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I had recently been to Goa for a two-day vacation. This mail is to share my Goan experiences with you all.
Two friends and I first journeyed to Mapsa in Goa. We had booked the tickets at the last moment so we got the last row of seats in the bus. The road was bumpy and we were in the last seat so we felt like we were getting the kind of jerks that usually remind of a Michael Jackson concert. After the overnight journey, we arrived at Mapsa in the morning. Immediately we were surrounded by taxi drivers ready to take us anywhere from Panji to Heaven (Yes! The one located above the sky! You reach there by hiring a drunken driver.). Heaven was pretty tempting, but we had heard that there are no girls over there so we decided to go to Calangute beach. We took a 1985 make Rollce Royce to take us to Calangute beach. It was costly, but hey, you don't come to Goa everyday do you? (Ok, ok, it wasn't the Rollce Royce made in Great Britain, but the one manufactured in Bajaj Auto in Pune and locally called a Rickshaw. But so what! Wasn't it Shakespeare who said, "What's in a name?").
You know the first thing one should do when you get to Goa? If you are thinking its going to the beach, you're wrong. The beach has been there for forty million years. It won't run away. First thing you have to do is what your parents have done effortlessly for so many years. "Put a roof over your head!". So we went looking for a place to stay (actually just a place to keep our luggage when we are chilling at the beach). The first hotel we went to was located between Calangute & Baga beaches. It was on the seashore, and had single storied heritage stone cottages as rooms. Two Japanese girls were playing billiards in the porch. I watched them take shots. They were either still suffering from the hangover of the previous night, or were just nervous being in presence of a handsome guy like me (any doubts?) and kept missing all shots. Finally I got bored and smiled at them sympathetically and proceeded to meet the hotel's owner. Unfortunately the hotel was fully booked. So we proceeded to the next hotel suggested by our cab driver. It was 1000 meters (I could say 1 km, but that would take away the punch) away from the beach, and still by Indian standards, exorbitant. So enter my companion, Hussain, expert bargainer. Around fifteen long minutes of bargaining ensured that we got the room at 'Indian' prices, although we had to lower our standards to 'Indian' standards. We decided to check the room before paying. The room was on the second floor, had a single window, which did not face the beach, had an attached toilet and bath, which were clean enough by boy standards. Toilet's flush wasn't working, but our luggage boy, who was also an amateur plumber, got it working. Rahul, my other companion, sat on the bed. "CRACK!", there was a big noise. A little investigation revealed that the wooden bed had cracked (And NO!! Rahul is not overweight by any standards! The problem was with the bed). The luggage boy assured us that it won't break, we hoped for the same. We were 'ok' with the room so we went down and made the necessary payments and had our breakfast.
The next thing to do was to change and head for the beach. The hotel's owner showed us a shortcut that would take us to beach in less time. We walked for about ten minutes and arrived at the beach. Rahul settled in one of the "Beach Shacks"(restaurants in open tents with table-chairs so you can view the beach while eating), and Hussain jumped into the lashing waves, while I settled in between, dipping my feet in water. After playing with water for some time, I and Hussain got a little bored and settled to play beach volleyball. A stray cow (Yes, the kind that gives milk!) decided to join us, much to the thrill of sunbathing foreigners, one of whom actually came running to click snaps of the cow. After the cow left we were joined by two Greek kids who were 3-4 years old, and could hardly throw the ball over the net. After playing for half an hour in the hot sun and hotter sand, we called quits and decided to have our lunch. But para-sailing going on nearby fascinated us. So Hussain and I went para-sailing. We were strapped with a life jacket, and then attached to the parachute. Hussain was given instructions about how to turn the parachute while landing. Then the boat attached to the parachute took speed and we rose in the air after a short run. Hussain and I are both usually scared of heights, but we enjoyed being in air. Then the boat gave us the signal to land. Hussain started turning the parachute, but it was pretty slow. I could see us speeding towards sign boards kept on the shore. I was scared that I was going to get my face painted red by banging against one of them, but Hussain finally managed to turn it and we landed safely. We were in air for about three minutes only but it was fun. After this adventure we had our lunch in the now familiar beach shack. Being a vegetarian I did not have many choices to choose from, but still enjoyed the meal. Post lunch, we went to the Calangute market. We went into a few shops and looked at few "Goa" T-shirts, but came to know that they were courtesy "Fashion Street, Amchi Mumbai", so didn't buy anything. We than had a look at the Kashmiri shops and the huge Tibetan market selling authentic Kashmiri and Tibetan stuff respectively. I was so fascinated by the Tibetan artifacts and jewelry, that I decided to buy some, but unfortunately they had all stuff in pure silver and their prices were higher than my pocket could afford. We then booked our return tickets, which we got for cheaper than expected and returned to our room. We rested a little at the room, took bath to remove the sea water, and then again headed to the beach. We had our snacks in the beach shack and watched the sunset. The Sun, setting in the Arabian Sea, looked just like pure gold. It is the only time in my life when I have seen the Sun setting in the ocean. It is something I'll remember for a lifetime. After the sunset we walked on the beach, went a little far and then settled on a sea-facing table on a beach shack to sip a little tea and chat (I know, tea is not exactly the thing you drink in Goa, but all three of us detest alcohol, much to the surprise of the shack's owner). The shack had some sort of a celebration going on so they had live music, which served as an excellent background for our conversations. We talked about religion, God, society, marriage and girls (after all, we're men).
