Fabulous 'Goa' - Day 4 & The last Day

After an eventful day, it was time for a relaxed day for us. We woke up late in the morning and around 11:30, we left for the brunch. We already knew that both Vagator beach and Ozran beach have many pretty shacks. So, we went without any plan to the beach with our novels. All the shacks had beachside chairs for the customers. We selected two random resting chairs and ordered two juices. We enjoyed our books with the yummy juices. 

It was also a cloudy day, and suddenly the light rain started. The sea was looking more beautiful in the rain.  After juice, we ordered seafood and enjoyed the food with chilled beer. Tasty food, a novel, chilled beer and the light rain was giving us a pleasant feeling. While reading and enjoying the climate we did not recognize that it was 4pm and rain had also stopped. We left the shack and started walking on the beachside sand. The air was fresh and cool. Around 5pm, we left for the resort. We enjoyed reading and hot coffee in the room.
Later in evening we felt little hungry. We decided to go for dinner at 'Salt N Paper'. Since, we did not try it out before, we wanted to try it out at-least once. It has very positive reviews for the burgers. It was raining outside. Time was 7:30pm.

We left from the resort and reached 'Salt N Paper'. It was a very decent place, and not much crowd was there. We ordered seafood soup and fish burger. It was a big size burger and very delicious. The service was good, and music was nice. We spent around 2 hours for dinner. Considering it was perfect weather for drinking, we chose to go 'Mango Tree' after dinner.

We got a seat in front of the bar section. While drinking, we were enjoying the novel and the trance music. Till 2:00am we were at that place and we noticed that after midnight also the restaurant was full. The restaurant timing was 10:00am to 4:00am. We found that the place was very chill, and service was just awesome. We came back at the resort and slept with full of satisfaction. 

Next day, in the morning after a hot coffee and fruits, we started packing for going back to Pune. At noon 12 o'clock we checked out from the resort. We returned our vehicle and took the taxi for the Calangute Beach. From Calangute bus stop, we had a bus at 6:00pm for Pune. The taxi took around half an hour to reach the beach. We went 'Souza Lobo' for lunch. It was an attractive sea view restaurant. The day was sunny, and I found Calangute beach a very crowded place.

We wanted to spend the time only in the restaurant, so we ordered juice after the lunch. Till 5:00pm, we were at the restaurant, and then we left for the bus-stop. The bus was at the right time. That was the time to say bye to Goa with the promise that we will visit it again. It was the wonderful vacation for us and now whenever we make a plan for any trip, 'Goa' always comes first in my mind. 

Fabulous 'Goa' - Baga Beach

After spending half day at the fort and enjoying delicious lunch at 'Thalassa', we left for the 'Baga Beach'. It took us half an hour to reach the beach. It was around 6 o'clock in the evening. We enjoyed the sunset view from the 'Baga beach'. When it got little dark, all the beach side shacks beautifully lighted up. 

Baga is well-known for the nights. After sunset, we came outside the beach. Near the beach, there is very famous Titos Lane. This lane is very popular for many outstanding discs, clubs and pubs. We read very positive reviews of Tito's Club, so we decided to go there. While walking, we experienced a different kind of environment. Titos lane was so amazing and lively. The music was giving joy, and the atmosphere was making us enchanted.

After few minutes of walking, we reached Tito's club. Outside from the club there was a ticket window. There was too much rush at the window, and the club timing was 10:30pm onwards. We thought that we will be very late if we go to the club. The weather was also not favorable because light rain started. So, we had to cancel the club plan, and we went to 'Fiesta'.

Fiesta restaurant was an attractive place with a beautiful interior. I liked the ambience and music also. It is known for the European style of cooking. It was very romantic, and we had very delicious dinner with red wine. We spent approximately three hours at Fiesta and then we left for the resort. Light rain was going on, so we bought raincoats from the beachside stall. We had good experience of the ride and after 40 minutes we were at the resort. It was already 12 o'clock. We enjoyed a cup of hot coffee in our room and relaxed. We planned our next day keeping it as a very relaxed day.

Fabulous 'Goa' - Day 3

We were totally in love with Goa. Two days of Goa were just excellent. Today, we woke up early and got ready. We had a nice cup of coffee and fruits at our resort room. Then we left out for the breakfast.

