[ampere]

The rail shot is amazing! So did you take the route from Vaibhavwadi and Phonda?

[noopster]

Nice travelogue and excellent photos! I can't help but observe the similarities betwe us: both based in Pune, both with anniversaries around Xmas, both roadtrips fans with wives who are great with the camera! In fact we were also in Goa just before Christmas, stayed at a private bungalow near Para on the Anjuna road. Search my travelogue as well!

I have never done the Gagan Bawda route, preferring the Amboli route when I can else doing Belgaum-Londa-Ponda. But these snaps are amazing! I feel bad that the last strtech into Goa was the worst for you, though. Maybe next time you should stop on the Konkan coast somewhere before entering Goa.

Keep posting!

[gajadonga]

The Palolem beach resort is a fantastic place to stay.
Last time in 2009 when I went to Goa my plan was to go to Panaji and stay.
I was driving from the Karwar side into Goa and I missed a turn after Canacona and I reached this place.
We stayed in the tents in this same resort.
The beach and the sunset was fantastic.It is nice to see a big screen on the lawns which was not there when we went last time to this place.
Great pictures.

[Chevy_lover]

@gajadonga, thanks for the appreciation. Palolem Resort is simply superb. The best thing going in its favour is the location.

@Noopster, the similarities are indeed there. There are lots and lots of amazing pics coming up. Stay tuned!

@Ampere, thanks friend. No, we did not take that route.

@Spitfire, Palolem is being devoured by new constructions. You must be feeling very sad seeing its present condition.

[Chevy_lover]

We made our way to the town, away from the beach. We saw a lot of restaurants serving a huge variety of dishes. The first restaurant ‘Spicy Bella’ served almost all veg dishes too!!!



My message to all vegetarians worried about finding good veg. food in Palolem, there is nothing to worry!

Scrooze, this pic is for you!


The next restaurant we saw was ‘Casa Fiesta’. They had a huge menu consisting of almost all types of fish dishes and their specialty was Mexican dishes. They also had a huge variety of Wooden Oven Italian Pizzas.



We finally decided to have our dinner from ‘Smuggler’s Inn’.





It turned out to be an extremely good choice in the end! They had a huge screen and were showing the T20 match between India and South Africa.

There was an extremely cute, well-mannered puppy in the restaurant. He was everybody’s darling and roamed around the restaurant like a King!



The cricket match was won by India to our great relief, after some very anxious moments.





We ordered our dinner, which was Snapper Fry. The fish was very fresh and tasted awesome!



As soon as we started our dinner, the restaurant guys started the Travolta starrer movie, ‘From Paris With Love’! We enjoyed the movie tremendously and our dinner was over in a jiffy!






We were very happy that we could watch a superb action movie along with our dinner!

After our dinner, we decided to walk back to our resort. We were happy to see a musical instrument store en-route. There was a Mandolin, a Ukulele, a Sitar, a Trumpet and lots of Tablas and Drums on display.




The Mandolin was made by Grason. I was reminded of the mint condition Hohner Mandolin and Bass Guitar we have at home. The Ukulele is becoming extinct and I was really happy to see it in Goa.

We walked back to the beach and took a stroll. Most of the restaurants were still full with ravenous tourists!



We returned back to our resort later and retired for the night. We had had an absolutely thrilling day!!!

[Chevy_lover]

Day 3 – A day spent frolicking in the Sea….

We woke up by 5.45 am on day 3 of our incredible vacation. We decided to spend the day enjoying the sea. We did not want to do anything else the whole day.

We got ready by 6.10 am and walked to the beach. But an astounding spectacle I saw, made me run back to our room. What I saw there were some of God’s finest creations!!!



This may be the best macro photo I have ever clicked!









Zoom to 100% to view pics in full size.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Hi C_L.

Beautiful pics and lovely narration.
Though ive done Goa a hundred times, seeing it from you r eyes was a new experiance alltogether.

Specially Palolem Beach. I simply live that beach. Oh the food Spicy Bella, Smugglers Inn and Cafe Del Mar is to die for.

Oh what memories.!
Thanks for bringing back those memories through your TL.

[Chevy_lover]

Thanks Swanand. I am very happy that you liked the pics. There are many more pics coming up.

This was the first time we went to Palolem. And we fell in love with the superb beach and even better weather. Now we can't wait to go back!! The food was excellent!

