A long weekend in Goa - Perfect beach holiday

The endless stretch of tall green palms all around the Mandovi river spell-binding me with the very first look of Goa from the window of aircraft. It wasn't my first but the city never failed to overwhelm.

I was planning to unwind and end my year on a high note and a beach lover like me was not able to think beyond Goa. Goa is like a perfect destination for vacation every year. No matter how many times you have seen it before, gives you an equal amount of satisfaction by the end of it.

Sitting at the beach and doing nothing but just turning the pages of the book or lazying around with food and drinks is totally my kind of thing. Actually, it's a thing for all !

No Ola or Uber in Goa

I was travelling with one of my friends from Mumbai. We both were over-excited and we knew that journey and trip was going to be awesome. 

At airport we checked for our options to reach hotel. A green board just before the exit displayed the rates of taxi from airport to renowned beaches and drive from airport to hotel in Calangute was costing us around Rs 1000. I was surprised that Ola or Uber has not made their way to a tourist city like Goa. Though I enjoyed my ride from airport to hotel but I felt it was a bit overpriced.

So, next time hotel to airport rides will be bargained in hotel package only!

Check news of the city planning to visit

On our way to hotel, driver informed us about the upcoming elections in Goa and code of conduct imposed in Goa since first week of January. I didn't realize that how it was going to affect my vacation considering that I was not in Goa for alcohol or late night parties but by end of the day I surely learnt that the whole city was going to shut down by 10 PM every day! I didn't travel so far to get inside the hotel or room by 10 PM. Felt like too much of good governance! A city which brings most of the tourism earnings of a country should not be dead on any day of the year unless informed in advance on their site for the tourists from abroad or within the country.  Dirty Politics!

North Goa vs South Goa

While planning our vacation, we had to decide whether we were going to stay in North or South Goa. North Goa consisting of famous trio of Calangute, Anjuna & Baga is the party center and swarming with the tourists at any time of the year whereas South Goa has more gentle and serene beaches like Colva, Palolem and Agonda. 

I would have loved to stay and relax at secluded beaches but safety always mattered more than comfort. It's Goa and safety should not have been a concern but roaming at the secluded streets and beaches didn't sound like a good idea for two girls on the prowl. I get into trouble any which ways and secluded beaches and less people sounds like a welcome message for my jinxed existence. So, I and my friend mutually decided to stick to North Goa.

Hotel 19 Bello Cabana

Located right at the heart of Goa and Calangute, this hotel was the best thing that happened during this trip. It wasn't just the beautiful cottage but the whole experience was best in class. I absolutely loved the view from my room.

Resort Manager - Chandrashekar was very polite and and ensured that the two of us had a comfortable stay as well he got us the best of deals for rented two wheelers and taxis.

We learnt from the hotel staff about a short walking route to the beach and it made our sunrise visits easier. Finding a peaceful corner in Calangute was a dream impossible but we got it as this route takes you to the one corner of the beach.

  

Viewing the breathtaking sun rises and sets at Goa, I wanted to enjoy a variety of food options available at Goan shacks. Though I don't prefer Portuguese or Konkani food as such but its influence was palpable in any meal of the day around at shacks and most of the times we ended up filling ourselves with varieties of drinks. I loved my mornings in Goa when I and my friend used to just end up at a new cafe on our way to shacks and had never ending cup of coffee to wake us up.

Search for perfect Breakfast

I wanted to sip my cup of coffee in one of those huts that caught my eye on the way out from hotel. Mango Grove, Fisherman's cove, options were like never ending. My first two breakfasts were here only to realize that they give preference to foreign tourists over Indian ones. No matter how rich or how much money you can leave as a tip. Their first preference were foreigners and while you are there, they will ensure you feel a bit left out at least once. So, getting my lesson I ended up at a not so famous restaurant in the same line and ensured I was treated like the I am the only customer they will have in a day :D 

Lounge hunt for evenings

We were at the mercy of government circular of code of conduct but nevertheless we had our early dinners at St. Anthony's in Calangute, Cafe Lilliput in Anjuna and Club Cobana ;)

St. Anthony's - Best dinner of my trip. Karaoke night was on and I was with my two girl friends. We danced like crazy and drank and ate like beggars until our other friends joined us.

