#SwipeRightToTravel
It all started a few months ago when it's been more then a year I haven't traveled to any place and as I am a man consumed by wanderlust, I was having very strong urge of travelling. I asked my friends to plan a tour for like 4-5 days somewhere but they were always like "Ya sure ,why not" but nobody looked like they seriously want to travel. As I said earlier bitten by travel bug I always used to read blogs and articles of people who travel to different places and meet different people from around the world and learn about their culture, living habits etc. etc. So as my friends weren't serious about travelling so then I decided to take a solo tour and that too without telling my parents or any of my friends except one because I've to take at least one name in front of my parents so that they allow me to go, otherwise they wouldn't have allowed me to go.
Here starts the Planning of the tour:
I always wanted to go to Goa and decided that I'll go to Goa solo. I started reading more blogs on articles about tours and places to visit in Goa on Tripoto. I read more then 20-25 articles as because I didn't wanted my first solo tour to be boring or wanted something left unattended and because of those blogs I came to know about hostels to stay in. They were the best part of my tour. Literally, The best. I started checking flight rates of Delhi to Goa and vice versa. I booked my flight tickets on 19th of September,2016 (14 days before departure date). I didn't bought round way tickets as because buying separate tickets for going and returning were cheaper.
After tickets it comes the turn of places to stay in, My tour was of 6 days and 5 Nights, So I booked the first two days of my stay at Summer Hostel in Palolem, South Goa with just Rupees 500 per night including breakfast and rest of the days at Prison Hostel (Pretty dope) in Anjuna, North Goa (Same tariffs).Both the hostels were part of the same i.e. TheHostelCrowd. Next comes the luggage.
Again as beaten by travel bug I wanted to go with a rucksack and I didn't had one -_- . So I started doing research on rucksacks and decided to buy one from Wildcraft named Karakoram of capacity 60 ltrs. I ordered it online from amazon and it was supposed to come on 30th of October, 3 days before my departure date. But unfortunately they weren't able to deliver it because of some mistake made by courier facility and therefore I didn't got my rucksack. So I decided to buy one from somewhere in my city but there were no Wildcraft stores in my city. I kept looking for some good rucksacks for 2-3 days until I decided to go to Delhi on 2nd of October (October 3rd was my departure date) and buy 1 from the nearest Wildcraft store that was in Karol Bagh. reaching back home town around 5 PM in the evening I started packing at 9 PM and was done with the packing at around 12:30 AM. After the tour I realized I'm certainly not a light packer.
Now it was the time when I had to make a thousands of lies to my parents so that the don't have any suspicion on me that I'm going alone. The friend I told you about (The one who knew about the plan) was studying in Chandigarh, so I told my parents that I'm going with him and two of his friends from Chandigarh and they'll reach Goa from Chandigarh airport and I'll go there from Delhi airport. Somehow they believed me and let me go.
Reaching the Dabolim Airport, Goa and after getting out of the airport it was raining there and it was like I fell in love with Goa at it's first sight. I was standing there with two bags and these were my words " Sala aa to gaya akela yahan, ab karu kya ?". Hundreds of taxi drivers were there trying to get customers and earn money. I showed them the address of My hostel and they said it'll take Rupees 1,800 to reach there as it is around 2 hours from here and is very far. So I decided to share the taxi and it saved me 500 Rupees (Not much but better then nothing). After reaching my hostel at around 5 in the evening I got my bed. After unpacking my stuff and getting fresh I headed towards Palolem beach as it was just 10 minutes from my hostel. After relaxing at the beach for around 1 hours I decided to roam around and found some of the smaller and quite beaches nearby. On my way back to hostel I had dinner at a restaurant and then headed to my hostel. Reaching hostel I found that the people who were supposed to be my roommate were back at here starts the process of Meeting people from around the world. I choose the room which had 6 beds. 5 were occupied including me . So there were two girls and one guy in my room. They were Phoebe, Paulani and Hanif. Paulani and Hanif were couple from Africa and Phoebe was from London. I wasn't able to talk much to the couple as our timings didn't match but I came to know Phoebe really well because she was almost in the room all the time. She had a degree in arts and was really good at drawing but she doesn't liked color sketches and paintings. Only black and white sketches she used to draw. She came alone to Goa and was waiting for her friends to come to Goa. And then after talking for a while and sharing some really good stories and pictures of our artistic skills (I'm good at art too :P ), I went to sleep as I was tired from travelling and that's how day 1 passed.
