Images from my trips to Goa from Chennai(Updated)

Getting to Goa from Chennai



Generally the best way to reach Goa from Chennai is to take the Friday afternoon Chennai-Vasco express, and if you havent booked tickets, and are a a big group of 3+ people, then travelling by the unreserved is actually fun, if not all that comfortable. The journey from Chennai to Yeshwanthapur will pass off without much competition for the seats, but beyond that, lots of Kannadigas use this train as a passenger train to get off at their villages along the Bangalore Hubli route. Generally this leg of the journey in November is very very chill, and you need to be adequately armed with blankets and reserve your seats on the upper metal plank, lest you are found searching for a seat. The chillness continues till the train reaches Castle Rock and Londa on the Goa-Karnataka border. If you intend to roam the South Goa beaches, then Madgaon is the best place to call it quits for the journey, as Colva beach is located 6 kilometres from Madgaon. If you have North Goa in mind, then get down at Vasco station, and take a bus to Panjim, from which you can travel to the North Goa beaches by hiring buses/private transportMadgaon has very little accomadation in the sreet parallel to the railway station. Pretty shady places, and very basic rooms available for 350+ Rs for a 2 people.


The other route from Chennai is to take the mail to Bangalore so as to reach there by 5 am,
and charge your batteries for an hour at the waiting rooms, while you refresh and take the 6 am Hubli-Bangalore Jan Shatabdi express, which reaches Hubli at 1 20 pm. From Hubli, taking a bus is an option, which is largely cumbersome as the journey route is full of bad roads and chaotic traffic thanks to unruly bus and lorry drivers. Its a 6-7 hour journey to Panjim across the hills.

Our trip was by the above route and travelling by Indian railways, is always such a pleasure as early vivid memories of travel start from Indian Railways. What i find missing these days in the trains now, is the train with engine logo that used to be earlier engraved on the beds in the sleeper coaches.








Standing and posing in front of the mirror has become a defacto start to the camera in the train. This picture has Varun, me and Vipul posing, as we slightly came out of our compartment to talk, as the whole compartment was dozing heavily at 2 am. Well you dont expect anything else from a bunch of B school grads who are used to stay up late nights.

As I had earlier mentioned that the bus route from Hubli to Panjim is bad, and it really shakes you up by the time you reach Panjim. Try scanning the railway time table really well, for getting a connecting train at Hubli to reach Madgoan or any small station in Goa. The railway authorities are not too helpful in this regard and will shoo you away if you ask too many doubts that they cant answer. A better option with deep pockets would be to take the 13 30 flight from Bangalore to Dabolim(Goa), without touching Hubli, which would mean you reach Goa at 2 40 pm. Else you can also try to reach Mangalore from Bangalore and take a train from there to Madgoan. I have tried all three routes.



If you have time on your hand, I suggest take the most sluggish mode of transport to soak in to the journey. The journey is through a lot of forests and hills and has some great views in the evening after sun set.




Once you reach Panjim, if you would like to be on your own, try hiring a bike/car, and reach for the road besides the bus stand that has the huge hoarding of Paulo travels. There are a few smaller travel agents who also sell bikes on rent.


The next travel agent to get, would be to walk from the bus stand, over a small bridge and try getting to the Panjim Post office, right next to a petrol Bunk, where you find bike services. Try renting a vehicle for under 250 in Non Peak Season. In peak season a bike is rented at more than 500 rs. You get high end bikes as well as normal ones like passion plus, and Honda Activa. Honda Activa is a higly preffered means of commuting by people visiting Goa as apart from being a no-gear bike, it has space for keeping your spare clothes/ bag.

NORTH GOAN BEACHES- Getting there from Panjim

Generally from Panjim, the North Goan beaches are closeby, so enjoy the ride by driving north. The Beaches to see, in serial order are Condolim,Sinquerim,Calangute,Baga,Anjuna,Vagator,Morjim,Aswem,Mandrem,Arambol
and Kerim beach. Vagator and Morjim(the Turtle farm beach) are seperated by a gulf and the Chapora river.

We got to Panjim at around 9 ish after a arduous journey along the rickety route from Hubli. Panjim sleeps pretty early, and after 9 pm, no buses ply in Goa. So we reached Panjim and decided to explore for some bike shops by the wayside. An elderly uncle volunteered across to the post office in Panjim, which was a pleasant 10 minute walk from the bus stand. We got an Activa and a Passion plus for 225 rs a day after paying a caution deposit of 500 per vehicle. I got to play the lead driver, as I had previous driving knowledge around Goa and its inner roads that lead to the beaches. I lost no time, in assuaging my leadership skills, by deciding to play captain by playing pillion to Varun, while we asked Vipul to follow us.

