Goa Carnival 2013

I know am too late for posting this. But, was just going through some old photos and thought of doing a quick post, mostly pictures and my experience.

Quoting Wikipedia

Carnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life.


Goa carnival sticks to the definition by Wikipedia. I happened to witness the Carnival in Panaji of Feb 9, 2013. The weather was quite nice and bearable to be sitting next to the road. You can bag a seat for yourself by pre-booking your tickets for the carnival and find yourself sitting in a shamiana/tent with plastic chairs. Our plan was impropmtu and hence, no tickets, so we initially sat on chairs for random public without the tent to cover but, by the time the parade started weather was quite convenient and shelter/no shelter didn't matter. In fact, when it started we had already left our chairs and were standing right on the sides of the road with majority of the crowd. So, I wonder if buying tickets would have helped at all for those who actually did. 

The displays were quite colorful, some cute some scary and some depicting the true Goans. Also, there were lots of street sellers selling masks in various shapes and colors. I bought myself one too. Pictures shall follow soon. 

On our way to Panaji, few decorations

Seating for ticket holders

Panaji main road

Me with my mask in public seating area

And the carnival begins

Goan fishermen and women

Shark in a net

Random cars

Scary!

Cute masks

School kids dancing to a local number in local dresses

Cigarette smoking in injurious to health :)

Masks

Check out the colors

Traditional wedding

Colorful flowers

Scary masks

Tourists having fun

Smiling away :)

It was a great experience. The only thing that troubled us maybe was the traffic on our way back once the carnival was over! That was something... Overall it was fun!

Goa-Karwar-Gokarna-Om Beach-Goa

Last weekend I had a lovely get away from the incessant Goan rains. My husband happened to have some work in Karwar and since it was a weekend I decided to tag along. Can I say one of the best decisions for the entire week? Hehe..

The trip was fun and refreshing as we did see some glorious Sun and breathtaking natural beauty. One of the best scenes though could just be captured by my eyes as my camera went into zombie mode and washed out the entire set of pics I clicked at a mountain cliff, facing the sea... Sob sob :(

Anyways so we started early from Vasco, Goa and headed to Karwar, eating, drinking, music, rains and beautiful nature our way. I think it took us two hours to reach. Btw it was our second long trip in our new car, after the Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Pune-Goa one. Details of that trip shall be posted soon.

So once we reach hubby finished his work while I chit-chatted with a friend. Soon it was evening time and time to hit some of the beautiful beaches that Karwar has to offer. They are clean, blue water indeed, solitary and surrounded by lush mountains.

River meeting the sea near Karwar

One of the beaches at Karwar

Waves lashing it out

Tiny island in the corner

Long, solitary beach

Also, Karwar boasts of lots of tiny islands. So the view from the sea makes a lovely scene with water till your eyes can see and tiny mounds of life and greenery in between.

When it was time for food, we were told that Emerald Bay was one of the well known restaurants here, so we quickly headed there. Now, Emerald Bay is a part of the Sterling group of hotels. I got married in a sterling group resort, the Green Woods Resort in Ahmedabad. And because of the lovely experience there, we had high hopes here as well.

We reach Emerald Bay and it has a nice infrastructure for a small town and remote location, a welcoming and cooperative staff at reception. They easily quenched our curiosity about the places nearby.

Some of the places we discussed about were:

1. Gokarna & Om beach
2. Murudeshwar temple
3. Sirsi
4. Dudhsagar Waterfalls
5. Yana Caves

These all locations are in a distance of 40-150 km from Karwar. A one day trip indeed.

So, coming back to Emerald Bay, we headed to the restaurant and to our dismay they had no chicken to serve. I mean how can you feed a North Indian when there's no chicken? Can anyone relate to this? Hehe... So our dinner destination changed altogether followed by a quick ice cream session. And I tasted gudbud ice cream for the first time. Not that I became the biggest fan but it was a nice change from the Naturals in Goa.

So back to the trip, though we had planned a 3 day stay in Karwar, on day one only we figured out that we could head back as the official work was done. So we decided to  cover Gokarna and Om Beach the next day and head back to Goa.

I had heard a lot about Gokarna during my college days in Bangalore. That it's one of the most non-commercialised beach and go there if you need privacy. So, I had a lot of expectations.  But, those who know the truth that's not the case, Gokarna is known for it's Shiva temple, where the Shiv Ling is supposed to be shaped lile a cow's ear. Hence, the name Go-Karna. And the roads leading to the temple and the beach are so narrow that if you are driving you will lose all your patience by the time you reach the end of it. The streets are full of shops selling hippie clothes, carvings, metal ware etc. It kind of reminded me of Pushkar in Rajasthan at a very small scale though.

Since, neither of us, is very religious kinds we skipped the temple and headed for the beach and to my dismay beach was full of eating joints, and cluttered with food and leftovers and liquor bottles. So much for a religious place!

We quickly decided this wasn't for us, and headed to Om beach. Wow! This was something. It's a journey uphill and once there you can see a lovely view of the Gokarna beach and places nearby. This is the view my camera failed to capture. The same beach which repelled us, looked so tempting now.

