5th July 2010, 08:54
| #16 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bangalore
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5th July 2010, 23:27
| #17 |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bangalore
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| PART TWO - Goa 18th Jun evening to 21st June After filling fuel in the Scorpio, we went through Madgaon and on to our stay, the RGBC at Benaulim. RGBC gives us apartments with a kitchen (or kitchenette?). Now, please don't think we cook all our meals while on holiday! Except breakfast, all our meals are had at shacks or restaurants. Breakfast is very important for us, so breakfast is made by us. One of the reasons is that my wife is a diabetic. For me, maximum apetitite is early morning. We reached our stay and completed the formalities. We waited for my wife's colleague to call us after he checked into his hotel and we all went to Benaulim beach for an early dinner. We chose a regular shack, Johncys, which we know well, as we thought we'd go to bed early. It was raining lightly, so we had to sit inside. Had a quick and reasonably good meal. Thanks to the comfort of the Scorpio, I wasn't tired at all and didn't sleep for a long time. End of day one that had started at 6.30 am when we left our home in Bangalore. Next morning I wake up early and open the window and I am greeted by a most pleasant sight outside our window. Pic 61  Pic 62  Shortly afterwards it began to rain. It is the monsoon season after all! Pic 63  We had to pick up our friends, Mr and Mrs Scorpio :-), from the airport at 1305 so we left Benaulim at 1145 to be at Dabolim by 1305. And here I committed a silly blunder. I'm familiar with the roads around Benaulim, but by carelessness took the road to Madgaon centre instead of the road to Panjim road. Took me 30 minutes to make the circle and come back to where I should have been in the first place! Still, all was well and reached the airport before 1 pm. We picked up our friends and decided that we would find a new place to eat around the airport. We've not been around this area earlier. We called up a friend in Bangalore, a former Navy Sea Harrier pilot who was posted in Goa, and asked him to suggest a place near the airport. He suggested a shack, Joet's, on Bogmalao beach. This is very near the Navy base, and apparently is a favourite with Navy officers. Joet's is tucked away in one corner of Bogmalo beach. It's a nice place, friendly and clean. When we reached, there was a group of Navy officers with their wives/girlfriends. As our friend had said, it seems to be a popular place for Navy officers. It was not raining then, but apparently it was a rough sea for I saw red flags on the beach. While we were there, I watched the owner of Joet's pull in his nets which they must have cast sometime earlier. But all they got after 10 minutes of work (it was a very large net and required 5 men to haul it in) was a single fish. Monsoon is not a good time for fish. Pic Bogmalo 69 Here the men at the water's edge are testing the net. To bring it in, 5 men were needed.  Red flags on the beach. I think the building on the hill is the Naval Aviation Museum or a part of it. Pic Bogmalo 75  From where I was sitting, I saw something strange at the bar, and walked up to the bar to have a closer look. Can you spot the unusual object in this picture? (Not the squashed football - that is the distortion of my lens!) This is what I saw: Pic Joet's bar 78  Okay, here's the unusual object: Pics Joet's clock 79  An anti-clockwise clock, neat, huh? First time I'm seeing this. My rating of Joet's - Good food and good service, with obliging waiters and chef. Reasonable prices. Quiet place, with good family ambience. Recommended. It's near the Naval Aviation Musuem, so that's another bonus. I intend visiting the musuem in our next trip. After a leisurely lunch that takes up all afternoon we head back to Benaulim. Evening, the ladies and my friend go for a walk and return after an hour. Lazy bones (yours truly) stays at home. I try my hand at indoor photography and take a couple of shots of our apartment. Pic apartment 82  Pic apartment 83  Saturday evening, rain is pouring down. What do Goans in Benaulim do? we asked the reception clerk. They go to Fiplee's, he replied promptly! He recommends Fiplees and we go there. We're glad Fiplees is just in Benaulim and hardly 10 minutes away. Fiplee's is the local attraction and boasts a live band. Not sure on which days, though. When we reached, we recalled we had come here before but there was no band on that occasion, so perhaps it's only on Saturdays. We were early and got a table near the rear as sometimes live bands can be over loud. The place filled up rapidly, mostly locals with families. Very pleasant family atmosphere. By 10 pm the place was packed. The band turned out to be excellent, and not loud at all. They started with jazz and I was really impressed by the lead guitarist. His riffs were superb. After an hour they switched to vocals and played a string of golden hits from