India's Most Favorite Tourist Place, GOA

There are so many places in India where you will feel that you are not in India, you are in foreign country. Goa is one of them. This is the best place to spend holidays. It is a tourist place where every people want to visit once in a life. Through out the year, so many local and foreign tourist come here to spend holidays and enjoy the life. Goa is the best place for honeymooners also. Weather of Goa is very good neither too hot nor too cold. Best time to visit Goa is September to March. Beaches, Churches, Temples and sunset points are main attractions in Goa. You can see a touch of Portugal in some buildings. In rainy season, means June and July its brightness becomes a little pale. You must go there before you die. Vegetarian people may have some problem with the food. So let us start the journey. 

It was my first journey in life when I was going to visit a place of coastline. It was my first family trip after marriage. I was searching for good hotel package to have a great memorable time in Goa. Suddenly I remember, why I am searching for the package as I am the member of Dalmia Resorts. Ever since I became a member of this group, I did not avail any facility. This was my opportunity to book a package. I contacted to the office of Dalmia Resorts in New Delhi. I asked them to book a 4 nights and 5 days hotel package for Goa. They said please give us tentative dates of departure. I gave 25,26,27 dates of November. After two days I received a call from them that my package has been booked with the date of 27th of November. I felt very happy. Now the main thing was to reserve two tickets of train for going and two air tickets for returning. This is the best way to go by train and return by air craft. The journey of train is amazing as my friend told me. I just had a month left when I reserved two tickets of Rajdhani express (Konkan Railways), one of the best trains in India and two tickets of Indigo Airlines. My train tickets were in waiting list but I was sure that the tickets will be confirmed by the time.

The day of 26th November had come up. We reached at Delhi railway station to start our memorable journey. Our destination railway station was Madgaon. It was overnight journey in train. Train reached at 02:30 PM to Madgaon. We had to got down at this station. When we came out from the train, the weather was hot as comparatively to New Delhi. We hired a taxi from the station to our hotel Old Anchor. It is a four star category hotel. If you want to hire a  taxi from Madgaon railway station, don't hire a private taxi. You will see a prepaid taxi booth inside the railway station which is under government services. Our hotel was situated in South Goa. Hotel was only 13 kilo meters away from this station. Inspite of narrow roads, traffic was moving and roads were very good. The way of 13 kilo meters was very beautiful. We saw lovely winding road with small houses all along the way. We were first time watching long palm and coconut trees on road side. View of small mountains was very attractive. After 20 minutes we reached to our hotel. 

After reaching to the hotel a well dressed bell boy came and put our luggage on the trolley. He showed us a small glimpse of sea from hotel. I was surprised to see, it was looking above from the land. We felt very good when we entered in a lobby of the hotel, staff welcomed us with the folded hands and a chill refreshing drink. After filling check-inn form, we entered in the room. The room we chose was a superior which had a view of lawn. It was fully equipped with the modern amenities like WiFi, minibar, safe, LCD TV, iron board etc. We were tired because of long journey so we did some relax. When it was 06:00 PM, we had a cup of tea and wore our shorts to go to seashore. Hotel Old Anchor is located near the sea. It is only 5 minutes of walking distance to reach there. When we arrived there, I was surprised to see the large view of sea. It was seeming that there is no end of the sea. This was my first time where I was standing at this type of place. The scene was view able. It was just looking like someone has painted it with golden colour. We walked to the road side to see the market. You will see some stores and restaurants on road side. Dmello's store is very good store where you can purchase some necessary things for your daily needs. After some time we came back to hotel. It was only 1st day of our 5 days holidays and we were very excited.   



Next morning we woke up with new plans. Our breakfast was waiting for us at the restaurant which had an array of Indian and International cuisine. It was very pleasant-tasting. After getting ready we went to the reception of hotel. We asked receptionist to guide us for famous places to visit in Goa. He said, " There are approximately 12-13 beaches surroundings Goa, Miramar, Calangute, Baga, Anjuna, Colva and Dona Paula are very famous among them". We hired a taxi from hotel to visit these beaches. First of all we visited to Dona Paula which is famous for shooting of Bollywood movies. You can do some water sports activities at here. We drove water scooter. Driving on road and driving on water is absolutely different. Then we headed to Calangute beach. When we reached here, scene was just like that we have reached to wharf. Its scene reminded me the scene of Haridwar. It was full packed with tourists. People were doing paragliding and enjoying with their own manners. After spending some time we moved to baga beach. This beach is very neat and clean. Multi coloured umbrellas on the beach were looking very beautiful. We had a lunch here. In lunch I ordered prawns with fried rice which was very delicious and my wife ordered veg Manchurian with fried rice. After relaxing on this beach our taxi driver took us to the Anjuna beach. This beach is a sunset point. Tourists incarcerate some beautiful pictures of sunset in their cameras. We spend our second day by visiting to beaches. We reached to our hotel when evening was turning into night. After reaching to hotel and some relaxing we got out to the road side for dinner. There were so many restaurants near our hotel. Most of the restaurants open only peak season in South Goa. We walked in one of the restaurant. Dinner with drinks and sea food was relish and it made our evening wonderful.

