-- NEW YEAR IN GOA--

Dream fun full-filled

History

The dream of going to goa got seeded in our minds about 5 years back even before joining engineering college. It was these days of engineering that the plan started to build up. And finally after finishing our college we somehow managed to go on a trip to goa during peak season (New Year).

Ingredients

Mahesh, Nihal, Amit, Vaibhav, Maruthi Alto on a trip towards goa for 6 days.

Day 1 - 29th December 2008

We were supposed to start at 5:00am. But as usual we were late by 45 mins (thanks to me [;)]). Nihal started as the first driver of the trip. We started off to find a petrol bunk on Tumkur highway. Found one, asked for full tank, but that guy stopped at Rs200, suspecting that he’ll do some golmal in filling up the tank. We headed for next petrol bunk. There he stopped at Rs500 exactly and said power went off. Kept cursing those two, we went to try our luck on the 3rd one. Our Alto finally got filled up. Breakfast we had at Bannavar. Next we headed towards Sagar and had nice lunch there. Till now Nihal drove the car, which was about 8 hours totally (could have been tiring, but not for Nihal). Next was my turn to handle the wheels. Took off to jog falls which we already knew would not be a great time to visit at this time. Visit only during monsoon season.

Left from Jog falls at 4 pm to reach murudeshwara at 7pm and checked into Murudeshwara lodge. Road from Jog to honnavar was fine. And road from Honnavar to Murudeshwara was really great.

We were just on time to Murudeshwara as the temple closes around 8pm. After having visited the temple went to have a good view of Lord Shiva. Evening time view of the Statue was amazing.

It was a nice time in Murudeshwara. Had dinner at Naveen beach restaurant, it was not as good as we thought it would be.

Day 2 - 30th December 2008

We got up little late and visited the temple again. The view of the place is totally different in the darkness and in bright light.

Had breakfast in Kamat hotel and started off towards Gokarna with Amit on the driver seat. Left from there at around 10.30am. Reached Gokarna temple at 12.15pm. Temple timings: 6am to 12:30pm and 5pm to 8:15pm. Next was the most important destination, OM Beach.

We reached there at 1:10pm. Played in the water and had an amazing time there till 4pm, after which we started our journey towards Karwar. Road from there to goa was superb. Had Lunch at Kamat Upchar, nice food there. From then on being on the road with all of us fighting for songs on the music system continued till we reached Vasco Residency in Vasco. On the way was Karwar, where we got a sunset view and Harbor View from the road.

But we were already late to reach Vasco so had to just keep moving, and we missed a visit to Karwar Harbor closely. I got a chance to take on the wheels from the border of Karnataka and goa till we reached Vasco Residency.

At the check post of goa was a strict search of Alto. And we were told to go meet an officer by the road side who took our ID details. And also he asked for Rs.50 (Bribe)(And they are so called police of our country)

Anyways, we Checked into Vasco Residency at 9:30pm, not so good place and very costly(Not Recommended). we had our dinner at around 10.30pm.

Day 3 - 31st December 2008

All but Nihal got up late as usual. Nihal and I went out in search of a restaurant as I was feeling very hungry. Had pre-breakfast at Hotel Annapurna where we enquired about their lodge. We were soo lucky to have got the last room left and also the cost being less than half of what we had paid in Vasco residency. Next thing we did was shifting from Vasco to Annapurna hotel. It took some time and then we were all ready by 10:30am.

Arrived at next destination at about 12:30pm; Fort Aguda, the Portuguese place where few shots of Dil Chahatha Hai were taken.

It was a nice place but don’t expect a fort like those that you get to see in Rajasthan.

Next on list was the most popular destinations of goa, Calangute Beach. Reached there at 2:15pm. All of us enjoyed the water sports, Para-Sailing, Jet Ski, and Banana Boat. It couldn’t get more thrilling than that. Came out of that beach and had lunch.

Next we reached Baga Beach and had a good view of Sunset. This beach also has some water sports activities.

Then we left at around 6:15pm to reach Anjuna Flee Market. For which we had to go in single roads, little did we know that the market was soon closing for the day. When we went there it was closed and there were too many vehicles on that single road. Ultimately a traffic jam. I even got scoldings from a driver while maneuvering through those small roads. Luckily we passed through all those without a scratch on the car. Next we thought of spending the night on Anjuna beach. But there were no boards which could direct us to there; neither did anyone tell the correct routes. Cancelled that place and somehow we managed to reach Vagator beach. Spent some time there in the darkness till around 9:15pm.