the 70' s, and 80's. All of us enjoyed the music and the ambience. Again reasonably good food priced reasonably, and good service. There are enough waiters to cater for a full house. Bear in mind this is monsoon so sea food is not available in full variety. Hence food choice anywhere will be a bit restricted. Day 2: 20th June Next morning, my energetic wife goes for her usual walk on the beach. As always, we make our own breakfast and then set out for lunch. Sunday's lunch venue was planned in Bangalore itself. We were going to The Fisherman's Wharf on a river near Cavellosim. This is our first visit to this place. On the way, my wife says that the lunch is on me and like a fool I say "yes" without thinking. Big trouble in store for me! It turns out to be quite a classy place. The restaurant is built on the river bank. Beside the main restaurant there is a long wooden promenade which is built over the water itself. One view of the river with boats moored. Pic river 91  Another pic of the river Pic 95  A view of the restaurant inside Pic 98  A view of the promenade/verandah. It's very attractive and it's nice to sit with the river lapping just below us. Pic 101  My wife's friend and I were engrossed in the menu. We both are confirmed non-vegetarians and in Goa we try out all the sea food possible. We ordered few dishes of prawn, fish and squid. The other two meanwhile placed the wine order. The wine was brought in the cooler and it was truly excellent. Jacob's Creek, I believe; a fine Australian wine. I had forgotten that I was paying for this lunch so it never occured to me to enquire the cost while savouring it! Must be expensive, I casually said to my wife and she, with a cheeky grin said, yes, and you're paying! Now she told me the cost and the fine wine turned to vinegar in my mouth! The three of them nearly choked laughing at the look on my face! After a good laugh they said, okay we've got our money's worth by the look on your face so we'll split this bill. Whew, thank God! Excellent food, and priced suitable to its general elegance and high standards. Look at the dazzling white tablecloths in the above photos, and you'll understand what I mean. Certainly worth a trip down to Cavellosim, recommended. BTW, if it's a weekend, safer to reserve a table. It was packed within 1 hour of our reaching there. Another leisurely late lunch and in the early evening the ladies as usual went for their walk on the beach. After the heavy and late lunch, we were too full to do justice to another meal in the evening, so we just drove down to Benaulim beach and sat at Joncys, our usual standby place at Benaulim. No rain, it was a pleasant balmy evening, so we had a table set on the beach. We didn't eat much just relaxed. Next day Monday we had a long drive planned as my friend is an incorrigible businessman and as usual he had set up a business meeting in Panjim for 11am. My wife also had a program - her cousin bought and renovated a village house near Colvale which is really way North Goa, and my wife wanted to see this house. So the plan was Panjim, then Colvale, and lunch somewhere in North Goa. So we dropped our friend at Panjim and went on to Colvale which is really a long way. I didn't mind as I was enjoying the Scorpio on the highway. Returning from Colvale, we stopped at O"Coqueiro's (hope I got that spelling right). This is just at the "Y" junction of Calangute Road / Mapusa Road (NH). Reportedly this is the restaurant where Charles Sobhraj was caught by the police. Regardless of that claim to fame, one can visit this place for the food which is again excellent. My friend got a drop to the restaurant by his associate and we sat for lunch together. Pic O'Coqueiro's 124 Sorry about the picture quality, it was very sunny and I didn't get the contrast under control.  We had various Goan fare, sea food of course. (I have to mention here, my wife prefers veg, so she usually sticks to Italian or salads, things like that). Today she decided to be adventurous and ordered a Goan chicken delicacy but didn't like it. My carnivorous friend and I ordered squid and prawn and fish, Prawn and fish Goan style, the squid in the chef's own recipe. All were good. I didn't like the rice - maybe because I'm a Southie and like the rice to be soft; this was kind of undercooked. Rest was all good. The chef there has quite a reputation. Recommended. Now we should have gone back to Panjim, but earlier at Colvale the Scorpio had developed a problem as a result of which the doors would not lock. My friend called up Mahindras and as it turned out, their service centre was just a few kms away from the restaurant. So we went ahead there first and later on to Panjim. I will relate the Scorpio's problem in another thread. On the way to Panjim market, I saw this sight on the river Pic127  Ordinary Indians travel by auto, rich Indians travel by yatch! Gorgeous yatch..more on that later. At Panjim, we did our mandatory tourist stuff. First, buy fresh prawns. Yes, you heard right! Being deprived of fresh sea food in Bangalore, my friend