Weekend in Goa

I've been too busy to blog recently. Drove down to Goa for the weekend with some friends from office. The trip was actually supposed to be just my team members - old and new, but in the end we took two 'outsiders' along too.

We started on Friday night (after working all day!) and we got to Goa almost 12 hours later!!!

Well the drive down is supposed to take about 8 hours but we cut from NH 4 to NH 17 through Mahabaleshwar. Do NOT do that if you're interested in a quick short trip. If you want to take your time and drive along hairpin curves overlooking a fantastic view... well that's the route to take.

We set off in 3 cars. An Indica, a Maruti 800 and a Spark. The guys who were doing the driving (Chetan, Shishir and Kiran / Praful) were fantastic! They're the only reason we enjoyed the trip as much as we did.







Friday midnight saw us under a full moon admiring the "table land" in that region. Something I'll always remember. A vast expanse, no other signs of life except for little twinkling lights in the distance.

And after zooming around all those hairpin turns, when we finally joined NH 17, we were shocked to see that it was 3.00 am and we still had 400 kms to go.







Well when we finally got to Goa we relaxed, had some juice / beer / rissois / samosas, and then relaxed some more until lunch :)

My dog was so excited about the new comers he didn't even bother to look at me.





Lunch was at Anoushka's. Loads of fish, prawns, squids, limesoda, beer and feni. Lunch got over only by 3.00 and then at 6.00 we were ready to see Goa.

What did we do that night?

Well we waded along Calangute beach, snacked at a shack, watched a guy do some fire-juggling under the full moon, climbed over rocks along the sea shore at Anjuna at midnight, admired Vagator beach in the moonlight, feasted at another shack at 2 in the morning, and finally drove back home at 3 am.

I had more fun than I've had in Goa anytime this year. It was a night I'll never forget.

Next day there was breakfast (coffee or beer?), sightseeing, and hat-buying at the Dona Paula jetty, and later shopping - for cashewnuts and all the other stuff Goa is famous for ;)

Lunch at Ritz Classic. Crabs, a fish platter, a whole kingfish, all in quantities I'd never seen before.

And then it was back home to pack, rest, have a cup of tea (prepared by Anirudh) and leave.

We were back in Pune in 9 hours, tired but happy.