Goa - Happy hours
Day 1 in Goa was like eating Rajma Chaval at IIM L mess. Its a dish I love but coz its not cooked right, its just not fun enough. For the gastronomically un-inclined, it was like going out with a chick dressed in a micro mini skirt who loves watching "K" serials. Her favourite character - Ba! Meaning - you see the possibilities but you also know - it ain't happening. Damn you Ekta!!
Would Day 2 also turn out to be a whimper. Lets see....
Signed off here last night. The four of us slept but when we woke up - there were only three of us. My guess is that my headache got a headache coz of all the snoring the "snoring asses" were doing and decided to dump us. Well, good for everyone.
It was a glorious day - sitting outside our room we were enjoying our chai. We planned extensively for the day. Plan summary - Balls to yesterday. After sufficient 'free breakfast' gorging and extensive sunscreen thoping - we were off. Our first stop - not the beach, not watersports, not some shack but the market. Turns out the "snoring asses" were also "forgetful asses" and had forgotten slippers. In their defence, they remembered to carry the laptop!!! Moral of the story - when you go to a beach, cappy laptop.
After slipper and fake sunglasses shopping, we reached Baga beach where we plopped ourselves onto well shaded beds. Err, correction - snoring asses (henceforth SA's) plopped themselves and yours truly was haggling with the watersports ppl. Much unsuccessful haggling happened and our agenda was banana ride, escorted scooter ride and parasailing.
The shirts came off (hunks out in full glory), the water jackets went on and the studs were all "suited up". Banana ride is aptly named - literally and figuratively. Literally, coz you sit on a banana shaped tube and are ridden into the mighty turbulent seas (for non-swimmers like me - read 50 mts from the shore). Figuratively, coz before you can say "abe, kya boring hai", the boat is manouvered in such a way that the banana over turns, you are thrown into the saltier-than-salt and dirtier-than-dirt water, clinging on to Tushi's jacket and shorts for back up. I did not care if tushi's shorts came off and I will be subjected to a bigger horror than drowning. At that moment, all I could mouth was "abe, mujhe swimming nahin aati" and clung on to the first thing in sight (read tushi's shorts).
Scooter ride was fun - the rider acting fancy, the waves acting wavy and we acting scared. Para-sailing - aaah. Its like kite flying. Just that you ARE the kite and someone else is flying. Ofcourse, you pay handsomely to be flown. All frills in Goa come with a price tag. Here the frill was a "dip". You are high in the air - enjoying the view and the boat's speed is reduced and you start descending into the sea. Just when, you hit the water - the speed is increased and you start ascending again.
A diversion here. While I was on the boat, waiting for my turn and couple was also aboard. The husband took the "dip" but when his wife's turn came he asked her not to take it, lest there are sharks in the water. Everyone on the boat including me made fun of him. I mean, dude!! sharks so close to the shore.. Grow up and all that.
Back to my parasailing, when my dip went on for longer than average, when I was in water and my parachute was starting to get deflated, when I started feeling that it might not ascend again - the shark thing came to my mind. And, believe me - it was'nt fun.
Anyways - all the water sports got the adrenaline going. The shirts came off for good and our hunk hood was on full display. This day was so much better and goa was so much fun. from Baga, we drove to Anjuna - the firang and hopefully "topless" beach. The drive was short but fun. We were finally getting into the Goan mood.
Reached Anjuna. While we were walking through the local bazaar, forget women - even the men were covered up here. Suddenly we started feeling a lil ahem.. naked. So much so, that we started counting the ppl appropriately dressed for the beach (read: topless). Soon, the number became respectable and we felt man enough to take off even our shorts. Okay, the last line is an exaggeration. A walk on the beach, frolicking in the water and a sumptous lunch.
Life was good. Could we settle down here, please!! I like the sun and sand and breeze and locals and beer and idea of not wearing too many clothes. It was truly blissful. Little did I know - it was going to get better. On the walk back from Anjuna, the real Tushi came fore and wanted to run on the beach. I did too!! and beat his pants err shorts off.
Next on list was the prime time item. The "Dil chahta hai" fort. Passing through narrow roads, passing by firangs on Enfields, chai khokhas, quaint local dwellings - we reached the place and trekked up. We reached the wall where Sid, Akash and Sameer (read Akshay, Aamir and Saif) philosophised about life. The view from there was truly spectacular. See here. Pictures just cannot capture the beauty here.
