[champ27]

When it comes to a road trip I am more interested in the journey than the destination. But there's an exception to this rule. When the destination is my beloved GOA, journey really doesn't matter to me. In fact I just wished I could be transported to Goa in a blink of an eye. But in reality that doesn't happen, hence we had to do the required planning.

I have spent the two of the most memorable years of my life in Goa. During those 2 years, I have had some incredibly beautiful experiences which will stay with me forever. Just wanted to relive those moments on this trip. I have seen and experienced Goa from very close quarters. Words can't describe how much I love this place.

Back to the trip now. We were a gang of 5 guys. Initially we were planning to make it a 4 day trip but on my insistence we extended the trip by a day. So it was all set, we decided to leave Bangalore on 31st Oct at around 8 pm and return on 5th Nov late evening.

Route - Banaglore- Tumkur- Davangere- Haveri- Hubli- Ankola- Karwar- Madgaon- Panjim

Journey Begins

31st Oct, 8 pm - We started our journey in my Verna. The idea was to take Harlur road and get on the NICE road and then finally hit the Tumkur Road. But thanks to the consistent rain, there was a massive traffic jam on Harlur road. So much so that we had to abandon that route and go via silk board. By the time we reached silk board, it was 10 pm !! Since it was already too late and we had not managed to get out of Banaglore, we decided to have dinner at the first food joint we find on Hosur road. After having dinner at Mirch Masala, we finally left. It was already 11:30 pm and there were no signs of the rain stopping. It was just the beginning of things to come.

When we hit NH 4, rain god decided to make things even more difficult for us. It started raining heavily and at times visibility was almost reduced to zero. It was one of the most stressful driving conditions I had encountered. For a fleeting moment I thought of heading back but I knew that was not happening So I continued driving . For the next 450 odd Kms, things didn't improve; my eyes were sore from overnight driving in heavy rain. we reached Panjim at 10:30 am and then headed straight to Anjuna where we were putting up for the next 3 nights.

Accomodation- We had booked 3 rooms at a place called "BEAN ME UP" in Anjuna. It's a good value for money place. The room rates were quite reasonable given the location. It worked out perfectly for us because we just wanted a nice clean place to get good sleep after whole day of loafing around.

We quickly freshened up and then set out for what would turn out to be an incredible food safari to be continued for the next 4 days. I am big foodie and had promised myself that during my entire stay in Goa i will just have sea food. And I lived up to that promise.

Here's a preview of the trip.

Day 1 :

On the way- Check out the mist



Lunch at Brittos - Amazing seafood platter



Paani Puri at Miramar- A must do for me



Dinner at Goenchin - Best Chinese food I have ever had any where



Panjim - Ribandar Causeway - Best stretch in the world



Day 2

Awesome Mandrem Beach





Fish selection for lunch- King fish, Snapper & Pomfret- We selected all 3



Dinner at Texas - Masala fried Squids



Day 3

Fort Chapora



Mandrem Again



Sun Set @ Curlies



Dinner at Souza Lobo



Day 4

Lunch @ Martin's Corner



Stay at Palolem - One of the sea facings huts where we stayed



Awesome view from our Hut



Evening Boat ride for Dolphin sighting



Palolem by night



To be continued..

[champ27]

Seeds of a Goa trip were sown during my previous weekend trip ( 13th - 14th Oct) to Agumbe- Kudremukh- Tirthahalli. We quickly decided on the destination of our next trip, GOA it would be. The only question was to finalize the dates. Thanks to Rajyostava Day (1st Nov, Thursday), things fell into place nicely. We just had to take a friday off (2nd Nov) and voila we get a spread of 4 days. But then only 4 days didn't quite seem enough to me, hence I insisted that we take one more day off (Mon, 5th Nov). The other 4 members of the team readily agreed to my proposal and we were all set.

