There is nothing called as a perfect vacation.
Well almost.
But I wish there was.
Oh never mind.
Yeah so I went to Goa. Supposedly for a vacation.
So I learned a few things.
a) Never go with a bunch of people you don’t get along with!
b) Never go without planning a vacation! You need to have arrangements for conveyance and accommodation!
c) And last but not the least….NEVER go with couples who can’t seem to keep their hands off each other even for a second!
But like Teju told me, everyone has one disastrous Goa trip in a lifetime. This was mine. And I have a long life to go! *grins* hopefully! =P
Not getting into the disastrous part of the trip, there were plenty of things went wrong and had been really frustrating, but I will admit I did have a few golden moments and a few high moments and some memorable ones.
So after spending an entire day doing nothing but wait for certain people to turn and trying to look for a place at the same time, we finally made plans late n the evening to go to Mambo’s, of course, after a few pegs and a few shots down.I don’t remember much coz I was so high on dancing! I remember turning down a few guys for a dance, but I did end up dancing with this cute firang, who couldn’t dance to save his life!! Haha…but he was too cute!
The rest of the night was quite a blur, as we chilled at Kamaki for a while and then everyone retreated to their rooms. But I was too wide awake to sleep and so were Viyanka and Puneet, so we decided to take a road trip on a whim to Anjuna and the Chapora fort to watch the sunrise.
Speeding down the dark roads snaking through the wilderness, shivering in the cold of the night, under the open skies was a new high altogether!
And Anjuna was breathtaking at the break of dawn. It almost looked untouched and pristine and inviting. I wanted to stay there longer but I also wanted the others to see Chapora fort. And early in the morning was the perfect time.
As we trekked to the top of the Chapora fort, every step that took us towards the peak, took us a little further away from the world we seemed to leave below…..which left us speechless….The fresh morning mist curled around the palm trees and rose above it slowly as the sun made its slow ascent to the top and cast an orange-ish glow over everything it touched.
and what could be more perfect than a beautiful peacock waiting right at the top, cawing to greet us!
Whoa…..!
And let me tell you this, I’m NOT a morning person! Really! But this, I thought, is what a morning should be like!
Breakfast of honey pancakes at an adorable little shack called ‘Munches’ completed the perfect morning ‘feel’
*grins*
Two hours of sleep later, Arambol beach was on the agenda. But that only after wasting a LOT of time doing ‘stuff’. *rolls eyes* Anyway….we finally left…..
Not that I want to sound filmy, but Rahul, who was driving the car, drove like the dudes in ‘Rang de Basanti’. He is a mad man! No kidding! My heart was in my throat all through the drive! And I don’t remember screaming as much! And I swear to god, there was a time when the car was on just 2 wheels!!!We reached Arambol beach in 20 minutes, a journey that usually takes one hour! So you get the idea!
But Arambol beach is B-E-A-yooootiful! One MUST go there if in Goa.
It’s where heaven and Earth meet…quite literally….it’s like the sky beneath your feet…and you are on the top of the world…where the musical, pristine blue waters beckon you….ah! It was incredible!!
Sadly the feeling didn’t last long, coz there were quite a few really sloshed people to look after. And I was the ‘official coffee sponsor’ for our driver!
Hey..I wanted to get back to my hotel in one piece!!
So anyway…after the ‘kaali raat’ had passed, the next day our Palolem beach plans got canned coz the ‘others’ couldn’t travel so much! Coz it was ‘too far’! Oh well!
Back up plan…. water sports! And the weather was amazing, for a change!
Banana boat ride and the bumper ride were the ones I had my eyes set on, because I’ve already done water scooter and para-sailing and I wanted to try something new.
“Hey you wanna sit on my banana??”
“Hello ma’am you wanna ride the banana??”
“Yes ma’am, you want banana ride??”
Hard to miss the pun , when random punks are advertising their water sports on the top of their lungs!
*roflmao*
the bumper ride was insane!!! It’s an inflatable raft that you have to hold on to, while it is dragged by a motor boat! And oh man!! That raft flies and hits and water repeatedly, harder every time..…no wonder it’s called a bumper ride! I was sure I would break a few of my teeth or dislocate my shoulder even! But I survived!Twice!! *grins*
I remember my friends screaming my name frantically, when I finally turned around, I saw a banana boat right in my face, just about few inches away from me, and all the people on it staring at me in alarm. I tripped and fumbled away from it, when one of my friends was mean enough to yell “Isha you almost gave that banana a b***job!!!”
*guffaws from all the guys on the stupid banana and louder guffaws from all my friends*
Quite red in the face I beat the crap out of him accompanied by a plenty of abuses!
We stayed put in the water till it got dark.
then quick shower, and a sandwich later I was all set to hit the dance floor.
By this time it had started lightning and thundering. Yayee!
But we decided to chill at Curlie’s for a while,which is a shack at Anjuna beach. Good music, plenty of eye candy, Carlsberg, awesome weather, the pitch dark beach, and occasional streaks of lightening in the distance that lit up the waters…..you get the picture….
The buzz kept me happy and laughing and screaming random songs and yelling out to random people on bikes in the drive to the West-end club.
I think we drove a small stretch without the headlights on a road that looked good enough to be seriously haunted! Whoa…..insane feeling!
Unfortunately, the club sucked! Trance music and pathetic crowd and the guys who had gone out to buy booze got caught by the cops who took away their license and detained them for about 3 hours.
After we finally left the club, we stopped to eat at a small place at Calangute.
We finally reached our hotel at about 5 and we still had some fuel to burn before we returned the car, so we headed towards Panaji.
Early morning at the river side at Panaji….Rush of memories….feeling of déjà-vu….
*sigh*
By the time I crashed on the bed, I was exhausted, coz I hadn’t slept in 3 days I think. All of us were dead tired and we woke up late, and missed our train.
Brilliant!
We had to take a general ticket in the next train.
Ugh! I’ve never had such a bad train journey in my life! Couldn’t sleep coz I was aching all over and coz there were cockroaches crawling all over the place!
*shudders*
Reached home at 5 in the morning and I hit the sack.
I was so tired I didn’t realize, that I slept straight through lunch and woke up in the evening at around 6.
While unpacking I thought to myself... ‘Damn! Now I can’t wear all these skimpy clothes in Bombay!’
=P