Gokarna beach from top

A view of Om Beach

Lovely river on our way to Om Beach

See the way the river turns

This bridge has a beautiful view on either sides

Still looking at Om Beach from the stairs that lead to it

Yet another view

Notice the Om shape?

That's me playing around...

And a closeup

Om Beach

These invite you to play don't they?

The lovely trees at Om beach

And it's going to pour any moment now!

I could settle here... 

Cutting through the mountains on our way back to Goa

So, we reach Om beach and true to it's name, not only does it form the Om shape, it was quiet and serene too. Lovely shade of trees and cool sea breeze. And there was just one shack cum restaurant for you to quench your thirst and hunger. No noise, no dirt nothing. Finally our trip seemed worth the effort. We enjoyed, frolicked, and clicked pics. And then decided to head back. The attached pictures will do the rest of the talking.
And if you want to know what I meant by the refreshed part, then for your info after driving back all the way to Goa from Om beach, we drove another 30 kms to Panaji to watch the Expendables 2! Haha...

The sizzler affair

It was our 6 month anniversary and an advertisement caught both of ours attention in the morning. It was a sizzler fest at La Paz Gardens in Vasco.

This is what their website has to say,

"In the heart of Goa’s Port city, Vasco da Gama, is a cherished landmark, Hotel La Paz Gardens. A 3-star property, conveniently located at an easy distance from Dabolim Airport, Harbour as well as the Vasco Railway station and well connected to the rest of Goa by road, it is indeed an ideal place for a comfortable stay, to unwind, catch up on business, have meetings and presentations and warm-up assignments all under one roof. It’s close proximity to numerous commercial and business enterprises and the Bogmalo Beach to make it a perfect gateway for business or for pleasure, for a combination of both or simply for leisure.

With 72 well appointed, fully air-conditioned rooms and suites and a range of restaurants to choose from besides conference and banquet amenities, the hotel is poised to provide comprehensive facilities and personalized services spelling comfort and convenience all the way."

About Dining;
They have four places to suit your needs.

REGENCY: For Continental, Indian and Goan cuisine.

SWEET-N-SOUR: For Chinese.

GOODYLAND: For fastfood and snacks.

HARBOUR BAR : A pool-side bar.

Among the four I have had the pleasure of visiting two: Regency and Sweet & Sour.

Well the sizzler affair as you might have guessed it by now was at Regency.

Here's what the ad claimed,
"Sizzler with complimentary drink of your choice among a Pepsi, Wine, Whiskey, Antiquity."

The pictures of the sizzlers were very tempting and reminded me of my good times in Pune. At Yana's and The place. Also, if you are a sizzler fan and happen to visit Ahmedabad do visit Upper Crust.

So we go there, all happy, dressed up for the day. Prepared to let nothing bother us. We walk in and there's already a bunch of people enjoying hteir meals, so we quickly take a seat and are offered our menu cards. One look at the menu and you say not bad! Sizzlers and quite decently priced, INR 250-300. Quite reasonable. The downfall began when he asked us for our drinks and since we both decided on Pepsi, we thought it was a no brainer. In a few minutes the waiter walks in with two half filled glasses of Pepsi. Now my husband likes a good quantity of somthing to drink with his meals, and this meagre half glass wasn't going to help. So we ask the waiter is this the complimentary one glass of drink, and he's like more of a complimentary bottle sir! And we both look at each other the 5 buck Chota Pepsi! Ok we can deal with this, we asked him to get us more and that he can charge us for that. Soon our eyes went to the stars under the menu! Extra taxes! We are like ok, how much can it be. Fine, we are ready to order, and off we go, we ordered a fish in garlic sauce and a chicken in mushroom sauce. As the waiter was about to leave, I was like wait a second you never asked me if I'd like rice or noodles with my sizzler. He's like Ma'm read the menu in the star section, only fries and boiled vegetables with your sizzler. No rice or noodles. Am like what! I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but so far I have had my sizzlers with some base so that it makes a complete meal. Anyways too disappointed by now we were like ok get us some veg fried rice with the sizzlers. Off he goes... We were too busy talking and enjoying Olympics on the TV to actually wonder how long it took for the sizzlers to arrive. Finally when they did, while the fish in garlic sauce was quite good, the chicken one failed to impress my husband. It was too dry, the chicken was a bit overcooked.

Smoking hot!

Chicken Sizzler with the one glass Pepsi in corner!

Now you see me once the smoke is clear!

Attacking my fish with garlic sauce!

Ready to attack on the chicken with mushroom sauce!

Hmmmm...

The lobby

Us! Don't blame me, blame the guy who took the pic...

The entrance...

That's me!

So, overall an ok experience till we saw the bill, which given the price of sizzler and the additional taxes as described by the stars was expected around INR 700, but turned out to be INR 850 something. That was too much of tax! For just a meal! Bah!

Well I have been to regency earlier and I do remember the heavy taxes but I guess it didn't pinch that much last time cos I had a Goan thali and it wasn't much of a disappointment. Also, my experience at Sweet n Sour has been quite good. Guess it just wasn't our day. We did make up for it with a quick trip to Naturals. And this time I tool pictures. Check the post for Naturals here.