Christmas season makes ticket booking a harrowing experience. Prices skyrocket and it's a mad rush, especially when faced with train tickets that do not budge from their WL status & sudden cancellations by the bus provider.
For us it meant booking two tickets aboard the Intrcity to Madgaon. As expected, it was expensive, but what made me choose it, apart from the availability of seats, was the presence of an onboard washroom. Recent reviews for this bus have been good w r.t comfort and punctuality. Am keen to see how they live up to that.
Pre-journey service was quite commendable, with frequent WhatsApp updates and even a phone call from the Bus Captain, to ensure we'd been informed of the boarding time & location.
The porter stashed our bags into the belly of the bus and we climbed up onto our individual sleepers on the upper berth. The Bus Captain introduced himself and assured us of a comfortable journey and their commitment to ensure we had a smooth journey. He informed us about use of the washroom and also about the 30min food stop we would be making for a late dinner.
That done, he left us to enjoy the rest of our journey in peace.
My berth was comfortable with adequate space and a little fence, of sorts, but I was terribly frightened I might tumble off at every bump in the road.
Lying there with nothing to do, an image flashed in my mind, like an unwashed negative, that of earlier bus journeys to Goa.
In those days, video coaches were a big deal, and the bus load of travellers would be all looking forward to the movie played on board, to pass the time.
The busses if today are much more comfortable, but now that I remember it, I miss those bus-wala cinema experiences.
Disembarking at Margao KTC Stand on time, what hit us first was the intense heat of the sun doing the best it could on a clear, cloudless afternoon. Hurrying to the car (a rental, already waiting for us), we stowed our bags in the boot and, leaving the car there, crossed the street to Navtara, a veg-restaurant that I know serves good food.
A short while later, we were driving down the Margao-Colva road, headed towards the Palm Crest Holiday Homes, where we had booked our accomodation.
The directions given by our Airbnb host, however, were a little unclear, and it took us three failed attempts before we found the right location.
Situated just off the main road, the apartment is one among many in the complex. It's safe, peaceful & quiet and, its biggest selling point, is the clean & well-maintained swimming pool.
The apartment itself, while spacious and fairly comfortable, is now the first (and only) entry in my list of 'Airbnb spaces to avoid in India'.
- Bathroom faucets were jammed and required a daily bout of wrestling to get the water running.
- Hot water was non-existent even with the geyser on.
- The wire-mesh over the windows were dirty and poorly fitted
- There were large cockroaches in the kitchen and in the bathroom.
- The place was fairly dusty, with maximum grime collected on the ceiling fans & there were cobwebs on the furniture.
- Kitchen platform was coated in a thin layer of dust & the gas stove needed cleaning
- By way of toiletries, all that was provided was one small bar of soap & three towels to be shared by two people across five days.
Day one involved eating Goan sausage-bread and visiting family. Later that evening, we went to Mickey's for dinner with Salvador & Cyprian. Quite popular for food and live music, Mickey's is located near Bollywood Resort at Betalbatim.
We sat at a table by the beach and placed our order. While waiting for the meal to arrive I decided to focus on the music. One thing was clearly evident - the choice of songs and the singer were both horrid and most unsuited to the ambience & mood of the place. What almost made me laugh was the off-tune singer (hired for the evening) worried over losing his gig on account of equally off-tune patrons who took turns....er.. entertaining everyone. Not sure it was the terrible singing or the sip of rum that egged me on, but I matched to the stage and signed myself up for a song. I don't think I sounded any worse than those before me. If anything, I was an improvement.
The next day, a Sunday, began with a mass at the Church of Our Lady of Snows, Raia, and a visit to the cemetary. That, for reasons I choose not to elaborate on, made me very happy.
Breakfast was at Caravela, a lovely little café that turned out to be great for the ambience and the food. Their house-blend coffee is quite good and worth a try. I usually choose well when faced with a menu, but this time around, the scrambled eggs with Goan sausages were a mistake. Too eggy in taste and soggy in texture, it left me feeling queasy all day.
We then made our way towards Panjim via the super new flyover that really cuts travel time & is a joy to ride across. In a few moments, we were standing in front of the Immaculate Conception Church, made famous by virtue of it's beautiful architecture and the numerous movies it has been featured in. A fairly large crowd of tourists were scattered around, braving the scorching heat, clicking pictures, mostly selfies, with varying backdrops of the church, a large decorated Christmas tree and even of the street. Being Christmas Eve, the doors of the church were closed to all visitors, so most had to make do with pictures on its famous steps.
