I love to travel! I make use of every opportunity I get to travel some place I haven't traveled yet. When I was at home (Nellore, my hometown), my only chance of traveling was with my family on the occasional tour that we could avail based on the time permitted by our parent's jobs, mine and my brother's school vacations and such other common stuff that you can understand. In that way, one of the most frequently visited place was Tirupati. I particularly did not like visiting the temple since I don't like crowds but this is one of my favorite places just because of it's scenic beauty. I still remember the view of the sunset over the eastern ghats from the top most point of Tirumala, Sri Vari Padalu. I wish I had a camera with me then! I would have loved to just go into the jungle and wander about looking for creeks, birds and waterfalls. But it wasn't to be. It has always been "sight seeing". I wanted to TRAVEL!
Now, I graduated, got a job, getting to know what kind of a life I am getting in to and all that stuff... and then one fine day, I was talking to my dear friend Anoop.
"Hey dude, why don't we just take a break and go some place? You know, away from the city, white collars and ties..."
He said, "Why not! I am game dude!". I know he always is.
And so we started thinking of which place to go. Then came the idea of the bike (must be from The Motorcycle Diaries I had just finished. Yo Che!). Then came the plan, Bangalore to Shakleshpur on a bike, trek to Rottikal, back again to Shakleshpur and then to Bangalore on the bike. Just splendid. But where can we get a bike from. Anoop exhausted all possibilities. No bike.
Ah damn!
Hey wait, why don't we go to Goa. We can get bikes there on rent!
And so we decided, Escape to Goa!
We started on a Wednesday night in October; myself from Hyderabad and Anoop from Bangalore. I already had a long day at work and my leave was in jeopardy until the last moment. And so when I finally boarded the bus I was relieved and excited, strange combination. But that was short lived because Anoop's bus is in an hour and he is just leaving his office and to add to it, it was raining cats and dogs there. He wasn't sure he can make it. I used some choosiest words with him and decided that if he is not gonna come, I am gonna have Goa all for myself! However, he came.
When I woke up in the morning, the bus was negotiating some really sharp curves on a ghat. It was beautiful and the guy sitting in the seat before me was puking in a paper bag he just borrowed from the conductor. Poor guy. I was still sleepy and I didn't take my camera out. Later, I found out that we were near Sawanthwadi in Maharashtra, about 50KMs from Panjim. After crossing the ghat, the bus stopped at a road side tea stall for refreshing and refreshments. I knew right then, looking at the hills behind me and the road that is spiraling in to the trees ahead, that this is gonna be one weekend I will never forget!
The plan was that Anoop would reach Mapusa around six in the morning and would get a room and a bike in Calangute and come back to Mapusa and pick me up. That would have been just perfect. But when I got down in Mapusa at about nine and almost no battery in my phone, I found out that he is still near Karwar in Karnataka, about 100KMs from Mapusa. His bus broke down. Well, there isn't anything I can do about it! I just got a hang of what was happening and all the taxi drivers flocking over the tourists. I booked my return ticket, I knew I have to go back and got into a taxi and rode to Calangute.
The taxi driver's name was Rupesh. He asked me if I came with my girlfriend. I said no but I am waiting for a friend from Bangalore. He started telling me about all the amazing booze that is available in Goa. I told him that I don't booze. He slowed down, looked at me all surprised or rather shocked. He asked if I smoke. I said no. He asked me one simple question and I still remember the look on his face.
"Why did you come to Goa then?"
I told him I came here because we couldn't find a bike in Bangalore. He was convinced that we are crazy enough to be in Goa even if we don't booze and smoke. He said he will take me to a decent place where I can also get a bike and he did. I insisted on a Bajaj Avenger and he got me this.
The bike looked pretty fine to me but it was not so pretty after all. The kick start was not all that proper and the speedometer is broken. The battery was low and I didn't realize until after two days that the rear brake was not functioning! Funny, we didn't meet with any accident.
It was already past 10 in the morning and Anoop just told me that the chances of the bus being repaired are slim. So we decided to meet at Madgaon. I got the battery replaced, bought a map and started to Madgaon. It was a 50KMs ride and it was just awesome. Even though I was riding alone I enjoyed it nonetheless. I couldn't stop to take out my camera as Anoop was already waiting. It was around twelve when I picked up Anoop at Madgaon bus station. He took the controls for a while but he was too tired and so we stopped at a junction near Verna on the way to Panjim. We took a leak and stretched our bodies. Then we suddenly realized that we were meeting after a long time. We hugged and shouted, "We are in Goa!".
