3 days trip to GOA with crazy gang

                           Some trips we go to see the places, some trips we go to feel the adventure, some trips we go to relax etc etc....So every trip have some expectations, some plan, some goals in mind...But this was really a great experience for us where we went trip with out any plan...Yes, seriously no plan as such...We have seen GOA just 8 months back, and we have seen almost all places and even same hotel we are staying...So nothing planned as such...And that too with the crazy gang we are going with, planning never works... :)

Here are quick info before I start

• Started from: Bangalore (12th Dec 2014)
• Gang: Total crazy gang of 10
• Number of Days: 2 nights, 3 days
• Mode of travel: Train between Bangalore to Vasco

                 We purposeful choose train for 2 reasons...First to enjoy the journey with lots of talks and plays. Second to see Doodh Sagar water falls.

• Stay: Tivai Beach Cottage @ calangute beach

                    This is one of the best hotels if you want to enjoy the beech at the max. Charged ~2500 per room per day.

•  What to wear: Yes for Goa your dress code is very much important... Choose knee level or at least three fourth so that you can walk in beaches comfortably. I think shopping for dresses in Goa itself is best than in Bangalore, cost wise and also you get more varieties. Carry a good sun screen lotion (If not you skin tone will change badly). Again mainly buy a nice hat as soon as you reach there to avoid tanning on your face.

Gang of 10...

Here is Crazy journey starts....

         Journey started from Yeshwanthpur railway station. Started around 10:45 pm and is long journey ahead. Did all negotiations with fellow passengers and finally got all berths at one place. Done with dinner and started chitchat...Few slept off by 9 and few by midnight. And few even had second round of snacks at mid night and slept...

Day-1:

  All woke up by 8am and done with breakfast. Still we have 5 hours journey. Took few snaps and ate everything sold on train, and played UNO. Time is passing smooth. 

  

Woke up and got ready for breakfast....

Used the blanket as table for UNO....

Around 10 AM we crossed the CASTLE ROCK station. From this station onwards we get lot of tunnels, nice greenery all the way. And also we are just ~30 min away from Doodh Sagar falls. Few Sicked to windows and few at stairs enjoying the scenic view and also eagerly waiting for Falls. Next station was dhoodh sagar and just in 5 min, Finally Dhoodh sagar water falls came... Little disappointed as water was less and it was very magnificent considering the height of falls...Train goes pretty fast and we already ready with our cams and able to capture it...

few big tunnels on the way....Fun shouting in dark

Falls view from train...

Other View. Checkout a small bridge from where our train passed

  After falls, had small nap and we finally came to GOA Vasco station on sharp 1pm.

         The plan was to take the bikes from this point and use for rest of the journey. But our bad luck, all bikes got over. Then we wanted to try the bus from Vasco to panji and from there bikes... Found the bus stop...But again it was too long queue and very less buses at that time...Again bad luck...It was very hot and we finally decided to take a TT directly to our hotel. Finally got TT for Rs.1600 where all can sit. The hotel is around 45KM distance. Anyway, We finally reached the hotel by 3pm... 

  Quick Local Tips: I do not suggest bike from Vasco itself as its 45KM from North Goa and you may be already tired of journey. Better pick a Cab on station. You can get bikes from our hotel only. Cab prices are like...Vasco to Panji - 600..Vasco to Calangute beech - 800...For Innova kind of vehicles, price will be double.

     All were very hungry.. Skipped the bath (Anyway we were planning to jump in to sea)..Had a quick dress change and settled at shack just in front of our hotel. By the way shacks are nothing but small Hut restaurant just in front of beech. Little heavily priced and food taste is purely your luck on which shack you selected.  Had a long, lazy, relaxed lunch from 3-5pm...All the stress of journey came down and jumped into water and had enjoyed the sea till 7pm. Took few pics of beautiful dusk. 

Pleasant Dusk at beeches...

        By 6:30 it was dark, we left the beach and took bath...Don't think, the day is over...Still its a start...All got ready and we also got 5 bikes (Each costs 250 per day rent)...

 
     By 9pm, we went to Saturday Night Bazaar which is a famous night bazaar and open only on Saturday. There were so many stalls with different items... There is nothing interesting to buy for us but its a huge and nice crowd (Colorful also...U know what I mean ;)). You can surly enjoy a good time just roaming around there...walked for some time and got settled down at some place and few started enjoying the drinks, few enjoying the crowd, and few enjoying the Music, and me enjoying the photography...

    Quick Local Tips:
     - You can bargain by at least by 30-40% in this Saturday market.
     - On the way to this market, you get another Saturday market and don't get misguided.
 

View of market

Pretty dolls

        Spent till 11pm and started back to Baga beach. The plan was to get in to the Titto's club and enjoy rest of the night. This Titto club is one of the famous clubs on entire Goa and its right near the Baga beech. Some how we changed the plan and with lot of discussions and finally settled in one of the shacks in Baga beach.....It was a cool breeze, Sound of waves, some disco music...

