Friday, March 5, 2010

Day 1 – Shop all night long in Goa

The day began early with the 6 AM Shatabdi which really makes me proud. The breakfast was ‘Wow’ - Paneer Cutlets, Parantha, Wada Sambhar, Boiled eggs, Omelets, corn flakes and baked vegetables. You don’t realize when you get to Delhi, in between the various courses.

We took the flight to Goa, but another day, I would love to take the train. Have heard great things about the scenery. The flight was uneventful, other than 4 babies aboard the flight, all of whom synced to produce the highest frequency baby cries I have ever heard.

I called the hotel to ask for a pickup earlier in the day and they asked for Rs 1800, which seemed high. We got the pre-paid taxi from the airport for Rs 900.

The drive to the hotel, Lazy Lagoon in Arpora (near the Baga beach), was delightful. Made me ecstatic, and brought that awesome happy feeling that comes when you see less traffic, lots of trees and beautiful roads. Rubal got the mapmyindia GPS working, and we confirmed the route suggested by it, with the route that the driver was taking us on. We plan to use this as we drive around to the extreme north and the extreme south.

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The Hotel had a very inviting swimming pool , considering the 32 degrees temp outside, and we jumped in as soon as we dropped the luggage. We rested the rest of the evening, and debated going out vs. ordering room service at around 9 PM. We decided to go for a walk and the next 3 hours were outstanding!

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The small road to Baga beach is surrounded by restaurants with innovative lights, shops that sell everything from books, to magic tricks and of course bags and clothes. There are kashmiris, Tibitians, Rajisthani .. I had read a lot about this being the off season but all the restaurants were full of people and there were quite a few restaurants.

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We saw Britto’s while walking, and as was in our list to check out, we stepped into the sand to the beach side restaurant. Britto’s isn’t your extremely posh restaurant, but its worth checking out. We drank the watermelon juice, which was definitely the best we had every had (update : Over the next couple of days – we have concluded that all beach shacks have great fresh juices, the restaurants in the city, not so much). The Sea food platter was decent – the baked crab , and prawn cocktail delicious. The Chicken cafreal wasn’t anything to write about, other than the fact that it made a good dip for the chips.

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We went down to the beach from Britto’s and saw about a hundred shacks and restaurants lining the beach. There were quite a few people, and it didn’t seem like it was 11.30 PM. There were many quiet spots on the beach though and Rubal had a good time playing with the waves – getting scared, and scaring it.

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We walked for a long time, noticing the different beach shacks – one of them had lamps made of beautiful bottles, and was called Bottles Shack!

We browsed through a few shops, and Rubal pointed out how, retail therapy goes on so late in the late in Goa. You never have to worry about shops closing at 8 PM. We took a taxi back, at around mid night, and it felt strange going back, looking at people still moving around as if it was 7 PM in the evening. I felt I was going to sleep early, something which never happens when I am in Chandigarh.

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4 comments:

  1. Pl take extra care of Rubal as:

    Santa was about to retire from government service. He planned to avail his last leave travel concession (LTC) and take his wife to Goa. Swamy, a newly married government servant, planned to avail his first LTC. He also took his young wife to Goa on honeymoon. The wives of both Santa and Swamy get lost in the crowd at a Goa beach.

    Santa and Swamy, looking for their wives, bump into each other. Swamy says to Santa: "Sir, my wife is missing. Have you seen her?" "My wife is also missing. What does your wife look like?" Santa asks Swamy. Swamy replies: "Well, she is a dusky beauty, 25 years, 5ft 9 inches, 36-24-26, large eyes, long black hair. And how does your wife look?" Says Santa: "Forget about my wife. Let’s search for yours."

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  2. Hi

    stumbled upon your site while planning my goatrip. Good engaging writing.
    wow u had so many days 24 my 6 days seem nothing. 3 days in north n 2 1/2 in south. I have not been able to decide bout where in south and i am stuck between varca n cavelossim. got any tips.
    I'll be going through all your goa posts n i am sure they will be very helpful. need a tip on tiramisu this is italian dessert do u by chance happen to know a place in goa that serves good tiramisu.
    For the shopping tips i think i should contact Rubal :)

    January 5, 2011 10:26 PM

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  3. Shivani!

    Glad you liked the posts!

    Varca is more quiet, Cavelossim is more commercialized. It ultimately depends on which hotel you are going for ... South Goa has the big five star hotels, so if the hotel is good, either is fine.


    Infantria in North Goa has good tiramisu ...



    Jivtesh

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  4. thanks fr the info. I am more of an economy traveler so have settled for a studio at luisa by the sea cavelossim. I am crazy bout tiramisu. next i'll need to ask you bout a good place that serves tiramisu in chandigarh. I am frm shimla n we frequently come to chd.
    My hubby often marvels at the wonder of ' www - world wide web 'it truly has made the world small

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