I took the controls from there and had the pleasure all the way to Calangute. We had our lunch at about four in the afternoon. Starting with that lunch until the dinner after two days we had to deal with strange looks when we said, "No, we don't want any drinks. Thank You.". The day was almost over and so we thought we will spend the rest of the day in Calangute itself. We went to the Anjuna beach. Well, it had nothing but rocks and we didn't find it any interesting. Then we went to the Baga beach and just about got completely wet when the life guard came shouting that the beach is closing. It was already six in the evening. We just went to the room, changed and started planning for the next two days.
First we divided Goa into North and South. We came to know later that Goa is in fact divided into two districts, North and South Goa! We decided to cover South Goa on Friday and North Goa on Saturday. Sunday shall be left for anything else around Calangute as we have to catch our bus in the evening. The planning continued for about half an hour or so concluding that it would be best to decide the places as we go. We had our dinner at a beach restaurant and sat on the beach for a while. After getting exhausted from abusing our jobs, we came back to room and slept as we planned to go to the beach early in the morning.
Surprisingly, we woke up at around six in the morning and were ready to go in thirty minutes. We went to the Baga beach and swam for a while. It was chilling and the waves were still strong. We had fun for a while but only for a while. We didn't go to Goa to spend our time in the beaches, did we? We started back immediately. Now, this is the weirdest bike ride I ever had. Since we were just out of the beach, we were just in our swimming shorts except for the sandals. I was riding the bike with Anoop on the pillion. Anyone who knew us in person can imagine how it might have looked for our body dimensions haven't changed much from college days. I am still the same thin guy with just a few more kilos and Anoop lost a few kilos but I rather not say anymore. So we rode half naked or rather three quarters naked. I could feel the morning wind almost all over my body. The roads were almost deserted because the tourists usually enjoy their day till late in the night and not many would start their day that early. Now we are ready to embark on the long ride we have been waiting for with camera and other necessary gear in the back pack, map in the hand and some of the finest breakfast from the Blue Note Cafe I ever had in my stomach.
We headed for South Goa as planned. We first assigned some checkpoints on the map to cover. We rode in the same way as I did to pick up Anoop the day before but not as far as Madgaon. We took a right at Cortalim and headed towards Vosco da Gama. We wanted to avoid entering the city like we avoided Panjim; we anonymously agreed to avoid all the urban areas even before we reached Goa. However, to reach Marmugoa bay, we had to enter Vosco and face some usual traffic. The city is no different from what any other city would be like. Anyway, we finally reached Marmugoa where we couldn't go any further in that direction. After spending a few minutes there we started back towards Cortalim again from where we decided to ride to a place called Big Foot at Loutolim.
The road that led to Loutolim sufficed to our intention of traveling. We wanted to travel, just travel, through places that are peaceful, plush with greenery and most importantly with people who are not in a hurry for anything. And we found it here. We savored every meter of the ride.
I was too lost in the serenity that I just held the camera in my hands but forgot to click. But this is one view of the road that led to Loutolim. Quoting Einstein, "I love to travel, but hate to arrive!" The Big Foot was just a place where all the stuff that used to be about Goa is kept and you have to pay a ticket to know what it was. So we did. All the gyan we got from there was not all that bad. We left wishing if it were the same even now. But no, it isn't. Scotch and whiskey have long replaced the "Cashew Fenny"! However, we were content with some sugarcane juice. We had lunch at Loutolim, again without any liquor to the waiter's surprise. We had plans to go to the Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary in Ponda.
But after talking to the waiter, who suggested us against it since we will not be able to cover the area completely, we started to look for other places on the map. My eyes caught a place called Cabo de Rama. What caught my attention is that it is farther from any other popular place around there. It would be the south most place in Goa we will visit. We estimated the distance to be around 70KMs from Loutolim. Little that I knew then that Cabo de Rama is going to be one of my most favorite places I visited.
