Probably in all the humdrum of last couple of months, I forgot to write about something at the back of my head, something extraordinary - The Goa Trip in the life of an engineer. Yes, it happens !
What’s more unrealistic is that we were a group of eight friends, so more the reason to cancel. But eventually it happened after a couple of guys backing of, then all others calling at their home to make it happen. So much planning and backstory in this one ! So here’s how it started all…
The First shots are fired …
This came in way earlier than the trip, 4-5 months back. We all had just done with the sixth semester exams and were on our ways to internships in the upcoming holidays. That’s when we first called a meeting for doing the Goa trip. And, at that time everyone agreed (Of course, everyone agrees the first time !).
Off Everyone goes and Returns Next Semester …
After everyone has finished with their internships and returned for college in the seventh semester, we had another shot on Goa. But, time didn’t work out very well with everybody. Then, we get busy with our work and the plan of Goa dies out for sometime.
The Holiday Season …
In the holiday’s after sem, we all were traveling on our on, going to meet relatives and all. Later in start of December, we finally decided that Goa is On !!! For first week of January.
But is it so easy ???
The Planning …
All of us wanted to explore the entirety of Goa in the time span that we decided. So begins the great discussion …
All of us pick out all the points that we want to visit and dump them in a document. After that, weed out points based on distance and some more parameters. Not all of us are bikers !!! So, after a detailed algorithmic analysis, we narrow down our chase. The final plan for each day, the places we were going to visit was jotted down to the point in markdown. Some of that took place while some we decided on real time basis. Also, the fact that all of us are non-alcoholic (What were we doing in Goa then ???), we researched Goa thoroughly for the best of food.
Along with this, I would specially mention Akshay here, for whom we specially had to look for vegetarian restaurants in Goa (Yes, I am gonna name everyone here !). Pranay for being the drama queen and telling all of us at the last moment that he is going to bail on us, after all booking has been done (The one guy who cancels plans at last moment). All of us had to call at his house and get him ready. This was a well thought plan, calling one after one and directly talking to his mom, eliminating the middleman.
The Trip …
Once everyone was ready and everything done, we met at a scheduled station to catch our train. A night journey with our seats scattered across the train coach carrying a patient (Pratik) with us. Now, this patient was two days in making after he played two full days of cricket before the trip, fell ill and started making efforts to bail. Nevertheless, he came on the trip.
The train journey was also something. The patient (as I will refer to Pratik in rest of the post) was on the other side of pantry car with all of us on one side. Now, our Agent (nickname of Pranay) and me had to run across 12 coaches and the pantry car to look at him, every once in a while. The Agent also had to deliver the dinner for him while the train was running and thus, passed through the pantry car. After coming back, he found, he was locked on the other side as pantry was closed. Talk about luck ! The next stop, Pranay is running across station back to our coach. He made it in time !
Lights out, but how can we sleep ? So, we go of waking all the others who had dozed off. Late in night we all sleep to get the necessary amount needed for Goa trip, cause we were not gonna sleep for 4 four days, or, so we thought.
We arrived in morning at Thivim. Catch up a taxi and make it to our villa. Now, the villa is really nice. The backyard of villa we had a pool which we used as our private little pool during our stay. Every morning would be pool morning, and we did all the pool tricks that we have seen on the internet - back flips, front flips, trick shots, pool football, dominoes, you name it, and we did it. For four days, every morning. I’m going to skip the pool details. You would not want to know those details.
First Day
Now as planned we went to north Goa and Panjim on the first day. The scooty renting service was near the villa, so we got scooties easily. Now, the travel to panjim from where we were staying was around 30 kms. We were in north part of north Goa nearby Anjuna beach. We set off at around 12 pm and reached panjim in the one hour’s time. On the way, we visited a Mas De Deus Church in Saligao. Once we reached Panjim, it was lunchtime and we headed to our selected restaurant - Ritz Classic. Now, roads in Goa are mind confusing and hence, we had a hard time to find the restaurant. Eventually, we reached and ordered what the place was famous for - The Fish Thali. It was one of the best thalis that I had. All of us (Five of us) loved it and really enjoyed it. And for the first time, Akshay had a veg lunch with us in a non-veg. restaurant.
Then, we headed off to Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church. We were not allowed inside the church due to us wearing shorts and three-fourths. So, we sat outside, clicked a few pics and just sat for some time. Next, we went to Basilica of Bom Jesus. We spent some time there to and then in the evening headed off to Dona Paula for sunset. But, since Bom Basilica and Dona Paula were in literally opposite sides of Panjim, we couldn’t make it in time. And we stayed there for some time after the sunset.
At night, we begin traveling and got lost in the main circle of Panjim, the circle which would come back to haunt us a day later. We made to the villa late in night, had light dinner along the way and sat together listening to music. So, hence ended the first day.
Second Day
Morning started off early and we had some pool time. After that, we headed to Vagator beach where we had lunch in shack and then some of us went in the water. We spent some time at the beach.
Once, we were out of water, we played football. Yeah, we planned for that too ! Once football was over, we went to nearby Chapora Fort. Spent some time there, marveling at the sunset.
