GIRLY PARTY!!!!!!Go ....Go....GOOOOAAAAAAA!!!! DAY -1!!!

This is a post that i was supposed to do in August last but..but  couldn't... work you know (Yawwwnnnn!!!!!)..So here it is..
________________________________________________________________________________


Another girly party seemed to be an alluring idea..and there were three choices Goa , Kumarakom, err I don’t remember the third one..Kumarakom and Goa passed the first screening … Somehow Goa stroked a chord in all of us (Jish, Les, Rosh, Mishi, Vb (me))…with three in the gang with an experience around the place we finally settled on for Goa. But Goa in monsoon?????? Les and I had been there for about ten months and that included the monsoon we knew for sure that monsoons

Entrance to our room

peps up the whole mood of Goa making it vibrant and stunning against the rain fed earth... But Goa is known for its beaches; thankfully none of us were a big fan of the beaches…Big sigh!!!!! Visiting Goa in monsoon meant every activity would be at the mercy of rain..And somehow that part just overwhelmed us.. In short we were all looking ahead for a completely different experience. Deserted beaches, go green seemed to rhyme, another attractive part was the off season discounts which implied upon other options to spend.. .. Les arranged for the stay through a friend of hers..It was a home stay at Calangute (Off season you know).. Les and I work in Kerala so we started in the same train (Netravathi exp) together les from Thrissur; I joined her from Kasargod…. Karmali station was our preferred destination over Margoa We reached there about 6:45 am.. Jish and Mishi from Bangaluru and Hyderabad respectively opted for bus, they would reach Panjim directly then to Calangute. Rosh’s trip was the longest from Chennai by train to Margoa From there she would get to Panjim then to Calangute..

We got ourselves two portions of the house... Each had a double bed with bath attached  hot and cold shower and balco .We opted for non-ac rooms .It was a comfortable stay with television refrigerator for 500 per night (off season) and we were told these were given only to foreigner, we didn’t know why though.. From Karmali we took an auto to Old goa… Bom Basilica   kindled fond memories in both so without wasting time went in and promised to come back soon…Boarded bus to Panjim travelling through the narrow road to Panjim is a treat in itself.. Goa which was a colony of Portugal up until 1961 has the strong portugese influence all around in terms of architecture and lifestyle. From Panjim again took Kadamba bus to Calangute. It took about 45 minutes from Panjim in bus .  The queue was organized and we opted for bus, to get it the Goan way..At about 8:45 am we reached our home for three days with the direction from Jacqueline (our host…Jish and Mishi joined us soon from Panjim. Then we were just gals catching up after a long time need I say more??? Rosh’s train was a late..Getting from Margoa to Calangute was a journey by itself. We got her straight to the restaurant and started enjoying sea food at a restaurant that was named best by lonely planet.

The menu included Soup, Prawn balchao, Crab curry, Chicken gizad, rice.. The waiter even explained to us how they were prepared..….and here starts our Day1..

DAY 1 Calangute-Panjim –Dona Paula- Mandovi cruise- Calangute

Panjim church

We hired three bikes for three days. It costs about Rs 250 per day + petrol charges. I teamed up with les .Mishi with Ros and Jish had bike all for herself. Roads were in good shape in spite of Monsoon.. There are sign boards all through to guide you. Panjim is about 15km from Calangute.. Exploring the Panjim street and getting lost was fun part of it. Panjim church was such a treat to eyes and spirit…Don’t miss out the church bell..The busy Panjim city looks good from the church..Without lingering on for a long time we took off to Dona Paula 7km from Panjim with a stopover at Miramar beach to enjoy the sea breeze…Miramar beach is a less attractive calm and quiet beach..Dona Paula is the place where the river Zuari and Mandovi meet the Arabian Sea. Dona Paula has loads of seaside shops, food shacks throughout..But water sports was missing.. There are a number of legends behind Dona Paula, one of them states that Dona committed suicide by jumping off the cliff because she was not allowed to marry a local fisherman, another says that Dona was married to lower class fisherman who went into deep seas for fishing and one day did not return, Dona his loving wife waited for him at the jetty for many years and finally turned into stone!!!  This place fascinates tourists by its mysticism and beauty... The statute on the rock is dedicated to them and their love…But I guess all this is just a folklore though tragic one. Okay here goes another one Dona Paula was the daughter of the Portuguese Viceroy of Jaffnapatnam, in Sri Lanka. She and her family arrived in Goa and she married..  They were an extremely affluent family. Dona Paula was a kind-hearted and worked hard for the upliftment of the villagers and that’s why after her death the villagers decided to re-name the village as Dona Paula. Initially the village was called Oddavell. The alleged statue of ‘Dona Paula’ at the jetty is actually the sculpture of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Knox. A Dutch sculptress, Baroness Yrse Von Leistner etched the sculpture as she was in awe of the philosopher Robert Knox.

Sun was setting, spreading golden glisten all around…Mandovi cruise was all dressed up waiting for us..This was one of the best experience we had for the evening..There were traditional dance in the cruise food and drinks were also available…After relishing the traditional dance and music we went up the deck to enjoy the breeze we also got to watch other luxury cruise… Panjim shore that was

  all lighted up by now….the cruise was for an hour and as expected we had our share of fun@mandovi river…Driving back home we raced and got home pleasantly exhausted …For dinner we had Goan prawn caldine, traditional fish curry, pepper calamari roll and rice ..mmmm yummy…In Goa there are so many options that you’ll lose track of them and most of them serve authentic Goan cuisine too…After a hot shower we all jumped into bed around 10pm cos we had to wake up early for the next day’s trip..After the alarm was set in all our mobiles we slept like babies…SWEET DREAMSSSS..