27th January 2011, 13:36
| #31 |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: new mumbai
Posts: 99
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27th January 2011, 14:49
| #32 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 3,711
Thanked: 1,924 Times
| Re: An incredible road trip to the “Pearl of the Orient” – Goa Looking forward to more.As much as beautiful as Goa,is the drive to reach Goa via the various roads.All the roads are spectacular-NH17,Gganbawda,Radhanagari-Phonda Ghat,NH4A Londa-Ponda,NH63 Ankola-Karwar,Tillari Ghat.Not a single boring route  Lovely TL |
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27th January 2011, 16:35
| #33 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dombivili
Posts: 32
Thanked: 4 Times
| Re: An incredible road trip to the “Pearl of the Orient” – Goa What timing Chevy Lover!! I am in luck.. We are planning a road trip to Goa from Dombivili in my Chevy.. though it is a little one (Spark). This would be in March 2nd week.I am all hooked to your thread, the route you took looks amazing. The images are great. I will bother you for help when I start planning (like you, I love to plan ahead). Cheers! Kalesh |
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27th January 2011, 20:38
| #34 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Chennai
Posts: 378
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27th January 2011, 23:18
| #35 | |||
| Senior - BHPian  | Re: An incredible road trip to the “Pearl of the Orient” – Goa Quote:
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@ Ranjit, thank you for the appreciation. Whichever route you take to Goa, you will be awestruck by the beauty of nature! Last edited by Chevy_lover : 27th January 2011 at 23:23. | |||
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28th January 2011, 02:09
| #36 |
| Senior - BHPian | A meeting with the roaring giant!!! We soon reached the base of Gagan Bawda ghat. The road condition deteriorated greatly at the base and work was going on to rectify the situation.    The road towards Kankavli was made through dense forest and there was greenery all around us. We enjoyed the drive tremendously. We relaxed a bit, as the ghat area was over.       Soon we were stopped by two dirty cops at the MH check post. They were out to make some quick money and insisted on examining my license and all other documents. Then came their ‘request’! One cop, after writing down my details, smiled at me flashing his tobacco stained teeth and asked me to give them a ‘donation’. I did not give them a single penny and just drove away! By 11 am, we reached the railway crossing, before Kankavli. There was a long line of vehicles waiting to cross the railway line. I parked my Chevy on the road, left the engine running, with AC on and quickly made my way to the railway line and waited patiently for the behemoth to appear.  Then I suddenly saw the roaring giant hurtling towards me at more than 100 km/hr. He was so majestic!!       My heart was beating so fast when I saw the train so close to me. I started clicking. The giant was near me in seconds and his roar sent shivers down my spine!!!     He passed by me so fast that I felt him pulling me towards him. I leaned on the railway gate and clicked the giant hurtling past me at breakneck speed!!! He was awesome!!!        |
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28th January 2011, 10:22
| #37 |
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28th January 2011, 14:53
| #38 | |
| Senior - BHPian | Re: An incredible road trip to the ˇ°Pearl of the Orientˇ± ¨C Goa Quote:
This was the first time I faced a speeding train. God! It was the second most scary situation I have been in, in a long time. The first is when I lay down on the ground to take photos of suicide point in Kodai. There was NOTHING in between the sheer drop and I! Coming up, pics of the most beautiful beach I have seen! And of course, lots and lots of fish! | |
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28th January 2011, 16:43
| #39 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 6,552
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28th January 2011, 18:42
| #40 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 68
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29th January 2011, 20:46
| #41 | ||
| Senior - BHPian | Re: An incredible road trip to the “Pearl of the Orient” – Goa Quote:
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29th January 2011, 21:02
| #42 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pune
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29th January 2011, 22:26
| #43 | |
| BHPian  Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 744
Thanked: 827 Times
| Re: The drive continues… Quote:
Lovely travelogue Chevy Lover. I always planned to take this road trip to Goa during my stay in Pune, but never got the chance. I can see that I did miss something special. | |
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30th January 2011, 01:10
| #44 |
| Senior - BHPian | Drive to our destination... The roaring giant left me gasping for breath! He went past me so fast that I had barely ten seconds to capture him for an eternity in my camera! I quickly ran back to my car and joined the long line of vehicles waiting to pass the railway gate. We continued our drive through the beautiful highway.    By 11.50 am, we turned right to Malvan from NH. We wanted to spend a day in Tarkarli, if possible. I wanted to see the place first before deciding on stay options. Our Odo read 98,508 kms. We had covered 377 kilometres from Pune! Malvan was still 37 odd kilometres away. We continued our drive on the narrow SH118. The road condition was OK with some rough patches in between.   