loves to have at least one dinner at our apartment just with freshly bought and cooked prawns. So we usually leave this ritual to the last evening. She's a good cook (and a very successful restaurateur in Bangalore). We went to the Municipal Market in Panjim and there was very little available. But we did get prawns although they were frightfully expensive. The lady shells the prawns Pic130  Next stop for Kaju. My wife has a strange fascination for cashew and every trip we end up going to Panjim to buy cashews! She will buy these only from her favourite shop. This is the variety of items in the shop Pic 132  Some of the cashews (the prawns were cheaper!) Pic 133  Didn't see this at once but really caught my eye, multi-coloured cashews. pic134  I think if I eat one of each colour, I'll have to dial "Rent-a-Commode"! And look at the price! Finally we're finished with buying prawns and cashews and we head back to Benaulim. I tell my friend to slow down near the yatch as I want to get a better look at it. Those who live in port cities may wonder at my fascination, but coming from a land-locked city, a yatch is something worth seeing for us (or, at least for me). This one is really sleek. Pic 139  Back home and it's a quiet evening. We have our drinks and a light dinner. Discuss tomorrow's route and schedules. Will fill up the last part, our return, in a day or two. This is taking longer than expected. This is my first travelogue and I really didn't realise the time it takes. Now I appreciate even more the extensive travelogues put up by TBhp members! Hope you liked this, our view of Goa. To be continued.... |
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6th July 2010, 18:02
| #18 | |
| Senior - BHPian  | Quote:
regards | |
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6th July 2010, 18:40
| #19 |
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6th July 2010, 19:51
| #20 | |||
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 222
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Since you are from Goa can you help me out - I didn't enquire the name of the river at Cavellosim (where The Fisferman's Wharf is located), which river is it? Regards, Quote:
 In fact, I believe that the largest one there was our own VJM's yatch.Quote:
And that isn't good enough, you can get dal roti almost everywhere, may not be authentic Punjabi, but certainly good enough to keep one happy. There is a very renowned Punjabi restaurant in Panjim: Sher-E-Punjab, where one can have a very good veg Punjabi meal. Getting veg food is not really a problem. For people like me (and my friend) we love sea food and because it's fresh we enjoy that in Goa. We also like to try the Goan masalas. I don't recall seeing any Goan veg dishes although I'm sure there must be some. Cheers! | |||
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6th July 2010, 20:53
| #21 | |
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
If anyone needs decent Maps of some tourist places in Goa Goa Overview map MAP OF GOA regards | |
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6th July 2010, 21:05
| #22 |
| Distinguished - BHPian   Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore
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| Nice trip Damu. Loved the pics of the scorp here along with the rain soaked asphalt  .By the way, those Yellow and blue cans you are referring are not Engine oils but Coconut Oil and they put up such stalls all the way from Tumkur Bypass exit till Hiriyur. Even I was wondering what they were until I stopped over once and enquired. |
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6th July 2010, 22:08
| #23 |
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6th July 2010, 22:22
| #24 |
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6th July 2010, 22:33
| #25 |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Pune
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7th July 2010, 12:27
| #26 |
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7th July 2010, 19:04
| #27 | ||||||
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bangalore
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Next visit I will ask you to recommend restaurants in the North. Regards, Quote:
So those cans are coconut oil? I was totally off the mark there, thanks for the clarification. Regards Quote:
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Regards Quote:
I've posted most of the good pics! But I have the last part to write, our return, and that has a few snaps. Regards Quote:
Regards | ||||||
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8th July 2010, 19:28
| #28 |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bangalore