D day - 31st Oct- The idea was to wrap up our work and leave no later than 8 pm. We left exactly at 8 pm and what followed has been described in my first post. There was nothing of note during the journey except the heavy downpour. The only bright side to the journry was that we did not stop anywhere on the way, rather there was no choice but to carry on. After driving non stop ( except for a couple bio breaks) for almost 8 hrs, finally the rain reduced to a drizzle in the Ankola - Karwar section. My eyes were sore from overnight drive in the heavy rain. But that didn't dampen my spirit.

Day 1 - 1st Nov

Few pictures from our drive

Taking a break in Ankola- Karwar stretch





Overcast and dull sky





Approaching Karwar



Exiting Karwar





After driving for almost 12 hrs we reached our destination BEAN ME UP at 11:30 am. All of us were really famished, since we hadn't had anything on the way . The prospect of having lunch at Brittos egged everyone on to quickly freshen up and push off to Baga. We reached Brittos at 2 pm and promptly ordered seafood platter , king fish rawa fry and Prawns fry. And with these began our Goan food safari.

BEAN ME UP- For the uninitiated, these guys serve some amazing veg food. I know veg food in Goa sound a bit out of place but trust me you won't regret having one here.

And not surprisingly, I took a couple of pictures of their Kitchen rather than the rooms. After all that's the place of greater interest.





Lunch @ Brittos





Seafood Platter - It had King fish, amazing prawns, mussels, crab, calamari and salad. Sorry not posting more pics of the plate because there was complete carnage out there and it looked really untidy



She also wanted to have some. There's got to be something about my road trips and cats. They seem to follow me where ever i go.



After a sumptuous and satisfying lunch we headed to our rooms and I caught up with a good 2 hrs of deep slumber. Got up at 6 pm, the plan was to head to Panjim , laze around at Miramar, Dona Paula have dinner at Goenchin, take a drive on Panjim- Ribandar Causeway late in the night and visit one of the many churches in Ponda.

We did exactly that. Pictures will tell the story now

Food stalls at Miramar



My favorite Paani Puri stall - This guy has been around for ages now. He is from Varanasi and makes some really good Paani Puri. He immediately recognized me even though i was visiting his stall after 2.5 years. He checked about my Wagon R and where i have been. I used to frequent his place almost twice or thrice a week during my stay at Goa. This visit brought back a lot of memories



Barf ka Gola







Verna - enjoying it's first trip to Goa



Dona Paula at night



The Singham effect at DP - A sequence of the movie was shot here



Dinner at Goenchin - A must visit place for anyone who likes Chinese food. For those who don't like Chinese, you will start liking it.



Dragon & Phoenix chicken & prawns Soup - One of the best I have had



Beijing chicken and Prawns



Clay pot rice with Prawns & Chicken



Once done with dinner, we headed towards Ribandar and Old Goa. A lot of personal memories are attached with these 2 places.

Panjim- Ribandar Causeway - I have driven through this stretch on countless times in the dead of the night. It's an awesome feeling





Mandovi river by the side adds to the charm of this stretch







Almost all the boxes were ticked for the Day. After an extremely satisfying and tiring day, we decided to call it a day at around 2 am.

A lot was to be done on Day 2.

To be Continued..

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[champ27]

Day 2 - 2nd Nov

After a tiring Day 1, we decided to take a little easy on Day 2, the only agenda for the day was to laze around and have some fun in the water.

After having our breakfast we pushed off to Ashwem beach at around 11 am. The idea was to spend 3-4 hours and get back in time to watch the sunset at Curlies. We immediately jumped into the sea once we reached Ashwem. But something was not right there. Beach was not too clean, plus there were way too many people around to our liking. Also, the food that we ordered from one of the nearby shacks was bad.

We quickly decided that there's no point in wasting out time here and we should move to the nearby Mandrem beach. I have been to that beach many times and I can vouch for the tranquility and relaxed atmosphere the place offers.

Riva resort is one of the better resorts in Mandrem. But it's a tad expensive. We opted for the new paradise resort ( if i remember the name correctly)that is just next to Riva. These resorts will allow you inside only if you are staying as a guest or if you are a day visitor then you have to order food from their kitchen.

