GOA - Day 2

Day 2 : March 3rd, 2011

We all slept tight. When I woke up, I found boys emptying the pints for a breakfast. Surely, an atypical way to start a morning. In a way, it was economical. We got ready and headed towards Viva Goa for breakfast. On our way, Ajay pumped the volleyball and it was all set to get hit. Our plan for today was to enjoy all water sports in Baga, visit Anjuna beach and reach Vagator hilltop before sunset. Clock ticked 10am. I called up Dileep and he arranged for 4 Honda activas on 250rs per day tariff. We had no time to lose and so gave up on breakfast and returned to resort. Voila!! Our activas are ready. We grabbed keys from dileep and chose our bikes purely based on color. Ravi and I chose red. 

We headed out on our mopeds. The first thing we ensured was to fill petrol in bikes. Boys were hungry and we chose a veg hotel on our way. Open the menu and phew..Dosa 60 rs. 'Same cost for 2 pints', we groaned!! We grabbed quick breakfast and hurried to Baga. The local water-sport business people crowded us and we dodged, bargained for long to finally agree on 4 sports – Bike, Bumper, Banana and Para Sailing – all for 500 bucks. We left all our belongings on a paid sun-bath-bench and rushed for Bike ride on water. I must say, we enjoyed this a lot as it pumped our adrenaline high. The heavy bike dashes the waves and it takes real effort to make it jump. Sad that you can't do it on your own and a expert will actually ride the bike. The bumpers were fun too where 2 people sit on a rounded tube and are dragged by a boat. So you get this feeling that your bottom is being bummed up badly but thats the challenge. To hang on and get bumped up more. Ajay and I paired up to do this. We were screaming, “C'mon..bring it on..”. Then came the scary Banana. Bhanu was saying Na-Na.

The Banana

Its scary 'coz none of us are swimmers and for all possibility, you will be toppled right in the middle of river. We were not sure if our life jackets will save our life. The pseudo swimmer Pravin was giving few life saving tips to others and Shankar, asked us to rely on his unreliable water intelligence reports. 4 members got on air filled Banana tube. 2 more experts rode with us who will implement the toppling plot amidst the journey. And they did it !! Everyone got toppled right under the big tube and were groping for the rope on tube. Kiru was the biggest victim who was caught unaware and got his mouth hit so hard that it bled badly. Others were shocked. The banana ride hit real hard. Bhanu was content with his decision to opt out. Shankar rejoined with us and we set out to get the kick – we knew now that we all are gonna be thrown in water and all we need to do was to stick to ropes and not to fret. Worth an effort.

Para Sailing

The final event and the most awaited one. I was all in to fly in sky. We got in a boat and started taking turns. Bhan jaan was a little skeptical on this too but I insisted him to try. He got motivated enough to let go of his fears and gave a try. He enjoyed being carried by a parachute which reminded me of a balloon being carried by another balloon. The only good part I felt about Para sailing was to watch the world by floating in mid air. It was a serene momentary bliss and it ended too soon. All of us agreed that true water sports were more fun than the mid-air-feat. Our sports ended within couple of hours and we returned to shore.

The Sun Burns

We were excited to play volleyball on shore, amidst scorching sun. Few of us started playing and a russian gal joined us. She had a monstrous strength in all her volleyball serves but she left soon as the sun got way hot to her. We continued our play in piercing UV rays for some more time. Ravi and I were the victims of the next degree of tan : sun-burn. Our shoulders turned red and pained sharply even in our sleep. We thought it was due to a fracture or some pain occurred during our volleyball play. Nevertheless, we didn't care about anything in the world in those 4 days. Not even piercing Sunrays !!

Way to Anjuna

We were sure not to miss the sunset and so had to hurry from Baga. Hungry souls were craving for lunch and we stopped by midway to taste the local home made food. It was purely seafood with eatable roasted fish, stinking prawns and shells oozing some liquid which made even the non vegetarians sick of the sea food. Kiru, the only vegetarian, nearly fainted and immediately, left the table. While Bhanu was also not comfortable with food, I was throwing my usual rhyming words at him to ease the environment. Observing Bhan jaan get up, I asked him, “ Coke aa? Puke aa? Oh..Just for Joke aa??”.

Painfully,we managed to complete our lunch and moved ahead to find Anjuna. The beach was in a remote place as if it was the precious hidden treasure in Goa. We had a nice time exploring the place, asking different people and we saw a total different landscape of Goa. Finally, we took a right turn in a narrow lane with patched or no roads and cruised through coconut trees and a sandy road to reach Anjuna. We spent some time playing our beach volleyball and rushed to Vagator. No way we were going to miss the Sunset!!!

