It’s a Different World – The World Of Goa… Day II

Someone at work had told me about the picturesque and serene beaches of South Goa… Palolem, Varca, Benaulim and Colva to name a few.. We took the car with the driver (we wanted self-drive..unfortunately we didn’t get one..So we had to settle for a driver)…and drove to Dona Paula Beach.. 

Now I had read on the net that Dona Paula is the place for ‘water sports’!! What crap! It had nothing…! I swear..it had families walhing the promenade..there was no beach….what a dissapointment!.. We lost a bit of heart…had some lemonade..(hehehe) and started our journey to Palolem (a huge recommendation by a whole lot of people)… That’s when the driver broke the news to us – Palolem is 80 kms from Dona Paula! 

That was when we fell for the lure of the ocean and stopped at Colva…and may I say, that was the best decision we made. Soubhagya, when he had come to Goa earlier, had eaten at a place called ‘Kentuckee’ at Colva Beach..We were famished with all the travelling and no breakfast. So we decided to be wise and stopped at ‘Kentuckee’. It was a hot afternoon.. we were snappy and famished. We ordered Breezers, Feni and starters…ofcourse! We ate in silence till our bellies were full enough to start jabbering! J We enjoyed the afternoon sun, yearned for the beach and couldn’t wait to dig into the delicious foood…which when I call ‘delicious’ is actually ‘very very good’!! The chicken was succelent, the fish was very well cooked and the feni was Awesome! We finished our lunch by 3PM and hopped onto the Colva Beach.. it was quiet crowded..Mostly with the families and the kids and the so called ‘TT Golds/DMRs’ (our Pet Names for the pounchy leching uncles in dirty skin colour chaddis…yuck yuck!) We walked upto a Beach Shack on Colva which had 2 empty sunbeds and just when we were about to settle down, a very small man came running to us asking “yes… what do you want… 300/- per bed”. We said, “ok.. but can we have 2 chairs also please?” He refused point blank and said “No No…only 1 bed for 300/- and only 1 person per bed”.. Well WTF? I got a bit agitated... it was as if he was looking down upon us… and told him “can you please talk a bit politely and that there were some foreigners sitting nearby – 2 on one sunbed!!” His answer made us all fume – “Those are 15 days old…those are regulars…” We left but not before giving the man a good piece of our minds.

Without wanting to get insulted further, we walked towards the north… and spotted a few nice beach shacks with relatively fewer crowds a little up the beach. That is a little less famous – Betalbatim Beach. I must thank the ‘little rude man’ for leading us to that beach ....  

A beach shack called “Silver Spoons”! May I take the liberty to give it the Prestigeous Award of “The Best Beach Shack”. I approached 3 vacant sunbeds very cautiously… To my surprise, one of the shack boys came, smiled and asked me “how many of you ma’am? Please sit” (shell-shocked) I settled asked him to adjust 2 umbrellas towards us… and he asked me if I needed anything. I knew then, this is where I am going to be for the day! Done! 

The boys went into the sea for the ‘holy dip’ and I settled on the sun bed, with the sunrays trickling and gently warming my feet.. shut my eyes and drifted into a very beautiful slumber.. Listening to the waves and feeling the warm sun! Now this is what I call a LIFE and this is what I call LIVING!! Sigh…

We decided to watch the sunset from Betalbatim and Silver Spoons… The beach was ‘silver sands’ and the water was calm.. the horizon was beautiful. I ordered a Mojitos and settled on my sun bed to watch the sunset… and may I say..it was the most beautiful sunset ever… It was the best Mojitos I have ever had… It was the best Evening I have ever had! Sigh..Again!

Now the sunset was done with and we saw the shack boys putting easy chairs and tables with candles at the edge of the waters… we got tempted…grabbed a set of 5 chairs and table and settled to have Dinner by the Beach. Maaan…who hasn’t dreamt of that? I did.. and it couldn’t have been better! There were waves crashing 20ft from our feet…there was a soft sea breeze blowing..the moon was shining down at us..Caribbean music was floating out of the shack.. now didn’t I say – It’s a Different World!??! The day got over with a beatiful Goan Dinner of Fresh Fish grilled to perfection… Chicken Xacutti and Rotis.. Perfect..i say! The best beginning to a very promising and positive New Years!!

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