Thinkpots: A Perfect Trip!

My wife and I visited Gokarna and Goa in August last year. Finally, we found some time out of our busy routines as it was a stop-gap in between my jobs. A couple of our friends were supposed to join us as well, but as usual, dropped off at the last moment (and I was pretty sure that this was gonna happen!).

We’ve been to Gokarna a couple of times before but there’s something magical about this place that makes us keep going there..(Both of us can’t just get enough of it!). We stayed at our usual hotel on Om beach, Gokarna, and it was one of the most amazing experiences – lazing out at the restaurant, reading a nice novel, making fun of people on the beach, a walk or two on the beach, munching on delicious starters, and sipping slowly on chilled beer! (This is what we usually do there though)

However, the plan was to go to Goa as it is hardly at a distance of 145 kms. We booked ourselves on Konkan railway from Gokarna station to Margao as I wanted my wife to experience the beauty of Konkan ghats (and I was sure it would be at its best during monsoons). Now, Gokarna station, as we didn’t expect is a small, little platform as is shown in the old hindi movies – a typical “gaav” (village) setting with just one platform and two railway lines! It had been ages for the both of us since we saw something like that. The train, as it usually happens in India was running around a couple of hours late! So we decided to take a look around the station (we made friends with the station master as well…there was hardly anyone there!)…It was not long before, as we were still basking in the beauty of mother nature at the station that the train arrived which took us through the scenic Konkan ghats all the way to our next destination – Goa!!!

Goa is just amazing in monsoons, especially for people like me who love the rains! It has a different charm of its own. Everything is so green, so fresh that you hardly feel tired, exhausted or even bored. Everything around you looks like a newly married young girl who is just out of a shower –the freshness, the charm, the fragrance are simply too inviting!!!

So, as we were sure about our dear friends not turning up at the last moment, we’d already booked ourselves at a hotel near Calangute, North Goa which promised to be at a “five minutes” walk (read: for Ben Johnson) from the beach. The hotel turned out to be decent enough, but that was hardly our concern. Coz when in Goa, one hardly stays in the room, right? Our main concern was the five minutes walk!!! So, we decided to stay put for a day over there and then move in a hotel which would be closer (according to common man’s prudence) to the beach. What better way to commute in Goa, in case you don’t have your own cab/car? We hired a bike, a Honda activa which served as our means of movement for the rest of our stay. So, we started off on the bike looking for hotels to move in the next day and luckily found one very close to the beach ( it was pouring when we set off…and it was simply superb).

We decided to head to Baga to chill out and found ourselves sitting at a shack on the beach with chairs facing the raging sea. The atmosphere around was so eclectic that both of us didn’t mind the wet clothes (I hate sitting with wet clothes after getting wet in the rains), which dried in no time, or we just thought so. As we allowed ourselves drench in the ambience of the place (followed by beers later on…;-)), we learnt that the place played karaoke every night. My wife sings well and what could have been better than she singing to me in Goa!!! She sang a couple of songs and turned out to be the crowd’s favorite in no time…she sang a couple of more songs on public demand as well….Everything around was so happy, energetic, and vibrant that even I dared to go ahead and sing a couple of my favorites (I was forced into singing one of them by the DJ though!)….After that we headed to the most happening club in the area and to our surprise the party was still on at 3:30 a.m (especially after getting used to the 10:30 p.m curfew that we were used to staying in Bangalore). We repeated the same thing the next day as well…:-) Before we knew, we were on our way to Pune and a mixed feeling of being happy about going home and sad while leaving Goa gripped us!

The whole trip was so much fun and we were a group in ourselves. It was a combination of everything – we relaxed ourselves in Gokarna, visited some tourist spots, partied like there’s no tomorrow, roamed around in the rains on a bike, and had some of the most delicious food. All in all, it was a perfect trip for the both of us and I suddenly realize that we need to plan something similar soon!