[ExtremeTorque]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Arun, I was expecting this travelogue to come around. Nice to see it ON so soon. Its always wonderful to see a Goa travelouge and our memories just rush back.

Hope you didnt pay anything extra at Osbourne for lunch and dinner? Its always recommended to have it outside.

btw, was your experience with Osbourne alright?

Great pictures and look forward to more.

Avinash, your tips on Goa helped a lot. Thanks a ton! I payed 800 extra at Osbourne, not their mistake though, i failed notice the fine print while booking through travelguru. The experience has been definitly pleasant at Osborne, though they could do with some room service. But i am not complaining as this was a budget trip and i did not expect more.
I am trying to work on the 700+ photos and 1000+ mails in the office inbox parallely. I will try and have the next segment of the main course ready by late today.

[ExtremeTorque]

On our tours, we like to start and retire early. So woke up to a beutiful Goan sunrise and after a hearty complementary breakfast of alu-paratha's, bread butter toast, we headed to Baga beach to catch the sunrise.

Pool view from Osbourne's inhouse restaurent


The early worms


Though not exactly like sunrise on the Bay of Bengal, the sunrise was pretty beautiful, throwing light on the oncoming fishing boats.

Baga sunrise


Returning from their late night catch


Saw these felines on the baga market stretch




A few minutes of soaking in the sun and we moved on our way to the Chapora fort. The fort is about 10 KM's from Baga and the roads are narrow but beautiful without potholes.

There are ample of such road signs for first timers, not to mention the every helpful Goan locals


There is no proper entrance to the fort and we had to trek upto an opening in the wall.

The trek to Chapora


That was when we caught our first sight of a Peacock. It posed to some beautiful photos before flying off.

The peacock





The fort was rather secluded but was an absolute vantage point to view the Vagator, Ozran and Chapora beaches.

Some resort downhill


Scaling the fort walls


View from the top of the fort



This is how the fort looks from the Vagator beach


After some more peacock sightings, it was time to get onto the Vagator beach to soak in some more sun, sand and surf.

2 more that we sighted




Vagator beach


Vagator covered, we headed to the Anjuna beach. This too was pretty secluded like Vagator but was a very beautiful beach. Spent some time walking along the surf and sand and were on our way to Aguada Fort complex by 11AM.

Anjuna/Ozran beach




It was quite sunny and humid at the Aguada but the monsoon greenery was a sight to watch from this old fort.

The aguada fort complex

[ExtremeTorque]

Some more of the Aguada fort complex.




It was close to lunch time and not finding any good veg-only restaurents, we decided to use our Rs. 800 chuna at the Osbourne hotel. But before lunch there was one last place we decided to check out. It was the Sinquerim beach. Sinquerim beach is again an extension of the Aguada fort. Many film/song sequences, like Bombay, were shot here. It was just like we had seen in the movies, wave after wave lashing against the fort walls.

The sinquerim beach and fort








Spotted this on our way back to Osbourne


After a good meal, it was siesta time. In the evening the obvious choice was Calangute beach due to its proximity to our hotel. We had the rare opportunity of a beautiful sunset and moonrise at Calangute.




Moonrise



Tattoo studios on Calangute market street






Ganesh visarjan at Calangute

[vivekiny2k]

awsome, every mention of goa reminds me of my first trip with my wife there. looks like you enjoyed it well.

off topic, you seem to have a thing for life guards, I have too
from my myrtle beach trip last year.

[ExtremeTorque]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

awsome, every mention of goa reminds me of my first trip with my wife there. looks like you enjoyed it well.
off topic, you seem to have a thing for life guards, I have too
from my myrtle beach trip last year.
Attachment 424885

thats a good one! i noticed that they are on almost every beach and ready for any action.

[jacs]

Hi Extreme,

Seems like you have had each and every piece of GOA. Expecting to see a spend summary at the end of this travelogue .

Nice pictures there.

[ExtremeTorque]

Originally Posted by jacs

Hi Extreme,
Seems like you have had each and every piece of GOA. Expecting to see a spend summary at the end of this travelogue .
Nice pictures there.

Thanks jacs. Only North Goa and parts of Panjim, actually. I will surely share a summary of expences - Goanomics at the end.

[Joy]

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[ExtremeTorque]

Sorry for the delay folks. Was caught up with office work over the weeks.
Here is the final serving.

We missed the saturday night at TITO's and wanting to make up for it, we headed to Brittos. We found brittos to be a very ambient place, with tables adjacent to the sea and some good music and lighting. The veg options are less but tasty. We ordered for grilled vegetables and paneer tikka and they were delicious.

