Is the jeep still there around Maria Hall??


Deepak

[Porschefire]

Brilliant brilliant brilliant travelogue!!!!!Loved it till the end!!!!!
It felt as though i was in the car with you guys!!!As they say "a picture can say a thousand words",yours were very true to that statement.The write up was clean and efficient and the details that you provided were mindblowing!!!

I suggest next time around you visit a shack called "Boomshankar" at Vagator beach. They serve an amazing array of mindblowingly tasty sea food at rock bottom prices!!!!We were shocked and pleasently surprised and i'm sure you will also be!!!Definetely worth a try....!!!!

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

It was like watching one long movie called Bengalooru to Goa!
I am sure NHAI will want to use some of those photos of yours, never have NH4, NH63 and NH17 bee profiled so well before!
I am sure foodies also have lots of think over now that you have virtually conquered Goa's eating joints in a comprehensive manner!
The perspective pictures - past and present - were simply brilliant, did you plan the photos that way or was it simply coincidental?

Looks like the iron ore traffic on NH63 is now history, looks very peaceful.

I guess they have stopped extorting money at the KA check post while coming from Goa - for almost a decade, I have had to pay chai paani to those rogues there every time my MH car crossed the check post. The last time I must have paid is sometime in 2006.

HVK Sir,

You're much too kind! The past and present pictures were purely coincidental. The thing is, I was a little disappointed that my travelogue did not go beyond page 1, when all the while in Goa, I assumed that it would. And as I was comparing some of the pictures from my old TL with pictures from the new one, i realized that many of them were actually pretty similar.

And that's when the idea struck me. I'm still looking for fresh ideas to improve this thread.

I remember being stuck on the NH63 a few years back. The number of trucks lined up and parked by the side of the road (well, not really) halted so many travelers. Our plans were thrown out of gear due to the iron-ore traffic. And oddly, it was just 'traffic' and not some protest of any kind.

The cops at the police check-post at the border are decent, now. But it helped that we were a family. They would definitely stop the younger travelers.

Originally Posted by deepak_misra

Suhaas

Wonderful thread. It just brought back memories of my trip last year
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-sorpotel.html when we almost crossed paths in Goa.

The beauty of writing a travelogue is that the memory of the trip is very vivid.

I unfortunately could not make my annual pilgrimage to Goa this year but reading travelogues such as yours is a very good substitute.

And did you visit Benaulim ?? Is the jeep still there around Maria Hall??


Deepak

I remember your TL, Deepak Misra. And I remember it quite vividly. There are two reasons for that. One: We nearly crossed paths while we were in Goa last year. Two: Our TLs were different, but very similar too. It was uncanny. We did go though Benaulim and Maria Hall Square on one occasion this time. But I don't remember spotting that Jeep. That Jeep is a work of art.

Many thanks for the comments, Deepak!

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I guess they have stopped extorting money at the KA check post while coming from Goa - for almost a decade, I have had to pay chai paani to those rogues there every time my MH car crossed the check post. The last time I must have paid is sometime in 2006.

KA checkpost may be stopped wrongdoing but i think MH checkpost is doing the routine business.
Last july. while we were returning from Goa, MH cops stopped our bus, yes, tempo traveler with 15 rajababues.
Some of the rajababues had some stuff with permit, so we had no worries.
Though you have valid permit, cops always ask for some chai-paani.
One rajababu from our group looks like black cat commando, another looks like DSP/SP and more on that, we are from 12mati.
Phir kaya? dhamaal!!!
We started firing those who stopped us anticipating some chai-paani.
Finally, MH cops offered us chai-paani.
Duniya gol hai!!

I will be in Goa next month, will try amboli-danoli-banda route avoiding sawantwadi.
Will post the route details after coming back.

[selfdrive]

Fabulous account of your trip suhaas. Isnt it amazing how the Jazz really transforms into a different beast altogether on longer trips? I loved the pics of your Jazz by the roadside. Sometimes I wish I should take along another rubber tyre just to hang it on a tree branch there and while away the afternoon.

I am very glad to see lots of recommendations on places to eat, most of which I will definitely use on my quick route to the century mark! Of course, I liked the account of the restaurants in Goa, but I absolutely adored the pics of the khotos. This is something I have been wanting to try for a while. Might go down that extra 200 clicks to taste that when I drive down to Goa next

I agree with Ashish on the downside part of the assembly line. Now we will have only comments on further pages :(

Originally Posted by noopster

The Jazz is an impressive car and having seen now how much more luggage it accomodates than the Swift, will surely reccomend it to friends as a worthy alternative. My Vxi gives about 15 kmpl on our Goa runs. The Vento returned about 12

12 on the highway, really?! I hope you have a direct tap from the middle east.
Any of your friends need an extended local Jazz TD, feel free to buzz me. We like to see more Jazz around