We had no plans to stay there but we definitely had plans to have some good sea food. So, we first asked the guys to get 4 beach chairs,couple of surf boards and some snacks. For Lunch, we decided to go for Goan fish curry and rice. Selection of fish was an elaborate process and we found it difficult to pick one fish amongst King fish, red snapper and pomfret, hence we ordered for all three

The sea in mandrem is perfect for surfing as it is neither too violent nor too calm. Waves are just about of the right intensity. In addition to this, there aren't many people around, beach is really clean and you get some real nice surroundings to relax.
After having taken care of food logistics, we went into the sea and spent around 1 hr before we were called for Lunch. The thing with spending time in sea is that you get really tired and hungry. So, when the food arrived we were like hungry sharks and lapped up everything that came our way in a jiffy.

After having lunch we again went back to the water and spent around 3 hrs alternating between surfing and lazing on the beach chair.

Small wooden bridge that connects the huts to the beach







Ramp walk



The beach





View from the sea





Selection of fish





Balancing myself on the surf board







By the time we were done with all this, it was already 5:30 pm and watching sun set at curlies was out of question. We left Mandrem at 6 pm and went back to our hotel. Took a couple of hours off and headed to Panjim at 8 pm.

We killed sometime at Miramar CCD, loafed around at Panjim before heading for dinner at a restaurant by the name Texas in Panjim. Not many people would know of this place but it is one of my favorites. One could easily miss it as there are no glaring sign boards.

Ordered my favorite stuff :

Masala fried King fish



Masala fried Squids



Tiger Prawns - One must try these



Decimated



After having dinner, we split into 2 groups. Couple of my friends went to Casino Royale to try their luck at Poker and the rest including myself went for a leisurely walk alongside river Mandovi. Once it started to get tiring, we went to Aunty Maria (Fidalgo) to have midnight tea and my favorite Pineapple Upside down. This is one place where I have been to so many times that i have lost count. It's open 24hrs; whenever you are in dire need of food, tea, coffee or want to chill out in the dead of the night, this is THE place.

Aunty Maria - Fidalgo



Finally one of my friends came back while the other decided to try his luck at Casino Royale through the night!!

End of Day 2!!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by champ27

Once done with dinner, we headed towards Ribandar and Old Goa. A lot of personal memories are attached with these 2 places.

Panjim- Ribandar Causeway - I have driven through this stretch on countless times in the dead of the night. It's an awesome feeling

Man you had one EXTRA LARGE food holiday ! Amazing Platters.
By any chance did you study at a management institute near Ribandar ?
(Just guessing!)

[mayankjha1806]

This aint a TL for travelers to Goa, this is a TL for foodie's traveling to Goa. Every place that serves good to awesome food is listed here. I am sure you guys had lot of fun with food.

Out of the ones listed i would never go to Brittos, not sure about others but when we went to have lunch/dinner there the food was just awful and my daughter almost did not eat anything (In Vegetarian). In contrast Martin's corner was just awesome and we all just loved it.

[champ27]

Originally Posted by ampere

Man you had one EXTRA LARGE food holiday ! Amazing Platters.
By any chance did you study at a management institute near Ribandar ?
(Just guessing!)

Bang on ampere. You picked the appropriate lines from my TL to come to a conclusion. I guess the TL has shown enough symptoms to conclude that the person writing it is either a Goan or someone who in the guise of studies went about exploring all and sundry places in Goa

And yes we did have one hell of a food holiday. You will not believe, my trip plan was a simple grid in an excel sheet. Columns had the dates mentioned, Rows had just 3 entries "breakfast", "lunch" & "dinner" and the corresponding cells in between had the names of the places where I intended to eat out!! Rest didn't matter.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

This aint a TL for travelers to Goa, this is a TL for foodie's traveling to Goa. Every place that serves good to awesome food is listed here. I am sure you guys had lot of fun with food.

Out of the ones listed i would never go to Brittos, not sure about others but when we went to have lunch/dinner there the food was just awful and my daughter almost did not eat anything (In Vegetarian). In contrast Martin's corner was just awesome and we all just loved it.