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| PART 3, the last part- Return journey We are to return on 22nd. Our route and departure time will be based on when our friends need to reach home in Bangalore. (We don't mind reaching at any time). I'm the route navigator. I offer them two choices: (1) If they want to reach home early, then we leave early, and after Tumkur take the Dobbspet bye pass to Doddaballapur. Option (2) Leave later and have dinner at Dobbspet Kamats. Then we can enter Nelamangala after 10 pm when traffic is less. Result of discussion: We're on holiday and have the time; no one wants to get up and start early, so Option (2) is chosen. We plan to leave at 9.30 am, but it is 10.20 am when we leave our stay. The Scorpio is in the hands of its proud owner. My friend says he'll drive till dark because he has a real problem - he cannot drive at night, the blazing headlights give him severe migraine. So he's at the wheel and I am now in the rear seat. At 11.20 we are at Karwar, and the ladies want to have breakfast again! So stop at the Udipi restaurant and they have dosas. I have coffee only because I've had a very good breakfast. Big mistake, because now they've eaten well they're not hungry and so won't stop for lunch! But I'm going to get very hungry. My friend is more clever than I, he has idlis. At the ghats, now as a passenger I enjoy the ghats better. But today the weather is dry and the forests are not wet as a few days ago. I can't take any pics because there's quite a bit of shake in the rear seat (actually, it's the centre row). I fall asleep couple of times. Pic 144 The only pitstop in the ghats.  I tell the ladies we are to stop at Yellapur for lunch but come Yellapur they aren't hungry. Naturally, after stuffing themselves with a second breakfast at 11.30, grrr! So we continue and my poor tummy starts grumbling. At Hubli we turn on to the NH4, and start looking for a place to eat. By now I'm starving. After a few false hopes, including a Reliance A1 that is closed, and some not-so-clean places, finally I spot a dhaba, and it looks authentic. It's called "Khalsa Punjabi Dhaba" so I figure it's authentic. This is real asli Punjabi, the owner is a Sardar. Haven't eaten at an authentic Punjabi dhaba for ages. Bit dirty on the floor but the food is good and clean and fresh. The ladies order rotis and dhal. But, a hungry man is an angry man and I want revenge for being made to wait for so long so I order a butter chicken! Mistake again - "a" butter chicken means a full plate, it's a huge quantity! Even with four us sharing, almost half is still left. Thoroughly enjoy butter chicken and rotis and dhal. "Khalsa Punjabi Dhaba" is about 14 kms from the toll booth of Hubli. Recommended if you enjoy Punjabi dhaba food. Pic 146a The Kannada board reads "Khalsa Punjabi Dhaba". There is a board in English on the roof which can be seen from the road.  Back on the road and it's now non-stop to Chitradurga. The next sequence of 3 photographs tell a story. From the time stamp on the images, I see this took place 30 minutes after we left the dhaba. We came up behind two vehicles, a Swift and a Tavera, moving erratically, and we wondered why. It appeared the Swift was attempting to overtake the Tavera and that the Tavera was blocking him. I got my camera ready and took some pictures. To give you a better idea of the sequence, and make this more interesting, I've put the actual photo times. Pic 147 22-06-2010 / 16:21:09 Here you see the Swift trying to overtake on the left, but the Tavera also moves left (you can see the Tavera is on the left lane). Note, I started taking these pictures after seeing a round of dance, so this has already been happening.  Pic 148 22-06-2010 / 16:21:21 (12 seconds later..) The Swift couldn't pass, so he's back to the right lane, and Tavera also moves right (you can see the Tavera is now on the right of the white line). What on earth is the Tavera doing?  We have in the meantime caught up with this drama and make our own attempts to pass the Tavera, but we have the same problem - he keeps moving this way and that. The Tavera is all over the road. Obviously this guy is drunk out of his mind, there can be no other explanation. Pic 149 22-06-2010 / 16:21:51 Unlike the Swift, the Scorpio is big enough and tough enough to bully the Tavera, so after a few futile attempts at passing, my friend guns the Scorp, keeps his hand on the horn and we force our way past the Tavera. Even so, you can see that he's left us little margin.  We turn our heads to give the guy a dirty look and guess what? The man is not drunk. He has one hand resting on the wheel, and he's looking down, busy with his mobile (looked like he was reading or typing a message), all the while talking to his co-passenger. As a result, he is wandering all over the road, and he, and his passenger, are totally, absolutely, unaware of the traffic or road. This was not the end of our association with Mr. Mobila; to our misfortune there was a toll gate right ahead and the blighter had the devil's own luck at the toll and got ahead of us again. Imagine our disbelief and chagrin to see him in front of us again! We had one more song and dance sequence with him before busting him for good. And he was still on the mobile, I swear to it. You know, in town I often feel the best car to have is a M800. But in situations like this, bigger is indeed better. But