[motomaverick]

Yes Goa!!! after 2 years gap we are going back to Goa. Come to think of it there are quite a bit if co-incidents when we were planning for this trip

Co-Incidence 1: Our first Goa trip was right after we had purchased our first car, our beloved Mr.Miyagi (Zen). Now this 2nd trip is being made right after we purchased our 2nd car

A picture taken near Chitradurga circa 2008


Co-Incidence 2: Both our cars were purchased in Sept and the plans for Goa was hatched in the same month
Co-Incidence 3: The research & booking of hotels both were done on a Saturday

Yeah, though unintentional, these coincidence's were really cool and brought a smile, but that immediately converted to a frown from my wife as i mentioned that we should do the Goa trip every year (Means a new car every year )

Trip Details

Planned Date 31st Oct and return on 3rd Nov
Mode of Transport Our new possesion Mr.Toothless (Manza Qjet)
Passengers 4 members (Dad, mom, wife & I)
No. of days A paltry 3 days (Last time we had stayed for 10 days
Planned Route

Blore - Tumkur - Hubli - Yellapur - Ankola - Karwar - Panaji - Mandrem

Actual Route

Blore - Tumkur - Hubli - Yellapur - Ankola - Karwar - Panaji - Siolim - Mandrem

Stay Cuba Retreat, Mandrem Beach (We selected this hotel as we had not seen Northern most Goa and also wanted a quite holiday away from the usual humdrum, ofcourse having a vehicle it was easy to go to the usual touristy spots.)

We arrived at the hotel at around 7.30pm, we had actually entered Polem at around 4pm but due to the Goa traffic on NH17 it took us some 3hrs to reach our hotel, plus finding it was also difficult and it was a god send messenger in the form of a Goods carrier tempo who was also incidently going from Mapsua to Siolim and offered to lead us there through shortcuts as the main Mapsua road was chock-a-block with traffic due to Advani's rath yatra.

Reached the place, had a shower and just ate dinner and slept. For me driving 740kms in one day was the highest i had done but even then i did not feel that tired, probably because of the car. Some of the personal records that i broke on the way were:

[i]1. Rushing through 300kms in 3 hrs on NH4, yep the speedo needle was a constant between 120-140
2. Reaching Ankola which is apprx 600kms from Bangalore via Hubli in 7.5hrs total including couple of stops

Some pics from the days driving are below:

1. Somewhere after Hiriyur before Chitradurga
2. Chitradurga Windmills
3. Reliance A1 aka Kamath after Davenegere
4. Toothless posing in Kamath
5. On NH63, before Yellapur
6. Smooth NH63 till yellapur after which it detiorates (More of those pics on the return journey)
7. Kamath at Ankola
8. Cuba Retreat at night

[Rudra Sen]

Mods note: Thread moved to Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing.

[suhaas307]

Excellent thread!

I'm sure the Manza served you'll well. Not only does it have good ground-clearance to tackle those nasty speed-breakers and bad roads, it should be spacious enough for four adults and luggage too.

It looks like you've taken the same route that we took on our Goa drive last month. Here is the link to my TL: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ore-again.html

I'm assuming that there is more to come?

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Excellent thread!

I'm sure the Manza served you'll well. Not only does it have good ground-clearance to tackle those nasty speed-breakers and bad roads, it should be spacious enough for four adults and luggage too.

It looks like you've taken the same route that we took on our Goa drive last month. Here is the link to my TL: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ore-again.html

I'm assuming that there is more to come?

Yeah took the same route as you did, i guess its the best one till now. Wanted to try the Belgaum Santawadi route since we were staying very close to Arambol but with elderly parents on board i thought to stick to the faster route.

Yes theres more to come, sorting the pics

[motomaverick]

Day 2: 1st Nov 2011

Today started pretty early, yes, you could say that I am in a holiday so why wake early, well, if you are in Goa and near the beach you cant sleep for late. So up by 7am, we all 4 made a rush for the beach. The area infact was waking up from a slumber.

The way to the beach in Mandrem is quite an interesting one, the sea actually forms a tiny backwater kind of a rivulet which actually swollen up during high tide at night. To counteract this the locals have constructed a rickety bamboo walkway.

You step on the walkway and this is what you will see.


Seeing the water my better half and mom cant stop themselves and just run towards the shore, the sea here breaks quite smoothly so you can actually walk for quite a distance.


Saw a few dogs playing around trying to catch some birds on the beach and was wondering what a lovely life these folks have, eat from the shacks nearby and just play in the water, no boss, no routine.


I started to explore the beach and start to see what I can click, put on my 250mm and let it shoot this beautiful sight of a fishing boat out there in the morning seas for a fresh catch.


