Goa is one place every wanderer worth his salt would want to go to. What was surprising was, inspite of a billion plans, a hundred opportunities and countless invites, I had never been to Goa. So when suddenly this December brought forth an opportunity to visit this tropical paradise, I leapt into it unthinkingly and the experience was nothing short of a 5 day long motion picture festival which I will describe in multiple posts.
Of the four of us, only Kumar had previously been to Goa( I know, it’s shameful). So for the four of us to go there, with just bus tickets and a Map in hand( No hotel bookings, No set plan, No known people) was quite thrilling. After just a regular working Friday, we took off in a strange bus with beds. We were going to Goa.
I had never traveled by a sleeper bus before. The moment I got on the bus though, I had a fleeting vision of a bright purple bus with beds, a la Harry Potter. Though these beds had no brass bed posts and there wasn’t a crystal chandelier dangling from the ceiling, it was still a bus with beds. We had a blast in the bus. We played cards till the lights went out and got down in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, after a furious fight with the driver( nature’s call, grrr)
Act 1 Scene 1: Agonda
After a brief slumber, I woke up to the sound of “ Mapusa to Calangute/Mapusa to Baga”. It was the crack of dawn. I saw nice, clean roads outside the window. From my extensive googling I knew that we were now in North Goa. Goa is primarily divided into North and South Goa. The entire coastline is full of beaches. The beaches in North Goa are more commercial and draw large crowds from across the world. The Southern Goa beaches are more peaceful. The words “pristine” and “peaceful” drew us to the South. We passed the beautiful town of Panjim and reached Madgaon (Margao) just before nine in the morning.
From all our research on the internet, we had decided to make Agonda( a tiny village 37 Km south of Margao) our destination. Cash reserves are always limited, so we decided to take a bus instead of a fancy cab. It was just 37 km. It would take an hour to the most!
What we had not anticipated was that, India has a population of over a billion and we have the best packaging industry in the world J. What took off as an empty bus, was soon bursting from all sides with people. Thankfully we had a place to sit. So our tiny bus(with a very loud conductor) chugged along on the pretty, scenic roads sometimes picking up school children and sometimes tribals from remote villages. It took us over two hours to get to Canacona. After the bus fiasco, we hired a cab to take us to Agonda.
Our Wagon-R took us towards Agonda slowly but surely. Along the way, we saw a number of restaurants painted pink proclaiming a brand called Zinzi, some other overfull buses and a large number of Caucasian tourists, pink in the sun, driving by on Honda Dios and Bullets. The wind through our hair and the smell of the sea told us we were on the right track. It took us about 20 minutes to reach Agonda.
Agonda is a small village, close to the famous Palolem beach in South Goa. The bumpy approach road barely gave us an idea of the treasure trove waiting for us. We passed quaint little roadside shops selling colorful clothes and jewellery, tiny eat outs serving food from around the world and coco huts for rent. After a little searching we found a small “resort” which suited our requirement and more importantly our pockets.
Agonda beach
When I get to a beach, the desire to catch a glimpse of it transcends everything else that needs to be done. So, while the rest were still lugging in their bags I walked out of our beachside resort to catch a view. And it was a million dollar view. Before me was a vast, white sand beach, virtually empty and a stretch of azure blue sea. The Arabian sea is always a gloomy shade of grey and at times a mild silver. So the sudden blue encounter left me speechless and stunned.
After some hurrying, scurrying, form filling( Goan authorities mandate every hotel owner to collect proof of identification of all the lodgers) we ran to the inviting blue sea with our Frisbee and football. The water was crystal clear and shallow, and the ocean was relatively calm. Perfectly swimworthy. There were few tourists on the beach and we the only non-local Indians.
After splashing about like crazy in the water, playing Frisbee we went back to our rooms to have a much needed fresh water bath and more importantly fill our vacant stomachs. Since we were in Goa, we decided to have Goan food – fried fish and goan fish curry rice. The food was scrumptious and we supplemented that with Budweiser.
We spend the rest of the afternoon playing cards. Some UNO and some Flash. Post lunch stupor and the combined fatigue of a mostly sleepless night in a sleeper bus, made the soft beds in the cool room seem like heaven. Through the open door we could see the sea and sky change color from blue to grey to yellow-orange. Close to sunset, we decided to take a walk to the beach.
