[Nikhilb2008]

I just spoke to Jess. Very sweet lady. When I said I knew Sam, she opened up!!

I told her to check out this travelogue and have sent her the link to this thread as she seemed very interested.

[vvnagan]

Re-read the travelogue again after the coversion to 1st Person. Definitely better this time. Back to Sam baba. Come on Sam, dont make us wait any longer.

[Sam Kapasi]

Wake up woman!!
5 more minutes!
You said that 10 minutes ago!

Today we have an exciting job to do. That's right, we have work.
A friend's friend is a property developer and we'd like to see a little ferienhaus we can buy. We're both dreamers and the first thing to do is to see what you'd like to dream of.

It is at Varca beach. I have no clear idea where that is, but I know we will go there on the scooter.
It is raining heavily. The wind is blowing and the way we see it, we cannot do anything unless we get raincoats.
We had already tried the previous evening, Jenny and I hunted everywhere along Calangute and Baga for some nice oversized Parkas. Nothing. Either windcheater type jackets, or a 2 piece raincoat.

Ah well, a 2 piece raincoat it is.

We choose the most ridiculous US Army 2 piece raincoats and buy the same ones, just for the heck of it. It is very very difficult to get these on. Not because they are tight but because we are both shaking with laughter and tears are coming out as we laugh at the opposite person who looks like an idiot in these super fake US Army raincoats with US air force written on one arm and US navy on the other.
We look like demented twins. Here, take a look.



Armed (heh heh) with our stupid raincoats we attack the weather head on. We reach a bookshop where we buy a map.

Lesse now Varca. Ah there it is. Ahead of Colva, doesn't look like it's too far away. Calangute to Panjim, Panjim to Margao, Margao to Colva, Colva to Benaulim and there it is.
Alarm bells are ringing in my head. Something isn't quite right. Hadn't we hired a taxi to get to Colva once when I was younger?
I cannot remember.
North Goa-South Goa.... uhhhhhhh

OK I know how to go.
Are you sure?
Yeah. Uhh.. it's a long ride.
That's cool, I'm enjoying myself, I hope this stupid rain stops. How long will we take.
An hour, hour and a half maybe.
Cool, let's go.

The rain will not ease up. Just won't stop.

SHHHHHHHHH!

We're riding. I am going very slowly because it is wet, cold and raining. I must be doing about 30 to 40 kmph. No rush, better to go slowly.
it is wet and cold, but somehow still pleasant. Jenny is holding on to me just like that Rajesh Khanna song that Asish Pallod sang.

She's got my bag on her back, that has a towel, 2 extra teeshirts and my camera inside.

In about 40 minutes we're at Panjim City. Not bad.

At Panjim we find the road to Margao. It is about 46 kms away. Oh dear.

While it looks like a good road, the wind is killing us and the rain has wrinkled up our skin. TheOne® has put on her sunglasses (these make her really look ridiculous in the pouring rain, a German in a US army jacket with dark glasses on)
While I have already lost my glasses and have none and the rain is stinging, piercing my eyes like needles so I have chinesed my eyes as far as I can chinese them and I am now doing about 25kmph.

2 hours later we're at Margao. We're both very miserable already.

SHHHHHHHH!

Excuse me SSSHHHHHHHHH Colva?

Colva is still a long way away. We're off the large intercity road and back to Goa's typical winding green roads.
Jenny is hungry, cold and miserable.

We need to stop somewhere for lunch.

We find a simple nice Goan cafe and get inside.

Jenny looks all red-eyed and is sneezing. I am afraid she's going to be sick. Maybe this was not such a good idea after all. We have spent 3 hours on that stupid scooter and I cannot even sit straight anymore.

She leaves and changes her teeshirt in the toilet. I simply take my shirt off, wring the water out of it and sit at the restaurant without a shirt. Shrug. I can do that sort of thing, lol.

2 large brandys please. With nothing else, no ice water coke nothing, just brandy in a glass.

We down them in one shot like we downed schnapps in the bitter German cold and we both feel a little better.

Time for some typical Goan fare. Fried prawns, some Kalamari and some prawn curry with rice.
As soon as we're in the restaurant, it has all but stopped raining.





We call our contact and let him know that we will be at Varca shortly. Now it is time to leave.

Guess who's waiting for us outside?

SSHHHHHHHHH! Now that we're ready to leave, of course the rain has returned.

We reach Colva and then from there to Benaulim where we wait for our friend to visit us in his Honda City. We're standing there at the town centre.
Jenny is laughing like a little schoolgirl, everytime she she sees me all bundled up in my US army raincoat. She keeps imagining what this guy will think of 2 tramps who have come to see his property and bursts into peals of laughter.

Of course she is a fine one to laugh, standing there in dark glasses with rainwater on them and that stupid US army raincoat with streaks of Mascara running down her face like some war paint.