The trip went exactly the way I wanted it to go. Sorry to hear that your family was disappointed with the food served at Brittos. But then the trick is to order the right set of food at all these famous food joints, i.e, just order seafood if you are not able to decide. You won't be disappointed. Tough luck if you are a vegetarian.

When it comes to veg food, on most occasions you will be disappointed,only except when you visit places like Moti Mahal or Vinanti in Panjim. Never try veg food on beach side shacks, chances are high that you will not like the food.

The food holiday is not over yet, account of 3 more days are yet to come.

[subs]

hey bro

Awesome write and equally awesome pics. I thought I am the only one who takes pics of good food! Good effort on the travelogue and keep it coming.

Sitting here in the UK where we are mostly used to frozen seafood, those pics have made me hungry!

Subs

[champ27]

Originally Posted by subs

hey bro

Awesome write and equally awesome pics. I thought I am the only one who takes pics of good food! Good effort on the travelogue and keep it coming.

Sitting here in the UK where we are mostly used to frozen seafood, those pics have made me hungry!

Subs

Thanks Mate!!

Food is an integral part of all my trips and when it comes to Goa, I go berserk. Can't really help it.

[fine69]

The travelogue is alright but the eateries in the log, damn!

I sense a big time foodie in you, will try to go to a couple of these places (if not all) in my next trip to Goa.

[champ27]

Day 3 - 3rd Nov

Day 3 was supposed to begin with a trek to fort Chapora to see the day break. Turned out to be too ambitious, especially when all of us hit the bed at around 2 in the night. In any case, I have never been able to get up early and because of this habit all my road trip suffers.

Anyway, our day began at 10 am (so much for seeing the day break)!! We drove to Chapora which was just 15-20 min away from our place. Historically, I have never found a place to park my car at Chapora. This time was no different. Actually, there is enough parking space but you have to take your vehicle off the road and there in a sharp drop from the road on to the open space. This manoeuvre is suited for taller SUVs and certainly not for an already scrape prone Verna.

Even this guy refused to take his car off the road





Finally parked my car at a comfortable place down the road



On our way up



One has to be careful as the surface is quite slippery



Only section which is somewhat intact in an otherwise 350 year old dilapidated fort



view from the top - This place is a delight to visit during rains. It's all lush green. Greener than what you see in the picture



Vagator beach - on a couple of occasions, I have trekked all the way up from the beach to the fort!!



Vagator & Anjuna beach



North Goa coast line - Ashwem, Morjim and the likes











With this the Chapora visit was completed. Guys wanted to spend the remainder of the day in the sea. I had to decide on the best possible beach to spend time. Since we were too far up in the north, going to Mobor ( one of my favorite beaches in South Goa) didn't make sense. Out of all the North Goa beaches, Mandrem suited our requirements the best. Plus a repeat of yesterday's lunch was too tempting a proposition to resist.

So we decided to go to Mandrem. By now the rest of the team had also become seasoned pros and immediately took care of all the logistics upon reaching the beach. Only that we had become even more ravenous. So, unlike day 2, five bowls of rice quickly changed to ten and all three fish had to be ordered again!!

I am sorry, I am not posting any pics of the Goan fish curry because on both days greed got the better of me. By the time the realization struck about taking pics of the food, my plate was already wiped clean. Also, one of the flip sides of travelling with an all guys gang is that one cannot expect any food etiquette or table manners. I realized on previous occasions when I was busy clicking pics of the food, I had lost out on vital portions of fish. I always maintain, friendship and food are two different entities and should not be mixed The hardcore foodie in me is doing the talking now.

Today we left a little earlier to catch the sun set at Curlies. Now, whoever plans to visit Curlies, never go on your 4 wheeler. The roads are extremely narrow and winding and to your bad luck if another vehicle comes from the other side, chances are high that you will get stuck. Plus the parking charges are quite steep, Rs 50 for 2 hrs. I know people do not mind splurging on Goa trip but just an additional piece of information.