The legend has it that Lord Rama had one of his sojourns during his exile at this place later came to be known as Cape of Rama. After a long time in history, this turned into a fort for the Portuguese who called this place Cabo de Rama. The fort as such had nothing to offer in terms of history or architecture. But it is it's geographical location that was worth it. We rode down the road from Madgaon on the NH17 and took the diversion to the right towards Betul. We crossed some villages like Velim and Assolna. Assolna, on the banks of river Sal was really a very peaceful place. It is a very small place but still, it had all the amenities of a town. On our way, we noticed a school with a really big ground, a church, a place for public gatherings etc. The road to Cabo de Rama was also equally impressive. We had to pass through at least three hills on the ghat road with some seriously sharp turns. This is the kind of a place that if you ever visit, you must do so on a bike! When we reached a junction looking for the way to the fort, we found another tourist who was also going there and lost.
We saw some locals coming our way and confirmed that we were on the right way. The tourist stuck with us. When we arrived at the fort we knew, looking at the entrance, that this place doesn't have much to offer. However we did get off the bikes to stretch after a really long ride. We went inside and found some steps leading to a ruined watch tower. And the view from there was just splendid. While I was busy clicking away the beauty, Anoop got into a discussion with the tourist about religion, culture and such stuff. The tourist was from Israel who came to learn Sanskrit. Good for him. After sometime we got down the watch tower and started walking along the wall of the fort or whatever is left of it. It proved to be not so easy with no proper ground to keep our feet. It was more like trekking inside the fort.
After walking to the western part of the fort with a clear view of the sea, we jumped over the wall and proceeded along a way formed among the trodden plants by the fishermen there. When we reached an almost vertical drop of a cliff, we could imagine how difficult it would have been to capture this fort if anyone had ever tried. However, this spot provided some real great landscapes for my camera. The Israeli left then since he had to return his bike in about an hour. He got more places to visit in India before he returned. Myself and Anoop continued in that path a little further where we found the path getting steeper and slippery. We were thankful that it was heading towards the fort .
As we were slowly crawling and struggling on the path so that we don't slip and fall in the sea about 50 feet below us, we saw a fisherman coming towards us with as much ease as I would feel at home. We tried to talk to him asking if we could visit his home. He only spoke Konkani. Anoop tried a little and the reply came in a sign language warning that we can slip and fall to our death. That is exactly what he said with his tongue stuck out and his left hand crossing his throat! We decided to take the professional's advise and headed back to the fort. We climbed another watch tower to the southwest of the fort and watch the fisherman climb down to his home at the bottom of a hill by the fort and by the river. Looking at him, we had a lengthy and meaningful discussion. That is the kind of life I wanted to see, I sure wanted to visit his home. He was living with mother nature herself. He has beautiful sunsets everyday. And at night, I am sure he can see every damn star in the sky. Anoop too had his side of perception. He agreed to what I thought but also pointed out what kind of a hard work he must have been accustomed to. Fishing is not as easy as printing "Hello World!". He may not be earning everyday which means he may not be eating everyday which I doubt somehow because he looked to be aged above 50 but he was as fit as myself or Anoop! Anyway, we concluded with a consensus that if this is the kind of life one wants, then one shall also live with the cons of it. That is fair deal, isn't it?
It was getting dark and we started back to Calangute along the same amazing road. However, we didn't take the road to Loutolim after Madgaon but continued straight towards Panjim. We stopped near an engineering college at Verna and had tea. Looking at the college students in the cafe there, I couldn't help thinking about my college and I was suddenly missing it. However, Anoop didn't miss it much. He was busy with the nonsense on the TV. We continued the ride towards Calangute with me at the controls. It was already dark and it was my first time riding on a highway at night. It wasn't that easy but we made it. We had our dinner at the same beach resturant and had a stroll on the beach before we sat down at a place away from the smell of the liquor. Anoop told me then that he read somewhere that the sound of the waves stimulates our minds to have very intellectual thoughts and that it would bring the best imagination out of us. After that we started discussing several things like how stupid our job is and how much we hate it, the pros and cons of having a girlfriend and later we started talking about astronomers, I really don't remember how we reached there, and then we had a doubt. How do the astronomers take a leak while space walking? May be Anoop's theory wasn't correct after all, or may be it was!
To be continued....
