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I came back from Goa on Saturday morning. And, was so tired after the trip, that I didn’t had the enthusiasm to post about it on the blog till now. But, since now I’m feeling fresh, and have lots of time to spare, I’m going to bore you with the details. =)

Day 1
I reached Goa on 23rd afternoon. After coming out of the airport, I thought of taking a cab to Calungute beach, thats where were my friends staying. I enquired at the airport, and came to know that the taxi fare is Rs 700. Bloody hell!! I paid Rs 221 for the air ticket from Mumbai to Goa, and now to go from Goa airport to Calungute beach, I will have to pay a moon. Damn! So, what to do now? I called up my friends, and asked them to pick me from the airport. As a result, by the time, I reached Calungute, it was already about 7pm. I had lost a precious half day =(

The best thing about Goa is its nightlife. The place really rocks after 11pm. We went to a club - Paradiso @ Anjuna beach. After entering the club, we soon realized, that it was an excellent decision. The place was awesome. It was just besides the beautiful Anjuna beach. The crowd was rocking. And, the ambience was amazing =) One unique feature of the club, was the way the food was served there. They had laid down ‘chattayis‘ or ’small sheets made of cane’ on the floor. And, along with each such chattayi, there were vendors selling their stuff - sandwiches, omellates, tea.. etc etc. So, one could enjoy the evening, sitting on the chattayi by the candlelight, and relishing the good old Indian street food.

We packed off at 3am, and went back to hotel.

Day 2
I had set alarm for 6 am in the morning. Wanted to go for a jog on the beautiful twin beaches of Calungute and Baaga. Somehow 4 of us managed to get out of the bed, and set out for the beach at around 7.45am - almost 2 hours late. =) Anyways, the visit was worth every min of sleep I sacrificed. Sand & Sea besides a rising Sun looks spectacular - completely out of this world. A fantastic view.

After having a good brunch, we went to Aguada Fort. The fort is about 7 kms away from Calungate beach. The famous ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ shooting was done over this place only.

And, even on that day, there was shooting going on for another Hindi Film - ‘The Game’. But, don’t ask me who was the actor / actress / director / producer / etc - even I don’t know there names. =)

Then, we went to the capital of Goa, Panjim. It’s a beautiful city, nicely built with lovely european style architecture. As you might be knowing, 24th was the first day of the ongoing Goa International Film Festival. We wanted to watch the inaguration ceremony of the event. But, luck was not on our side. On reaching there we got to know, that there are no more tickets available =( Damn!

Anyways, we managed to have a peek at a lovely Goan style parade just outside Inox theatre - the venue of the event. It was a nice experience.

Day 3
It was now the turn of Vagator beach. On my last visit, this was the best beach of the lot. But, this time, it looked in sorry state - full of filth just like Juhu in Bombay. Dunno, how a beautiful beach can turn into a trash can in just 6 months. Luckily, just about 200 m from there, there was another small beach - Vozrant beach. A very clean and tidy place. Had complete dhamaal over there.

On the way to Vagator, we found this small restaurant ‘Monchos’. The food was excellent - the best I had eaten in months. And, even the place wasn’t expensive at all. I had a delicious chicken sizzler. Yum! Yum!!

After an hour long drive back to hotel, we decided to rock a nightclub again. Had heard lot about a new nightclub ‘Matrix’ in the region. They have been doing lot of advertising for the club. So, we all got ready, and set out to enjoy our last night in Goa. But, within mins, we realized, that Matrix sucks big time. Very bad crowd, equally bad music, and pathetic ambience. Within an hour, we were out of the disc. Phew - that was the only bad experience in Goa till then. Before this, it had been all awesome.

Immediately, we decided that instead of waiting for morning, to go back to Bombay, we should start our journey at that very moment - why waste time at all. So, at 2am in the night, we checked out of our room, and set out for our destination - Mumbai.

But, after just about 10 mins of drive, a man on his motorbike, came from behind, took out a pistol, and asked our driver to stop the vehicle immediately. There was nobody else on the road at that time. It was dark and lonely. Manoj - our driver quickly realized that this man was after our money and luggage. He put his foot on the accelerator, and speeded away the vehicle at over 100kph. But, the man on the bike was equal at task. He followed us, and even managed to get in front of us. The guy tried to block our way by driving in a zig-zag manner on that narrow stretch of road. Manoj then tried to get in front of him, and in the process, by mistake, he hit the guy’s bike from the left. Since, we were travelling at way over 100kph at that time, our car also lost balance.

At that very moment, I just tried to rem’ber each and every name of God I know, my parents, my friends, my relatives… thinking that ‘ab to gaye… itni hi zindagi thi‘. Miraculously, Manoj somehow managed to control the vehicle, and thanks to him, I’m still alive to write this post over here. Man, it was an horrible experience. We don’t even know what happened to that guy on the bike - whether he was able to stay in control, or got hurt - we simply don’t know anything. We were all so busy in looking at the front, hoping that Manoj is able to control the car, and praying to God to give us a chance to complete our MBA degrees atleast. Phew!

Lesson learnt - never travel during night time, not unless there is something very urgent to do!

But, the drama was still not over. On the way back, our car ran out of fuel, then the tire got puntured, and moreover, once we even had to push the car to start it. LOL. It was certainly one of the most happening nights in my life.

Day 4
Reached the college after 14 hours of gruelling road journey.

Except for the last leg of the tour, it was total masti - bole to fultoo fun =) In total, took around 400 pictures. Still haven’t uploaded them anywhere. Will do it whenever I have the enthu and time. Till then, ciao!

Update:
Also, check out Kulveer’s account of the trip =)

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Posted at : November 29th, 2005 - 12:49 am
Filed under : Freaking Out, Masti, Travelling
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