Coming back the place, Curlies has always been a big hit with young crowd given the ambiance one finds there. Plus the sunset is pretty amazing. The only thing I don't like about the place is that there are a lot of smokers in here and I get a headache when I am anywhere near to cigarette smoke.

We spent a couple of hours, soaking in the surroundings and relaxing before going back to our hotel.



Today we were more tired than the previous day. May be because of the climb to the chapora fort and extensive surfing and swimming at Mandrem. Hence we decided against going any far than Calangute for dinner. The most appropriate pick was Souza Lobo.



The thing about Souza Lobo in my experience is that you should not experiment too much there. Just order sea food and you will stay happy. But we violated this rule and ordered chicken and non sea food items. Probably our tummies were hammered with the onslaught of the snappers, the pomfrets and the likes and needed a break. Whatever it was, the experience was not what it was supposed to be.

After the dinner we hung around for a while at Calangute and then headed back and called it a day.

Day 4 was going to be an exciting day as we were making a move to south goa to one of the most scenic beaches ,Palolem, Plus Martin's Corner was round the corner!

End of Day 3!!

To be continued..

[champ27]

Originally Posted by fine69

The travelogue is alright but the eateries in the log, damn!

I sense a big time foodie in you, will try to go to a couple of these places (if not all) in my next trip to Goa.

Thanks! Yes, all my trips revolve around food.

Do try out some of these places, I am sure you will not be disappointed if you like sea food.

[champ27]

Day 4 - 4th Nov

It was time to head towards south Goa. As usual, we had a late start to the day. We left our Hotel at 11 am with Panjim being our first stop. We did some general shopping like buying cashews, prawn pickles etc and had a quick breakfast at Kamat. For anyone interested in buying cashews, there are two good places in Panjim. First one is located on 18th June Road and the second one is near Kadamba Bus stand.

Some random pics of Panjim









After spending around 1.5 hrs in Panjim, we left for our next and final pit stop, Martin's Corner.

On the way to Martin's Corner







We reached Martin's corner at 1:30 pm





I started to check out the available seafood options for the day on display.

And this is how it looked













I had sorted out what I had to order. I stuck to the promise I made to myself at the start of the trip. Fish, it will be. I ordered a Fish Steak.
By now the other guys were a bit fed up of sea food and went for chicken and stuff. One even tried to be adventurous and ordered Ox Tongue Roast!!

And not to my surprise, Fish Steak was the star of the show. And by the time I could touch it and click a pic, this is was what it was reduced to:



And this is how a plate looks when you like the stuff put on it. A simple testimony to the quality of the dish, plated wiped clean



Since my dish was shared with everyone, my generous friends offered me a portion from their's.

Chicken Xacuti and Rice - It was nice too but Steak was simply awesome



With this our Goan food safari came to an end or did it ? By the time we finished our lunch, it was already 3pm. Finally we left for Palolem and reached there by 4pm.

The initial plan was to first hunt for a nice hut and then get into the sea. But upon reaching Palolem, we had to change the plan slightly. These days there is a huge issue of getting a parking place at Palolem. The place is extremely crammed and if you arrive in the evening, chances of finding one is very remote. With the tourist season to heat up in the coming days, things are going to get worse. May be a point to keep in mind for future travelers. This issue is mostly during the evening hours as most of the tourist take a night halt and start leaving in the morning.

When we reached there, the parking guy told me there was no place available. I offered him a deal. Told him that if he makes a place for my car I would take a boat ride for dolphin sighting immediately.He could not refuse the deal but told me that he had just one slot and it may not be enough to park a long car like verna. I told him not to bother and just show me the place. He was correct, it was just enough to get the car in the slot but getting out of the car would be a challenge. Anyway, the reverse parking camera came in really handy and finally after a bit of a drama, managed to park the car.

A small note about Palolem - in my experience, this is one of the best beaches for swimming. I have seen many people swimming along the beach. The waves are very gentle and you don't get thrown around. Maybe since it is surrounded by hills on both sides have got something to do with it. It's one of the most picturesque beaches of Goa. However, there are a couple of things that i don't like about the beach. It's not as clean as it should have been (though some of the pictures shown below may not suggest this but you have to talk a walk along entire beach the you will get to know what I mean) and there are way too many stray dogs. Being someone who is not comfortable with dogs around (or simply put scared of them), I find it very disconcerting to walk on the beach.