We planned our breakfast at 'Salt N Pepper'. This place is particularly well-known for the burgers. We reached there, but it was closed. One man who was there in the restaurant told us that this place opens only for dinner. So, we had to change our burger plan for the breakfast and left for another place. We found some places, but those were also closed at that time. It was 9:00 am in the morning. Now, we decided to go to 'Jai Ganesh Juice Centre', the place where we had breakfast yesterday. We reached the place and had breakfast along with watermelon juice.

After breakfast, we left for the 'Chapora Fort'. I was very excited about seeing this place because I saw it in the Bollywood movie 'Dil Chahta Hai'. The fort is located on one small hill. For reaching the fort, we had to park our vehicle before starting the climb. Where we parked the vehicle, there were two routes. One was going to the graveyard and the second one was going to the hilltop. It was around 20 minutes of walk, and we were at the Fort. I found that the place was ok-ok, but the view from the Fort was just mind blowing. We can see chapora beach from the top of the Fort. The air was cold, and the weather was little cloudy. We spent a good time and 1 o'clock noon we left from there for lunch.

Our lunch place was the very popular Thalassa. We reached at Thalassa in one hour. But we found the reservation was necessary for having lunch or Dinner. Our dinner was planned at 'Baga Beach'. So, we reserved our seat for 3:30 pm. We waited till that time on the 'Ozran beach.' I must say that it was worth waiting for the lunch at that place.

Thalassa is situated on the hilltop, in between the  Vagator Beach and Orzan Beach. At 3:30 we went for the lunch, and luckily we had the beachside table. The view was just outstanding. One of the restaurant persons told us that this restaurant is always booked for sunset and for the full moon night. The full moon night dining here is so popular that people reserve their tables two weeks in advance. We could imagine that how would be the view on full moon night. Since it was a Greek restaurant, we ordered Greek food for the lunch with wine. Food was as awesome as the view. We spent 2 hours there and left for the 'Baga Beach'.

Fabulous 'Goa' - Day 2

One more lovely day started.. We sat in the garden and were enjoying the morning coffee. This small and beautiful garden was designated outside our room.
After finishing a very relaxing first day in Goa, we were planning to explore the city. We did a little research for the places and got ready to go out.

The first thing we had breakfast at 'Jai Ganesh Juice Centre.' It is located in chapura main street. That was not much far from our resort. This place is very famous for juices and ambiance. The juice and food were just excellent. 

After that, we left for the 'Morjim beach.' The route was very attractive. It looked like we were crossing a green forest. It took around 40 minutes to reach the beach. It was so amazing and different beach from others. I am saying it different because, at that point where Chapura river was meeting with the sea, the Morjim beach is situated exactly in that place. Till noon, we enjoyed on the beach. Now it was lunch time but on the beachside we did not find any good place to have lunch. So, we came little outside from the beach and were searching a place for the lunch. We saw one 'Machan restaurant' at the Riverside, so we went there. The restaurant had good river view, and the sitting was on the 'Machan.' We ordered Beer and Italian food for the lunch. We left the restaurant around 4 O'clock.

Our next destination was the 'Ashvem Beach'. It took hardly 15 min to reach the Ashvem Beach. It was nice and quiet beach. We saw sunset there and left for the resort. It was very dark on the road. There were no road lights on the side of the way, and only big trees were there. It was a little scary experience for me because we were all alone on the road. After 1 hour of an adventurous ride, now we were at our resort street.

We went at 'Mango Tree Restaurant' for dinner. It was very popular and the nearest restaurant from our resort. There was an open bar section of the restaurant on the road side. At the night, the environment of this place was just different from the day. Pleasant lighting was there, and trance music was playing on. It was the perfect place for a cool date. :) We relaxed and had an appetizing food. After that, we went to the resort, and planned our next day visit to the 'Chapora Fort.' and 'Baga Beach'.

Fabulous 'Goa' - Day 1

On reaching Goa from Pune, let's continue with the first day of my trip..... :)

We started our day with superb lunch. We walked from the resort, and it hardly took ten minutes to reach the beach. Vagator beach was very clean, beautiful and peaceful. It was just opposite from my thought. North Goa is famous for huge crowds. But I could see that there was not much crowd, and mostly  foreigners were there. It took a little time to understand that the Vagator Beach is northernmost beach of Bardez Taluka, Goa, and I think this was the reason that it was less crowded.

