GOA
Goa - The moment one hears the name always thinks of it as a party destination from Late night parties, lots of booze, skimpy clad women, sea food and what not and of course the enthralling coastline.
Hubby and I are not the party nor the boozing kinds though very sparsely we indulge in some mild drinks. However, our idea of visiting Goa was for the beaches and for the long drive. This was a well planned trip where we had booked Club Mahindra resort at Varca beach well in advance.
Day 0: This day our destination was Hubli which was approximately 800 Kms from Chennai. We had booked ourselves for one night at Ananth Executive. Left Chennai at 04:15 AM to make sure we reached our destination before dusk. Since the route was via Bangalore we had our breakfast at the usual joint in Vellore. Had a half hour break and started our drive around 07:15 AM. We bypassed Bangalore and started on the NH 4 via Tumkur. Around 11:00 AM we wanted a break and couldn't really find many hotels on this highway. We were just driving through and came across a Kamat and stopped for a break and had couple of Idlis each as we weren't sure of any good hotels enroute and wanted to drive till Hubli one shot. There was also a nice privately maintained toilet facility (Fleurs) at the same place. Our route was via Chitradurga, Devangere and Hubli.
Reached Hubli around 03:15 PM however by the time we located the hotel and checked in it was 04:15 PM. Ordered food and after a nice sumptuous lunch slept for a good while as I was lacking sleep before the trip due to a wedding in the family.
Just few Kms before Devangere there were couple of cops who caught us and fined us in the name of over speeding when we were doing a constant 100 KMPH on that empty highway. We also noticed that they caught a MH registered vehicle and did not bother the actually over speeding KA vehicles. We had to negotiate and ended up shelling out Rs 100 as fine.
We called it a day at Hubli.
Day 1: Had a nice breakfast at the same hotel as we did not want to venture in to unknown city and left the hotel at 09:00 AM. Since we had the entire day in hand we tried a new route via Ganeshgudi - Joida - Dandeli - Anshi National Park and this route was bypassing Karwar. Otherwise the fastest to reach Goa would be continuing on NH 63 and touching Karwar at NH 17 and then on to Goa.
We went by the Kalghatgi - Haliyal route which was in pretty bad shape till we reached Haliyal. From Haliyal onwards it was a very beautiful and scenic SH via forest. Some pictures from the drive is below:
After a nice long drive through the ghats we reached Club Mahindra Varca by 03:00 PM. Checked in and freshened up and went to a nearby shack for a late lunch. Called it a day post lunch as we were quite tired.
Day 2: Though we had planned our day for outing, we were quite distracted due to some noise from the car. The previous evening it started as we were almost nearing our resort. We thought it would go off, however it started to screech a lot and we could make out from which side the noise was coming. Though we were sure that the noise could be due to stones stuck inside the brake pads we couldn't do much to clear it off on our own. We slightly had to deviate on our plan and visited Vasco as that is where the Chevy service center was located. We reached Vasco by 09:15 AM and settled at Hotel Annapoorna for a good breakfast which was hardly few meters from the service station. The person at the service center was very kind enough to help us. After examining, it was found that a tiny stone (Apparently we drove few KMS on a freshly laid road) was stuck inside the brake pad. After removing the same, the car was perfectly doing fine. But this did consume some time in the morning.
After getting it fixed we drove towards The Basilica of Bom Jesus. I had been to the same place 4 years ago and this place was so beautiful however after entering the church, I was just wanting to get out of that place. It was very crowded, very dirty and I felt it was losing its charm.
After this we headed towards Fort Aguada. It was a very beautiful one, however I personally couldn't enjoy because of the killing heat. Yes, Goa was very hot at this time of the year during the days. I was just wanting to finish with the trip and head back to the hotel. We finished the trip of Fort Aguada with nice refreshing lemon soda outside the fort.
As we were driving out of that area we found a nice shack for lunch. I was so refreshed with a nice chilled beer with sandwich for lunch. Post lunch, we drove to Dona Paula. Again the walk to the beach was a huge turn off as there was some road repair work going on and we had to end up walking in that heat for quite some distance.