Then we headed back to villa to freshen up. After that, we went for dinner at Anand Restaurant where we tried out the native goan dish called Chicken Vindaloo. Now, for all of those who are or will be going to Goa in the future, here’s a warning - DO NOT TRY VINDALOO. That’s it. Or you would have some kind of sour, spicy taste in your mouth that you cannot forget. Please do not try.
Despite taking all the precautions, by the end of second day, I had sunburn around the nose area. So, all the others started to tease me. Eventually, I got back at everyone (This blog included !).
After this, we came back at the villa and listened to music. Now, many of my classmates were staying in the same resort (around 24). So, at night, we all went to Anjuna beach where already everybody was present. Around 12.30, we all came back to our respective villas. But for us, the night was far from over. Nobody was having any sleep and many of us craved Chai. So, again we went around in night, at 2, searching for chai. Fortunately, we came across a chai stall. Once, chai was taken, and we all sat around a round table, began the horror stories. The main storyteller was Aditya and the scaredy-cat was Mota-Bhai (Hardik). Hardik was probably most scared of us all and after some stories, he says “Me ja raha he villa pe, mujhe nahi sunna” (I don’t want to listen, I am going back on villa). But how could we let this scaredy-cat go alone and thus returned with him. Good night sleep followed.
Third Day
Now, before coming on this trip, we all had decided that we would not sleep late in the morning. But there always one who isn’t going to let a little sleep go. In our case, we had the patient a.k.a Pratik, who had miraculously returned to good health, once we had reached Goa. And this guy was sleeping when we all had woken up early in the morning. So turn by turn, one of would go and try to wake him up but no avail. So, we thought of a little mischief. We all took pillows from respective rooms, dragged the bed sheet from him and pounded him with pillows. And then he woke up, and we had a hearty laugh.
As decided the earlier night, we headed to north Goa beaches. First we started with Anjuna, the nearest one. Spent some time on Anjuna, then travelled to Morjim and Ozran beach. Ozran beach was probably the cleanest of all beaches. And hence, we went in for a swim. Once, afternoon elapsed, we had lunch on way to villa in a shack nearby Ozran. The plan for evening was Mandovi river cruise. Around 4, we left villa and began our travel once again to Panjim. We reached in time and were on the cruise in no time. The time for cruise was also fantastic. We boarded in evening, witnessed sunset and evening life in the same time. Also, danced off a little of DJ.
Now, the biggest event of entire trip was yet to happen. When you are in Goa, you are bound to get caught by Traffic Police. And we were caught a couple of times in the previous two days, exactly at the same circle about which I talked about earlier. Now, at each point we had someone who had a driving license driving, so we got off. Now, once we started our return from river cruise and came to the dreaded circle, we had someone who forgot to carry his license driving. The rest of us got away from the circle and crossed the bridge since we were lost in the same circle couple of days back.
Now, probably it is just the roads in Goa specially Panjim, that even Google maps could not help us at some roads. The overlap and the amount of turns we took for a destination are beyond a number. At night, the very fateful circle, the guy without license (Suyog) got caught. Now, Suyog and Pranay, the first thing they do is to call us. Thus, some of us came back again, paid the fine and again started towards villa. In all of this, I distinctly remember Suyog asking the policeman regarding fine “Kaka, Google pay ghenar ka?”
But, if you think that the night is over, think again. Once we started back towards villa, half of us were ahead and half of us some distance back. The front pack went quite fast and reached the villa. And in midst of this, in a dark street, the fuel of one of the scooty got over. Typical Goa trip thing !
The other guys searched for a petrol station in the time when Suyog and me, were stranded in the street. To the horror, they (Akshay and Aditya) couldn’t find any. While they were searching for one, both of us searched another one and started pushing the scooty towards it. Finally, we get to the petrol station and fuel up and reach villa. Then, head out for dinner at Mahek-e-Punjab and come back to listen to music by poolside. Thus, day’s adventure comes to an end.
Fourth Day
On the fourth day, all of us woke up little late than usual, had fun in pool and then went to lunch. After lunch, went to baga, candolim and calangute beach. In the evening, we went for shopping and had dinner along the way. Now, for the last two days, the veg. people in group (now, consisting of Akshay and Pratik) had found a pure veg. restaurant in Goa. After their dinner, these two headed off to the Clubs along Baga. The rest of us had deserts and came back to villa. Upon arrival, we find that both have not arrived yet and are not picking up the calls either. So, once they arrive, we lock them out of the villa and ask them to do a dance for us while we record that through the window. After dancing only, we let them in. And then the dance night began. The songs for entire trip were selected by Raja babu(Shubham) and Khadi power(Suyog), so special credits to both of them. We all danced off to songs till late in the night and slept.
Final Day
We catch a train in the afternoon. Now, all of us (all 30) are traveling back together. We played dumb charades. Super fun with all the weird movie names coming up and each one enacting them. Reached Mumbai at night and then all parted ways for home. Special thanks to Shubham and Akshay for suggesting some great poses and clicking mesmerising photos.
While this may be our first trip together, but we made memories for a lifetime. The fact that we are parting ways after four years for our respective journeys is something that brings sadness. But, as long as we stay connected, there’s always time for one more thrill ride !
From left to right:
Top row: Shubham, Pratik, Suyog, Aditya
Bottom row: That’s me, Akshay, Pranay, Hardik