While walking on beach side we saw one beautiful restaurant on the side hill top. We did not find any name from the beach. But it was looking beautiful. We thought it was 'Thalassa restaurant' because of the cliff location. We read about Thalassa on internet while searching best restaurants in North Goa. So, we decided to go on the top. It was nearby fifty stairs from bottom to reach the restaurant. We started and went to the top. The restaurant name was 'Alcove Resort'. We were little disappointed because it was not 'Thalassa'. The Google map was showing that Thalassa was very near from that place. But this restaurant location was also nice, and I was very hungry, so we decided to had lunch there. 

We sat on the cliff side table that was giving the full beach view. It was a sunny day, but the air was cool and pleasant. We ordered Goan fish curry with plain jeera steamed rice and two glasses of sparkling white wine. The location was giving very lovely feeling. After few minutes of wait our lunch came. It was a yummy food. We enjoyed our lunch. It was a romantic experience for me.

After the lunch. We went outside from the top entrance of restaurant. There was a rented vehicle area. On the road side, all the vehicles lined up. We wanted one vehicle for the traveling. We liked one Activa. Vehicle person told us about the rent and gave the keys of Activa. It was very reasonable, and I must say it was the nice decision. We experienced wonderful rides as well as it was easy to go anywhere and anytime.

We came back to the resort on activa. After taking a good sleep, we again left for the beach in the evening. We noticed that near from the resort there was a famous restaurant 'Mango Tree.' It was an open bar restaurant. Our resort receptionist told us about that and gave a positive review. But we were in the beach mood, so directly went to the beach. We enjoyed beach-side food, and I did shopping from the stalls and did some water activities too. We spent a beautiful evening. While walking we got to know that Vagator beach is connected with the 'Ozran beach'. That was also very pretty. We saw the lovely sunset and relaxed on the sand. Since we had heavy snacks in the evening, we had light dinner at the beach-side hut and came back. Enjoyed night at the resort and made a plan for the next day.

Fabulous 'Goa'

This is not a goodbye, my darling; this is a thank you. Thank you for coming into my life and giving me joy, thank you for loving me and receiving my love in return. Thank you for the memories I will cherish forever.... hold on... these lines are not for a person.... I am writing these lines for 'Goa'... ;)

'Goa' a place where you will find beauty, love, happiness, nature, relaxation, joy, adventure, etc. It is good to say it is a place with full of life.

It was my second visit. This time we decided to visit some interior parts of it or we can say the old Goa city. This trip inspired by one Bollywood movie named 'Finding Fanny'. The movie showed some beautiful interior parts. It was the time to know more about this city and discover it's soul. In this trip, I enjoyed and got to know about the Goan culture and food.

We made a beautifully planned trip of Goa in Diwali vacations. The trip started from Pune, and it is around 600 km. from Pune and easily it takes 8 to 10 hours by bus. There are very nice buses facilities from Pune to Goa. So, we booked Volvo sleeper. We started on 21st October 2014 at 9:30pm and we reached Mapusa in the morning of 22nd around  7 o'clock. Because of the morning there was less rush in Mapusa bus stop. We already booked the resort online from Pune. It is good to book the place before because on-season it is tough to find out a nice place to stay.

We catch the cab for the resort. Our cab went from the beautiful directions. The road was very clean and on the both side of road long green landscapes, and the rainforest was going on. The air was so refreshing and cool. I wanted to hold the beauty of nature in my eyes. After one hour cab journey, we reached vegator beach. Near this beach, there was one 'Portugal colony'. It was the oldest colony of 'Goa'. Our resort was the part of this colony. Portuguese are the people who found out this lovely city (Goa) in India.

In between the forest, our resort was situated. We checked in and went to the room. It was an old Portugal interior styled room. Surrounded by big green trees. I could only see big trees outside from the room window, not anything else. We didn't have any next-door-neighbor because other rooms are little far from one another. It was nice, clean, beautiful and peaceful place with all the required facilities. After taking rest till midday we decided to go out for lunch, and we started our day 1 of this trip in Goa. :)

Udaipur Palaces

Udaipur is the best city in India for a stay that's reminiscent of royalty. There are many places with admirable beauty. Here, we saw amazing interior & architecture. Which tells about the marvelous artistic history of Rajasthan, India. We felt that every stone of palace is saying something and every corner is describing the royal past of that place. It was entirely a very pleasant experience.