The pleasure of driving on these lovely roads can be really enticing, but let me warn you, that it is pretty chill at night, and you would be better off making yourself warm by covering yourself with a shawl wrapped around you as you drive. The drive from Panjim had a spooky feel to it, and Varun and Vipul must have felt, I was leading them to into this abyss and chasm, that had no end to the drive. As soon as we turned right and entered Calangute, the spirit was rejuvenated with the colour and vivacity of the place. Brightly coloured shops and well lit roads seemed to bring more life into the tour that looked a little bland after the rickety and soporific bus journey.

We turned towards the left that leads to Anjuna Beach,and it was back to driving in small dim lit roads with banyan trees in plenty on both sides. All we could see around were shady huts which were proclaiming themselves as Ayurvedic centres with a retro look, and shacks that had firangs roaming about. Then as our bikes went further and we stopped for directions, we heard a rumbling noise of the ocean front, and the gurgling of the ocean waves, was pretty much a reminder of life at B school, a constant gurgling of emotions every day with various subjects and assignment deadlines, but hey, we are here to forget all about that mad chaotic life that we are used to. We parked our bikes near a shack and decided to explore a place for a quiet dinner. It was already 11 45 pm, and the shacks seemed to be packed to capacity with foreigners occupying the seats. It was too crowded for our comforts, and we decided to explore the next available shack, and it was pretty lonely, but well lit up against the background of the waves crashing below it. The shack was 20 mts above sea level on a cliff, so the waves hit the bottom rocks and occaisonaly the water managed to climb up and freshen the people above.

The candle lit dinner was good, in the sense that it made us relax staring at the deep depths of the ocean waves, which were relentlessy adding the bass to the instrumental music playing in the background. We in the meantime, also managed to find a decent room for 500 rs, which would house all three of us. Decent bathrooms(with hotwater), cupboards and a big bed with pillows, nothing more you need in terms of basic neccesities and we rested for a while before deciding to explore the place around us at around 1 30 am.

To be Continued.............

Goan Odyssey!

B school life is as much about learning theories as much it is about making new friends and Networking. I happened to go on a trip to Goa sometime back, and forgot writing about it. Goa too me seems the ideal place for a student bachelor to find a foreign country at Indian prices. People keep asking me why do I have this morbid prefernce for Goa again and again. I've gone like three times in the last 16 months, from Chennai, and being a Chennaite, the rulebook says that Marina beach, Pondicherry,Mahabalipuram and Ooty should be the places explored. People think Goa is about sex, booze, non veg and immoral behaviour, but if you take a deeper look than the normal impression a Tam Brahm would have, you would see a wonderful Indian state opening up where all you see is a laidback culture which works just the right tonic for a short 2-3 day holiday amidst our rather stresses schedules.

I go to Goa, to yearn for some adventure, that is normally not possible in a sordid state like Tamil Nadu, as the beaches have policemen at night, and they instruct you thats its time for bed, and ask you to push off after 10. Adventure at Night on a Beach? Is that possible...?? Have you ever seen the full moon night casting its mild light silhouted against the blue waves of the ocean at night? Have you ventured into just lying on the ocean floor as the water comes and grazes you? Have you ever entered into an endless conversation over tea, as the wind calms your nerves? Have you ever stared deep into the abyss of the ocean, and felt music in your ears with the sea growling at night with its waves? Have you ever been stranded in a forest near a beach at 2 am, thanks to your bike conking off? These are some questions I ask myself why I go to Goa over the beaches here on the eastern coast. Far too much policing on the eastern coast.

The thing I like about places like Calangute and Baga are the way the whole city seems to come alive after sunset till sunrise. Goa seems to be a collection and a crazy concoction of people all over the world. Goan sunsets on the beaches are some of the most alluring sights to a perfect evening at the sea, for dinner. As soon as I seem to hit Goa, there seems to be something in the air, that presses the "calm" button, as you snake through the roads and the mountains, through colourful goan houses, and even more colourful restaurants on the road. The night drive through the highway from Panjim to Arambol via Calangute is probably the best that I have experienced. I have quite a lot of pictures to share from my previous two tours of Goa, that havent found its way to the Blog. Right now a little dissapointed with the loss of my 6030 Nokia Mobile... thats the 4th mobile lost in 6 years. Sometimes bad luck hits you when you dont really need it(Who needs bad luck anyways! ? ).