The bike looked pretty fine to me but it was not so pretty after all. The kick start was not all that proper and the speedometer is broken. The battery was low and I didn't realize until after two days that the rear brake was not functioning! Funny, we didn't meet with any accident.It was already past 10 in the morning and Anoop just told me that the chances of the bus being repaired are slim. So we decided to meet at Madgaon. I got the battery replaced, bought a map and started to Madgaon. It was a 50KMs ride and it was just awesome. Even though I was riding alone I enjoyed it nonetheless. I couldn't stop to take out my camera as Anoop was already waiting. It was around twelve when I picked up Anoop at Madgaon bus station. He took the controls for a while but he was too tired and so we stopped at a junction near Verna on the way to Panjim. We took a leak and stretched our bodies. Then we suddenly realized that we were meeting after a long time. We hugged and shouted, "We are in Goa!".
I took the controls from there and had the pleasure all the way to Calangute. We had our lunch at about four in the afternoon. Starting with that lunch until the dinner after two days we had to deal with strange looks when we said, "No, we don't want any drinks. Thank You.". The day was almost over and so we thought we will spend the rest of the day in Calangute itself. We went to the Anjuna beach. Well, it had nothing but rocks and we didn't find it any interesting. Then we went to the Baga beach and just about got completely wet when the life guard came shouting that the beach is closing. It was already six in the evening. We just went to the room, changed and started planning for the next two days.
First we divided Goa into North and South. We came to know later that Goa is in fact divided into two districts, North and South Goa! We decided to cover South Goa on Friday and North Goa on Saturday. Sunday shall be left for anything else around Calangute as we have to catch our bus in the evening. The planning continued for about half an hour or so concluding that it would be best to decide the places as we go. We had our dinner at a beach restaurant and sat on the beach for a while. After getting exhausted from abusing our jobs, we came back to room and slept as we planned to go to the beach early in the morning.
Surprisingly, we woke up at around six in the morning and were ready to go in thirty minutes. We went to the Baga beach and swam for a while. It was chilling and the waves were still strong. We had fun for a while but only for a while. We didn't go to Goa to spend our time in the beaches, did we? We started back immediately. Now, this is the weirdest bike ride I ever had. Since we were just out of the beach, we were just in our swimming shorts except for the sandals. I was riding the bike with Anoop on the pillion. Anyone who knew us in person can imagine how it might have looked for our body dimensions haven't changed much from college days. I am still the same thin guy with just a few more kilos and Anoop lost a few kilos but I rather not say anymore. So we rode half naked or rather three quarters naked. I could feel the morning wind almost all over my body. The roads were almost deserted because the tourists usually enjoy their day till late in the night and not many would start their day that early. Now we are ready to embark on the long ride we have been waiting for with camera and other necessary gear in the back pack, map in the hand and some of the finest breakfast from the Blue Note Cafe I ever had in my stomach.
We headed for South Goa as planned. We first assigned some checkpoints on the map to cover. We rode in the same way as I did to pick up Anoop the day before but not as far as Madgaon. We took a right at Cortalim and headed towards Vosco da Gama. We wanted to avoid entering the city like we avoided Panjim; we anonymously agreed to avoid all the urban areas even before we reached Goa. However, to reach Marmugoa bay, we had to enter Vosco and face some usual traffic. The city is no different from what any other city would be like. Anyway, we finally reached Marmugoa where we couldn't go any further in that direction. After spending a few minutes there we started back towards Cortalim again from where we decided to ride to a place called Big Foot at Loutolim.
The road that led to Loutolim sufficed to our intention of traveling. We wanted to travel, just travel, through places that are peaceful, plush with greenery and most importantly with people who are not in a hurry for anything. And we found it here. We savored every meter of the ride.
I was too lost in the serenity that I just held the camera in my hands but forgot to click. But this is one view of the road that led to Loutolim. Quoting Einstein, "I love to travel, but hate to arrive!" The Big Foot was just a place where all the stuff that used to be about Goa is kept and you have to pay a ticket to know what it was. So we did. All the gyan we got from there was not all that bad. We left wishing if it were the same even now. But no, it isn't. Scotch and whiskey have long replaced the "Cashew Fenny"! However, we were content with some sugarcane juice. We had lunch at Loutolim, again without any liquor to the waiter's surprise. We had plans to go to the Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary in Ponda. But after talking to the waiter, who suggested us against it since we will not be able to cover the area completely, we started to look for other places on the map. My eyes caught a place called Cabo de Rama. What caught my attention is that it is farther from any other popular place around there. It would be the south most place in Goa we will visit. We estimated the distance to be around 70KMs from Loutolim. Little that I knew then that Cabo de Rama is going to be one of my most favorite places I visited.The legend has it that Lord Rama had one of his sojourns during his exile at this place later came to be known as Cape of Rama. After a long time in history, this turned into a fort for the Portuguese who called this place Cabo de Rama. The fort as such had nothing to offer in terms of history or architecture. But it is it's geographical location that was worth it. We rode down the road from Madgaon on the NH17 and took the diversion to the right towards Betul. We crossed some villages like Velim and Assolna. Assolna, on the banks of river Sal was really a very peaceful place. It is a very small place but still, it had all the amenities of a town. On our way, we noticed a school with a really big ground, a church, a place for public gatherings etc. The road to Cabo de Rama was also equally impressive. We had to pass through at least three hills on the ghat road with some seriously sharp turns. This is the kind of a place that if you ever visit, you must do so on a bike! When we reached a junction looking for the way to the fort, we found another tourist who was also going there and lost.
