Trip to Goa and Belgaum: Calmly Sailing Past Those Waters...

Late planning and late execution always lands you in a heap of surprises. If not you, the one who not even in his dreams thought that all of us would attend his sister’s grand wedding, would be left speechless and in tears! These are the moments we live for, right? One such opportunity came to us and we took no time in surprising our friend, Vijay, we took KSRTC Airavat Club Class overnight bus to Belagavi from Bengaluru and planned Goa {last time I had covered- Anjuna, Fort Aguada, Chapora Fort, Baga, Calangute, Dona Paula, Panjim, Churches - in my hired bike, during those days, when India won world cup 2011!} for later part of the week. Here is the travelogue of my trip-

Bogmalo Beach Resort

#Belgaum, with wide roads and decent traffic, looked clean. Thanks to pre-monsoon rains, weather was very enjoyable. Wedding was scheduled to be at Gandhi Bhavan, near Sanman Hotel. After managing quick shower at Keerthi Lodge, I attended the wedding wearing Modi jacket (no surprises!). Loved the typical North Karnataka food at the lunch. Soon after the wedding, we bought couple of Kunda boxes, the local delicacy; we caught Kadamba bus, run by Goa govt., to Margao. The single road, NH 4A,passed through many breath taking visuals {thanks to plush green Western Ghats} and a university that has constantly taken student’s breath, VTU- Visvesvaraya Technological University!

#Bogmalo Beach Resort, we sort of crashed here directly from Belagavi or Belgaum. We hired a cab to travel 28kms from Margao to reach Bogmalo. Cabbie, John, reminded us the Goan attitude and Goan unique lingual! His stories were around cab tourism mafia, places to see in Goa and anything related to tourism! The bubble lake, were bubbles appears on a lake when you clap, still resides in my memory and I will explore, sooner or later!

At Vijay's Sister, Shweta's Wedding

At the resort we had those rooms which directly opened to the beach view. I think mercury had soared up to around 35c and good amount of humidity added to the summer of Goa- leading us all the time in the water- either in the pool or beach! I recommend this resort- for its swimming pool, decent food, shacks in the beach, poor room service and proximity to Bogmalo beach! {Which was almost empty most of the times}

Basilica of Bom Jesus

#Baga Beach, spent a evening there, just to soak the hyped #Goa excitement! Tried jet skiing and spent some time at a shack- Britto’s, which needs to credited for it’s amazing ambience! Did some shopping and window shopping, and didn't get into pub hopping!

#Basilica of Bom Jesus, we hired a guide for 100 INR and it was totally worth it. He spoke how in 15th century it all started with Portuguese, how St. Francis Xavier spread Christianity with Society of Jesus and passed away on the way to China. Guide also tracked the life of relics of St. Xavier, after his death, which travelled to Malaysia, Rome and then finally, to Goa, at Basilica of Bom Jesus. This church is also called old church of Goa and UNESCO world heritage site, you'll spot IHS- first 3 letters from Jesus in Greek, inscribed on top of the church. IHS also means Jesus- Human Savior. Outside the gate, we had good dosas and ice creams to beat the heat!

Mangeshi Temple

#Sahakari Spice Farm, new trend in Goa these days is to show rich flora and fauna of Western Ghats. They include food prepared from veggies grown in this 132 acre farm! For those who are from western ghats, nothing much to look out for, for the rest, it may turn out to be eye-opening exciting 1 hour study tour in the farm- showing coconut, Arecanut, jackfruit, mango, cashew, feni preparation and display of spices.

#Mangeshi Temple houses Lord Mangeshi, form of Lord Shiva, the main deity of Gowda Saraswath Brahmins. This temple looks rich with unique Goan architecture comprising of a sanctum and a tower kind of structure that can lit 450 diyas (lamps) at a time. The road leading to temple houses many eateries (Don't forget to drink kokum juice here!)and small shops selling memorabilia.

Sahakari Spice Farm

#Margao Flea Market was up since to mark the feast of local church that was coming up. We entered and exited (in VRL sleeper bus which stopped at Ankola for dinner) Goa via Margao- and both the times were held up in middle for some time because of the crowd that was busy shopping and blocking the road!

{Thank you Manu for being amazing trip organiser, yet again! Thank you Vijay for inviting us and inspiring us to plan this trip. Thanks to Archi, Manu & Sushma for making this trip memorable}

Agani, I'll visit you Again..

Sakaleshpur, known as Scotland of east, was our weekend target. Six of us, set out on Saturday morning with a hope to dwell in nature for a day. 260kms or 5 hours wasn’t far away, with our car- Innova showing its Ferrari instincts. Great morning, great breakfast, oh yeah, Hotel Mayura near Bellur cross in BM (Bangalore-Mangalore) Road, quality of food here was surely not comprised with its little upward flying rates. We ended visiting the same hotel while returning back for snacks!

Cottages were ready to welcome us when we reached Agani resorts. Refreshing sound of waterfall music was on air. Crickets chirped, amidst lust greenery, we were destined to stay in a wooden-built cottage (hut) for a day. Sun was hiding behind the sky-kissing-huge trees. We had arrived to a place where our civilization had started, digitally unconnected. We pledged to make the most of next 24 hours. Life jackets on, we were trying water rappelling, swimming, pedal boating in a 16-feet deep natural lake. It didn’t take much time before we realized that this place was blessed. We could see mountains romance clouds, thick pastures and greenery all around. Next day trek looked very very promising!

Soon we could hear rats running in our stomach. The owner had told us that they always serve special food. Indeed, it was! Lunch menu contained “kayi kadubu”, tasty side dishes, pulav, raitha and curd. We learnt that the ingredients like masala were homemade here and most of the vegetables, spices were naturally grown. We rested for a while and were soon playing game of cricket before we went in for natural Jacuzzi. Tiny waterfall had in them underwater jets of water for a perfect massage of the body. As I mentioned, it was always dark in this dense forest, and to set the mood, it started to drizzle. We realized that it was dusk and we were off for a camp fire. Speechless experience of fire and the chilly drizzles happening together!

We plucked oranges, musambis and figs, all directly from plants, really, for the first time in life! Wild elephants strolling in the surroundings were big news around. Fear of encountering them was always there. Midst, we had dinner, which had “Kori Rotti” and other tasty offerings. I could see the fireflies creating magic, lying down from my bed. This was the testimony for the day well spent!

Early morning, nature at its best, we were on our way for a trek. Splendid way through the forests, valleys, pastures and clouds. Leeches were plenty in numbers and gave us memories on which we can laugh on. The tiredness made us have a heavy breakfast. A shuttle badminton game was refreshing which made food digest fast so that we could have a quick swim in the lake before we checked out from resort. On the way back, we visited Belur- Chennakeshava temple, and Halebeedu- Hoysaleshwara temple, built 900 years ago by Hoysala dynasty, both UNESCO heritage sites, were incredibly magnificent. Drizzles, forests, long lane roads, 550kms, yes it was, a weekend to remember!