At this majestic view, smoochy says "A beer here would be perfect". A vendor with 3 chilled beer cans for the 3 of us appeared miraculously. We savoured the beer, enacted the DCH scene and captured it on video. (if that video gets out, I tell you - the three of us will be deported). Sharing the ledge with a bunch of 10-12 shaven heads we enjoyed the breeze, the view and the beautiful sunset. It was for me, the moment of the trip.
Satiated, we drove back to the hotel. Enjoyed a dip in the pool, freshened up and headed out to Britto's. Britto's is a dimly lit restaurant right next to the beach with small handicraft shops around it. Just to my taste. Sadly, the food was'nt. Not their fault really. The place is known for sea food and I am a veggie. The SA's duly gorged and made merry.
Stuffed, we headed out and were ready to hit the hip party circuit. First, we went to Club Cabana (CC)- the most happening place in town. The entry to the compound of CC is scarier than Frankenstein's house. We rolled up the windows, locked the doors, said a prayer and drove in. Turns out, the place had been sealed due to use of banned substances (read grass et al) and is shut till further notice. Desolate, we tried other places. Out "stag" status caught up with us again.
After a while of driving, waiting, hankering, group approaching, we found ourselves inside Paradiso. To enter, along with the entry fee, we had to pay "stag tax". However, it did not matter coz the daaru was unlimited, babes were drunk, music was good and the setting of the club was awesome (its located at the ledge of a cliff). The three of us got happy and drunk and danced till the wee hours of the morning. (smoochy - thanks for insisting that we do it!!)
Got back at 5 AM to our hotel and crashed. It had been a long, eventful, tiring and amazingly satisfying day.
The next day we did nothing. But that was exactly how we wanted to spend the day. I had activity oriented plans of flying a kite, mobilising a volleyball team but they never took off. Thank god!! Went to Candolin beach, just walked around, lounged in a shack, played a couple of racks of pool and had lunch atop a shack. It was easily one of the most enjoyable lunches I have ever had. And it was not because of the food. The ingredients to that lunch were good pals, a terrific view of sun sea sand, talk about the most arbit of things and the waiter asking me "Sir, aap kisi serial mein kaam karte hain" (albeit, in a different shack) . Perfect end to a perfect trip.
I realise I have run out of superlative adjectives for the trip so I should end the post.
I also realise that the post is long. But that is exactly how I wanted it. Capture all details. Cheers.
PS: Tushi, Mazaa aaya kya?!
Day 1 in Goa was like eating Rajma Chaval at IIM L mess. Its a dish I love but coz its not cooked right, its just not fun enough. For the gastronomically un-inclined, it was like going out with a chick dressed in a micro mini skirt who loves watching "K" serials. Her favourite character - Ba! Meaning - you see the possibilities but you also know - it ain't happening. Damn you Ekta!!
Would Day 2 also turn out to be a whimper. Lets see....
Signed off here last night. The four of us slept but when we woke up - there were only three of us. My guess is that my headache got a headache coz of all the snoring the "snoring asses" were doing and decided to dump us. Well, good for everyone.
It was a glorious day - sitting outside our room we were enjoying our chai. We planned extensively for the day. Plan summary - Balls to yesterday. After sufficient 'free breakfast' gorging and extensive sunscreen thoping - we were off. Our first stop - not the beach, not watersports, not some shack but the market. Turns out the "snoring asses" were also "forgetful asses" and had forgotten slippers. In their defence, they remembered to carry the laptop!!! Moral of the story - when you go to a beach, cappy laptop.
After slipper and fake sunglasses shopping, we reached Baga beach where we plopped ourselves onto well shaded beds. Err, correction - snoring asses (henceforth SA's) plopped themselves and yours truly was haggling with the watersports ppl. Much unsuccessful haggling happened and our agenda was banana ride, escorted scooter ride and parasailing.
The shirts came off (hunks out in full glory), the water jackets went on and the studs were all "suited up". Banana ride is aptly named - literally and figuratively. Literally, coz you sit on a banana shaped tube and are ridden into the mighty turbulent seas (for non-swimmers like me - read 50 mts from the shore). Figuratively, coz before you can say "abe, kya boring hai", the boat is manouvered in such a way that the banana over turns, you are thrown into the saltier-than-salt and dirtier-than-dirt water, clinging on to Tushi's jacket and shorts for back up. I did not care if tushi's shorts came off and I will be subjected to a bigger horror than drowning. At that moment, all I could mouth was "abe, mujhe swimming nahin aati" and clung on to the first thing in sight (read tushi's shorts).