We saw some locals coming our way and confirmed that we were on the right way. The tourist stuck with us. When we arrived at the fort we knew, looking at the entrance, that this place doesn't have much to offer. However we did get off the bikes to stretch after a really long ride. We went inside and found some steps leading to a ruined watch tower. And the view from there was just splendid. While I was busy clicking away the beauty, Anoop got into a discussion with the tourist about religion, culture and such stuff. The tourist was from Israel who came to learn Sanskrit. Good for him. After sometime we got down the watch tower and started walking along the wall of the fort or whatever is left of it. It proved to be not so easy with no proper ground to keep our feet. It was more like trekking inside the fort. After walking to the western part of the fort with a clear view of the sea, we jumped over the wall and proceeded along a way formed among the trodden plants by the fishermen there. When we reached an almost vertical drop of a cliff, we could imagine how difficult it would have been to capture this fort if anyone had ever tried. However, this spot provided some real great landscapes for my camera. The Israeli left then since he had to return his bike in about an hour. He got more places to visit in India before he returned. Myself and Anoop continued in that path a little further where we found the path getting steeper and slippery. We were thankful that it was heading towards the fort . As we were slowly crawling and struggling on the path so that we don't slip and fall in the sea about 50 feet below us, we saw a fisherman coming towards us with as much ease as I would feel at home. We tried to talk to him asking if we could visit his home. He only spoke Konkani. Anoop tried a little and the reply came in a sign language warning that we can slip and fall to our death. That is exactly what he said with his tongue stuck out and his left hand crossing his throat! We decided to take the professional's advise and headed back to the fort. We climbed another watch tower to the southwest of the fort and watch the fisherman climb down to his home at the bottom of a hill by the fort and by the river. Looking at him, we had a lengthy and meaningful discussion. That is the kind of life I wanted to see, I sure wanted to visit his home. He was living with mother nature herself. He has beautiful sunsets everyday. And at night, I am sure he can see every damn star in the sky. Anoop too had his side of perception. He agreed to what I thought but also pointed out what kind of a hard work he must have been accustomed to. Fishing is not as easy as printing "Hello World!". He may not be earning everyday which means he may not be eating everyday which I doubt somehow because he looked to be aged above 50 but he was as fit as myself or Anoop! Anyway, we concluded with a consensus that if this is the kind of life one wants, then one shall also live with the cons of it. That is fair deal, isn't it?It was getting dark and we started back to Calangute along the same amazing road. However, we didn't take the road to Loutolim after Madgaon but continued straight towards Panjim. We stopped near an engineering college at Verna and had tea. Looking at the college students in the cafe there, I couldn't help thinking about my college and I was suddenly missing it. However, Anoop didn't miss it much. He was busy with the nonsense on the TV. We continued the ride towards Calangute with me at the controls. It was already dark and it was my first time riding on a highway at night. It wasn't that easy but we made it. We had our dinner at the same beach resturant and had a stroll on the beach before we sat down at a place away from the smell of the liquor. Anoop told me then that he read somewhere that the sound of the waves stimulates our minds to have very intellectual thoughts and that it would bring the best imagination out of us. After that we started discussing several things like how stupid our job is and how much we hate it, the pros and cons of having a girlfriend and later we started talking about astronomers, I really don't remember how we reached there, and then we had a doubt. How do the astronomers take a leak while space walking? May be Anoop's theory wasn't correct after all, or may be it was!
To be continued....
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