Sunset in Vagator

Sunset View from Vagator Hill Top

Fun on the edge of hill

We further explored routes to reach Vagator. Signboards were a boon to us. Also, we ensured to ask local people about the route. They were a human GPS who guided us in our routes. We passed through rustic areas, twisted roads and reached the hill top of Vagator. We rushed to an empty stone bench. There we were sitting on a bench, close to a hill edge, watching the river sparkle by the reflection of golden sun rays. Shankar brought pints from nearby and we were savoring every drop of it. This again reminded me of the happiness of prisoners from “Shawshank Redemption”, who enjoyed a bottle of beer at sunset after toiling hard for full day. Indeed, we were prisoners of our own world back at our homes. Ajay, the most work-dedicated guy in our group, frequently expressed his joy by contrasting the boundless beaches with bounded monitors and cubicles in a workplace. We saw a different carefree personality of his in Goa. Slowly, visitors kept coming by and the place was crowded in no time. We clicked some fun-filled and crazy pics. The water sparkled beautifully and we watched the sun go down. It was the best evening we had in Goa. 
                                                                                  

After the sunset

A Surreal View

                                                 







Silly Srikanth and Anand Sagar

It was already dark and time for us to go back to our rooms. Just when we thought, we reached the main road near our resort, a 25 something guy overheard our conversation in telugu and followed us to our resort. His name was Srikanth and told us that he was working in Goa for over 6 years. Slowly, he started to annoy us with his intruding questions. It was 2 days in Goa and we could already connect to the place but this guy, assumed us we were aliens and started bragging about different places in Goa. While we were very much happy about our resort, He even questioned our choice of resort. He unnecessarily took efforts to explain us about local silver jewelry and cajoled us to buy it. In no time, we understood what a painful guy he was and wanted to get rid of him. The only helpful information he told us about a vegetarian restaurant nearby called “Anand Sagar”, which became our only source of food for next 2 days. Our group bounced back and got rid of this bothersome guy.

We quickly got refreshed and rushed to Anand Sagar. Indeed the food was quality enough to satiate our hunger. Kiru, the only vegetarian in our group, came back to life after trying out this restraw. We loathed srikanth for his cheap guide-nonsense given to tourists but thanked him to let us know about this restraw. We went back home and wanted to spend most of our night on Goan streets. We tried a local pub for few hours , which to many of us was a forgettable experience. I too didn't like it. We thought we ended up at a wrong place and reached home past midnight. Bhanu and Kiru crashed while others wanted to stretch their night at Candolim.

The License Nonsense

1 am. Ravi got a call from his cousin, who was also in Goa, asking him to come to Baga. Kiru and Bhanu were exhausted and crashed in their rooms. Pravin & Purush, Shankar & Ajay, Ravi and I paired up on our activas and headed to Baga. We were asked to come till the dead-end of the famous Tito's street. As soon as we reached the lane which took to Tito's street, a street fight started between few foreigners. Police intervened and we stood by spectating until the fuss ended. Now, we had to enter that lane where Mama's (Cops) stood guard. Ravi and I headed our activa first and were duly checked for driving license (DL). We had it and were let go. Pravin, slowly walked by near me and I told him to simply show their DL's. Ravi and I went ahead and were waiting for others to follow. The wait continued but two other activas of our frens didn't come by. Some shit for sure has happened we thought.

Ravi went back to check out. Pravin had his DL and he was fine. It was Shankar !! He was riding the activa. When asked for a DL, he showed his photo-copied version of DL on a folded paper!!. For god's sake, it was photo-copied and neither original nor laminated. Ajay, who was on the same activa, got the shock of his life. His eyes couldn't believe for a while what Shankar has confidently showed it to cop. A photo-copied version of DL on a folded paper!!! Mama got angry and simply fined 950Rs !! Now the twists and confusions continued. Shankar, having no other DL, told that he left his DL at resort. Ravi came back to me and took both his and my DL, which left me with no other option but to wait for guys to join up. While Ravi unsuccessfully wanted to bluff the cop by showing either his or my DL for Shankar's, Ajay still stood perplexed about the whole incident. He came back to his senses after a while and told to cop that they would get the DL from room. Ravi and Ajay went back 6 kms back to reach room only to discover that Ajay also could not find his DL !! There was no option left but to duly pay the fine was what Ajay thought.

Ajay, after lot of struggle, finally recollected that he left his DL in Shankar's wallet, who was with cop now!! Ravi and Ajay returned to Shankar and by that time, the cop has already forgot who was actually driving the activa !! This confusion was simply mind blowing. Shankar showed Ajay's DL and told that Ajay was driving the activa. The cop had enough of the golmaal happening around him and asked everyone to leave. While all these fuss continued for an hour, Purush joined me and we seated nearby a pub calmly. I was engrossed watching the people walking around that street. That lane was full-of-life even at 2am and people, mostly drunk, were having utmost fun in their own way. I fell in love with that colorful street. Pretty girls and good looking boys, few drunk and few delirious, absolutely enjoyed their freedom. Also, cops ignored their drunken driving.. It indeed reflected the tourist importance in Goa.

Finally we met Ravi's cousin and went to Baga beach at around 2.30 am. We were already exhausted and were not in right mood to stay for long. So we stayed there until 3 am and went back to our activas. Ajay surprised us again saying he lost activa keys at the beach. Being a methodical person he is, he quickly went back to beach and found the keys at exact spot. Bingo!! We sighed and returned to our rooms. Ravi felt bad about all these fuss as it was his idea to come to Baga. I told Ravi not to take fault on him and these twists are bound to be part of our trip. I'm sure none in our group would mind anything about the whole incident. No matter how deep shit we were in, we enjoyed the unfolding of our twists in the trip.