Scooter ride was fun - the rider acting fancy, the waves acting wavy and we acting scared. Para-sailing - aaah. Its like kite flying. Just that you ARE the kite and someone else is flying. Ofcourse, you pay handsomely to be flown. All frills in Goa come with a price tag. Here the frill was a "dip". You are high in the air - enjoying the view and the boat's speed is reduced and you start descending into the sea. Just when, you hit the water - the speed is increased and you start ascending again.
A diversion here. While I was on the boat, waiting for my turn and couple was also aboard. The husband took the "dip" but when his wife's turn came he asked her not to take it, lest there are sharks in the water. Everyone on the boat including me made fun of him. I mean, dude!! sharks so close to the shore.. Grow up and all that.
Back to my parasailing, when my dip went on for longer than average, when I was in water and my parachute was starting to get deflated, when I started feeling that it might not ascend again - the shark thing came to my mind. And, believe me - it was'nt fun.
Anyways - all the water sports got the adrenaline going. The shirts came off for good and our hunk hood was on full display. This day was so much better and goa was so much fun. from Baga, we drove to Anjuna - the firang and hopefully "topless" beach. The drive was short but fun. We were finally getting into the Goan mood.
Reached Anjuna. While we were walking through the local bazaar, forget women - even the men were covered up here. Suddenly we started feeling a lil ahem.. naked. So much so, that we started counting the ppl appropriately dressed for the beach (read: topless). Soon, the number became respectable and we felt man enough to take off even our shorts. Okay, the last line is an exaggeration. A walk on the beach, frolicking in the water and a sumptous lunch.
Life was good. Could we settle down here, please!! I like the sun and sand and breeze and locals and beer and idea of not wearing too many clothes. It was truly blissful. Little did I know - it was going to get better. On the walk back from Anjuna, the real Tushi came fore and wanted to run on the beach. I did too!! and beat his pants err shorts off.
Next on list was the prime time item. The "Dil chahta hai" fort. Passing through narrow roads, passing by firangs on Enfields, chai khokhas, quaint local dwellings - we reached the place and trekked up. We reached the wall where Sid, Akash and Sameer (read Akshay, Aamir and Saif) philosophised about life. The view from there was truly spectacular. See here. Pictures just cannot capture the beauty here.
At this majestic view, smoochy says "A beer here would be perfect". A vendor with 3 chilled beer cans for the 3 of us appeared miraculously. We savoured the beer, enacted the DCH scene and captured it on video. (if that video gets out, I tell you - the three of us will be deported). Sharing the ledge with a bunch of 10-12 shaven heads we enjoyed the breeze, the view and the beautiful sunset. It was for me, the moment of the trip.
Satiated, we drove back to the hotel. Enjoyed a dip in the pool, freshened up and headed out to Britto's. Britto's is a dimly lit restaurant right next to the beach with small handicraft shops around it. Just to my taste. Sadly, the food was'nt. Not their fault really. The place is known for sea food and I am a veggie. The SA's duly gorged and made merry.
Stuffed, we headed out and were ready to hit the hip party circuit. First, we went to Club Cabana (CC)- the most happening place in town. The entry to the compound of CC is scarier than Frankenstein's house. We rolled up the windows, locked the doors, said a prayer and drove in. Turns out, the place had been sealed due to use of banned substances (read grass et al) and is shut till further notice. Desolate, we tried other places. Out "stag" status caught up with us again.
After a while of driving, waiting, hankering, group approaching, we found ourselves inside Paradiso. To enter, along with the entry fee, we had to pay "stag tax". However, it did not matter coz the daaru was unlimited, babes were drunk, music was good and the setting of the club was awesome (its located at the ledge of a cliff). The three of us got happy and drunk and danced till the wee hours of the morning. (smoochy - thanks for insisting that we do it!!)
Got back at 5 AM to our hotel and crashed. It had been a long, eventful, tiring and amazingly satisfying day.
The next day we did nothing. But that was exactly how we wanted to spend the day. I had activity oriented plans of flying a kite, mobilising a volleyball team but they never took off. Thank god!! Went to Candolin beach, just walked around, lounged in a shack, played a couple of racks of pool and had lunch atop a shack. It was easily one of the most enjoyable lunches I have ever had. And it was not because of the food. The ingredients to that lunch were good pals, a terrific view of sun sea sand, talk about the most arbit of things and the waiter asking me "Sir, aap kisi serial mein kaam karte hain" (albeit, in a different shack) . Perfect end to a perfect trip.
I realise I have run out of superlative adjectives for the trip so I should end the post.
I also realise that the post is long. But that is exactly how I wanted it. Capture all details. Cheers.
PS: Tushi, Mazaa aaya kya?!