Cafe Lilliput - We landed here on our first evening at midnight after dinner at St. Anthony's. Place was almost dead with just one light on and rest shut but we still had a wonderful time taking a walk alongside the sea shore, lost in the beauty of stars it was a peaceful end to a beautiful day...

We came back to this place once again on one of our following evenings and it was crowded like hell and experience was opposite of the first one.

Club Cobana - I absolutely hated this place and hated the person selling tickets at counter!! 

One thing that defined this club to me was it's absolutely inefficient mismanagement. There was only one person at counter selling tickets and he was charging everyone according to his mood swings.  I couldn't see a single smile on his face during my one hour of waiting there, only smirks and that also annoying ones. If you think you can arrange for tickets in advance, you will still end up waiting in queue to get security check done.

Again once inside, you are lucky if you don't sweat because if you do - finding a space near fan is no less than a war itself among sweaty people. Oh yes, and how can I forget the war you have to win to get a pizza you are paying for or drinks which are free of cost.

My sympathies are with you if you have already bought the tickets and ALL THE BEST if you are still planning to pay a visit to this club :)

Chinese Garden Restaurant

This small dream like restaurant caught my attention on the very first day and I wanted to try this place. I had been here in one of my trips before and my friends drooled on the host at that time. This place lost my interest when I didn't see that guy who served us last time and I wish their service now was 1% of their ambience. It was such a disappointment!

Sightseeing 

From archives

Riding a scooty was another experience altogether. It felt as if I was back in my college days. We had plans to cover atleast one of the forts in Goa so we decided to see the sun set at Chhapora fort. Our google maps were not working and we were half way to the fort when maps started working only to realize that we were getting close to Aguada and not Chhapora. Chhapora was in totally different direction. It was little disappointing and as sun was about to set and I didn't want to waste a sun set on driving so we decided to drive upto Aguada only. 

  

Own a swim suit

We are born in a conservative culture where not every woman is comfortable wearing a swimsuit. But Oh Man! Man yourself up. Don't just remove your pants and go into the water because you want to do it. Buy and wear swim shorts before you jump into the water to take take that dip. 

Be honest about your body, wear only what suits you, don't go by emotions and trust me you look much more presentable in a public beach wearing shorts that are closer to your knees. Don't go by the shorter the sexier rule, it's actually exactly the opposite.

Scene at any of the beach was no less than this picture

It was more horrendous with uncles and their protruding tummies strolling on the beach with shorts shorter than the shorts of the boys above :/

GO Shopping

The best thing about my Goa trip is the amount of random stuff I picked from there which I can't wear outside Goa. It gives me abundance of short term happiness but of course I regret buying all of them once I reach back home. This time it was different. I didn't let the vendors fool me in buying everything. Things I did buy were a bit different from my regular retail purchases :)

1) Sweetest takeaway - Kunda

One of my friend got this gift pack of a sweet from Belgaum. Within 15 minutes I finished the half kg pack. Since then, on whole trip I asked every driver to take me to a sweet shop where I can get this but I was told I will get this one only in Panjim. On my way back to the Airport, we stopped at the Panjim market and bought 2 Kgs of it and it was finished in one day!

Be kind enough to bring some for me too in your next trip!!

2) Footwear at Saturday Night Arpora Market

I got two sandals from Arpora Market and they were totally worth it. Don't forget to buy those magnet stickers and coffee mugs with Goa sceneries as memoir for your friends.

3) Swim wear from Candolim/ Calangute roadside stalls

Road side stalls near Fisherman's Cove and other hotels have very pretty swim suits. Apart from the ones hanging outside, some of them have really good collection inside.

