Goa trip

View from the Resort Room..notice the free coconuts?
One of the fountains at the resort
Outside view of a room at the Resort
The entrance to The Resort

Thought for the day: Thoughts Become Things!

Day 2 in Goa:

The day dawned nice and bright. A lazy waking up, a nice half hour walk around the Resort and off to breakfast, which was as sumptuous as the day before. The rest of the day flew by, courtesy the wedding festivities. In the evening, there was another program, which began with two experienced salsa dancers demonstrating their skills for the first three dances and then demonstrated to those wanting to learn some basic steps. Great fun for all!

Then, the wedding- remember the pic I put up sometime back asking you to guess what the location was used for? Well, the wedding mandap was put up on it, with toughened glass top and all. Amazing! And, someone wondered what would happen if the fountains started suddenly.

That was day 2.

Day 3 was our ‘extra’ day at the Resort. Most people were leaving in the morning. We left a bit early, to do a tour of ‘South Goa’. Went to Agorda Fort, which is a nice historical fort from the outside, but the inside is just an empty area, with grass growing and all. As always, I enjoyed walking on the ramparts, imagining how they must’ve protected themselves at times of an invasion, and wondering how many people had fallen into the moat just outside. Then we went to 2-3beaches, Varca and Colva, if I’m not mistaken(There’re so many in a line- take a look!! It made me wonder how they named beaches differently, if they’re in one full stretch of ‘beachy area’. Since it was high tide, people were not allowed to go much into the water. Nor were the water sports allowed, which stop each year when monsoon begins.

We were met at one beach by a guy who asked us to scratch a card, and said we'd won 1 out of 3 prizes- an iPod or a portable DVD or a voucher to stay at one of their places, but, we'd have to go to his place of work to scratch the card, i.e. the resort for whom he did this promotion. I immediately said 'no need to scratch- it'll be the third option only, attached with various conditions, and we'll spend a boring hour listening to their resort talk'...and,that's what it was-but,we were able to get out quickly, after scratching the card proved what I'd said.

After this, we just stopped by to buy the local delicacies and returned to the hotel.

In the evening, we rented Honda Activas and had a good round of Goa- from the Resort to the Leela to Holiday Inn- grand lobbies these Hotels have, as well.( though I prefer the cottages kind of places. More cozy and realistic:))

Next day morning was our direct return train to Baroda-we bid adieu to all our relatives who were staying back a day or two more, and reached the station at 945 AM, turned out the train timing had been changed that day only, to 11 AM (from 1045 AM)..I was looking forward to this trip, since it's ages since I had a day journey in a train. And, good fun it was, except for the cramped space in AC III tier- coz the side seats have had a middle berth added and nothing could be more uncomfy than that. Anway, amidst tea/soups/lunch/dinner/bhujia/kheera(cucumber local),et al,a whole lot of tunnels and a 'start to finish' reading of 'The Secret'(Separate post on that coming up) with breaks in between, it was night time. Luckily, the train was late, so,instead of 3 AM, we reached at 6 AM. Not good, of course, for someone like me- I woke up at 300 thanks to my mental alarm and saw a station-thought it was Baroda, turned out it was only Valsad. I wonder why they have fast trains and then, make them stop for 1-1 hour at stations, if they're early? And, once they stop, they get delayed..arghh!!

Conclusions:
-If you go to Goa, don't book your hotel. Travel light, move around and find the place that suits you best.
- Don't hire a tourist taxi- take a 2 wheeler(Even cars are given on rent) and have a nice time exploring.

Ah well, that was Goa. Baroda part of the trip follows soon!!Have a nice day.