The second day. Pretty much the most exhausting day of my tour, I guess. Because on this day I had to go to Dudhsagar falls. I woke up early in the morning at 6 and got ready to go to Dudhsagar falls and to some beaches before that. At around at 7:30 I headed to Agonda beach which was the most peaceful and beautiful beach I found during my trip. I reached the beach around 8 and there was no one on the beach except me. the whole beach was empty and the sound of waves and birds chirping forced me sit to there for an hour in the peaceful silence and the scenic beauty. After that i headed towards dudhsagar falls as it was around 70 KM from my hostel so it took me around 2 hours to reach there on my bike which I rented for Rupees 400 per day. After reaching a place near falls people aren't allowed to take their vehicles any further, So I had to hire a guide to Dudhsagar falls. We covered 1/3rd of the distance in his bike (as he was allowed) and rest on foot trekking through tunnels, railway tracks, small rivers, forests etc. It took us around 1 and a half hour to reach there after completing the bike ride. As I reach the waterfall I decided to take a bath in the water.
Here comes the twist: As it was in the middle of a forest so there were monkeys there and when I was bathing in the waterfall a monkey came down near my bag and unzipped my bag and tilted my bag. So by tilting my bag the monkey threw all the clothes out of the bag and made sure that my phone was hanging in the water. If it wasn't my portable charger my phone would've flown away leaving me hopeless. Just 2 minutes ago I connected my phone to the portable charger and because of it my phone was with me, though it wasn't working and the water completely destroyed my phone. My phone was One Plus 2 and costed Rupees 28,000. Here is the starting of my loss of Rupees 2,00,000.
I headed back to my hostel in Palolem by asking people the way and reached there at around 5 in the evening. After that I went to the nearest market and searched for a phone for 1 hour and then bought a new phone for Rupees 3,100 because I really needed one so that I can use maps and contact my family. After that I went to the beach and for some relaxation and got back to the hostel after having dinner in between the way. Reaching the room I met my roommates and talked for a while and then I went to sleep to sleep because next day I had to checkout and move to the North side of the Goa to the Prison Hostel.
Here comes the third day on which I had to travel to North Goa and check-in at Prison Hostel leaving Summer Hostel from South Goa. After consulting the reception about how to reach Prison Hostel he told me that either I can take a taxi or can go by 3-4 buses. The cost of the ride of taxi was Rupees 2000 (Big amount for a solo traveler). So I decided to go there by buses. I woke up at 6 in the morning and after taking shower, packed my stuff and took a bus at 7 AM and reached Anjuna at 10:30 AM after traveling through 5 buses just for Rupees 80. By not choosing a comfortable taxi ride and deciding for a less comfortable way of traveling I saved 1920 Rupees. I reached the Prison hostel and checked in there but wasn't allotted a bed because there was still time for the people to check out. So as I was waiting in the common room, there were more people sitting there who just came in and those also who were already staying at prison hostel. Slowly we all started talking to each other and decide to go to Anjuna beach together which was just 5 minutes of walking distance away from our hostel. The people I met there were the people because of whom my first solo tour became an unforgettable story that I am never ever going to forget in my life. The friends I made there were Nand, Bhawna, Cheryl, Janet, Alan, Mitch. We headed off to the beach and sat there. It was around 11:30 AM and all of us ordered some food and booze to chill. We sat there all day talking, enjoying, knowing each other and it came out that I was the youngest of them with just 20 years experience of life. Cheryl was the one nearest to me at 22 as so on, The most experienced was Nand at 39. We came back to the hostel at 6 in the evening. Before leaving the beach we decided that for the evening we'll go to St. Anthony's, Baga and ask other hostelers too if any of them wanted to join.
