Contd...
We had a good night's sleep and woke up only by 8ish the next morning. By the time we got ready and went down to have breakfast, it was 9 30 and after packing up everything, got into the car at 10 30. I always like to drive my car as if it is a flight and im the pilot. I love the airline industry and everytime i reverse, i actually say to myself "push back", then i slowly nudge the car forward from the parking lot to say my building entrance or in this case the hotel entrance where my wife and kid were waiting to board. I also use a couple of minutes to check mirror settings (if they have been changed), adjust to a good sitting position, switch on the music before hand and adjust the volume. I also speak to myself and announce the destination and ETA (as if i was announcing to the passengers). All this is pre-take off checks you see.
.dunno if there are others who share some amount of this craziness. If not, kindly ignore.
The tripmeter read 135 kms and the time was 10:32 AM. Off we set on the NH4. Had the typical crazy city traffic using the bypass so had to be careful. My wife asked me what time we would reach and I told her that it would be evening by the time we touched Goa. That was enough to upset her for a little while as she felt we were just wasting days. I told her to relax and take it easy. Son returned back to his 'bedroom' and watched the cartoon cd while wife opened a novel. I love this part. No one to bother me while i enjoy my drive. Then the long tunnel came. Told my son about it and we all screamed while passing through the tunnel.
The weather turned surprisingly sunny and bright and that cheered us all up.
Toll gates passed and it was a usual drive overtaking from the left as well as the right. There are morons who drive at 60kmph on the rightmost lane and refuse to give way despite repeated honking and use of lights. What do you do in such cases? Well, one such dude was in a brand new VW Polo and when i overtook him from the left after trying to persuade him to give way, seems his ego got hurt. He started pursuing me matching my speed. Now I'm not the kinds to get into needless crazy tactics but a little fun helps you to focus and also maintain speeds else it can be a bore at times.
At the next toll gate, as luck would have it, my lane moved the slowest while the polo in another lane went ahead. He must have got a lead of atleast 4 minutes and he disappeared out of sight. I decided to find out how far he had gone and some road sections by their sheer design (going up and down) helped me look far ahead. He was atleast a kilometer away and as luck would have it, the heavy trailer in front of him decided to take a right turn. Being a trailer, he went into the left lane to make enough clearance to turn right and that stopped the polo on the right most lane till the entire trailer turned. In the meanwhile i caught up and kept to the left lane trailing the truck so managed to go past him and his continuous honking at the trucker showed his angst/frustration. Yeaaaaaa...little joy and shared it with wife.."hmmm ..be careful" was the response.
13:25 hrs..trip meter reading - 375 - spotted the Macdonald's sign and pulled over to the left off the highway, crossed again to get us all a meal. We all ate in the car and must have spent about 40 minutes in that halt. Drove along slowly and stopped atan HP fuel pump wondering where the konduskar that HVK always talks about was. After getting the bill, I realised that I had indeed stopped at konduskar. Talk about ironies in life! Time - 14:35
Drove on and cruised till Nippani. This patch again after kolhapur has a very nice up and down patch of highway which gives you views of the road ahead. Reached Nippani and called up a friend to ask instructions for the right turn. He asked me to keep driving till I went up a hill and then to take a right from the break in the divider. Easy ! Took the right turn and into the road leading upto Amboli/Savantwadi. 15:00 hrs - Trip meter reading - 420
For the next 20 minutes, I was a bit wary as the road was desolate, narrow, bad patches and we hardly seemed to be doign more than 40kmph. On roads like this, I usually like it if I'm following another car/bus etc so I feel safe largely because it was the first time I was on this route. After a while, crossed Uttur and picked up speed, crossed Ajra and then took a smoke/loo break. Could hear the chirping of birds and was really nice. The weather turned cloudy again and it started raining. i wanted to reach Goa before it got dark.
By 16:30 hrs, we crossed Vithal Kamat's and stopped near the ghats to have a chai and take some pictures. It was just amazing hearing the waterfalls. Lots of people were getting wet and enjoying themselves. Went ahead slowly and saw the earthmovers and workers still clearing the debris from the landslide. Rolled down the windows all the way to the foot of the ghats and it was one beautiful drive, those 20 minutes or so.
Reached Savantwadi junction at exactly 17:00 hrs and took a left and was unsure so asked a couple of people for the route to Goa and they all said we had to go straight. I couldn't believe that the national highway narrowed so much and passed through some little towns. Again the first 15 minutes were horrbile but then the highway was good to cruise at 90/100. Called my friend again and he told me to watch out for the Mapusa junction and take the right turn after that to reach Baga/Calungute. Got on a bridge and overtook a slowmoving car and after the bridge got stopped by the traffic cops. Welcome to Goa. I asked the guy what the problem was and he asked me to follow him to his saheb's car. Broken Marathi again but hey! this one was a first...a young Catholic cop asks "sir, where you going?". Me "Goa". He points to a speedlimit sign on the bridge and says "sir you were overspeeding and overtaking also". I gave him a story about my kid feeling claustraphobic and wanting to reach Goa fast. He asks "you got a kid sir? he's not feeling well? then you go sir. just pay me 200.". I told him that is too much but he won't bargain. I told him that I would pay the constable who was standing with me. He says okay. I walk back to my car and give the constable 100 bucks adding "sahebani sanigtle shambar dyayche" and drove away - The Great Indian Bribery Trick
Reached the junction after Mapusa and asked an uncle on a scooter the way to Calungute. He smiled, appeared half sozzled and said "go straight men ..its all there only". Drove on for another 15 minutes and entered Calungute. Crossed all the hotels I had researched (Neelams the Grand/Lemon Tree etc) and was glad i didn't book any as none of them were on the beach. Drove on till we reached the beach and spotted a Calungute Residency. Only doubt in mind was the quality of the place since it was government owned (GTDC). Walked in alone, asked to see the cottage room and was floored. It was this massive room and very clean and had a balcony. But wise men always seek their wife's opinion since they don;t want to be blamed for unforeseen eventualities so asked wife and kid to get out of the car, lock it and walk up to check the room. She liked it !! Phew!
Next step - got the baggage out with the help of the attendants and went to negotiate the room rate. 2500 is what the receptionist quoted. I was tempted to take it instantly but asked for a discount He said I'd have to talk to the Asst Manager. The Asst Manager was a chap who looked completely bored with life and was sitting doing nothing. I went into his cabin and asked him if he was the Manager. "No", he said very offended. "Im the assistant manager.". Oops! any chance I had of getting a discount lost instantly. Nevertheless I pushed my luck. "Vijay Iyer from Air India. 2 months back, my Vice President, Mr Kothari stayed here and was very impressive with your services. He asked me to speak to you and get a good deal for myself. After all one govt employee has to help the other Sir". Silence..."Domnic" the Asst Manager shouted and then spoke in Konkani to the effect of reducing 200 odd rupees for me. Total room rate now 2265/-. Check in.