Our loveable hermit crabby
Football on the beach is awesome. As the sun sunk lower and lower we kicked around a muddy ball and screamed at each other hoarse. The receding tide had given birth to shallow pools by the sea. Little children played around on the shore building sand castles. In reducing light of the sun, Nish found a curious creature in one of the pools. It was an orange turret shell and once you lift it up, an inquisitive crab peeps out of the shell. Lightening struck my brain like in cartoons, and a name popped out – Hermit Crab. After spending eons trying to photograph the crab, we looked up just in time to catch the sunset. The orange orb slowly drowning in a glowing mass of water was breathtaking.
Kumar, our workaholic celeb had managed to get his slippers torn on the beach. So we needed to buy slippers. So off we went to the tiny marketplace of Agonda. It wasn’t so much of a market place; just some small shops selling a variety of things. We watched the occasional foreigner struggling to bargain with a shop owner and still ending up paying a lot more than the thing was worth, passed self proclaimed peace resorts and saw an over enthusiastic bunch of youngsters, drunk as hell , try to get into an auto. Though we didn’t quite manage to find a pair of slippers, we did go into a friendly restaurant called “My place” and ordered ourselves a sheesha and some cocktails.
Some fruity drinks
Dinner brought with it Calamari. We thought Calamari was just another variety of fish. So when we were served tiny ringlets fried to perfection we were quite curious about what it was. Googling on the only operational cell phone, we found out that it was actually Squid J. It tasted awesome though.
Halfway through dinner there was a power cut. Thanks to a fabulous experience when I was 14 I ran out into the open – I had to look at the sky. What I saw was better than I had expected. You can rarely see so many stars in the sky. It’s like being in a planetarium, only its real. I have no words to describe it. You have to see it to experience it..
After dinner, we picked up a sheet and went out to the beach and the waves put up a fantastic light and sound show for us. Imagine pitch dark, sound of a steady sea and suddenly, many small waves appear, ghostly glowing white with a loud rumble. And then, all the tiny waves join together in one joyous union. Marvellous. Frightening but marvelous. We lay by the sea under the stars till we could no longer keep our eyes open and then went back to our rooms for some much deserved sleep.
Act 1 Scene 2: Cabo de Rama fort
Next morning, our helpful hotel owner helped us hire two Honda Dios which we would go on and ride for the whole day. After a wholesome breakfast, we headed towards the Cabo de Rama fort, armed with a map and some directions from a few locals.
The route to Cabo de Rama was picture perfect. Winding, canopied roads through the hills with an occasional glimpse of the sea was a pleasure to drive on. We drove for about 30 minutes and reached the crumbling fort.
Cabo de Rama fort is so called ‘coz popular legend states that Ram lived in the whereabouts when he was in exile . After that there were provincial rulers and the Portuguese( the fort predates the Portuguese rule in Goa) and what is left of it are crumbling ruins. Inside the fort, we climbed a stone staircase to reach an opening which provides a panoramic view of the sea. It was a revelation of sorts.
Cabo de Rama fort
The endless sea, boats, a small island, a secluded beach, rocks, clear water; what was striking though was the meeting of the sky and the sea. I have never seen such an effortless blending of two elements. It was hard to understand if the sky was bluer or if the sea was!
The fishing camp at Cabo de Rama
Right below the crumbling boundary wall, a narrow mud path led down to the edge of the water. We trekked our way down and found ourselves in a small fishing camp. The fisherman had probably gone for lunch while their empty boats and nets waited. After fooling around on the boats and in the water, we sat down by the water slowly absorbing the magnificence of nature.
Act 1 Scene 3: Palolem Beach
From the fort we drove to Palolem, the most popular beach in south Goa. We had heard a lot about Palolem from some friends but we were a tad disappointed. On entering Palolem, we were greeted with large crowds. Scores of men, women and children on the beach. Water sports, beach beds, shacks and shops; all that and people. After the solitude and serenity of Agonda and Cabo de Rama, this almost seemed like blasphemy. But given the fact that we are true wanderers( and that we were truly hungry) we stayed on.
Palolem beach
We feasted on some really spicy, heavy food in the beachside restaurant and guzzled some of the famous Goan King’s beer. Close to sunset, we decided to take a walk to the slightly less crowded part of the beach. That part of the beach was lurvelyJ. But what was even better was we managed to spot hundreds of hermit crabs rolling back into the sea in their calciferous homes. We also saw a sea anemone on the shore.
Our ride back to Palolem in the dark was uneventful, except for the strange insect that decided to venture into my eye, thus making my eye swell up to twice its size. We went back to the tranquility of Agonda, took a walk on the beach and retired peacefully to bed, as the waves crashed on the shore.
[ As promised this would be a two-part series. So stay tuned for the next Act!]
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