[Chevy_lover]

We went to the beach soon and spent some glorious time frolicking in the sea. The sea was very calm and the waves were very gentle.



We walked out into the sea and stopped when the water was up to our shoulders. There were no waves at that depth and we were quite safe! I made my wife swim in the sea and my little mermaid enjoyed the shallow waters immensely! We had such a great time bathing in the sea.

By 10 am, we finished our tryst with the sea and returned back to our resort. That day was our anniversary and we wanted to go to the church. But we wanted to have our breakfast first and walked to Smuggler’s Inn. We ordered English breakfast, which consisted of Bread, Sausages, Fried eggs, Bacon, Chips, etc. The food was quite tasty!




On our way back to our resort, we were amazed to see a huge King Crab and a Lobster on display at Little Italy Restaurant! We were tempted to try them, but the price they quoted was mind boggling!!!




We hailed an auto from the town and asked the driver to take us to St. Theresa’s Church in Canacona. The Church was about 6 km away from our resort. We enjoyed the auto ride very much!



The Church was very beautiful!











We offered our prayers and returned later in the same auto. We were very happy that we got a chance to visit the church and thank the Almighty for giving us a wonderful life together!

We returned back to our resort later that noon. We had great Biriyanis for lunch and relaxed in our resort watching the sea till evening. What an amazing evening it was! The sunset was brilliant and we enjoyed seeing it again!

It was time for our anniversary dinner later that evening. We had no doubt that the celebration would be at ‘Smuggler’s Inn’!

We reached the restaurant by 7pm. We ordered a dozen Tiger Prawns, half of which were fried in the Tandoor Oven and the rest were prepared in butter garlic sauce. There was lemon rice and finger chips as accompaniment.



We also ordered golden fried prawns, which were truly lip smacking! The food was really awesome! We had a superb anniversary dinner and enjoyed every bit of the time we spent together.



We had Banoffee Pie as dessert. It was very yummy!



The restaurant owners were happy that we celebrated our anniversary there!



We strolled back to the beach and had our usual dose of Cornetto ice creams and wound up our day by 11 pm. It was truly a day to remember!!!

[Nutty Nair]

CL, that first shot of the flower is just beautiful. Loved the yummy food shots. Wishing you two many more happy mile munching both on the road and in life too..
PS:This TL is also turning into 5* material.

[ampere]

Amazing macros you got there!

Also it was fun seeing the "czar of Tavera" in an Rick!

[sami316]

Amazing pics..really loved the flower pics and the 1st pic of the sea. Really nice to see your anniversary dinner pics. Very romantic indeed.

[lancersfx]

Hello Chevy_lover, I can't believe i'm late on this thread. Anyway, an awesome trip with great pics as usual.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attach...oa-1-shops.jpg

This one reminds me of the place were my 5 friend gang hiring 3 activa's to scoot inside of south goa... We also visited the Cabo-de-Rama fort and agonda beach. It was superb and just like in the movie Dil Chahta hai.
The food luks yummy and i have had the hard time finding veg only restaurants. I was surprised that GOA wakes up very late maybe 10am.. !! And even after that the breakfast was buns + some gravy similar to chole.
I tried to enquire about the bosch horns but couldn't really find them here. I hope i asked for the right ones 750hz ? I managed to get the Skoda types and they to their job well. Waiting for your next endeavour in the chevy. I may be paranoid but teh doubt still exists. Are all Tavera's the same length cuz i seem to see two sizes. Just like the indigo and there is an extended version called LWB ( Long Wheel base) Is that the same with the Tavera ?

[jacs]

Hey Chevy_lover,

Very detailed report as always, it was like a tour through the beaches, eateries, window shopping and stuff like that. I showed this TL and she is behind me for aa repeat GOA trip.

Wow! Your car is going to hit 100000 KMs on odo.

Wishing you many many happy anniversaries celebrated together in the best locations on earth.

[amitwlele]

@CL - Joining in late into this amazing Travelogue. You have captured all the details with pictures superbly. I would especially like to comment on the great snaps which cover everything - Roads, Nature, Food , Places to Stay and Eat, Shopping.

I am dying to go to GOA now considering that my last trip was about 8 years back.

Keep it going sir. Hooked to this thread.