City of Night! (Goa Trip Part 1)

“Well, I just got into town about an hour ago

Took a look around, see which way the wind blow

Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows?

Are you a lucky little lady in the city of light?

Or just another lost angel

City of night

City of night

City of night

City of night

Woo, c'mon”

-LA Woman (The Doors)

This song (one of my favorite) can be precisely attributed to Goa! The night life of Goa is truly exhilarating.

I went to Goa with my friends last week and the trip was quite eventful. Me along with six of my friends set out by the 5.30pm bus from Bangalore and after a 15 hour bone-shaking journey (thanks to KSRTC Rajahamsa), we reached our destination, Panaji city, at 8.30 the next morning.

Fort Aguada

As we alighted at Panaji City Bus Stand, we were welcomed by a group of touts asking if we wanted to rent cars, bikes or get accommodation. We randomly picked one of those agents and rented a Maruti Swift and an Activa for ourselves through his agency.

After looking around in Mapusa and Baga, we found a guest house in Baga, which was rented out by a lady who lived in the ground floor of her building. The place was very spacious and the price was reasonable.

Once we were done having brunch at a café in BAGA, we set out to AGUADA FORT. It is a common misconception that the movie Dil Chahta Hai was shot at AGUADA FORT. I found out that the movie was actually shot at another fort by name CHAPORA FORT which lies on a hillock in northern Goa. Aguada Fort is as big as a football field and is surrounded by moats on three sides. The fourth side overlooks the Arabian Sea. There is nothing much to this fort except for the serene location and the scenic view of the Arabian Sea.

Asked not to look at the camera!

The day had been going on fine so far. But after our visit to Aguada Fort, we were duly reminded of the ill luck which people usually connect to Friday the Thirteenth. Yes… our first day in Goa was on the Friday the Thirteenth. Our first misfortune was a exasperating encounter with the Goan Police. We were stopped by the police (just when my brother took over the wheel :-P) for “over speeding” when we were driving only 10kmph above the 40kmph speed limit inside Panaji City. The stupid cop wouldn’t settle for a bribe amount less than Rs. 2300 and kept threatening that he’d “compound” the Maruti Swift which we had rented.

Deciding what to tell the cop

We lost an hour trying to negotiate with the retard who was endeavoring to read out some traffic offences and their penalties out of a book on traffic offences. Luckily for us, some guy who was passing by knew the owner of the car and he came to our rescue. He spoke to the cop in Konkani and convinced him to not “compound” the car and we were free to go after paying a bribe of Rs. 1000.

Sunset at Kolva Beach

Not being sure if we should continue using this car, we half heartedly set out to Kolva Beach which was 50 kilometers away from Panaji. An hour’s drive later, we reached Kolva beach just in time for sun set. Kolva beach, according to me is a replica of Juhu Beach of Mumbai. The place is buzzing with a lot of activity. You’ll find bhel puri vendors, people who draw temporary tattoos, cool drinks sellers and anything else which you can amuse yourself with while you are at a beach!

I'm asking in my butler Hindi if
he's fixed all the buckles properly

The seven of us decided to amuse ourselves with Parasailing. The boatmen would take us into the sea on their motorboats. We’d be harnessed to the parachute through belts and then we’d be sailing in the air as the motorboat tows us at a high speed. I had never done parasailing before and had high expectations of it.

The Parasailing ride we were offered here was a slight disappointment. The parachute took off into the air as the motorboat gained speed, and we were in the air for hardly 30 seconds when he started retracting the rope and slowing down the motor boat. Clever way to rip off 500 bucks from you!

If not by parasailing, we decided to raise our spirits by drinking Fenny... a Goan spirit brewed from coconut or cashew apple! Fenny... according to me... tastes like highly acidified vodka. Atleast vodka has a palatable flavor to it. The Cashew Fenny I drank had a bitter after-taste to it. My spirits didn't go any higher! :-|

The unlucky Maruti Swift which we
pushed for more than a kilometer

At 8pm when we decided to leave Kolva Beach, our Maruti Swift refused to start whatsoever. We spent three hours searching and picking up two mechanics one after the other to repair our car to no avail. After countless exchange of phone calls, our agent finally sent us a Santro as a replacement at 11pm and it was midnight when we reached Baga. Reaching Baga came as a very big relief to the seven of us as we weren’t sure how we’d come back 50 kilometers from Kolva with just one Activa and no public transport.

The amazing part of Goa is that even late in the night, the streets are crowded with pedestrians (I’m talking about pretty looking women ;-)) in their best attires, holding a bottle of alcohol in one hand and walking down to pubs and discos.

We decided to hit one of the beach cafés for a drink and an hour later we went back to our guest house and crashed on our beds.