To be continued...

[ASHISHPALLOD]

that's it sam.
theyeti and theone are back on screen.

[kingshan]

Great going Sam, I can't take my eyes off your posts, really good one, for few seconds I was out of engines, ICE, owership reviews etc etc.. and started off mentally travelling into Goa, cool buddy, you have revived our travel senses and am yearning to travel again, it's been a while now, I have been there and we just enjoyed each and every place of Goa tasting those fennys where ever we can LOL, Continue your saga dude..

[Sam Kapasi]

Soon we're following a Honda City to the place. We spend an hour checking out a current construction and a future construction.
Varca is beautiful, quiet and agricultural. A far cry from the usual bustle around North Goa. We take a look at the area and a little beach resort at Varca. Here are pictures of the beach.







In about an hour, it is time to get back home.

The rain is merciless. The raincoats have failed us and we're harbouring water inside the stupid US army clothes. Everytime I stand a little there is a cold waterstream that runs down my pants.
We make our way back to margao and now I realise that all is not well on the backseat.

Both my backseat (which is quite numb) and the scooters backseat. Jenny is shivering, a bit ill and very wet and cold. I make some jokes about how a European came to India and got a cold but she's not laughing. I realise that she may be crying.
I keep going.

2 hours away from Margao we are stuck in a terrible traffic jam. There have been some accidents and there is red mud everywhere. The traffic is waiting for a towtruck to pull out the affected cars.

SSHHHHH!!

I do my best to cheer up TheOne®, but by now she is almost inconsolable. We have spent over 6 hours on this silly scooter and are no longer amused by our raincoats.
I weave my way through the traffic and somehow make it to Margao.

We still have a long ride home to Panjim and from there to the Calangute-Candolim road. I stop at a gas station on the Panjim Porvorim road and by now the rain is turning into a very windy storm. The wind is very strong and we are being buffeted around. I can barely see.
Jenny is very upset, cold and scared and reminds me of how very dangerous this whole thing is and how she cannot believe we have no leather gear or helmets on and I listen. I too realise that this whole thing has been quite a misadventure and decide to get it over with and get home as soon as possible.

After what seems like an eternity, we are home. Wet clothes off, hot showers and we retire early.

By late evening, even though the rain has stopped, neither of us has the desire to get his backside onto that scooter. I don't think I could tolerate another drop of water this evening.

Too pooped to even step out that evening, I cook a simple pasta meal.

On my way home I have bought the supplies I need for Irish Coffee. We have a couple of extra strong Irish coffees and relax for a while before we retire.

Today was not such a great day. 8 hours on a wet Activa is not anyone's idea of a great time.

I have little or no pictures as I did not dare take my camera out in the rain.

Good Night.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

nice beach, nice weather, no crowd, nice people taking nice photos.

[normally_crazy]

Nice ! So this was the 8 hour ordeal that you spoke about, eh ? But I feel that evening would have been the best one ?

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

But I feel that evening would have been the best one ?

It was actually nice to just sit(ouch!) out on those easy chairs in the garden.
I had made some nice pasta in an arrabiata sauce and we polished it all off.

It was just a nice feeling to know that we had nowhere to go and nothing to do. I plugged the iPod into the dock and played some great music that evening.

[vkochar]

Sam - I fail to understand that why even after encountering rain the first day, did you do that looong and dangerous drive to Varca Beach. it's crazzzy baba !!!

When last there, we rented a Maruti Zen, for 2500 Rupees for 5 days. Own Petrol Of course. Was lovely. Scooters fine for upto 25 kms distance max.

Anyways, lovely travelogue it is. Waiting for the next part

[anonymous]

No comments from The One@ here?

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by anonymous

No comments from The One@ here?

She has been a little busy.
She only just caught up to speed reading the thread and will be posting her comments shortly.

[simply_sunny001]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

the rain is stinging, piercing my eyes like needles so I have chinesed my eyes as far as I can chinese them

it had me in splits

you have a wonderful way of narrating simple things with your trademark pinch of witty humour.

ways to go.

waiting for the next part.

[spadival]

Panjim to Margoa road is crazy. Lots of junctions (and speed humps to prevent people from ramming into each other) along the way. And in places where there are no junctions, the road gets narrower anyway.

BTW, Whats the ball park figure for buying a lil ferienhaus?

[amtak]

Originally Posted by ECM

This sad saga began on 5th June,1994 I am attaching some rare shots of that ship here.In one of the shot one can observe that ship(tanker)has been drifted from the original place,compare it with the coast line of Sam's album.

I was in Goa then and had gone to see the ship on the 2nd day of its arrival at the beach. It was an awesome sight then. You can also see this ship in the song "tanha tanha" from the movie rangeela. Didn't know it is still there!!!!