Next day we decided to explore Goa in our own way. We bought a road map of Goa and hired a bike.  It is cheap and best way to explore Goa. It is much cheaper than taxi. But you must apply sun screen lotion on your body before riding on bike to avoid sun burn. Check your bike thoroughly before returning it. If you left or forgot valuable things in bike and after sometime you come back to take it, they will say there was nothing in bike. After that you can not do anything so take care. We paid Rs.350 per day for bike. We decided to go to Panjim. Panjim is the capital and main city of Goa. It is very beautiful city, Most of the tourists stay in Panjim. This place is also famous for churches, temples, Museums, splendid parks, coastline etc. We visited to churches and temples. Your Goa trip is incomplete without visiting churches. Famous churches in Goa are Se Cathedral, Goa Basilica of Bom Jesus, Church of St. Cagetan, Church of St. Francis-Xavier etc. The best part of Goa churches is that it not only attracts Christian tourists but also tourists of other religions as well. After some time we felt hungry and it was lunch time also. We walked in Delhi Darbar restaurant which is located in Panjim. Food of this restaurant is very good. From last two days we were eating only Goan food. We were missing the taste of North India so this was the perfect food place for us. Roasted chicken and fish tikka with chilled beer were amazing in starters. Butter chicken and Daal Makhni in main course with butter naan were delicious. 

Then we headed to take a ride on cruise. If you did not take a ride on cruise in Goa it means your trip is vain. Cruises are dignity of Goa. We already bought the tickets for Paradise cruise which starts from 6:00 pm and is a one hour ride. Since the cruise was scheduled to start at 6:00 pm so we were told to report to the ticket counter at 5:45 pm. The seating arrangement on Paradise cruise is on first come first serve basis. If you come early you can choose your seats but if you are late then you have to be happy with whatever seat is left. The Paradise cruise we chose was with open roof. Once the cruise starts the crowd will be greeted by DJ. The staff of the cruise will perform traditional Goan dance. We also danced with them. Everyone sitting on the cruise is also invited to dance with them. Food and beverages are paid inside the cruise. So you have to pay an extra cost if you need anything to eat or to drink. You can have hard drinks, beers, cold drinks, veg-non veg snacks on the cruise. We spent a memorable time on it. After a great fun we moved back to our hotel. 

Now it was our 4th day in Goa. We decided to explore the area where our hotel was situated. World famous hotel "The Leela" was located at only the distance of two kilo meters from our hotel. If your pocket is full with money, you should stay in this hotel only. We decided to visit there. At 11:00 am we reached to Leela hotel. I was very impressed with the entrance of the hotel. It was amazing view with huge lobby. We walked to the reception and asked to visit the hotel. They said our staff is very busy, no one can go with you to show you hotel, so you have to see it yourself. I said alright and thought in my mind that at least they allowed us to visit. The structure of the hotel was just like a fort. We saw most of the guests of the hotel were foreigner. They were enjoying in swimming pool with their drinks. Hotel has its own personal beach also. We got tired by visiting. We saw a counter at open place which was in the centre of the land. It was an open bar. We sat and ordered beer for us. Than we decided to have lunch in this hotel. We entered in the restaurant and ordered for lunch. I can't tell you about the taste of food. It was very scrumptious. After spending 4 hours we came out from the hotel. After that we went to beach for relax. We were sitting on the beach for whole evening.

Now it was dinner time. When we were going to hotel Leela I saw a restaurant on the way. The restaurant was situated on the canal of river. We entered and saw a performer with having guitar in his hands, was singing a song for guests. The atmosphere was set to enjoy live music. Some part of the restaurant was in open area. It is your choice where you want to sit, under the roof or in an open area. All the tables were surrounded with flowers and candles with our own choice of menu. This entire setup was so romantic. By enjoying this scene I drank 5 Tequila shots with nice barbeque chicken. After having 5 drinks I was in little intoxication. I enjoyed in my own manners. We ordered for dinner in the combination of veg and non-veg dishes with breads. After some time people started dance. We also joined them in dance. Overall it was my memorable day.

Next and last day we woke up and I knew I still had the hangover of last night. I drank a strong coffee to remove hangover. After getting ready we walked in the restaurant to had our breakfast. Now it was time to checkout. I asked at the reception to arrange a taxi for us to Airport. After 10 minutes taxi came. We sat and moved towards to the Airport. The entire trip was memorable. I must visit Goa again in my life.