After reaching hostel and getting fresh all of us met in the common room and asked the reception to book taxis for us. Reaching the St. Anthony's, Baga at around 8 in the evening just out of curiosity I counted how many were we. So it came out that there were total 23 people. Yupp, pretty big number starting with 7. We all sat at tables on the beach near the water. All of us really had fun there talking, eating, drinking and knowing each other as good as possible and sharing stories. After completing the dinner all of us went to Tito's lane, Baga. We were dispersed and went to different clubs and bars and after chilling there for few hours some of us came back to hostel and some stayed there for few more hours. Here ends the day 3 with making some really good friends from around the world.
DAY-4
After bearing the pain in my feets all night after that trekking it was a new day and I had to go to Aguada fort to Chapora port and visit all the beaches in between that were Sinquerim, Candolim, Calungute, Baga, Anjuna, Vagator. These all the places are on the same coastline and you can reach all of them by starting at any of the fort and visiting all the places one by one. I woke up at 9 AM on the 4th day and headed off to the common room. After talking to some of the Prisoners (Mitch, Bhawna, Nand, Cheryl) I went to the eating room and ate the delicious breakfast made by Richard(Cook). After completing the breakfast I got ready and headed off to Aguada fort and went to all the beaches and at last to the most famous Chapora fort (The fort in 'Dil Chahta Hai' movie ). The most beautiful among these were Chapora fort and Baga and Anjuna Beach. Sinquerim beach was also pretty beautiful. After visiting all the places I headed off towards some good place to eat. As I said earlier that I read too many articles about Goa so I went in search of this place call 'Burger Factory' and it came out that it was just 5 Minutes away from my hostel.
The meal I had at burger factory was very delicious and was pretty heavy too. This meal costed me around 400 Rupees. They have both Vegetarian burgers and Non-Vegetarian Burgers. A must visit if you ever travel to Goa.
My hostel was just 5 minutes away from burger factory. After eating the meal I headed off to my hostel. Reaching there I found Bhawna and Nand seating in the common room. So we all decided to go out for dinner at Curlies. Curlies was just 5 minutes away from our hostel. New guy Sourabh just checked in that day and joined our group too. We were around 10-12 people at dinner. Cheryl wasn't with us that as she went to meet some of her friends. Mitch was with us too at dinner.
After eating delicious dinner at Curlies we headed back to the hostel and met Cheryl there. We all decided to do a farewell party at the hostel as because next day Alan, Cheryl and Saurabh were leaving. So me, Nand and saurabh went to a supermarket nearby to buy booze for the party. After reaching the hostel, Timon (Fellow prisoner friend) also joined us with his own bottle of Rum. We all partied till around 3 in the morning. We all were dancing, drinking, playing different card games and other games too. It was the best night of my life till yet. As I was enjoying too much I kept on drinking and had no idea that I drank too much and gonna end throwing up. Later that night while I was sleeping I suddenly threw up lying on the upper bed and straight at the floor (2 Times). Hopefully the bed under my bed was empty and nobody was sleeping there, otherwise I would've been beaten to death in the middle of the night. So that's how my first throw up was and how the fourth day of my trip ended.
DAY-5
Morjhim beach was the first beach I visited and it was really beautiful and was empty like Agonda Beach was. But it was really beautiful as because from their I was able to see Chapora Fort.
I don't have any pics of the Arambol Beach and other beaches as because I lost them.
Sorry
After visiting these beaches I headed back to my hostel and put my bag in the room and met Bhawna and told her about my Hangover that still hasn't wear off. And it was 5 in the evening and I haven't eaten anything after last night. So I went to Anjuna beach and found Timon their lying on the beach. We both ordered some food and after eating it and enjoying the beautiful sunset at Anjuna beach got back to the hostel. When we reached hostel Bhawna and Sourabh were planning for to go to a casino and I joined them too. A new prisoner couple had also checked-in that day and they were Deepanshi and Shashkt. They both were a really sweet and cute couple and joined us too. We all went to Casino Grand 7, Candolim. The casino was really good and just for Rupees 1,500 per person, an individual can get 1000 rupees worth chips and 4 coupons in which two were for drinks, one for snacks and the 4th one was for Buffet dinner.