When our stomachs began to tremble b'coz of hunger, I dragged the other two to Mirabai's Goan Village, which had a live music program accompanied by Goan dances. The music was ok, the dances presented by local group were enjoyable and the food was delicious. I met the two Japanese women whom I had seen playing billiards on the way out. They were so drunk, that I stood on the side and let them pass, one of them noticed it and said a sweet thanks. After dinner we again headed for the beach and sat there till well after midnight, continuing our earlier conversation. Finally when the wind became too chilly to bear, we headed back to our hotel room. As I was the lightest (read least heavy) of us three, I got to sleep on the side of the bed which had cracked. Trust me, I didn't move an inch even in my sleep, for the fear of breaking the bed and landing on the ground. Despite this discomfort, I dreamt wonderful dreams, of we three being joined by three girls, who like us were travelling alone in Goa, and then.... you can use your imagination.
I woke up next morning at around 7. I couldn't even turn sides in the bed b'coz of the noise the bed made when I moved even a little. So I got up, went in the lobby and went to sleep in one of the resting chairs kept over there. About an hour later I woke up again from this sweet sleep and brushed my teeth and got ready for a morning jog. By then Hussain woke up too and decided to join me.
So we both went to the beach for a morning jog. I jogged on the beach, Hussain alternated between jogging and walking. We cam across two crabs which were thrown out of the sea by the mighty waves, and did not move much, but were still alive. Hussain wanted to put them in a container and take them home, but I protested. So he took satisfaction from having his picture taken holding the crabs in his hands. We placed the crabs on the beach, marked the area around them so that no one would step on them and hoped for the best. I wanted to go right up to the end of Baga beach where beach ended and hills started and Hussain, even though being tired, agreed. At the end of the beach, fishermen were getting ready to go into the sea to catch fish. They were loading their nets in the boats, and making other preparations. I found an adorable shell lying on the beach, and Hussain instantly wanted it. So we looked for more shells and after an exhaustive search found another. Now Hussain and I both were happy as we both had one shell for each one. But I wanted to find one more so that Rahul could take it home. Just then I found a white marble like pebble and picked it up for Rahul. Then we had breakfast at a nearby beach shack and headed back to our hotel.