Headed back to the hotel after visiting Dona Paula. It was quite a hectic day and it just was worse due to the heat as well.
Day 3: This day was again planned the previous night and we wanted to make sure it was executed as per the plan.
As our first stop we went to Panjim for our breakfast. There is a Kamat right opposite Immaculate Conception church. After breakfast, we just walked through the lanes and admiring the beauty of the city. We did our homework of what we needed to do and we wanted to just enjoy some of the things that locals enjoy there. As planned from Panjim, we headed to Ribandar to the boat jetty. The fascination for us was to take the car in the boat. So we paid Rs 20 for a trip up and down to the island where Salim Ali bird sanctuary is located. It was fun doing this.
Our next destination was the Naval Aviation Museum. We did read about this place beforehand and we were much wanting to visit the same. This is a military museum located 6 Kms off Vasco. Since we had to cross Vasco we had our lunch at Hotel Annapoorna. This definitely was one off the kinds and we saw some beautiful aircrafts on display. Spent quite some time at the museum. Some pictures below:
Once we were done, we next decided to visit the Vintage car world which was enroute to our resort. I called the person from the phone number I got and made sure the place was open. This place is called the Ashvek Vintage Car World. Since both hubby and I had interest towards vintage cars we wanted to visit this place. It definitely had some beautiful cars on display and some pictures below:
And before heading towards Varca we made a quick drive through Colva beach. It was quite sunny and crowded and I wasn't much interested and we headed back to the resort. Another memorable day we had doing what we wanted.
Day 4: Another well planned day. This day was dedicated for beach hopping. Not the usually visited beaches for sure. We planned with a map and some write ups from the net and started from the south most beach.
Firstly visited this place called "Patnem Beach". Had breakfast at a small shack there. Though a small place 2 plates of Aloo Paratha with curd and pickle costed us Rs 460. The costliest breakfast we had in Goa. Patnem beach - I have no words to explain. Definitely untarnished beach I have visited in my lifetime. This place is mostly frequented by foreigners. We did not see any Indians on this beach. Crystal clear water and spotlessly clean.
Pictures of Patnem Beach:
Our next stop was Palolem beach. I had visited this on my last visit to Goa and I unfortunately expected the same. It was pretty much crowded. However we read about this Butterfly Beach which is off the Palolem and supposed to be travelled by a boat. We spoke to a person there and went on a nice hour long boat ride in the sea to a different beach which was breathtaking. We did spot some dolphins too.
Next beach was Agonda Beach. There was hardly any crowd here and another spotlessly clean beach with nice shacks. Some pictures of the beach.
We next wanted to visit the Cola beach. However as we started driving we realized there was no roads and did not want to damage the car again and returned back to the highway. The next beach was the Cavelossim. We had to cross the Sal River to reach this beach.
Someone who wants to collect shells should visit this beach for sure. The entire mud was full of shells. It can be seen from the pictures below.
We had couple of more unexplored beaches in our itinerary however we were short of time. Wanted to head back to the resort and enjoy the Varca beach atleast for the evening. Sunset from Varca.
That was quite some day beach hopping and we definitely will return soon to do more beaches may be our list might include more places the next time we visit Goa. We called it a day soon after dinner as we had a long day ahead to drive back home
Day 5: Left Goa at 06:00 AM. We decided not to take the NH 63/NH 4 once again and wanted to try a new route. Stopped for breakfast at Kumtah around 09:00 AM. Then drove on NH 17 and after Honavar turned left towards NH 206. It was a two laned NH throughout. Very good roads except for few road laying work going on at some places. We passed through Jog falls and since we drove that route we decided to take a look at the falls too. Slight trickle of water only. Then kept driving as our target was to reach Chennai the same day. Since it was a two laned highway it did consume quite a lot of time and by the time we reached Chennai it was exactly 12:00 Midnight.
One heck of a drive, and a very memorable vacation!!!!