for the Scorpio's size and muscle power, we would have been a bit afraid to get past him. I read a quote which is most appropriate here: "There are two ways to pass a hurdle: leaping over or plowing through... There needs to be a monster truck option." - Jeph Jacques The Scorpio needed a fill, so we were now looking out for a bunk with a toilet. We stopped at a HP bunk that had a large "Toilet" board, but the toilet was in fact closed. My friend meanwhile had filled diesel. I said next time we'll fill only where there is an open and clean toilet. I think that's fair enough - if the owner is willing to spend money to maintain a toilet, then we should reward that bunk by filling fuel there. One hour before Chitradurga, we did find a bunk with a toilet. It was an IndianOil bunk. I didn't note the place, but from the time stamp on the photo, it was about an hour before we reached Chitradurga. Pic 153 IOC Bunk with toilet  Shortly before 7 pm we were at Chitradurga and ladies wanted coffee. We stopped at Naveen Hotel, on the bye pass overbridge (?), and it turned out to be clean and decent. Recommended, although the coffee was far too milky for my taste (I prefer nearly black). Anyway, it has decent toilets, so it's a good place and moreover you can have meals there as well. It's a big hotel and has huge neon signs so you can't miss it. When we were ready to leave it was dark and my friend handed me the Scorpio's keys. From here on till home it will be my baby. He had done a solid 8 hours total. As I noted on the outward journey, the road is very good from here to Tumkur so I could speed up a bit. As soon as I turned on to the highway, I was blinded by oncoming high beams. I found the Scorpio's lights were angled far too low. It has a beam leveller and I used it to adjust the level. I got the setting just right and then I could see the road ahead. I increased speed slowly getting used to the darkness and blazing headlights. Many nights on the Kunigal - Bangalore highway as a passenger with a pedal-to-metal Company driver had taught me the knack of driving against high beams on the highway - thanks to this training and the Scorpio's lights, I was soon at 120 kph and then settled down to 100 - 120 kph. I found the fog lamps helped greatly to light up the near side and kept them on too. But I stayed on dipped lights. Correctly levelled, the Scorpio's lights are powerful enough to light the way. I used the hi beam briefly only when required. Nearing Tumkur, the traffic built up and trucks were in all the lanes, nothing unusual there. It was quite tense while threading my way through. But even so, I was able to maintain between 100 - 120 kph. But my eyes were glued to the road, and I was 110% alert. It's a good road, and by 9.15 pm we were at Kamats at Dobbspet. Chitradurga - Dobbspet had taken just over 2 hours. It had taken us just under 2 hours few days back in the morning. Not bad at all. The others were hungry, but I was not - the afternoon's meal was still heavy. I just had an idli and coffee. We leave at 9.45pm. But we're out of luck. There is heavy traffic right from Dobbspet, mostly trucks. After Nelamangala, because of the elevated road work, we are literally crawling from there on. Once we turn off at Jalahalli it's better but there are traffic build-ups at Sultanpura, Nagawara, and Hennur junctions. It is past 11.30 pm when we near our home. The original plan was that we go to our friend's house and pick up my Ikon which was left for their family use. But now I'm mentally tired and the prospect of unloading and loading luggage twice over again at midnight is not attractive at all, and we get dropped off at our home at NGEF. The same leg we had done in just 1 hour on the outward journey has taken more than 2 hours tonight. Our friends carrry on to their place after dropping us. As usual we enjoyed the drive, except the harrowing last part of our return. Next time I will take the Dobbspet bye pass and go on to Doddaballapur. At least until the elevated road is completed. Another year and another trip to Goa. Little memories of the ghats and Goa will remain and join other equally beautiful memories of our holidays. We will surely do this trip again and again, because we can never tire of either Nature's beauty or the unique atmosphere of Goa. My trip is a humble one compared to the magnificent trips undertaken by so many members here, so I thank you for patiently reading this through and encouraging me. Regards |
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8th July 2010, 19:41
| #29 | |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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There is nothing called a small or big journey or humble or majestic one. Every journey is a special one, for the traveler. who belives in the journey. enjoyed reading your travelogue. thanks for sharing | |
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8th July 2010, 21:33
| #30 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands.
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