Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Same state, different experience- Goa in the monsoon!

So it's monsoon in India and the best time to trek and travel around to soak in all the green. But people would not consider going to a beach destination for a weekend getaway during monsoons, I mean, what's the point of going to the beach if you can't walk on the beach to soak up the sun? But my cousins had a different idea altogether and wanted to visit Goa to celebrate the birthdays of two of my cousins, even though it was just for the weekend.

So we booked our buses and decided to stay at palolem beach- yeah during the non season time, even got a hotel booked near the sea- the beach resort, booked our buses and packed our bags and left Friday night from Pune ๐Ÿ˜Š The bus ride was quite uneventful and there were two loo stops on the way, which were dark, scary and quite dirty, but you've got to make do with whatever is available I guess ๐Ÿ˜Š we stopped at a place in the morning for coffee and loo and just the freshness and the view of green around marked the beginning of an amazing trip!

We reached Madgaon bus stand quite late, now hungry and dying for a shower and had to take the funniest Rick from there to reach our resort at palolem. However, the drive to palolem was again breathtaking and made us forget our hunger and tiredness completely! We had to pass through a small ghat and at the bottom of it there were these fluorescent step based paddy fields and the weather was cool due to the rains, oh gosh, it was just beautiful to the eyes๐Ÿ˜Š I don't have any pictures of this drive unfortunately , since the auto guy didn't want to stop on the way. So anyway, we reached the resort by 11 am, met our other cousin, freshened up and straightaway dived into breakfast and a much needed coffee for me. This resort is right on the beach so you can imagine the view we had for breakfast! It's my dream to eventually retire and settle down at a place where I can enjoy such a view for all my breakfasts ๐Ÿ˜Š

Luckily for us it was nice and bright that time, so we changed and went ahead to take a dip in the water and walk the food off. I found the beach really clean and there weren't too many people either, maybe since it was off season, but whatever the reason it worked in our favour ๐Ÿ˜Š so we walked and ran and jumped in the water and took silly pictures.. It was just amazing!

We headed back when it suddenly got overcast and managed to get drenched in a sudden heavy downpour too, but even that was so much fun! We ordered some drinks while we waited for our other cousins to turn up and then went ahead and showered up. Now the funny thing was, we thought we'd have lunch at a different shack but found out that this was the only shack open in the whole of palolem beach area this time of the season! Hahah... And since all of us were feeling so lazy, we didn't want to venture out to look for another place in the city for lunch. So once our other cousins turned up, we just settled in at the same place, ordered tons of seafood and beer and other drinks ( since the alcohol in Goa is crazy cheap!!) and just alternated between eating, lounging at the beach side cafe sipping our drinks or taking a walk along the beach๐Ÿ˜Š oh it was blissful! Another thing we did was take a slow boat ride to the mangroves near the beach and even that is something that I would recommend to everyone traveling to palolem during the monsoons. It's not your typical Goa party and thrill fare, in fact quite the opposite, but it was as enjoyable as anything else. 




Finally we returned back to our resort and got down to eating, drinking and celebrating some more. What a lazy and amazing day it was!

We woke up on Sunday nice and easy, had a yummy breakfast of eggs and toast and coffee at the shack, went for one last walk on the beach and then showered and checked out around 12 pm. We hired an suv so all of us could fit in and headed out to the city side for lunch at this famous place called Mattin's corner. This restaurant turned out to be amazing! The decor inside was like a shack, not air conditioned, but still cool. There was a live saxophone music player entertaining the patrons and the walls were decorated with funny paintings by Mario Miranda! We ordered more seafood and more drinks, yes gluttony we did on this trip, which we suffered for later too.. Hehe, but it was worth it anywau๐Ÿ˜Š


Post lunch, one of our cousins headed back to the station to catch his train back to Bangalore while the four of us went to Colva beach to lounge about until it was time for our buses and trains back to Pune and Mumbai. We had a final round of coffee at the cafe coffee day coffee shop by the beach and headed off to our transportations back to the reality and Monday blues that comes with going to work.. Heheh.. What a trip this was, short and sweet ๐Ÿ˜ŠGoa, I do love you!

Mode of transport- overnight sleeper bus from Pune 
Total expenses per person - about 3k only
Place we stayed at- palolem beach resort

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