Ola, we all know a trip to Goa with friends is so difficult to plan. But we never stop planning for that trip. Same was with me. I live in my hometown, with my family. So, I am always looking for a short trip to meet my friends in Pune. All my engineering friends are in Pune. So, it so happened that one of my friend Chinmay met another friend of us Pratik in Pune and they called me up. After the usual talk, they asked me if am free and if I can come to Pune. I was like yeah, even I want a break. And then we called up our another friend Aniruddh. He was into a job and he didn't have leaves. So, he was like "Ankit tu aaja, apan dekhte kuch weekend ka". So I made up my mind and told my parents that I need a short trip and on 13th feb I left for Pune.
I reached Pune by afternoon and met Pratik and Chinmay. By this time the COVID-19 Virus had hit India and as we were reading some news articles, there was a news of Article 144 being imposed in Goa. So we were not sure about Goa. We called some friends in Goa to ask and they said its all ok, nothing to worry. So, late in the evening we met Aniruddh after his office and then we discussed and we all were like "chalo nikalte car me. Kahi to chale hi jaenge".
We left Pune at around 11pm towards Kolhapur.
On the way we stopped at Hotel Jagdamba on Bangalore Highway just outside Pune for dinner. It is famous for Non-veg food.
After dinner we set off towards Kolhapur enjoying the drive. It was almost 1am when we left from Jagdamba.
So, finally we were going Goa now.
In the morning, we passed through Sawantwadi and reached North Goa by morning. We drove straight to our Hotel to check-in. We had booked the room in Hotel Down da Village when we left Pune. But the room wasn't ready so we had to wait for 2 hours to get the room. Mean while, we managed to get breakfast in a near by cafe. After getting the room, we took a nap for 2 hours to get some sleep since we drove all night. We got up around 4pm and got ready to hit the beach.
Next morning, the second day, we decided to head to Panaji for breakfast. We went to the famous Casa Bhonsle Restaurant.
We had Goan breakfast. We had Bhaji with Bread, Goan Samosa, Mirchi Plate, Batatawada Plate and it was all amazing.
Some of us wanted to shop a little so we roamed around on the streets of Panaji.
Again we were hungry so we went to Aunty Maria for some snacks.
Then we headed towards South Goa.
We drove through vasco da gama. We had no hurry or fixed plan so we were at out own pace. We wandered around, trying different routes.
On the way we noticed a small island we didn't knew about. It was a deserted place but we thought to take a small break. It was São Jacinto Island. We saw a bridge connecting the island and went there. There was a church there but for some reason it was closed that afternoon. So we drove towards the port again.
We went to upto the last point of Vasco da gama port. The point where the cruise arrive.
After spending some time looking at the cruise, we started again towards south Goa.
Passing by the villages, twisty narrow road, we reached Agonda.
We all had come for the first time to Agonda. As we parked the car and walked towards the beach, we saw the best view, the huts and sun setting on the other side. It was amazing view. We quickly settled on a shack (Green Valley) and ordered food. We were starving by now. Food was nice.
We then decided to spend the night at Agonda. So we searched for room and could easily find a cottage facing the beach. We stayed at Dersey's Cottages. It has decent rooms. So we checked-in and freshened up and set out to beach again.
For Dinner we went to near by restaurant On The Way Restaurant. Food was nice here. After Dinner we had a walk on the street for sometime and went back to our hotel. Since it was beach side room, we sat on the beach till late in the night talking.
Next morning. I am an early riser, so I was up by 7am. I went straight to the beach. After sometime, others came out and we went into the waters. It was refreshing. We spent almost an hour into the waters. Then we had breakfast at our cottage shack.
After breakfast, we all got ready and we decided to go to Cola Beach.
The beach is beautiful with a lagoon. Its a unique beach. The exotic beauty and tranquility of the place will take your breath away. It has a backwater body and backdrop of forest.
Reaching Cola beach is rather difficult. Roads are not well built but just follow the red mud track and you’ll reach a beautiful divine beach. You need to leave your vehicle at a point and then climb down to the beach. We had some snacks on the shack.
Again we came back to Agonda for lunch and some rest.
Later we went to Butterfly Beach. Its a hidden beach. You can either reach here by a boat ride from Palolem beach or by hiking through a forest. We opted for the forest hike. It was a exhausting hike that took us around an hour or more to reach the beach.
We reached the beach just before the sunset. There were very few people on the beach. But it was beautiful beach. It was completely empty, no shack, no settlement which is why it is what it is.
By the time we decided to head back, it was already getting dark and walking back through the forest now was scary. Under the flash lights of our mobile phones, we finally reached our car and took a sigh of relief. We went straight to Palolem Beach.
Palolem beach didn't seem that happening to us. We were expecting something more I guess. So we just strolled around the beach and the market. We had thought staying till late night at Palolem but after some time we thought its better to spend time on Agonda in tranquility. So we came back to Agonda, had dinner on our Hotel Shack and spent rest of the time on beach till around 2am having the most amazing time discussing our college time and random stuff.
Next morning. Last day in Goa. Had a walk on beach early morning. Then went into the waters and after that we had breakfast. Then we got a bit lazy. We slowly started getting ready one by one, packed our bags. We didn't wanted to leave the place but we had to.
We left at around 11am. We took the route from Belgaum this time. Then via Kolhapur and Satara we reached Pune by around 11pm. We bid good bye to each other and we were on our paths back home.
A trip to cherish.
We went straight to Little Vagator beach, the Shiva's Face Point. Just grabbed our drinks and sat on the bench to enjoy the sunset.
We sat on the rocks till it was completely dark. Cool breeze and sound of sea and the sunset view. Perfect end to the day.
Then, we went to Baga for dinner, but as expected it was over crowded and loud music which all didn't wanted at all. We all had come to relax. So, within an hour we got out of Baga and went to a local goan restaurant which served Goan food.
After dinner we went to our hotel and retired for the day.
