Friday, July 31, 2009

Have you seen Goa!!

A beautiful tourist place Goa

Goa lies on the western side of India. It has marvelous beaches and it provides wonderful scenic beauty. Many tourists who are sea beach lovers throng Goa every year. The best season to visit Goa is between October to January. During this period weather remains pleasant over there. However, during rest of the months, the weather remains hot and humid, which makes one feel uncomfortable, especially during day time. Goa is well connected with rail and air links besides roads and sea routes to the major cities of India.
The major rail links run through Konkan Railways. It has one major airport viz. Dublin Airport, which is in the South of Goa. Its capital is Panjim.

We visited Goa in January last. We reached there by train. We had arranged our boarding and lodging near one of the most fantastic beaches of Goa viz. Calangute Beach, which is in the North of Goa. It was night when we reached at Maposa town in Goa. From the railway station we headed towards our hotel. We were tired after a long journey of nearly 36 hours from New Delhi. We had our dinner in the restaurant of the hotel and then went to sleep in our room.


Calangute Beach : Next day in the morning, after having our breakfast, we reached the magnificent Calangute Beach. The weather was sunny and bright. As we arrived at the beach, we noticed that it was a very vast beach. The water was deep blue and the sand was grey in color. It was crowded with many tourists local and foreigners. They all were enjoying themselves. We hired a big umbrella stand and long resting table. We were enthralled and delighted to see the furious waves coming back and forth. We changed our clothes and decided to drench ourselves in water. As we went near, we felt that waves were rising higher than our own height. Powerful, relentless waves were producing unending roaring sound. We found it difficult to stand against the waves. We held our hands together and then went some distance inside the sea. The waves just shooting over our heads. Soon, we were completely drenched to skin. However, the bright sun was making us feel comfortable. In between, we had a photo session too. We photographed each other to capture those unforgettable moments. We played with the waves for nearly two hours, before we were exhausted. We were feeling hungry and we came out of water and had a sumptuous lunch at the nearby restaurant. We spend some more time and returned to our hotel for rest.

Wagator Beach : Next day, we decided to go to another beach viz. Wagator Beach. It is one of the most wonderful and beautiful beaches of Goa. One needs to go down through stairs to reach the beach. Its scenic beauty was eye-catching and a treat to watch. There were some hills in the background, few very long coconut trees were adding beauty to the beach. Few rocks could also be found on the beach. Here the waves were seemingly cool and gentle. Waves were gently coming towards the beach and just kissing our legs. They were at the most touching our knees. It was a great fun to play with the waves, we covered nearly half a kilometer inside the sea to feel the unending flow and dance of waves. We kept splashing water on each other, in between. Even after spending two hours, we were in no mood to come out of the beach; however, we had to come out to see other site seeing places.

Aguda Fort : Next destination was an old ruined fort called Aguda Fort. It was on the side of a sea and furious waves were touching its one of the walls. It was in a huge area, however, we observed that only some minarets and walls were intact. We took some photographs before, moving ahead.


Milky Water Fall : We came to know that there was a wonderful water fall some 35-40 Kilometers away from Mapusa town of Goa. The fall is known is ‘Dudhsagar Fall’, loosely translated it means ‘Milky water fall’. We made up our mind to visit the fall, despite the fact that we were told that it would take few hours to reach the place. We hired a taxi and started in the morning for the water fall. After few hours, we reached at the spot. The concrete and mettle road had ended. We were told that from there we had to board a jeep to reach at the base of the fall. We hired a jeep, which was capable of traversing through muddy road, boulders and water logged areas. We started our onward journey in the jeep. It was a real dense forest and no human soul was to be seen around. The jeep criss-crossed the forest on the uneven muddy road and we kept getting lots of jerks and jitters. We even crossed a small river on our way to the base of the waterfall. Finally, even the muddy road ended and we had to alight from our jeep. Thereafter, it was journey on foot with uneven rocky path and pointed rocks on the way. We moved cautiously step by step, holding each other’s hand and reached at the base of the fall. There were not many tourists. Most of the tourists were foreigners. It was awesome scenery. The view was breath taking making us feel spell bound. The water fall was coming from a very great height from a steep mountain and in the middle of water fall’s top and bottom point, there was a railway track. And while we were enjoying the beauty of the fall to our pleasant surprise, we spotted a train moving on the track and it appeared as the train was just cutting the water fall from in between. We just could not keep our eyes off the milky water fall. It was the most awesome moments to be very near to the God and nature. I felt for a moment the ‘time’ should stop for few hours, when we were there. There was a huge pond at the base of the fall, where some of the tourists were swimming. The gushing water was making a ceaseless roaring sound and was speedily coming down like a steady fall giving us the impression of milk falling down from the very high and steep mountain slope. There was magnificent and enchanting greenery all around with plenty of trees, plants and bushes. It was absolutely natural surrounding, which one gets to see very rarely. On touching the water, we realized that it was icy cold and we were wondering how some of the tourists were swimming and enjoying themselves in the chilled water. One very beautiful woman came out of the pond after swimming and changed her clothes, just covering herself with a towel, in full public view. We spent there few hours and every moment was worth remembering. We just did not feel like coming out of the extra-ordinary, magical and natural atmosphere. It was like a divine feeling. However, ultimately we had to leave, as every good thing comes to an end, so came our sojourn to the base of the water fall. Our way back, we walked across the rocky path and reached our waiting jeeps and returned to the main land.

Cruise on the Mandavi River – There is a river Mandavi which runs across Goa. On the last day, we decided to enjoy the river cruise. We boarded a huge ship in the evening and it cruised along the length and breadth of the river Mandavi. Simultaneously, we were entertained with a cultural show with live music, dancing troops and songs on board. It was really an enjoyable experience. The sun was slowly setting into the horizon, as we were cruising along, adding charm to the beauty.

People of Goa : Natives and local people who live in Goa are very nice and cooperative, they are down to earth. However, Goa being a hot tourist destination, tourists are sometimes fleeced by the taxi drivers and shopkeepers. You can get every type of food here from Continental to Chinese, North Indian to South Indian. Restaurants and food joints near tourist spots and beaches are bit expensive. Booze is freely available here and many kiosks and outlets can be found selling the booze, around the city. Many tourists visit Goa because of easy availability of alcoholic drinks at sea beaches and in the market. The soil and climate of Goa is conducive for growing cashew nut and it is one of major produce here and it is available at comparatively cheaper rates and in different varieties. We also bought few packets of fresh and crispy cashew nuts from here.

It was an unforgettable visit to Goa, which we will always remember and cherish for years to come.

2 comments:

  1. Deepak, Goa is one of my favorite places too. I have some very fond memories of Goa and I have spent some of the happiest moments there. Thanks a lot for an absolutely interesting article :)

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  2. Hello Deepak. I have traveled much here in America, but have never been to India, except via books and movies. It is my fervant hope to someday be able to visit your beautiful land and its people, as well as other foreign countries :)

    Karen

    http://abeautifultracktion.blogspot.com

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