We had been happily settled in Bombay for two years, living the regular office & home routine. Sometime towards the end of 2005, Div decided that he wanted to pursue higher studies. After serious thought of the future implications of this decision I decided to flow with it. In Dec'05, Div gave his GMAT and got an outstanding score of 780. Next couple of months were spent writting & rewritting applications for each of the schools that Div was applying to. By March we learnt that Div got through to Univ. of Michigan. Now that the main hurdle was resolved, we suddenly realised that we had many more questions to answer- will Div get a VISA? How will we finance his studies? How do I relocate to US? What happens to my career? What if he goes and I dont get a VISA? Eitherways, we decided that we need to celebrate Div's getting through one of the best universities & also our first marriage anniversary was just round the corner!
So mid- March, we packed our bags and headed to Goa for 5 days!
We took a flight from Bombay to Goa to save time and with the advent of so many airlines thankfully the air-tickets were cheap too. From the airport we took a cab to my office guest house, which I had booked in advance. Our guest house was pretty centrally located in Betim on the banks of enchanting Mandovi river. We were greeted by a grumpy caretaker, who did not look very happy at our arrival. Our room was pretty basic with no great view to boast of too. But we had to keep to reminding ourselves that for just Rs. 20 per day we should not expect any better facilities. After settling our luggage we ventured out to explore Goa.
To start with we took a ferry across the Mandovi river to Panjim. We walked around Panjim a little, we settled down for some sea food lunch at a riverside restaurant. Then we hired a bike and headed towards Miramar beach. Miramar beach was quite pretty but extremely crowded. So we sat there watched the sun go down and headed back to the guest house.
On our way back, we were stopped by the police. Apparently, there was a new rule that all the rented bikes should have a registered yellow number plate (like commercial vehicles) & thus pay commercial taxes. But the bike-renters were obviously not doing this to save tax money. So as soon as the police stopped and asked who the bike belonged to, Div told them truthfully that the bike was rented. The police man told us to return the bike immediately and tell him where we rented from. We did as we were asked and escaped!
Next, we went to another dealer who promised us a bike with yellow number plate next day morning and gave us another bike with a white one for the night.
We rested for a while at the guest house and then headed out to check the famed Goa night life. We reached the famous Tito's nightclub at Baga beach. I must say Goa is not just about beaches, its got a vibrant night life. We danced for quite some time and bumped into some other friends who were hanging out there. Later we had dinner at a nearby shack and went for a moonlight stroll on the Baga beach... completely romantic !!
On our way back to the guest house, we had another encounter with the police. We were stopped again and questioned about the vehicle. Div actually argued with the police on why they were harassing us tourists and not directly catching the vendors who were giving out these illegal bikes. And surprisingly the policemen saw sense in what he said and let us go. We reached guest house safely and decided that we need to get a yellow number plate first thing tommorrow morning.
So next morning, we first drove to Panjim and got ourselves a bike with a yellow number plate. And then we set out to see the Anjuna Beach. We stopped enroute and had breakfast at beach-side restaurant. Check out the view from where we were sitting, this is what I call paradise :)
We then reached Anjuna Beach and I must admit this is the most beautiful stretch of sand I had seen (till then). We spent most of our day there frollicking in water, relaxing, enjoying beer and sea food. The beach was not very crowded and had a few of foriegn tourists enjoying the sun, sand & sea. But I now reaize that the Indian beaches are not meant for sunbathing. While the poor firang babes were busy getting themselves a tan in thier bikinis, we had these groups of indian boys & men walk by shamelessly staring at them. Now I must confess that even I looked at these foriegners admiring them for thier fab bodies, beautiful bikinis & the subtle art of keeping everything in place but I would like to believe I did this with some discretion. But these men who stared at them, did it almost as if it was thier birth right !!!
Anyways, after some lunch at a nearby shack we lounged some more.
Then Div got himself a massage from a local masseur on the beach, while I looked on. By evening, we decided to head back to our guest house but we did make a quick stop at the Vagator beach where we enjoyed the sunset.
The next day we started early and decided to bike all the way to North Goa to find a more secluded peaceful beaches.
We started our day with a quick tour of the Aguada fort, which frankly did not impress me much, the Diu Fort is much more majestic than this. And soon we were on our way heading north. We stopped mid-way for some lunch and finally halted when we reached Arambol beach. Now this is actually one of the northernmost beaches and thus hardly visited by regular tourist. There are a few shacks lined on the beach as usual. We found ourselves this little hotel right on the beach, which rented out small shacks/ huts like hotel rooms.
We quickly got ourselves a cute little shack, dumped our luggage, ate some food and headed for the beach. There were hardly ten-fifteen people on the beach and that too mostly foriegners. Infact a large part of the population looked like the hippy, doped-out, bindaas variety. Anyways, we chilled out on the beach either in the water or outside with some beer or champagne.
I have now realised that watching sunsets on the beach is one of my favourite things to do. I am sure sunrise is also equally beautiful but getting up in the morning to watch it is not exaclty my thing. In the afternoon, when it became too hot we went back to our shack for a nap. In the evening we stepped out for a stroll on beach and Div & I sat and planned our future in financial terms on the sand :)
We had dinner at one of the beach side restaurants, which served awesome fresh sea-food. Infact, they first show you what they are going to cook! And you sit right on the beach watching the water shine in moonlight and have delicious sea food.
Night at the shack was fun with a lot of the tourists getting together for some singing & dancing. We spent the next half day at the Arambol beach too before heading back to our guest house at Betim.
After resting the night at Betim, we headed for Panjim in the morning and returned the bike. Then we took a taxi and headed for the airport. Soon we were back in Mumbai, getting ready for a completely new journey in life- USA!
No comments:
Post a Comment