Goa Dairy - 1

As planned our journey started at 10pm from bangalore.We went right thru the heart of bangalore in the peak rush hour.Touching tumkur road we sighed a breath of relief which was not before 11.30 pm !! From there we proceeded towards Jog Falls thru shimoga.We reached Jog falls at nearly 7am in the morning. The road leading  to the falls was very picturesque.

After a full nights journey through a reasonable well laid road we were a wee bit tired.To everyones surprise we found an OK type pay-per-use toilet and a good restaurant also !! The view of the jog falls was awe inspiring ... though we wanted to go to the other side of the falls and see it falling majestically .. but time didnt permit us ...

After a halt around 2 hours we proceeded towards honavar and there on to karwar... 

But before all that we had to descend from the mighty western ghats... which came along with some head reelers for some of us ;) 

While descending from the ghats we cam accross the scenic sharavathi valley... Yes we could clearly that deforestation had taken its toll on the valley .. all along the river one could see logs that have been up stream foating ... nonetheless the view was breathtaking...

we reached karwar roughly by 1 pm as usual there was nothing great to speak about the road !! 

The stretch from karwar to the border check post was good, except at few places. 

The drive from honavar to karwar and till we reached the border checkpost was all green green ... One could see

 the pristine beaches of karwar ... there are large stretches of drive just a few kms form the beach.. 

After the morning breakfast at Jog falls we were raring to go for the lunch... 

Kamat restaurant between karwar and Karnataka Border was a nice one ...

the plaintain leaf or better called banana leaf lunch was simply awesome..and added to that it comes along with a pan ;) 

After lunch we started around 3.30pm towards Goa. A sumptous lunch is all that was required for a nice round of sleep that had been deprived by the road conditions ... But the Goa roads were good enough to catch up with some sleep...

While going we didnt face any issues at the border checkpost... but there is lots to write on the return path ... which i shall discuss later.

Ok at around 5 pm we hit the panjim bridge ... the initial sightings of the sea from the bridge with the sun setting in the background was beautiful...

One could see the interseting hoarding of a Budweiser and Samsung sid eby side .. interpretation is all open for you  ;) 

With a lil bit of confusion we reach our destination, Alburqueque Holiday Villas which is near the candolim beach.All i can say about the place is that it was awesome...jus 5 minutes by walk from the sea .. it was very well located form the other baches as well ..

Anyway after we reached there at around 6.30 pm after aound 18-19 hours of travel ... believe me rest and tireness was the last thing in our minds .. we took may be just half an hour to get ready for our sojourn to the beach :) 

We hit the calangute beach which was around 4 kms form our place for a light stroll on the beach ... it was nice to with the waters after a long time .. 

We had our dinner at a nearby punjabi dhaba .. which served us some excellent fried stuffed papads (stuffed with prawns !! ).. 

I shall continue in the next post what happened when we went to the fort where Dil Chahta Hai ws shot and our escapes on the baga beach :) 

Romancing Cochin ...

I had been to cochin on a recent holiday trip. Instead of a hotel I chose to stay in a home stay, just to get a feel of the place.The home stay,Costa Gama, in which i stayed was a very nice place. It was in Fort Cochin around 13 kms from Ernakulam Station.The caretaker over there Mr.thomas was a very nice person and the owner Mr.Benson was also a nice man.
He charged us Rs.650/- for a A/C double bedroom(including taxes).
He also arranged for backwater sightseeing at a very reasonable rate of 550/- per head, which included pick up and drop at the place and lunch.The backwater where he took us was around 30 kms from the Costa Gama. On the way back we visited a spice garden where we saw spices like cinnamom, pepper, nutmeg etc being grown... It was a nice flavoured sight :) ...
He also arranged a Qualis at 900/- only for a full day (8 hrs) sight seeing in cochin city. We went to the Jewish Synagogue, which was a nice place and the spices market.
The homestay was very near to the beach, albeit a small one.Nearby the beach is the Dutch cementry and the St.Francis Church, where Vasco De Gama was first buried before being taken to Lisbon.It is probably the oldest church in India.It was not a tourist season but we could see some wandering souls !!
We also saw the Dutch Palace at matancherry, which was a dutch palace now a museum under the Archealogical Survey Of India's care. There you can see some rare paintings Raja Ravi Varma of the then Kings of Cochin.

We bought tickets for a evening Kathakali show which was Cochin Cultural Centre, again nearby, from costa Gama itself.Needless to say the show was excellent.
All in all it was a nice trip, made special by these guys and their hospitality.
Come to cochin and leave without having sea food is like blasphemy !!
we used to have our daily dose of sea food at the Fort Cochin restaurant,in front of Hotel Brunton Boat Yard.The waiter over there was a nice guy ... the best was they had a crooner who was from Sri Lanka and used to make our evenings really great by his meliflous renditions of of some classics by Eric Clapton and Phil Collins ...
One unique thing i saw in cochin is we can buy our fish from local market and take it to a restaurant to cook it for us for a fee !! many joints do the same thing ... we Coudnt try but worth a try :)

You can have a look at this place http://www.stayincochin.com/
Due to paucity of time we could not see the bolgatty palace and a few other places.May be next time... :) :)
Hope this writeup of mine helps you all.