4) Alcohol

Savor it! Save it! King's Beer or Feni, make the most of it ;)

Paper Towns by John Green

I absolutely love fiction. It's more fun to find your life theories in ridiculous books than in the bundle of teach-me-how-to-live and what-to-do manuscripts!!

A book that lightens my mood every time I pick it over other books to re-read. I know what is coming, I know quotes by heart but then also I will find a new viewpoint and underline it with a smile. 

I guess I find peace in the most bizarre of love stories.

“It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full of bursting, and each one of them imaginably and consistently misimagined.”

This was the first and only book of John Green I read and I absolutely loved his intellectual and yet simple way of writing. 

"It is hard to leave - until you leave and then it's the easiest goddamned thing in the world."

Love is something that happens to you. You don’t decide or select a right one to have that tingly moment or butterflies. It is more of a disorder, an obsessive compulsive disorder. The more the disorder, the more vulnerable and chaotic life will be because of obsession and how true these lines are that it is not easy to leave but then you got to do what you are supposed to do.

Margo and Quentin are childhood buddies. As they grow and go separate ways, Margo’s life revolves around her choices, her decisions and her failures but Quentin is quintessentially the fool fallen for a diva. 

I also fell for her when she spoke these words at an age when we don't even know what broken means!

"Maybe all the strings inside him broke"

but I also fell for the innocence and vulnerability of Q. Unlike Margo he is the sorted one. He is the perfect boring guy who has all the qualities of a keeper.

"and felt my pulse rising. In through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through the mouth.”

and then this comes, probably we all feel this way atleast once in our lives

"now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future--you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a good job so they can get a nice house so they can afford to send their kids to college.”

Do you worry about future this way? I know somewhere inside we all do but what has to happen will happen and there is no point worrying about something  like future which you don't know that will be there or not?

"Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will," 

"But then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all."

I know it's too much of quotes to quote but then I loved all of these and that is why I am writing this review.

"From the distance, I mean. You can't see the wear on things, you know? You can't see the rust or the weeds or the paint cracking. You see the place as someone once imagined...you see how fake it all is. It's not even made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean look at it. Look at all those cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. All the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything else that matters."

With all these quotes in first few pages of the book, the curiosity built that how Green will defend a character like Margo? It is a series of events and incidents that are responsible for actions and reactions of human species. She was ‘the lady’ of the book - The Hero. I wanted to believe that something was coming to validate her actions and reactions. That destructive mind with that sort of wisdom had to be supported by a very strong case..

Ending. It really saddened me, not because Q and Margo could not end up together (don't worry I haven't spoiled it for you, ending is a bit complicated so go and read without thinking that I shared the ending) but because I couldn’t sink in the reason thoroughly. It wasn’t intense like the way I expected it to be. I re-read the last few pages, again and then again, it was disappointing. The whole book was such an easy read then why such a chaotic and confused ending. A girl who is referencing the finest literature and poetry could have had a better reason to defend her beliefs.

Though I wouldn't rate it as more than an average book but go for it if you don't want to read anything extraordinary. It is a feel good book.

Last thing, this book lead me to watch the movie based on it and it was one of the most disgusting thing that could have happened to a work like this one! So, don't you dare watch the movie and comment on the book!!

Happy Reading :)

A visual treat - Journey to Ladakh

Thanks to the amazing flora and fauna of Manali, magnificent hill tops of Kashmir, breathtaking sunrise and sunset in Pangong, a nearly heart stopping experience at Jozilla and a jaw dropping view from Patnitop - I felt contended by end of the trip.

My friends came to pick me up at midnight when I was still working and dropped my last email with fingers crossed. The feeling of no laptop for next 10 days was giving me more goosebumps than the trip itself. Thanks to my super hectic schedule during those days, I hadn't done any homework on the places I was going to see. My sister helped me in buying and packing all the essentials as was listed by one of the friends in the group.I really loved the way my friends jotted down the first aid kit.