We finally reached Malvan town by 12.45 pm. Our Odo read 98,441 kms. We circled the city approximately five times searching for a restaurant, mainly due to the fact that most of the roads in Malvan were made one-way and once we missed a particular restaurant, we had to circle the city and then drive back. We finally stopped by a roadside restaurant and had tasty Fish Thali for lunch. They had King Fish, Calamari, Prawns and Pomfret on the menu. The price was very reasonable and we absolutely gorged on the delicacies. Their King Fish Masala fry was superb!!! After our lunch, we slowly drove towards Tarkarli beach. The route was very confusing without ANY signboards and we finally ended up in Devbagh beach. The sea and the beach were very beautiful. We slowly made our way back towards Tarkarli and drove alongside the Tarkarli River and reached the MTDC resort. As always, it was sold-out and we enquired at different resorts which dotted the Tarkarli beach side. We did not like the rooms on offer and even after enquiring at more than 20 odd small resorts, which were actually extensions of local residences, we were unhappy!!! We got a big shock when we enquired at a resort facing the Tarkarli River. Know what tariff was quoted to us for a non-ac room?? Rs. 2000 only!!! I wanted to give that owner a piece of my mind, but I knew it was futile! We quickly abandoned our plan of staying in Tarkarli and decided to drive on towards Goa! There was no point in spending 2K on a shack-like room in a small town like Tarkarli. We turned Chevy around and drove towards Malvan. Our Odo read 98,562 km and the time was half past three. I speeded along SH 118 and reached NH 17 soon. We did not stop anywhere and drove at optimum speeds. We soon reached Sawantwadi and drove through the town. Traffic increased suddenly about tenfold after we passed the town. The drive through the Sawantwadi ghats was quite tedious. There was heavy truck traffic and there was no way we could overtake for approximately 30 kilometres. We entered Goa by 5.30 pm and sped on towards our beach destination. We soon reached Panjim and sped on towards Margao. We were really tired after our misadventure in Tarkarli and did not feel like stopping anywhere. All we wanted to do was to reach our destination, check into a resort and stretch our tired legs. The roads in Goa were very good and I could maintain speeds of 70 kmph most of the time. All I had to do was slow down before every junction and drive over the bumps smoothly. We reached Margao by 7.15 pm. I thought of filling up diesel before embarking on the final leg of our journey. We stopped at an HP pump in Rua Padre Miranda Road. Our Chevy’s Odo read 98,743 kms. We had covered 612 kilometres from Pune. The last 281 kilometres from Tarkarli to Goa were covered in 4 hours of continuous, high speed driving and I managed an average speed of 70 kmph. Chevy drank a total of 42.98 litres @ Rs. 41.34 per litre. We had driven a total of 612 kms. Chevy gave me an amazing mileage of 14.2 kmpl. It was excellent considering the fact that we drove through two ghats at 20 kmph, idled for over 15 minutes at the railway crossing and drove through Tarkarli and Malvan at 10 kmph. I was very pleased by Chevy’s performance. We took a short break at the pump and freshened up and gave rest to my tired eyes. I was quite irritated by the continuous barrage of high beams from oncoming vehicles. I washed Chevy’s wind shield and the mirrors and got ready to drive to unknown territory. We started our journey by 8.10 pm. The rest of the drive was through deserted winding ghat road. There were some private cars and taxis keeping us company. The road was made through dense forest and it was the highway to Karwar! Yes, our dream holiday was going to happen in Palolem, in Canacona. We were excited, but drove carefully. The road was two-laned and I had to be extremely vigilant while overtaking. Trucks were being driven recklessly and I had to use my second set of projectors most of the time. Some Volvos and other buses were being driven with eight headlights and all of them were on high beam! It was one hell of a drive and we finally reached Canacona by 9 pm. We stopped at the junction and asked a police patrol party for route guidance and finally reached Palolem Beach by 9.15 pm. Our Chevy’s Odo read 98,782 kms. I’d needed one hour to cover 39 kilometres. We slowly drove towards the beach and then to Palolem Beach Resort, which was precisely on the beach.  We checked in soon into an AC cottage. The room was good and the AC was excellent.  We parked our Chevy baby at the resort’s private parking, which was behind the resort. We freshened up quickly and ran to a nearby restaurant and had a sumptuous meal consisting of fish and chips and calamari and prawns golden fried. The food was excellent! Palolem was very cool at night and the temperature was just about 10 - 12 degree C. We enjoyed the weather immensely and felt that we were still in Pune because of the chill in the air! We returned back to our room by 11.30 pm after finishing off some Cornettos too. We freshened up and retired for the night before long, as we were awfully exhausted after spending a long and eventful day on the road. |
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30th January 2011, 01:52
| #45 |
| Senior - BHPian | Day 2 - The Magnificent Palolem Beach…. Day 2 - The Magnificent Palolem Beach…. We had an absolutely peaceful sleep on the 7th night and managed to wake up only by 1pm on day 2 of our vacation. All our weariness from hours of driving was gone with the wind, after a serene slumber. Question: What happens when two foodies sleep for 13 hours straight and wake up late??? Answer? The foodies wake up totally ravenous!!! That’s exactly what happened to us. We got ready in a record time of 20 minutes flat and ran to Palolem town. We quickly got inside a restaurant and had a fantastic Goan lunch replete with lots of golden fried prawns, rice and fish vindaloo. Our appetite was satiated after a course of drinks and we were totally invigorated and were ready for action. We quickly made our way to the beach. We were totally enthralled by the view! This was probably the best beach I have seen in a long long time!!! The exquisiteness of the beach and the surrounding hills took our breath away! Let’s go for a walk on the Palolem beach! Come along guys ‘n’ gals! Is everyone wearing sunglasses? Ok? So let’s go…. Fishermen returning to Palolem  The magnificent beach  Fishermen  Tourists returning after the Dolphin tour.   Tourists on the beach   Lifeguards on duty! Gosh! Where is Pamela???   Lifeguards’ cabin and Palolem Resort on the left  A shop and a shack  The golden beach   Tourists disembarking from a boat after a Dolphin tour!  Dropadi restaurant. One of the most popular ones…  Shop and Shack     What a superb menu…  Restaurant on the beach…   The most beautiful sunset I ever witnessed!!!   Fishing boats on the beach  |
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