The Goan Interlude

What a friend told me a long time back is still lodged in my memory and which comes up every time I hear Goa mentioned anywhere. He had said, ’Never visit Goa during the monsoons even if they offered to set you up in a five star hotel plus a million dollars.’ Of course, I am exaggerating a bit but my friend did say that except the million dollar part. That was his opinion no doubt after having been to Goa during the monsoon and finding it wasn’t much fun when everything around you is dripping wet. Anyway, this was another of my oddball friends (most of my friends are oddballs) and I do not recall when exactly during the monsoon he made that disastrous trip to Goa. But last week I was there at Goa for a brief vacation. It might really give you an idea about my job (and also my pay) if I am going to Goa at a time when even the Goans do not like to be around.

Last time I visited Goa, six years ago, it was in the company of colleagues in the office. Two of them, incidentally happened to be cops. I realized then that it was no fun to go to Goa (or anywhere for that matter) in the company of cops. One would have thought with cops around you would be at least able to find your way but no sir, first thing that happened to us was that we lost our way. It took us a little less than twenty four hours to get to Panaji. Of course, every one had a lot of fun, me a little less because I am the sort of person who can’t have fun even if fun were to come and sit in my lap. But then that was a long time ago, Oct 2006, to be exact. This time however, I went with family.

Of late I’m enamored of IRCTC because of their excellent package tours where everything is taken care of. They book your tickets, they arrange for accommodation, they provide local transportation, they even arrange for food, in short, they do everything except putting the food into your mouth. I’ve made a couple of trips to Tirupati with them and with that in mind I signed up for a short package tour to Goa. It turned out to be a rather nice experience worth writing here about. I shall do that at a later stage but meanwhile take a look at some of the pictures of the kid at the beach, the Dudhsagar falls, the lush green environs.