Suddenly we see this same boat coming head on towards us and we started wondering what the heck were they doing and then later released we were actually on its path towards its parking place for the rest of the day. Since there are no reverse gears on this boat it’s a tough task to put it in place


After spending an hour in the waters, we started to walk back and the rivulet that was taking about sometime above, gave me the photo-op to click a few abstract pics along with a posing see shell




The path back from the beach leads you through a Hotel cum Bar cum Restaurant called O’Saiba, it has bamboo huts and few rooms that we saw people staying. If you can get to stay there it will be a great stay because this place is just next to the beach.


Thats the Gang, not sure if you can see much wanted to get as much beach as possible


Some random pics from the time spent between 7am to 8.30am

[motomaverick]

Day 2: continued……………..

After a good scrumptious American breakfast, we were contemplating what to do for the rest of the day. I certainly did not want to drive the car since 1. Unfamiliarity of the area and roads 2. Goa traffic scared me yesterday (Yes it scared a Bangalorean so you can imagine ) So it was decided that we will check for a taxi which was readily available outside the hotel. They are expensive costing us some 1500 bucks for a round trip to a couple of places. So the places that were decided were:

1. Old goa church (The one that is shown in CID) that is what my mom wanted to see when deciding to come to goa
2. Basilica of Bom Jesus
3. Fort Aguada

Old Goa is a UNESCO world heritage site and is famed for its opulent buildings and churches reminiscent of the glory days of "Golden Goa". It was abandoned by the Portuguese officially in 1843 when the capital was moved to Panjim or Panaji. Today, most of the remaining buildings and churches are maintained by the Archeological Survey of India and the church services are maintained by the Archdiocese of Goa.

After the taxi was fixed and ready we all got out with all our sun shades and sun creams as it was getting to be increasingly hot.

This is how the gulli to our hotel looked like in the morning.


This is the place that we stayed, Cuba Retreat, Junas Wado, Mandrem 403702


After a long time I was seated in the back of the drivers seat and I could feel instantly how small the WagonR taxi really was, no offence to people who own this car but the Manza has really spoilt us with its space and coming in the taxi it felt like we were packed like sardines. Nevertheless I did not loose an opportunity to click picks and I assumed the role of a normal touristy guy clicking away at everything I actually enjoyed it, some pics of the same








Our first stop was the ruined church of St. Augustine. The Convent now completely in ruins was constructed by 12 Augustinian friars in 1572 immediately after their arrival at Goa on September 3rd 1572. This church, now in ruins also was constructed in 1602. It was reportedly in good shape until it was abandoned in 1835 following the banning of religious orders by the Portuguese government. The church fell into neglect and its vault collapsed in 1842. The facade collapsed on August 8th and 19th, 1931. All that is left today is a bell tower without the bell. The bell was moved to the Fort Aguada Light House initially (1841-1871) and in 1871 was moved to the Church of Our lady of Immaculate Conception at Panaji where it remains functioning to this day. (taken from the website goacentral.com)

This is what you see when you enter the ruins


That’s the bell tower which is the only standing structure till date


Since there was some shooting going on for a Telegu movie, we were not allowed further inside, but my mom was satisfied with what she saw as she remembered the episode of CID and the fighting taking place inside the ruins.


From this church our next stop was Basilica of Bom Jesus.

This is the most revered and famous of all the churches in Old Goa. It contains the relics of St. Francis Xavier, Patron saint of Goa, Apostle of the Indies and for most Goans " Goencho Saib ". Its construction was begun on the 24th November 1594 out of the funds bequeathed for the purposes by Dom Jeronimos Mascarenhas and was consecrated by the Archbishop Dom Fr. Aleixo de Menezes, on the 15th of May 1605. In 1946 it became the first church in India to be elevated to the status of a minor basilica. (taken from the website goacentral.com)


That is the basilica as you enter the interior of the church, there was quite a huge rush inside with people jostling for space, I somehow found some chairs near the basilica and fished out the 250mm to click the minor details inside.


Seeing me a lot of other people also started occupying seats and click the basilica. The picture sets below I would not be able to throw description as I am not much aware of the church but these are certainly some intricate designs.








This is the relics of St.Francis Xavier, there was too much rush on the front side, the scene was straight out of some movie where a lot of paparazzi’s are shooting like crazy, so I walked around to the side and clicked this through the iron grill


Then walking towards the exit an interesting and funny incident happened. I saw this huge door with intricate design and a golden colored key hole which had an interesting design, I bent down and started shooting some abstract pics shown below, a guy came from my side and once I was about to move away from the key hole, he started peeping through it to see whats inside, I think he thought I saw some relics inside the closed door


That’s the key hole through which that guy was peering inside.


That’s the entire basilica as you can see there was a lot of rush despite it being a weekday.