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Aditi at Anjuna beach |
My Wi-Fi code: 4006246
Goa two days in has been pretty awesome.
After a rough start where Zingbus cancelled on us, it almost seemed like we weren't going to make our hotel reservation. But it all worked out in the end, thanks to Paulo Travels and the sweet solo traveller dude who offered up his seat to us.
The thing about the plans Aditi and I make is that our day just ends up piecing together like a puzzle, like it was always meant to be the way it went. And all we did is just live the experience. For everything we overthink in life, especially me, this is something neither of us put too much thought into. It all just ends up going smoothly.
But Day 1 was a major drag, lots of logistical stuff. Reached Goa around 1 pm after a hectic bus ride, took a cab to the hotel, checked in, showered, picked up the scooter, went looking for a petrol pump, filled Rs 500 worth of fuel, etc. Then:
a. Fisherman's Wharf for lunch
b. The Village Baker for dessert
c. Rupa's Shack for some beers
d. Bending Bamboos for a quiet dinner
Had a bunch of seafood and some pints. Somehow beers have stopped going down easy the way they used to. Might be the age, might be the lack of sleep. Rupa's Shack was a great discovery. A quaint little dimly lit place in the middle of two busy patches on Candolim beach. Had finger chips, papad, and some beers. My lack of sleep in general contributes greatly to my anxiety. Unlike earlier, I need to be well rested in order to push my body both schedule and food/ drink wise. Dinner was a delicious penne pasta and onion rings at this cosy place called Bending Bamboos.
Day 2 was the start of the fun stuff. Got up around 8 am, had an okay breakfast at Radisson and left for Aguada Fort, which is a nice 20-minute ride from the hotel. The fort itself was way too crowded. A board out front said "no photography or videography" but the sheer number of people was so high that none of the security bothered to go around checking. Which resulted in a bunch of people including me taking photos and videos on their DSLRs. Although, I didn't take any pics/ videos of the fort itself, just of the view of the vast ocean on the west. Lots of big groups of friends, lots of families with one or two children. Not too many couples though.
Stopped midway for a sugarcane juice, where I took some nice shots of a river that was running parallel to the road. Came back to Candolim for lunch at Fisherman's Cove. It's a place I'd had my eyes on since the day we came, because it's got the same vibe as Toto's Garage in Bandra - karaoke music, dance floor, 90s hits playing round the clock. Decent food, although the vindaloo and prawn masala were spicy, so we had to pack a large portion of it. Then we took off for the north, and wound up at Anjuna after a nice 20-minute ride through some small ghats, meadows and Goa highways. Cafe Artjuna is a cool place, it feels like I've been there before with Kalpesh and group though I can't be sure. Anjuna beach is too commercial but with a great vibe. Passed by some shacks there playing minimal tech and melodic house, but a large majority were blasting Punjabi music, which was a big put off. Did some beach videography and took mood shots for the vlog. I don't really like drawing attention with the big camera rig but it also feels nice lugging around an affordable, dependable run & gun setup. Not to mention the sound quality has gone up many notches ever since I added the Zoom unidirectional mic to the setup.
Baga is not that great but the ride from Anjuna to there is amazing, with the big bridge, cool breeze and fancy restaurants lining the road. Baga's shacks are nice to relax at, but the beach doesn't have much to offer. Strange how I've come here so many times before but never really bothered to vibe with any of the places until now. We walked around Baga, and Aditi stopped to have a bowl of Maggi. The drive from Baga back to Candolim is nice and short. We came back to the room, washed up and went to Love in the Air shack at Candolim beach. Had finger chips and roasted papad along with some Heinekens, which I think will become my mid-30s go-to beer just because of how smoothly they go down.
Day 3 started quite late. We lazed around in the room till about 2 pm watching CID and some random movies before leaving for Panjim. The ride was long and sunny, and we passed some nice areas including a bridge (Nerul river), some forests and a short ghat section. Crossed a highway patch to reach Panjim and tried to locate this Portuguese colony called Fontainhas. Went all the way up one small hill, and asked two policemen over there, but they weren't able to help. Came back down and went up another hill which had the CM's residence and the Goa High Court but couldn't find Fontainhas there either. Then we got hungry and stopped at this place called Verandah, where we had some crispy pomfret fry and a Goan alcoholic drink called Urrak. I don't know why I haven't heard of it before, but Urrak was an amazing discovery. It's refreshing, with a tangy-lemony zest, and the low alcohol content doesn't get you too drunk.
Later we went to Divar Island, which is a small piece of land just off the coast of Panjim. It's a free ferry ride away, and the ride to the jetty is scenic, with the river running parallel to the road for almost a 3-km stretch. Nothing much to do in Divar island except ride around, visit churches and admire the sheer quiet of the island, all of which we were able to do in under 15 minutes. From there we came back to MG Road in Panjim and kept riding through Caranzalem and Miramar. Our last stop for the day was Dona Paula jetty. There's really nothing to do over there, it's kind of like Colaba Causeway if you want to shop, and even the structure at the end of the jetty has been shut down for repairs. The highlight of the day was the ride back from there to Candolim, via the Dr E Borges Road, which has Goa University, Taj, the Goa AIR office and some nice apartment complexes. Beautiful stretch of breezy highway road with sparse traffic and a direct connect to the main highway. Reached Candolim in about 45 mins or so, took a shower and, unable to decide what to do, we just went back to Fisherman's Cove for dinner where we had some beers and split an egg fried rice and veg manchurian.
Around 11 am on day 4 we left for Anjuna, with the express intent of sitting and chilling at a cafe all day. But it being a Saturday all the cafes were packed with wait times running into hours. On our way from Baba Au Rhum to some shack near Anjuna beach we stopped by this place called Clay Studio, which is a co-working space that also doubles up as a bar. It was shut, and we could find no one on the property either. We almost decided to ride back to Candolim when we passed by a signboard that read 'The Flying Goat'. I registered some mention of a library and an organic farm, and asked Aditi to stop. We went in and ended up spending the whole day over there.
Owned by this Mumbai-based ex-marketing guy called Qais, the place started operations six months ago. The cafe is part of a small piece of land that also houses a farm where Qais and his team grow spices and herbs. The cafe itself has an early-2000s Mocha vibe without the hookah, bar, smoky interiors and loud city teens. Instead, there's a bar serving Goan cocktails and a limited but interesting menu of local food. Again we ordered some Urrak variants, and I went around and shot the place while our drinks arrived. We had a prawns starter and a mango curry-rice with banana plantain dish for mains, both of which were tasty but the portions were small by Goa standards. Did a short interview with Qais for BS Quickie, and took some shots of his library before commencing a beautiful ride back to Candolim via Ozran beach. Back in the hotel I was so hungry I ate last night's fried rice and manchurian straight out of the fridge. We had a quick shower, returned the scooter and walked to Candolim beach for our last shack visit of the trip. Stopped at a place called Big Baba Shack where we had some beers. It started drizzling, and we had some equipment on us, so we packed some starters and walked back to the hotel. Back in the room we watched one episode of CID before Aditi passed out.
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Signboard at Flying Goat Cafe, Anjuna |
More and more, especially with how today panned out, I feel like there is such a thing as meant-to-be. Just going with the flow, without expending too much energy into doing something a certain way or making a plan happen, has its own upsides.
We check out at 11 am tomorrow and plan to spend time at Cafe Candolim before taking a cab to Margao station for our 4:20 pm train to Mangalore. The first leg of this little trip is already over and it's gone really well. The plan is to go to Mysore, Nanjangud and Debur for amma's birthday.