First aid kit list

Travel Dates: 14th June 2016 to 25th June 2016
Group of 5 - I, Prerna, Ashutosh, Suneet and Arun

Manali

Chandigarh to Manali was around 300 Km drive and it took us around seven hours to reach our first destination. Long Cedar trees everywhere gave city a dark and heritage look, very much like just out of a novel of Murakami. It was my first visit to Manali and a bit of drizzling took away all the tiredness. 

We ended up spending our evening at a popular cafe - Lazy Dog in old manali. It was a perfect ambience to smoke up yourself on the nature.

After seeing the traffic at midnight hours on mall road, we planned to headstart our journey at early wee hours and crossed jam-packed rohtang pass before the breakfast time.

Lahaul & Spiti

Our first stop of the day was a small mud house in Khoksar where we sipped endless cuppas of morning tea with our trip stapled diet Maggi. It was raining when we crossed Lahaul Spiti and other than the view I absolutely enjoyed the rain. We passed various small villages like Gramphu, Sissu, Tandi, on our way before reaching our next stop for clicks at Baralachala Pass.

Baralachala Pass

Baralachala at 16040 ft provided us with the first glimpse of snow-cladded mountains. There were no tea joints unfortunately and we could just hault and click around a road sign.

There was an uncanny familiarity to the name  of this pass when I heard it first time on our journey. I realized later that I had read a story of haunted Sainik bhawan in Baralachala Pass during my brief research on haunted places in India. 

Read the whole story here:

http://vargiskhan.com/log/cannibal-haunted-baralacha-la/

Sarchu

We were advised to stay at Keylong but we were too exhausted by the time we reached Sarchu. The blow of wind here was the strongest. By midnight, AMS started kicking in and started troubling two of my friends and strangely I was fine (I am asthmatic otherwise). To be on the safer side, we took out oxygen cylinder kept in our our car's trunk and everyone took two to three puffs from it.

Morning was pleasant. We saw the sun rising through the naked mountains.. From this destination onwards, journey became really difficult as most of us were really tired and roads had become tree-less - snow-less and view of the valley became harsh.

It wasn't as green as it looks in pictures. Few of the mountains were charcoal black.

I felt lifeless without trees or green color and slept throughout the whole drive unless my friends woke me up for pictures. 

I was back to my self on seeing long lush green trees in the middle of desert but I was curious that how come trees here and I have still not got that answer. Well, that was our arrival to the city of Leh! 

Leh - We checked in to our hotel and dropped ourselves on the beds and slept for around 10-12 hours before seeing each other next day.In next two days we covered all the sightseeing places of Leh. 

Leh Museum

Leh Museum - Borders and human lives. Eyes go moist as you see-read-listen-watch the stories of soldiers.

Leh Palace

Leh Palace - Ruins of the palace looked like very famous for study of ancient architecture history. I kind of enjoyed the view of city from there.

Magnetic Hill

Sangam Point

Magnetic Hill - Board on left leads to momentarily stoppage of hundreds of vehicles to check if car moves up towards hill which is believed to have some magnetic forces. I read later that it is an optical illusion - the uphill is an illusion and hill is actually a downhill. Don't browse.
Go with magnetic forces theory, it's more interesting ;)




Sangam point - Confluence of two rivers. Find a corner and just enjoy the serenity. I am surely going to spend a whole day here next time.

Shanti Stupa

Shanti Stupa - A very positive vibe'd place giving you a panoramic view of the city like Leh Palace. I loved shopping from the nearby Chanspa market

Thiksay Monastery - Land of highest passes also has the largest number of monastries outside Tibet. Thiksey is one of the oldest monasteries built in 15th century. If you want to sit in peace and enjoy and bask in the colors and flavour of peace - sit in the gompa and enjoy prayers. Twenty minutes drive from the main city and it a must visit sightseeing place which I happen to miss. That's another story for some other day!