After trying our luck in the casino we all decided to go to Lighthouse because it was 1 AM and Sourabh said that,"It will look beautiful". The lighthouse was around 20 minutes from the casino and after reaching there we realized that it was the most soothing place one can be at that time of the night. Staying there for about half hour, we headed back towards our hostel and reached there in one hour. That's how beautifully my second last day of the trip ended. :)
DAY-6
Old Goa doesn't have anything else to offer to the travelers then Churches and Chapels, but those are some of the most beautiful in the whole world. The next few I visited were :
1. Se' Cathedral
2. Chapel of St. Cajetan
3. Church and convent of St. Francis of Assisi
4. Chapel of St. Catherine
5. Church of Our Lady Rosary
6. Church of St. Augustine
After visiting every place from the above mentioned list it was 1 PM and I decided to leave for Panjim which was in between the route for Anjuna. There too I had to visit a church that is very famous and has been used in many Bollywood movies like Aashiqui 2 and Josh. It was Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.
After visiting the Church, I was hungry as it was 1:30 PM, so I had some lunch and left for Anjuna at around 2 in the afternoon. I was pretty much on time until it started raining heavily and I had to stop because I didn't had a waterproof bag and my electronic stuff like My DSLR, my portable charger etc. were in the bag. I stopped and waited there for an hour but still there was no sign of the rain to stop. Now I was getting late for the flight as because from my hostel it took two hours to reach airport. So I decided to visit a nearby bakery shop so that I can have a plastic bag so that I can cover my electronics and continue my journey in the rain. But as expected they refused to give me a single poly bag. I even said that I will buy something from there shop if they give me but they refused. I also said that I've a flight for which I'm getting late but still no poly bag in my hand. I came outside and waited for another 15 minutes and loosing all hopes regarding the stopping of rain I carried on the journey left so that I don't miss the flight. I reached the hostel and I was drenched in rain including my bag. I ran towards my room after talking to the receptionist for calling a cab to the airport. i first checked my bag in all the things were soaked in water. I took out everything and then took out the battery and memory card of the DSLR. I tried to switch on the DSLR but there were no signs of it being still alive. I cleaned every item with a cloth and then packed my stuff. After that I changed all my clothes and in the mean time the taxi has arrived. I hurriedly got out and sat in the taxi. But on the way to Airport there was too much traffic jam and there were no signs that I was gonna reach airport at time. The reason behind jam was heavy rain and also their was some football championship that day in Goa. What a luck day to be in Goa. Though somehow I reached the Dabolin Airport at 7 PM. I paid the taxi driver a amount of Rupees 1,800 as the prices were fixed and the Receptionist at my Hostel also told me about that earlier.
So that's how my trip ended and I bear a loss of Rupees 2,00,000 including all my trip expenses. After reaching home I gave my Sony DSLR for repair but it came out that it was very non-economical to repair the camera and so now it was as good as dead. The worth of the DSLR was Rupees 1.5 lakhs and the worth of my phone was Rupees 26,000 and rest were the trip expenses.
I gathered all the Prisoners on the day after the night we 23 people had dinner. It was really a difficult task to gather them as when one joined, another left waiting and the same scenario continued for a few minutes until they all settled down.
This was my first solo trip and it was the best trip I had in my life yet and probably will be for the rest of my life. though I regret that I had to lie to my parents about the trip, but it was all worth it. The excitement and fear that the thing your parents can come to know about your lies anytime gives rush to the adrenaline. I still haven't told them about the trip till now and think about it every single day that should I or should I not tell them about it. No idea what will happen. The things I learned from travelling solo were really precious and also it gives one the power to move ahead in life keeping in mind that they don't need someone else help to move ahead.
The main reason that why my trip was the best trip was that I made some really good friends from around the world and they all were really nice to me and to each other also. To some of them I'm still in contact and we all still think that somehow someday we all will be back together in Goa and will have another memorable trip. If it weren't for the friends I made and if I hadn't stayed in the hostel I would have never had such an amazing trip.
A big thanks to all the amazing people and amazing destinations for making my trip memorable.
A wise man once said,"You have friends all over the world, You just haven't met them yet."
And that's what I experienced. :)