Lake Palace 

The Lake Palace was built in 1743-1746. It is magical that 250-year-old white marble building sits on Jag Niwas island in 'Lake Pichola'. It was originally built as a royal summer palace, but is now a luxury 5 Star hotel, operating under the 'Taj hotels resorts and palaces'.

After enjoying a 15 to 20 min. Boat ride, we reached lake palace. The location was superb, the views from our room (upgraded to a lake view) were incredible, the ambiance was romantic, and the services were appreciable. We also enjoyed the rooftop dinner; their food was great (the chef sent us complimentary dishes that were just delicious). 

Lake Palace

Jag Mandir

Jag Mandir is another island in Lake Pichola which is known for its garden courtyard. From Lake Palace, we went there. Because of lighting, in the night it looked like a gleam on the water. Guide told that Shah Jaha took refuge here while revolting against his father. He also said that art of Jag Mandir inspired the design of Taj Mahal, which was made by Shah Jaha in later years. There was a restaurant run by the HRH group of hotels. We enjoyed lunch and dinner here. Jag Mandir Island Palace makes a unique place in history. 

Jag Mandir also known as a 'swarg ki vatika' or 'garden of heaven.' When cocktails, theme-dinners, banquets and wedding ceremonies are organized here, the flowers and special lighting, folk dancers and fireworks bring alive this garden of heaven in vibrant colors of celebrations. Jag Mandir Island Palace has dedicated heritage venues that challenge your creativity in pampering guests.

Jag Mandir

City Palace

It is situated on the east bank of Lake Pichola. We enjoyed the history of City Palace and it's beautiful art. In main entrance, we saw a big triple-arched gate-the tripolia, built in 1725. The balconies of the palace provided beautiful views of the Lake Palace, Jag Mandir and the city of Udaipur. 

In palace we visited:

• Suraj Gokhda, where the maharanas of Mewar presented themselves in the times of trouble to the people to restore confidence. 

• Mor chowk (Peacock courtyard), gets its name from the mosaics in glass decorating its walls. 

• Laxmi Vila Chowk- is an art gallery with a distinctive collection of Mewar paintings.

• chini chitrashala is noteworthy where a series of wall paintings  are on display in Bhim Vilas.

• Museum- a part of the city palace and the 'Zenana Mahal' (Ladies Chamber) were together converted into a museum. There was an interesting exhibit of a freaky monkey holding a lamp and also portraits of maharajas.

• Dilkhush mahal- is also known as 'Palace of Joy' 

• Sheesh mahal- is also known as 'Palace of Mirrors and glasses' 

• Moti mahal- is also known as 'Manak Mahal'.

• Rang bhavan-  is the palace that used to contain royal treasure. There are temples of Lord Krishna, Meera bai and Shiva. 

• Krishna vilas - in memory of a princess of striking beauty who poisoned herself to avoid a bloody war.The palace contains many antique articles, paintings, decorative furniture.

• Durbar hall- It was for official functions such as State banquets and meetings. The gallery of the hall was used by the royal ladies to observe the durbar proceedings.

• Crystal gallery- it consists of crystal chairs, dressing tables, sofas, tables, chairs and beds, crockery, table fountains which were never used. There is also an unique carpet here. Maharaja Sajjan singh had ordered these rare items in 1877 from F&C Osler & Co of London but he died before they arrived here. The guide said that the packages containing these crystals remained unopened for 110 years.

After visited this, we went for lunch at city palace restaurant and enjoyed a delicious food with a royal feeling. In evening there was a Light & sound show and it was awesome. In this show they described all the history of City palace with the help of light & sound. After watching it, we felt proud for India's brave maharanas & maharanis. 

City Palace

Sajjan Garh Palace

It is also known as Monsoon Palace. It was the summer resort of the Maharajas. It is situated a top the hill overlooking all of the lakes. This palace had a way to collect rain water for consumption all year around. We enjoyed from here a very wonderful view of Udaipur city. 

Sajjan Garh

Jagdish Temple

It is a large Hindu temple in the middle of Udaipur. It was built by Maharana Jagat Singh. It is an example of Indo -Aryan architecture. There we saw an amazing architecture and art. This is also main tourist attraction in the city. We enjoyed here some special kind of things like rajasthani dress, paintings etc.

Jagdish Temple

After visiting Udaipur I feel that it is a place to visit at least once in a lifetime. If we want to live like Maharana & Maharani then this is the place which gives us a royal feeling. I really enjoyed a lot. and came back with unforgettable memories.