At the hotel, I checked the occupants of our adjoining room. Unfortunately they were two guys from Delhi, and not three lonely girls as I had dreamt (I don't understand. Why does it have to be only our nightmares that come true!) . We picked up Rahul from the hotel and came back to the beach. Hussain again went in the waves, Rahul as usual settled on a sea-facing table at the beach shack and I concentrated on building my own castle. Surprised? If you don't know I'm a specialist at making castles. Of sand of course! So I started with the inner palace on a hill, then surrounded it with a garden, which had an outer wall. The door was underground. Don't be shocked. Underground just means that it passed through a tunnel. A foreigner caught sight of what I was doing and started building his own castle opposite mine. It could not have got better! Nothing turns me on like competition! Soon my castle had higher walls, a two-storied palace on the central hill and a smooth road from the underground-tunneled entrance. Just then I noticed something in the waters. It looked like some sort of a rescue device. I decided to check it out. When I went near it, I saw that it was a truck's tier, which was probably used, by some fishing boat as a rescue tier. I tried to pull it out of the water but it was too heavy. Just then a huge wave came and lifted the tier and dropped it right on my feet (these waves are just like University exam papers. Totally unpredictable!). It pained me a lot, but I managed to get the tier off my feet. I came out of the water and saw that my competitor was making a three-storied palace. I was preparing to raise one more floor in my castle when I felt some liquid running on my feet. When I looked down, my left foot was coloured red. I walked to the beach shaft where Rahul was sitting and asked for a first aid kit. Rahul suggested that I wash the wound with water. I did that. It seemed that the tier landing on my feet had broken the nail on my left feet's thumb. The guys working at the beach shaft got me a bandage and some Mercurychrome to stop the bleeding, but fifteen minutes down the line the blood was still flowing. So one of the shaft guys asked me if I could bear some pain. When I said yes, he got some vinegar and poured it on my wound. It pained, but after some time the bleeding stopped. I wasn't sure about what to do with wound, so I covered it with some tissue paper so that it would not get dirty in the sand. I sat at the beach shaft, looking at my competitor building his castle higher and higher. I really wished I hadn't hurt my foot. The guy was twenty-five something, and handsome. Just then his wife/ girlfriend came by. She was pretty too. My competitor didn't pay much attention to her, just talked to her a little while building the castle. But she wasn't offended. She sat down besides him admired his work for some time and then went back to lay in the sun. I was surprised to see such understanding in such a pretty woman. I hope that if I get married, my wife also shares this understanding of hers.
At about one, we decided to go for lunch. Before moving out I checked the castle built by the other guy. It has three stories and steps leading to the top. I complimented him. He just smiled back. We went for lunch at a place called Souza Lobo on Calangute beach. The food and the ambience were good. That was our last meal in Goa. We were scheduled to leave in the evening. In the afternoon I shopped some seashells to gift friends and some for my mother. Then we packed and left the hotel for our pick up bus. The bus took us to Panjim, where we boarded our bus for Pune. We realized an important truth then. "Nothing good is available for cheap". We were happy to get sleeper bus tickets for cheap, but the bus was not even worth what we had paid. The path leading to our compartment was so small that I had difficulty in getting my luggage in from there. The windows didn't close fully and a part of the glass window was broken and covered by a thin wooden plank. When the bus started moving, it became terribly cold, especially because of the wind blowing in from the broken windows. Hussain and I had only got a jacket and a sweater, Rahul had been wise and had got a blanket. I could not wear socks and shoes because of my wound, so I took Rahul's sweatshirt to cover my feet. I woke up every one or two hours and moved my body and rubbed my hands and feet so that I don't freeze. Somehow in the morning, we were still alive. I caught a rickshaw from bus stand and got home. Coming back home, even after a great vacation, made me feel happy.
After I got home and unpacked, I noticed that one of the shells I picked up from the seashore was alive. It had the shell creature inside it. I felt sorry for it. I put it in a water tub with salt water, and gave it to an aquarium where it can be put in a fish tank and fed.
That evening I got a phone from a friend who had gone to Goa on bike with five other guys. They had enjoyed driving on the highway, been to the local pub called "Titos" and danced the night out, been to Bacardi sponsored blast on Anguliar fort with a group of girls, and all the other fun things. I was a little jealous.
I had been to Goa but didn't drink a drop of Feni (Goan wine), didn't eat any seafood, and spoke to about seven women, six of whom were shopkeepers and over sixty. And I wasn't happy that someone built a sand castle, which was better than mine.
But thinking more deeply, I felt happy again. I had jogged on Goa's beach as I always dreamt, rescued a couple of crabs, build a sand castle after a gap of years. Talked to friends sitting on candle lit tables, under the star studded sky, listening to the sound of the waves, seeing lights of distant ships in the night. Maybe that's not what people go to Goa for, but hey, I loved it. And I'm going to do it again. Trust me on that.
Wishing that you too have a great Goan experience at least once in your life,
Who else, but,
-Neel.
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