We made our way, next, to the Basilica of Bom Jesu in Goa Velha. The grounds leading to the Basilica were full of tourists. I was surprised that a troupe of street performers had been permitted to set up shop on the grounds, just a short distance outside the main entrance of the church. An increasing line of visitors was steadily snaking its way in through the side entrance. Unlike previous visits here, most of the Basilica and its art gallery were not open to visitors. We could only walk in a single file to one side & see what could be seen as we moved ahead, stopping only to pray at the shrine housing the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier.
Next was a brief visit to Sé Cathedral across the street, followed by some photographs at the mercifully uncrowded ruins of St.Augustine. Was impressed with the restoration and beautification work done at this site, but couldn't explore for long as it was soon closing time.
After a long and enjoyable ride back, we dropped in at Chocolate Café for a snack so filling that we decided to skip dinner.
Christmas Day. Dressed in my almost festive clothes, I began the day by attending the 7am service at the Our Lady of Merces Church. Later, after a hearty breakfast, we spent the day visiting and wishing family.
Before dinner, we drove up to what we know simply as Parvat. It's one of our regular haunts, this hill with the Bhutnath Chandreshwar Temple at its peak. In earlier hours, it's not uncommon to spot monkeys, peacocks and even leopards along the way uphill. We were hoping to catch a sunset, but it was a rather hazy day and so, soon after the sun had disappeared below the horizon, we headed back downhill and accompanied my cousins to their home, not far from Parvat, for a brief game of table-tennis and then, dinner.
The day after Christmas, we planned a visit to the Reis Magos Fort. We began with a brief visit to the Reis Magos Church, named for the Three Magi who visited the Christ child in the manager.This church on the banks of the river Mandovi, is one of the only three places in Goa that celebrate the feast of the Epiphany (Three Kings' Feast) with great pomp & ceremony, on January 06.
Standing right beside the church, is the Reis Magos Fort, a small but well-restored fort that is worth a visit. If one arrives later in the day, there is also ample opportunity to enjoy beautiful sunsets.
After a brief, but enjoyable visit, we stopped awhile to walk around Fontainhas, the Latin quarter of Panjim. I guess it’s very quaint and has much to see, but I couldn’t much enjoy it on account of the many tourists blocking the narrow streets, clicking endless selfies.
I suppose we could have given it more time to grow on us, but we had plans to catch the sunset at another spot, famous for more than just its panoramic views. The Three Kings Chapel, standing on a hill in Cansaulim, is said to be the most haunted place in Goa. There are numerous tales told to justify the moniker, each one just as thrilling as the last. The bit that caught my attention was a warning against looking back at a tree that stands at the entrance to the church, but I'm not sure exactly which of the many trees the warning referred to.
When we arrived, a few workmen were setting up for the one occasion this chapel comes alive - the Feast of the Tree Kings. From three neighbouring villages in the foothills, boys aged 8-10 are chosen to be kings, complete with a crowning ceremony et al. Then, on the feast day, taking different paths, they make their way uphill to this chapel, followed by a festive crowd of people & musicians.
After all the festivities are over, the chapel stands like a lone sentinel on the hill, with none but the famed spirits for company.
While we, most mercifully, had no run-ins with the supernatural, we did make the most of the glorious sunset over the sparkling ocean in the distance. By the time we had basked in the afterglow of the sunset, the place was deserted and we began to notice the stillness around us. The almost-full moon casting a glow on the path brought back to mind the chilling tales we had heard, and we hurried towards the exit, taking great care to ensure not to look back at any tree. In fact, we didn't look back at all...even when we left the hill far behind as we drove home.
Salvador, still in haunted-places mood, began to speak of another lane -Jaakni Baand - somewhere in Goa, that was also best avoided at night on account of unearthly occurrences.
Along the way, we stopped at a little shop popular for sausage-pav and cutlet-pav. We all ordered one of each and finished it in no time, realising just then, how hungry we were, having skipped lunch entirely.
After a brief rest at the apartment, we drove towards Assolna for dinner any one of the many restaurants that lined the river. After scouting around a little, we entered Sam's and ordered much more than we could eat, not expecting such large portions as they had served.
