Cost Effective But A Disastrous Trip To Goa Which Wasn’t So Much Fun

Let me tell you beforehand that though this trip was great in parts, it was a disaster at few points.

This was my first trip to Goa, an all guys trip. One of my friends had a trip planned with 7 of his college friends and just gave me a call if I was interested; there was no reason to say no. So I was travelling to Goa with a friend and 7 total strangers. Because of tight budgets we decided to travel by train. Delhi to Goa, by Sampark Kranti Express, took about 29 Hours as we got down at Pernem a station in North Goa, as our accommodation Targulla Beach Resort at Morjim Beach (now shifted to Ashwem beach) was near to that station. One way Journey cost us INR 511 per person.

Our first day was mainly spent relaxing on Morjim beach and exploring nearby village on hired scooters which cost INR 200 per scooter. Morjim was a very quiet and we were the only group Indian tourists over there.

The second day we headed to the much hyped Baga Beach, Baga was totally opposite of Morjim, you could see hordes of Indian families at the beach who had come there on a Monday afternoon for picnic. Mostly tourist had come here for water sports; we too did variety of water sports which were not very expensive. We then headed to Calangute beach(around 3-4 KM from Baga) and noticed that Calangute also had a similar environment; after spending some time on the beach we headed back to Morjim for change of clothes (Lesson Learnt: when in Goa carry multiple change of clothes with you, you might soil your clothes more than once a day.) While returning from Calangute two of our scooters had a very bad collision with each other. One was undrivable and four of us were hurt (two in bad condition while two had major bruises). We somehow dragged the scooter to our resort.

Next day we had to get the scooter repaired and also had to look for a doctor for the four of us who were hurt. Three of us went to get the two scooters repaired while I set out to look for a doctor and was free by 2’o clock after getting them injections and treatment. They rested in our cottages while I explored the Morjim Beach and walked to the nearby Ashwem beach. Our Day 2 was spent in getting everything fixed and no sightseeing. On Third day we went to see Aguda Fort, Portuguese architecture with water in the backdrop made up somewhat for the injuries we had got the last day. From here we headed to Anjuna beach.

Anjuna beach is unlike any other Goa Beach as it has a very rocky coastline. We could not walk much as four of us were hurt. It was full moon night so we had a chance to visit the full moon night party at UV bar at the beach. The party was till 3 AM and as it ended the second disaster was waiting for us.

We came back to the parking and one of the 5 scooters we had hired was missing. We waited for the parking lot to get empty and everybody was gone by 4 30 AM and just one scooter apart from the 4 we had was left over there. We waited for another half an hour and then the parking guy suggested to lock this one scooter by chain as someone might have left his scooter and taken ours by mistake (which seemed highly unlikely). We had no option so we did that and went back to our beach shacks and slept by around 6 Am. Woke up again by 10 and went to the place. The scooter was locked over there and no one had come to claim it. We went to the police station and got it reported and the police reported that they will make sure that we get it back by next day morning. Meanwhile some person (who claimed to be the don of Anjuna) made a few calls and could trace that our vehicle was standing in a parking lot near Baga Beach. We were happy and about to leave for Baga to get it when he ordered someone from that place to come and deliver the scooter at Anjuna. In another 45 minutes we had our vehicle with us with everything intact. We asked him if there is any way in which we could repay him and he asked us to visit Goa again and make people visit Goa.

It was already 2 by this time so we grabbed a quick bite and left for Panjim city. We roamed around till evening came back had a quite dinner at Calangute beach and headed for our resort with a hope that there will not be any more disasters in this trip.

Next day morning we had breakfast at our resort clicked some pictures at the beach, returned the scooters and left for our train (Goa Express: leaves Madgaon at 3:30 PM and reached Delhi at 6:20 AM on the day after making it a 38 our tiresome journey costing INR 520) back to Delhi with a hope that we will have a better trip to Goa once again, which happened within an years time when I went to Goa again with some other friends and this time it was not a disastrous one.