BRITTOs


The spread


The setting


The company


Unlike Titos that stays open late into the night, Brittos closes down by 12. After the starters they served, we didnt really have place for anything else and decided to call it a day. Next day would be the last in Goa and we had plans to visit parts of Panjim, so we call it a day.

[ExtremeTorque]

Being the last day, we started pretty early and hit the beautiful monsoon roads of Goa. It had poured the previous night but luckily stopped in the morning. The road to Panjim is a delight to drive and we went starting to Dona Paula beach/jetty. There is nothing much to write about Dona Paula, except for the Jetski ride.

Beautiful Goan roads


Dona Paula entrace



One can see the Harbour from there




I forgot the key to my bike. Lucky for us, it was still there


The Jetski ride. This was my first time and it was pure adrinalin rush

[2500cc]

Nice Pics and crisp writing mate, liked every pic posted in this TL. After reading this TL, I read all other TLs from you and liked them immensly especially the Gujrat one.

Have you planned your next travel yet ?

Cheers,
Rajesh

[ExtremeTorque]

Originally Posted by 2500cc

Nice Pics and crisp writing mate, liked every pic posted in this TL. After reading this TL, I read all other TLs from you and liked them immensly especially the Gujrat one.
Have you planned your next travel yet ?
Cheers,
Rajesh

Thanks Rajesh. Yes, i have my eyes set on a north tour (Delhi-Shimla-Manali) for December - train booking done. My Gujarat trip for Oct got cancelled - else i had planned to explore all of Saurashtra including the little Rann of Kutch, this time. Between Oct and Nov i have plans to do Pench, Tadoba (tiger mating season and sightings are almost gaurenteed), Pune, Nagpur and a southern leg of both KA (kumaraparavatha, kudremukh, udipi) and TN (ooty, kodai, kanyakumari and Rameshwaram). I know these are too many but I plan to cover atleast 4 of them, 2 in MH for sure and 1 each in KA and TN.

[ExtremeTorque]

Next was time to move on to Mira Mar. This is an absolutely flat beach and very beautiful. My only advice when one is traveling along these beaches, is carry loads and loads of sunscreen. We realized in a hard way that we were not getting Tanned, but sun-burnt.

The Mira mar beach






After spending half hour, we wanted to catch the river cruise before lunch time but were disappointed to find that the river cruise's start only in the evening. I heard a lot about the river cruise and from the look of it, it looked like fun.

Here are a few photo's along the roads of Panjim and the river cruise area


This is the closes i ever got to a Casino. Didnt know it was legal



The public ferry to Vasco and other ports along the Goan coast line


Last time i was in Goa, i was told this belonged to Vijay Mallya but not sure

zoomed in @ 20x


We reached back hotel and with an hour to kill before lunch, i decided to take the plunge - literally.



Lunch, was at Anand Sagar and must say was the best dining experience in Goa. Taste, VFM and Clean place. Highly recommend for veggies around Calangute area




Before hitting the bed and leaving for Home, next day, we wanted to visit the Calangute and Baga one last time

Tattoo time for me



If one wants to get a temp tattoo, i dont recommend the beach walas and head for a Tattoo shop in the calangute market area. They charge 50 bucks extra but are quite skillful

One last trip to Baga


This is another good veg restaurent we found on the Baga market area


Bye bye Goa


Authorities(?) confiscating 'spirits' at Hubli rly station (I will upload the video, later in the day) - Luckily i was not carrying any


The End

Goanomics, tomorrow.

[AdityaLN]

ExtremeTorque,

Quite a few veg restaurants in Baga/Calangute area. Amazingly I managed to miss all of them when I was there and was under the impression not many places for veggies in that area.

Btb, I would say, you didn't miss much by not catching the river cruise. Even we had heard a lot about the cruise and my cousin literally dragged us to one. Then one trip on the Coral Queen (one of the boats) had us wondering if we got it all wrong and if our perspective of fun different. We had a lot of drunk middle aged men (at least they were decent) dancing with their beer bottles and belly. Oh yeh, they were having fun!! We look around and we see a couple of other boats around and the scene was no different.

[SafeDrive]

Wow, you really covered almost all of Goa in this short vacation. I've been to Goa n times but there are still places that I've not seen. Once on vacation, I'm just too lazy to go around - stick to a beach, enjoy the food and the sun and the drink. You'd have to get a back hoe to move me from there