We thought of getting to some place for dinner and we headed towards Panaji. We had a good dinner there at Edu’s Restaurant and Stayed in Miramar Beach for the New Year celebrations.

After all these we headed back to our Annapurna lodge.

Day 4 - 1st January 2009

Again got up late and departed to Old Goa at 10:15am and arrived at Basilica of Bom Jesus at 11:30am.

Saw the museum maintained by Archeological Survey of India. Finally we had breakfast cum lunch at around 1:30pm. This was the first time Nihal ate slower than us.

Next we headed towards Mangesh Temple.

We reached there at 3:10pm and came out and had some fruits to eat. Left from there at 3:45pm to reach Port view in Vasco at 5:30pm. No visitors were allowed in any port, reason being security.

Next we had our dinner in Little Chef’s and packed up all our things in the hotel room as we were supposed to leave the next day early morning and reach Bangalore late night.

Day 5 - 2nd January 2009

This is the day none of us are going to forget.

Plan was to start early and on the way see Dudhsagar Waterfalls and then head towards Bangalore and reach home at most by 11pm or so.

So we started a little early, 7:10am and reached Dudhsagar area, where we came to know that small cars are not allowed to go near the waterfalls as the roads were not suitable. Only SUVs were allowed there.

After enquiring there about the cost and time for the trip to waterfalls, we decided to head back to cover the distance to Bangalore ASAP. Details: 1 Jeep for 6 people and cost is Rs. 1800, takes 45 mins one way trip. For all those payments and coordination of the tourists and the taxi drivers, there was a guy appointed. So you cannot bargain for lesser price of the taxi. It’s a fixed price.

Still no breakfast… I was very much angry. Next we started our hunt for a restaurant. After we left that area, we saw many Tippers pass by and the soil around the road and dust on the leaves of the trees was red. Worst of the worst roads began to show up. It was national highway but the road was in bad condition. All of these were because of heavy trucks plying in that area which carried red soil.

We kept cursing the roads. And finally we were struck by bad luck; car bottom touched a stone while tackling the potholes. We just headed little ahead and Oil Pressure Indicator turned on. Mahesh went out with his handy cam to simply shoot the front car view. He found oil leaking and soon we realized that we had hit the oil sump while maneuvering through the potholes.

That Engine Oil sump was hit and all the oil got leaked out.

We were stranded. Nihal and Mahesh started walking backwards where we had come across a check post; it was around 4 or 5 kms. We had nothing to eat from the morning. Amit and I had to wait for them to come back. In the mean time we stopped a vehicle just to ask what can be done for that problem. Fortunately that guy was a mechanic and he was in a hurry to reach his destination. Though he offered a ride to next nearest place to get Engine Oil, we had to reject, as we had already sent Nihal and Mahesh for help. He gave a good solution and took off. After some time Nihal and Mahesh passed by us in other direction in a tipper towards Ramnagara to bring M-Seal and Engine Oil. They found that the road ahead was still worse.

In Ramnagara finally there was phone network available so they called up Maruthi service station who suggested that even diesel engine oil is temporarily fine, but only till we reach Bangalore. So Mahesh and Nihal got the oil and M-Seal. Finally after applying M-Seal we waited there in the car for an hour for it to set properly.

Good that we had Cards to play while we were there.

Next we headed towards Ramnagara after filling in the Diesel engine oil. Reached Ramnagara at 5.30pm and we had our Breakfast cum Lunch cum Snacks there. We were looking at the bottom of the engine when some generous person came and told about better route ahead and also about he being alive on that day. He had crashed into a water pipe on the edge of a cliff. It was the water pipe because of which he was talking to us that day. He told to go towards Khanapur by-pass to reach NH4, as the direct road from Ramnagara towards Dharwad on NH4A was much worse. We were 4 hours behind schedule.

We were then supposed to reach Bangalore the next day morning around 6 or 7 am. But just after passing through Hubli we stopped at a Punjabi Dhaba to have dinner, where we decided to stay for the night at Hubli and leave in the morning for Bangalore. All of us were almost tired.

Went back to Hubli and checked into Renuka Lodge, time was 11pm.

This is one of the longest and unforgettable days of our life.

Day 6 - 3rd January 2009

This day we all got ready with no hurry and left Hubli by 9:30am. The road from there to Bangalore was nice with some exceptions. There were too many toll gates en route.

We had our lunch in Kamat Upchar in Sira and reached home at around 5:30pm.

Right at the moment of the end of trip, my camera stopped working.

End of Trip

Total cost of the trip came to Rs 15500/-