The blog had lesser posts due to some pre occupation at college. Now I hope to be a little free with lesser classes spread. Keep plugged on for a detailed Goan travellogue on what to see and what to miss.

Midnight Beach Trek to Mahab and Pondi

It was just another day at B school, when I noticed that Dec 24th was coming to an end in about 5 hours, and dec 25th was thankfully a holiday. My life was going through a steady patch of college studies,classes, snoozing in classes, cases, hurried lunches ...et al, that a normal B schooler would go through. Basically life had turned mundane, there ws no challenge left in conquering a case, and also putting salt into my wounds was the fact that I didnt win the cricket quiz at the IIM-K Blog quiz, and my advertisement didnt make it past round 2 at IIMC-Inatglio. Life was dull untill Arun, my former engineering friend, messaged me on Google Talk. We knew both our lives were bordering on the mundane, so avoided the traditional "how are you" question. I wanted the night to be lively,so just casually asked him for an outing along ECR. We had done a smilar outing in April, which was an all night beach trek on Mahabalipuram, and involved sleeping in one of the boats till 3 am, after which we boarded a high way bus and came back to Chennai. With the hope of recreating that rough but exciting trip, we set out this time around from thiruvanmiyur with another guy called Ankur(My batchmate at Great Lakes).....





We reached at 10 30, had dinner in a cozy shack, and set out on the beach for a walk, after which we felt that we should also look at some accomadation incase we felt sleepy at night. None of the hotels had any rooms. We trudged back to the beach, and suddenly we had 4 people in khaki uniforms stopping us, The police told us that this is ann unsafe area and asked us to get back to Chennai via some of the buses on ECR. I hate this moral policing, but given that this area supposedly has some shady elements, I guess thats why regular patrolling was going on.





We were suffering from the dew at night as it started getting cold, and with no place to sleep, we decided to catch a bus in any direction, as long as we could sleep for a couple of hours. A bus going to Velankani came at 1 30 am, and we decided to catch the bus and slept till about 3 30 am, when I got up fearing that we may be too far from Chennai, and decided toget down near an arbit tea shop. This was a few mtrs from the road to auroville. We had a some hot tea, in the morning, and decided to explore the beach through a rather arduous roue that was a mini forest infested with thorny bushes, the darkness was prety scary, but hey! we wanted adventure, and we got it... We used our mobiles and waded through the spider webs and the bushes and finally reached eternity... the Beach which was basking in the full moon.





As soon as we reached, we looked for a place to rest for a while, and after that, we walked on and on, and came back to the same spot to rest again at 5 am. It was a beautiful walk in the eerie hours of the night, and our conversations centred around our lives. We were feeling a little sleepy ande decided to close our eyes for a while, till the sun god showed his prescence. When we got up it was around 6, and we decided to end our trip, by playing in the water.After an hour of playing, we went back to the place where we got down, and settled for a breakfast at one of the makeshit road side hotels for some hot vada and idly, with a dash of watery sambhar.





As all good things come to an end, we got a bus at 8 15 and reached Chennai at 10 30, and I was abck to college at 11 am. Some crazy adventure, but still loved it...





Tips: If you want to do this:





1) Mahabs and Pondi, I hear are places with a lot of illegal sexual activities, so carry around your identity card/tag and speak properly to the police, and you will not be uneccesarily questioned





2) Chennai is a place with 2 much policing and most of the restaurants close at 11, hardly a pale shadow of goa, where 3 am on Baga Beach is like 7 pm, the whole beach is alive and kicking.





3) The wave at Pondi- Auro beach is a little strong, dont venture out into the sea... as the soil slips under your feet.





4) If you dont mind the rough nature of the trip and improper acco for the night, this night trip is still pretty enjoyable. I seem to like this mode of "quick and dirty" trips as such unplanned trips brings in a lot of interest which is so much interestig from a planned journey.





Some Pics from the trek







Ankur twiddling his thumbs, whether to drink tea or not at 3 am



Me and Arun, enjoying the hot tea at 3 30 am. See me with the college ID? Thats my kavacha Kunadalam...safety card in case I get into trouble.



This is where we got off at 3 15 am



When we slept. Ankur felt chill, so took of his under vests and used it as an extra line of covering against the chillness at 5 am. Also seen is Arun, who is cringing and trying to catch some sleep.