Relaxing at Baga...

View of Shacks on Baga Beach...Almost entire night there will be full crowd...

         A small boy was doing few tricks with fire and it was awesome to watch. It was a great fund to take few pics of him...Just relaxed and had long dinner and hand over with lots of chat till 2am... 

Boy playing with fire

It was so lovely to watch...And I enjoyed taking pics...

 Finally drove back to Hotel and slept off....

Day-:2

    I had plan of early morning beech photography. But after sleeping so late, all woke up 10 am... Started feeling so hungry...Got ready soon and had a nice breakfast (actually brunch) on Sri Krishna Udupi hotel. This one was very near to our hotel. Pricing is very high where a dosa cost Rs.100... Of-course entire Goa, food is little costly everywhere...

Done with breakfast by 12pm and went to Calangute beach. This is the place where you can see all water sports and huge Indian crowds...You hardly see foreigners here. Many of them jumped to water and started enjoying all water sports and few went to Anjuna beech.  As we already enjoyed them in our last trip, myself and Vandana just settled on a shack. It was a awesome moment where we just relaxed with out actually doing anything... I got the head message (Rs.150) and Vandana got a foot massage(Rs.100). They ask for more than 500 bucks but you need to do real bargain. Few got temporary tattoos (Costs ~200)....Had lots of jucies, cokes and all small eateries that pass by. 

Enjoying the massage

         Finally all done with their water sports and back to shack. Shared their great experience. It was already 3pm and all are back. Started ordering the food. Ate till 4pm. Then left to Hotel. On the way again had snacks in Udupi hotel...Spent a nice evening in the beech in front of our hotel. All got in to water till 7:00 pm. Sat on the sand near the beach making some sand castles, yoga and having fun:)

Local Tips:
   Do not go with any touts for water sports...There is counter and all prices are written on board and they are final. Just go directly and buy tickets. When you buy ticket for parasailing, some how they charge you extra 150 again to take you in boat to parasailing boat. Again they charge 150 if you want to have a dip in water while doing parasailing. Timing wise, all activities are hardly 5 mins.   

      By 8pm, got ready for night party. Yes we were planning for Titto's now. Went to Baga Beach and actually there are many pubs. With lots of discussions and research we finalized Hype Pub. They charged 1000 per stag and couple entry is free... In many of these pubs, couple entry is free and just charged on what ever they drink/eat. And all ladies gets a free drinks till midnight 12...But Stags (With out Pair) have to pay an entry fee. So we finally paid ~6000 for 10 people and entered the pub. They gave card of 6000 which we can spend rest of the night. This pub had a small but nice dance floor also.Crowd was less but we enjoyed at the max.

 Had some snacks, few enjoyed nice drinks and few like me with cokes...Danced for some time...By 1am, we got out of the pub and settled at baga beech shacks as we did last night.

 Had a relaxed food, snacks and few one more round of drinks. We spent nice time till 3am there. And finally drove back to hotel and again spent some time in chit chat till 5am. Some how we never felt sleepy or tired...Like a mandatory things, we just went in to room and slept off...Quickly went in to deep sleep....

 Day-3:

    Ummm, with so much fun packed days, we finally reached last day of our trip. Again woke up lazily and had 11am breakfast in same Sri Krishna hotel. We are supposed to check out now. But we kept one room to hold all our bags and gave other rooms. All bags packed and placed in one room...We started our drive to Agoda fort...Had few glasses of cocum soda (Its a must try) and went into fort...There is nothing much to see but nice place for few pics...Had lots of pics here and again had few glasses of cocum soda (Yes it was very yummy).

  Quick tips: Agoda fort timings are 10am to 5pm. you do not get any food there. There is a watch tower and they allow you to climb till top with some fee...You can try it...

  

   Now Few people were interested to go Anjuna beech and few wanted to see Old Goa. four of us including me started driving to Old Goa...Its a beautiful drive of ~20 KM. Reached there by 2pm...There are few great churches built on 16'th Century by Portuguese. This was their capital and this was the place where early churches built for the first time in India. In Basilica of Bom Jesus Church you can find a body of  Francis Xavier that was kept from 1552. Still the body have not decomposed and people say the nails grow till today. Generally this body will be little far away in regular days but they bring this down every 10 years once so all can see. We got that chance. It was very long queue but moving fast and in 15 mins we saw the body. This place was hugely crowded as it was festive season, lot of prayers were going on. In Old Goa, You can still see people talk Portuguese and their culture... Enjoyed the churches...It was too hot...

  Started our return journey by 4pm and reached by 5pm in hotel. Had a little food and went to hotel. Picked up all bags and its time to say good bye....Booked 2 Xylos (each took Rs.1300 to drop to Vasco railway station) and reached the station by 8pm. Packed some idly,dosas and boarded the train. Everybody are so tired and jumped to sleep so soon....
 
  Reached the Bangalore by 11:30am.
 
See you all soon with  an another trip....