Hubby and I are not the party nor the boozing kinds though very sparsely we indulge in some mild drinks. However, our idea of visiting Goa was for the beaches and for the long drive. This was a well planned trip where we had booked Club Mahindra resort at Varca beach well in advance.
Day 0: This day our destination was Hubli which was approximately 800 Kms from Chennai. We had booked ourselves for one night at Ananth Executive. Left Chennai at 04:15 AM to make sure we reached our destination before dusk. Since the route was via Bangalore we had our breakfast at the usual joint in Vellore. Had a half hour break and started our drive around 07:15 AM. We bypassed Bangalore and started on the NH 4 via Tumkur. Around 11:00 AM we wanted a break and couldn't really find many hotels on this highway. We were just driving through and came across a Kamat and stopped for a break and had couple of Idlis each as we weren't sure of any good hotels enroute and wanted to drive till Hubli one shot. There was also a nice privately maintained toilet facility (Fleurs) at the same place. Our route was via Chitradurga, Devangere and Hubli.
Reached Hubli around 03:15 PM however by the time we located the hotel and checked in it was 04:15 PM. Ordered food and after a nice sumptuous lunch slept for a good while as I was lacking sleep before the trip due to a wedding in the family.
Just few Kms before Devangere there were couple of cops who caught us and fined us in the name of over speeding when we were doing a constant 100 KMPH on that empty highway. We also noticed that they caught a MH registered vehicle and did not bother the actually over speeding KA vehicles. We had to negotiate and ended up shelling out Rs 100 as fine.
We called it a day at Hubli.
Day 1: Had a nice breakfast at the same hotel as we did not want to venture in to unknown city and left the hotel at 09:00 AM. Since we had the entire day in hand we tried a new route via Ganeshgudi - Joida - Dandeli - Anshi National Park and this route was bypassing Karwar. Otherwise the fastest to reach Goa would be continuing on NH 63 and touching Karwar at NH 17 and then on to Goa.
We went by the Kalghatgi - Haliyal route which was in pretty bad shape till we reached Haliyal. From Haliyal onwards it was a very beautiful and scenic SH via forest. Some pictures from the drive is below:
The railway line at Ganeshgudi
The fascinating ghat roads - Almost felt like a private highway
This guy might have thought who we were in the middle of nowhere
The unspoilt country side
The ravishing KALI river which was emerald green in color
Another field across
After a nice long drive through the ghats we reached Club Mahindra Varca by 03:00 PM. Checked in and freshened up and went to a nearby shack for a late lunch. Called it a day post lunch as we were quite tired.
Day 2: Though we had planned our day for outing, we were quite distracted due to some noise from the car. The previous evening it started as we were almost nearing our resort. We thought it would go off, however it started to screech a lot and we could make out from which side the noise was coming. Though we were sure that the noise could be due to stones stuck inside the brake pads we couldn't do much to clear it off on our own. We slightly had to deviate on our plan and visited Vasco as that is where the Chevy service center was located. We reached Vasco by 09:15 AM and settled at Hotel Annapoorna for a good breakfast which was hardly few meters from the service station. The person at the service center was very kind enough to help us. After examining, it was found that a tiny stone (Apparently we drove few KMS on a freshly laid road) was stuck inside the brake pad. After removing the same, the car was perfectly doing fine. But this did consume some time in the morning.
After getting it fixed we drove towards The Basilica of Bom Jesus. I had been to the same place 4 years ago and this place was so beautiful however after entering the church, I was just wanting to get out of that place. It was very crowded, very dirty and I felt it was losing its charm.
After this we headed towards Fort Aguada. It was a very beautiful one, however I personally couldn't enjoy because of the killing heat. Yes, Goa was very hot at this time of the year during the days. I was just wanting to finish with the trip and head back to the hotel. We finished the trip of Fort Aguada with nice refreshing lemon soda outside the fort.
As we were driving out of that area we found a nice shack for lunch. I was so refreshed with a nice chilled beer with sandwich for lunch. Post lunch, we drove to Dona Paula. Again the walk to the beach was a huge turn off as there was some road repair work going on and we had to end up walking in that heat for quite some distance.