Arun in a state of sleeping beauty!



Titanic in the waves!

"It's starting to feel warm here, we should leave now!"

"You want to leave now? It's just getting better, from the chillness of 5 am"

Finally a Midnight Beach Trek

Last weekend was one that brought back memories of college days. I spent the weekend with Prasanna and Arun(who studied in SREC, eee). My memories with arun date back to college days when he was my college mate Ganesh's room mate. We just decided in the 11th hour to meet up on ECR. Prasanna and I spent some time, next to the Maayajal beach, and waited at Mayaajal till 7 30, for a few friends to arrive. Kishore had to make a urgent trip out of station, Arry gave one of the most confusing reasons for not coming, and LAN was busy with work at Satyam. Arun did not have a vehicle in hand, so I asked him to come to the ECR road, in his cognizant bus. He hitch hiked 2 bikes to reach us at 7 30 pm. We decided on a round of Go Karting and guess who won.....ME .... I bet Arun at the last curve to emerge the winner. Prasanna was 2 laps behind us when the 5 minute time interval got over. We were not particular about a movie at Mayaajal and decided that 1 bike cannot accomadate 3 people and we decided to leave the bike at Mayaajal and take a bus to Mahabalipuram. We got a bus to Kovalam, where we spent 90 minutes revising our crazy college life, waiting for a connecting bus to Mahabalipuram. We finally got a bus to Mahabalipuram at 10, and thats exactly when dear LAN call us that his work is over, but I persuade him to return home, as it would be difficult for us to now, head back to mayaajal and then proceed on 2 bikes. We reach Mahabalipuram at 10 40 pm, and found the place pretty desolate with just a couple of hotels open. We werent sure of our plan for the night, so we didnt book any room for the night.Each of us were game to just keep walking on the beach till eternity(sun rise :-0 ). After a rather expensive dinner at a shack restaurant, we proceeded along the bylanes of Mahabalipuram and reached the beach. Just as we were a few metres away from the beach, an ambassodor stopped in front of us and out emerged a 40 something foreigner. From what we could see, she seemed drunk and was limping. She requested me for help, as she wanted to go to some beach party that was happening a little further away.

She held on to me, partially swaying on my shoulders while her hands were around my arms. She was a British lady, on the umpteenth visit to India and seemed to have taken a liking for the Indian beaches. Those 10 minutes across the beach, under the moonlight, seemed like eternity. We dropped at her at the beach party, which was a wild beach campfire. There were 10 other ladies in various avatars of skimpiness and under heavy alcohol. Supporting them were 6 local guys, who supplied them all the liquor and took care of them.

We bid goodbye to them and set out to a secluded spot on the beach and settled next to a boat. Then from 12 am to 3 30 followed a huge discussion about various topics under the sun( errrr….the moon now). Arun managed to catch some sleep, while Prasanna and I were awake throughout. Mosquitos invaded our privacy and when I had enough of it, I decided to take a dip in the ocean against the dark background of the awe inspiring sea and the night sky.


Once Arun got up, we decided that we should take the earliest bus back to Chennai and at 4 am, we took the bus from Mahabalipuram to Koyambedu. Before we did that we were also subjected to some routine questioning by the police, as to what we were doing at this unearthly hour. A few seconds into questioning the guy realized we were tee totallers and had no amorous flings.

We had to walk a couple of kilometers to find buses plying on ECR and once we boarded the bus, every seat was occupied to its maximum capacity as men were lying flat on the seats, fast asleep. Prasanna and I got down at Mayajaal, while Arun went all the way to Adayar to catch a bus to Alwarpet.

Since it was pretty dark and to avoid paying a bribe to active traffic police personnel, we decided to spend our time, next to a tea shop, lying flat on the cemented floor till day break(6 am) and then decided to take the bike and driveback home. We took 2 breaks in that 30 kilmetre journey as lack of sleep, was showing, and I was starting to fall asleep. The 2 breaks helped me recharge my batteries and just a few metres from reaching home, I was thoroughly drenched in the showers that followed that morning.

It was one heck of a rough trip, and I expect to do more of these time permitting.

Right now, the next adventure rough trip would be a Chennai-Goa-Chennai 1000 bucks journey for a week. Mode of transport- unreserved rail journey. Lifts through bikes and lorries. Would know in a week, how taxing my B school life would be for the next one year, so that I can plan accordingly.