Khardungla- The Encounter

I was feeling a little lost with the crowd at Khardungla (as I mentioned in previous post of Ladakh). The whole road was blocked. Two big military vehicles were passing through the road and no person wanted to give them way or move away from the signboard of Khardungla. Though I understood that we were at highest motorable road, I felt no sense of achievement like others around. It was the most frustrating moment seeing all those people trying to click around when he tapped at my shoulder from back. 

An army officer, the one leading the group approached..

"Miss, you are not allowed to click picture of the tank."
My eyes took a 180 degree view and saw every person around taking pictures with the vehicle.
I stared at him and he had this mischievous smile which made me wonder what he was upto and that uniform <3

"Miss, Can you delete that picture?"

"Sorry"

"Please delete pictures of tank"

His smile made me delete those pictures without any argument. I was done and he was still there and didn't move away.

"Can I check once?"
"Okay."
With a little mischievous smile, I added
"Can I have a picture with you?" 
That is what even he was looking for! 
"Don't click my badge!"
We locked our eyes for a moment when he saw an officer approaching us and he straightened himself and winked. 
"Don't click the pictures mam. Thank you"
 I was standing there a bit cheered up, looking at him as he walked away and realising that I had the highest and the sweetest moment on the highest motorable road with a complete stranger. Strange and completely hopeless I am! 

Pangong and the full moon 

Nothing can be described in words for this beauty.  The stillness, the moment, that first glimpse left me spellbound for a long time. 

We drove past the army camp, 3 idiots point and eating joints to stop at a secluded corner to view the sun set. I sat there with my feets dipped in water. Those were the most magical few minutes.I was happy. There are these brief moments in life when you are happy for no reason. I had this huge smile and insane thoughts in my head which I wished could have shared with someone. I don't know for how long I have been lost in myself when my friends called me for few pictures.  I clicked few random crazy shots with myself before joining them.

Our cottage.

We had a cook to ourselves but I still managed to get in the kitchen and made some masala papad to enjoy our drinks. 

Zozila Pass

Full moon was over, it was a dark night. 
Welcome to the drive through a hell called Zozi la which takes you to the so called heaven called Kashmir! 

It's a 9 km drive on a narrow road where only one vehicle can pass at a time but a line of trucks pass through it everyday. My heart literally popped out at every turn we took there. One mistake and it was all over! 
Trust me, at one point I wanted to walk back, leave my group and take another route but to miss this road!! 

Kashmir -
As we drove through the valley of Kashmir, I came back to my own self. I understood that why Kashmir is called heaven. Suddenly the war over valley between India and Pakistan started making sense. A colorful hut in between the green fields with a waterfall on one side was the mesmerising sight everywhere. 

We reached Srinagar and headed straight for the majestic Dal lake. Snacks were delivered to our shikara through another shikara. We were snacking in the mid of the lake listening to nothing but the waves. It was one of the finest moments of my life!
I was lost in some other world and sang two of my all time favorite melodies during the whole shikara experience

"Ye kashti wala, kya ga raha hai
koi ise bhi yaad aa raha hai"

"Socho ki jheelo ka shehar ho
lehro pe apna ek ghar ho"




Three places had touched the notes of my heart - Manali, Pangong and the drive from Kashmir. As if these three were not enough, Patnitop was an add on. There was no snow at patnitop too but I felt immensely satisfied.

When trip got over and we were back home, I said everybody that Ladakh trip is over-hyped. It was not at all, all about Ladakh but when I look back and think of it - I am very fond of all these memories. Somebody said it right that you never regret a trip taken to an unknown place!

Here goes a big thank you to my travel squad  :)

The one who made the plan

Coz a girl needs another girl to travel with guys ;)

The Squad!

Book Review: Norwegian wood by Haruki Murakami

I have a special corner for the books with the happy ending, or it seemed like one!

When I read Kafka on the Shore a few months back, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read more of Murakami. He weaves his special touch to the emotions that I knew reading his next work would be like embracing sadness and tears with open arms. Norwegian wood was a little different from his mystical Kafka but it was the most 'normal' touch I could have expected out of a writer like Murakami.