First sights of Palolem









A note around boat ride - We finalized a boat that would take us to the point where we could see the dolphins. It would also take us to butterfly island and honeymoon island, where we would spend sometime before heading back. The total cost of the trip, Rs 1300.

One of the weirdest thing I would like to point out is that there is no concept of Life Jackets here.The only substitute to life jackets that you will get here is the assuring words from the folks in charge of the boat that "nothing has gone wrong till now, so nothing can go wrong in future and if situation warrants they will jump into the sea and save the tourists!!"

You are almost taken to the middle of the sea with no safety measures. Not sure how the tourism authorities permit such thing but that's the way it is. Not sure if we can blame them entirely as despite such shortcomings tourists still opt for these rides. In fact this in one of the selling points of Palolem.

Anyway, coming back to the ride. Needless to say, it's awesome. You get to see such amazing views

Our boat



All set



There we go..



Leaving the beach behind







Super view



Due to the calm nature of the sea- Kayaking is a big hit here

[champ27]

As we moved towards the sea the views kept getting better.

Now, mostly the pictures will do the talking







Notice the huts on the hills. These get cut off from the main beach during high tides and can only be accessed during the low tides. Sort of a mini cast away







One of my favorite pics





Do you see the stretch of sand? That's the butterfly island. Boat guys told us that one can also chose to stay here , these guys can arrange for food and stuff when you are marooned on that island!! Not sure how much of it is true but interesting idea nonetheless.



Attachment 1014453





Zoomed in view of Agonda beach - one of my favorite beaches







Small cave





This is where they stopped the boat to spot the dolphins- It was extremely quiet out there





We spotted around 5-6 dolphins. I tried to click pics but it was extremely difficult. One, the boat was sort of unstable and two, the dolphins appeared just for a second or so. We stayed there for 15 min or so. Tranquility of the place was quite striking.

Below is the best shot that I could manage



After sighting the dolphins, we headed towards butterfly island but decided against getting down there.

Butterfly Island - A closer look



We decided to get down at honeymoon island and have tea there. Yes, there's a small tea stall.

Honeymoon Island - You need to have the right company to enjoy the place. 5 guys on honeymoon island doesn't convey the right message







After spending sometime on the island, we headed back.











With the boat ride done, the next step was to find a place for the overnight stay. I was on the look out for a hut that had a sea view. Since, the tourist season was yet to pick up steam, many shacks were still in the process of being set up. So our options had narrowed down. Anyway, after some hunting, we managed to find an awesome place that too at a reasonable charge.

We managed to get 2 rooms for Rs 1500, one of them offering picture perfect view.

Below picture was taken the next morning

[champ27]

Day 4 Continued

Some more pictures of the Huts

Twin huts where we stayed.Second hut just behind the first one





Closer look







Notice the shack next to ours. It was still coming up. By now Palolem would be fully decked up



By the time we checked in the huts, it was already dark. But people were still in the sea. So, we also decided to spend sometime in the sea.

After a brief spell in the sea, we freshened up and went for a walk in the local market. We did some shopping and on our way back got our dinner packed. I ordered one final round of seafood for myself and others also followed suit.

There was also an option of going to the near by Patnem beach. It's a nice and quiet beach, frequented mostly by foreign tourists. But we decided against this option, as I didn't want to mess around with the precious Car park that we had somehow managed.

Back to our huts with the dinner - We had a nice lazy time, chatting and pulling each others leg. Serious to downright nonsense topics were discussed. But that's the way it goes with such a group

We enjoyed the view that Palolem had to offer in the night

Some Pictures of Palolem by night













And some early celebration of Diwali- Time to burst crackers











We also had a late night game of football. Around 2 in the night we decided to call it a day as we had head home the next morning.

There was a tinge of sadness as all of this was coming to an end.