Headed back to the hotel after visiting Dona Paula. It was quite a hectic day and it just was worse due to the heat as well.
Day 3: This day was again planned the previous night and we wanted to make sure it was executed as per the plan.
As our first stop we went to Panjim for our breakfast. There is a Kamat right opposite Immaculate Conception church. After breakfast, we just walked through the lanes and admiring the beauty of the city. We did our homework of what we needed to do and we wanted to just enjoy some of the things that locals enjoy there. As planned from Panjim, we headed to Ribandar to the boat jetty. The fascination for us was to take the car in the boat. So we paid Rs 20 for a trip up and down to the island where Salim Ali bird sanctuary is located. It was fun doing this.
View of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church, Panjim
Loading the car in to the boat at Ribandar
Getting out after a nice short boat trip
Our next destination was the Naval Aviation Museum. We did read about this place beforehand and we were much wanting to visit the same. This is a military museum located 6 Kms off Vasco. Since we had to cross Vasco we had our lunch at Hotel Annapoorna. This definitely was one off the kinds and we saw some beautiful aircrafts on display. Spent quite some time at the museum. Some pictures below:
Display of a scale model of INS Virat
More scale models on display
Once we were done, we next decided to visit the Vintage car world which was enroute to our resort. I called the person from the phone number I got and made sure the place was open. This place is called the Ashvek Vintage Car World. Since both hubby and I had interest towards vintage cars we wanted to visit this place. It definitely had some beautiful cars on display and some pictures below:
Day 4: Another well planned day. This day was dedicated for beach hopping. Not the usually visited beaches for sure. We planned with a map and some write ups from the net and started from the south most beach.
Firstly visited this place called "Patnem Beach". Had breakfast at a small shack there. Though a small place 2 plates of Aloo Paratha with curd and pickle costed us Rs 460. The costliest breakfast we had in Goa. Patnem beach - I have no words to explain. Definitely untarnished beach I have visited in my lifetime. This place is mostly frequented by foreigners. We did not see any Indians on this beach. Crystal clear water and spotlessly clean.
Pictures of Patnem Beach:
Our next stop was Palolem beach. I had visited this on my last visit to Goa and I unfortunately expected the same. It was pretty much crowded. However we read about this Butterfly Beach which is off the Palolem and supposed to be travelled by a boat. We spoke to a person there and went on a nice hour long boat ride in the sea to a different beach which was breathtaking. We did spot some dolphins too.
Next beach was Agonda Beach. There was hardly any crowd here and another spotlessly clean beach with nice shacks. Some pictures of the beach.
We next wanted to visit the Cola beach. However as we started driving we realized there was no roads and did not want to damage the car again and returned back to the highway. The next beach was the Cavelossim. We had to cross the Sal River to reach this beach.
Someone who wants to collect shells should visit this beach for sure. The entire mud was full of shells. It can be seen from the pictures below.
We had couple of more unexplored beaches in our itinerary however we were short of time. Wanted to head back to the resort and enjoy the Varca beach atleast for the evening. Sunset from Varca.
That was quite some day beach hopping and we definitely will return soon to do more beaches may be our list might include more places the next time we visit Goa. We called it a day soon after dinner as we had a long day ahead to drive back home
Day 5: Left Goa at 06:00 AM. We decided not to take the NH 63/NH 4 once again and wanted to try a new route. Stopped for breakfast at Kumtah around 09:00 AM. Then drove on NH 17 and after Honavar turned left towards NH 206. It was a two laned NH throughout. Very good roads except for few road laying work going on at some places. We passed through Jog falls and since we drove that route we decided to take a look at the falls too. Slight trickle of water only. Then kept driving as our target was to reach Chennai the same day. Since it was a two laned highway it did consume quite a lot of time and by the time we reached Chennai it was exactly 12:00 Midnight.
One heck of a drive, and a very memorable vacation!!!!
Nice description.. we are planning for a similar trip next month and this definitely helps us.. particularly the state of the road from hubli to Goa..
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