"I once had a girl or should I say she once had me"

“Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.”

I have yet to read a book which gives you such close view of after effects of loving someone. Book was like a love story with a beginning and a defined end but that end became a beginning of a new tale which eventually turned into love and then again the demise followed. It's like a train of tales of love and demises.

"Memory is a funny thing. When I was in the scene I hardly paid any attention. I never stopped to think of it as something that would make a lasting impression, certainly never imagined that 18 years later I would recall it in such detail."

Book starts with the main protagonist Watnabe penning his thoughts of love for Naoko and can it get more beautiful than these lines

"Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them."

These lines must have been underlined by most of introvert beings like me. Words don't come out the right way unless we pen it down.

"I often tried to write about her. But I couldn't produce a line. I knew that if that first line would come, the rest would pour itself onto the page, but I could never make it happen."

Beauty of the book is that all the characters are equally broken. The way they are dealing with the broken pieces of their life is completely different from each other. I always believed that one reads to warrant their beliefs. Atleast, I read to find someone else who thinks like me..People say love happens once, but heart which loved for the first time keeps on beating even when the person has left. A very strong pendulum exists between that heart and mind. A little imbalance can lead to forever disillusionment. One need to find the balance, and a reason to love another one to have normalcy back in life and that is why I liked this book. It very much conveyed in each and every love story that life goes on.

Leaving aside philosophy, Naoko, Watnabe's muse, is trying to unshackle herself from the memories of her past. Her uncomplete love holds her sanity, her future and her love for Watnabe.

Watnabe has been shown as an easy-going character cum narrator of the story. People like him are around us, nothing affects them or atleast nothing shows on their face. You don't know when they are happy and similarly you are clueless of their sorrows.

"No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be of no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning."

Midori - The reason of smile on your face. People like her are mostly misunderstood for they pretend that they share it all whereas it is only few who can understand the character as distorted as her.

"I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and sixty five days a year, I was still in elementary school at the time - fifth or sixth grade - but I made up my mind once and for all.”

“Wow,” I said. “Did the search pay off?”

“That’s the hard part,” said Midori. She watched the rising smoke for a while, thinking. “I guess I’ve been waiting so long I’m looking for perfection. That makes it tough.”

“Waiting for the perfect love?”

“No, even I know better than that. I’m looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortcake. And you stop everything you’re doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortcake out to me. And I say I don’t want it anymore and throw it out the window. That’s what I’m looking for.”

“I’m not sure that has anything to do with love,” I said with some amazement.

“It does,” she said. “You just don’t know it. There are time in a girl’s life when things like that are incredibly important.”

“Things like throwing strawberry shortcake out the window?”

“Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. “Now I see, Midori. What a fool I have been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for strawberry shortcake. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey shit. To make it up to you, I’ll go out and buy you something else. What would you like? Chocolate Mousse? Cheesecake?”

“So then what?”

“So then I’d give him all the love he deserves for what he’s done.”

“Sounds crazy to me.”

“Well, to me, that’s what love is…”

To me too that is what love is!!

Love is not serving what has been asked for, it is in giving what other person is looking for, without them having to ask for it!

It is looking past the silly innuendos for seeking your attention to the point where you notice the subtle hints of forever.

Murakami tricks you into believing what is written though most of the times it is for you to decipher the meanings that go so far.If you are picking a writer like Murakami, you are expected to read in between the lines.

I also liked the way Murakami plays with the characters other than the main protagonists. All the characters keep on coming and going out of the story leaving you to look for them in the next pages. Each character that you start of with comes to a mention later with a purpose.

"Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment."

"What makes us the most normal," said Reiko, "is knowing that we're not normal."

I can keep on gushing about it but let's just end it with another line from it which had me shed a tear.

"I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once. ”

Ah, don't you cry reading this one :)

Happy reading!!