Dinner done, I set the map to direct us back to where my cousin had parked his car. As the night was cool and roads empty of traffic, we turned down the windows to enjoy the breeze. The route we were following took us towards a dark, narrow, winding path. Salvador suddenly sat up straight, looked around and said, "Arre! Why is this going through Jaakni Baand?"
No sooner had he said those words, we fell silent. We shrunk in our seats and quickly wound up the windows. I can swear we all felt an eerie chill envelop us and no one dared glance out the window. This was the very same haunted street we had been speaking of earlier. Hurriedly driving through the mist rolling across this ghostly lane, we realised that the map had changed path and was not leading us to the destination we had entered. Oh help!
Rerouting, we drove on, discussing the strange coincidence of being led to the very same place we had hoped to avoid.
Needless to say, I did not sleep very well that night. Neither did Salvador. He dreamt of strange hands knocking on the windows of his car. Just hands, no body or being attached to them. Brrrr!
Our next-to-last day in Goa.
Walking up quite later than usual, post brunch at Chocolate Cafe, we went to pick up my cousins for yet another excursion. We had decided to spend the day exploring the Anjuna Flea Market that sets up shop every Wednesday.
Driving across the state, we parked at a lot beside the beach. The Sandy path was lined in either side with stalls selling knitted tops, beach wear, jewelry and gemstones. This stretch of shops is not, however, a part of the flea market. Prices here, though, we found to be very reasonable and, at times, even cheaper than usual. I bought myself a couple of hair sticks at a price that made me very happy.
Walking along, we soon arrived at the flea market, not very unlike the one we had just walked through. There were a larger number of stalls and colourfully dressed gypsies selling all kinds of curiosities.... jewelry, shoes, bags, spices and souvenirs. While nothing I saw was unique or out of the ordinary, everything was terribly, terribly overpriced. Why, the hair stick that I'd just purchased was tagged at four times the price in the flea market! Flea market??? More like fleece market!
Back at Mapusa market, we stopped to enjoy some Ross-Omlette at another of our usual haunts. The vendor was just setting up for the evening, and until he did, we ordered some chickoo milkshakes and cold coffee from the shop next door.
I enjoyed the chickoo milkshake and ordered yet another to enjoy while the others in our party feasted on spicy ross-omlette and poiee.
Later that same evening, we changed and drove to Anoshka, a popular restaurant in Loutolim. We were celebrating my aunt's silver wedding and the entire family had gathered together for dinner. Still full from binging on chickoo milkshake, I didn't eat anything save a single, crumb-fried tiger prawn.
It was a fun evening, but the most fun we have, as always, is when we're together at home...which is what we did the next day, our last in Goa.
My cousin, Effie picked us up from our Airbnb early the next morning and drove us to my uncle's place. Then, a while later, we went, for the last time, to Caravela for breakfast, this time, accompanied by Effie.
Now, her petite self looks très petite when seated beside my husband. The hostess, now familiar with us, greeted us and expressed much joy at seeing our daughter with us. She was quite embarassed when told that the wee person was my cousin and not our child. An oops moment for her, but one that had us in splits.
Back home, we spent the rest of the time chatting, catching-up and regaling each other with tales known & unheard of. Somewhere along the way, we enjoyed a delicious home cooked meal together, and then continued our chit-chat. These together times are what I like best. We're all absolutely ourselves, discussing and laughing over various topics and eating. These are moments in which time seems to stand still. It's like listening to the playback of a much loved song. The same faces, the cheerful banter, the loud, hearty laughter. It's all so beautifully familiar.
But soon it was time to bid goodbye to Goa. Our brief vacation was at an end. Saying our prayers together, as we always do, we left for the Manohar International Airport.
Check-in and baggage drop were completed smoothly and we settled in at our gate with a coffee. This new airport is quite a neat one with lots of stores and ample seating.
There was a minor delay in our flight, but that wasn't too much of a bother.
Goa is always beautiful, and even more so during Christmas time. There are lights everywhere - houses are gaily, even garishly lit with a myriad of lights, pretty white churches are all aglow with the light of a thousand stars, handmade by the locals. At every street corner, crosses and little chapels are all dressed for the festive season. There are a series of cultural events held everywhere drawing people together in cheerful fellowship.
Was glad to be home and in my own bed, but already glancing at the calendar to plan my next escape. Am most tempted to return to Goa soon. God willing, really soon.
