Goa

Planning for a vacation to Goa? Here's what you need to know.

Goa is one of the smallest states, situated on the west coast of India. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India with international recognition too. Most of the revenue is generated by the tourism industry in the state. Amazing beaches, good connectivity, friendly people, wide variety of resorts, different tourist places, happening night life etc all these make Goa a go to location for all types of vacations. From couples to bachelors to friends to office team outings, Goa is the perfect place. Panjim is the capital city of the state.

(Famous view of signboard across Mandovi river)

Goa is well connected by all four modes of transport. There are multiple flights plying from all parts of the country. With international recognition, there are flights from other countries like the UK, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Dubai etc to Goa. The airport is about 40 kms from Panjim. Many cabs and buses are available from Panjim to the airport. Very near to the airport is also the Vasco railway station. This is one of the major railway stations in the state. Many trains from Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Mangalore etc have daily departures and arrivals to here. One can see the famous Dudhsagar falls enroute the Bangalore - Vasco train. Vasco also has a harbour and many ships from Mumbai, Mangalore, Kochi dock here. The buses also have a good connectivity to Panjim from neighboring states.

(Dudh Sagar falls)

Tourism in Goa:

Broadly, Goa can be divided into 2 parts - North and South Goa. While South goa is more silent and serene, North Goa is more happening and adventurous. If you are looking to spend a silent vacation, South Goa offers you a wide variety of luxury resorts with private beaches. There are a few of them with white sands and these resorts give you a wonderful experience.

North Goa is more happening and with a lot more tourist places. Casinos, night markets, pubs, discotheques and amazing beaches make up North Goa. In this blog, I will cover a few tourist places in North Goa.

(Immaculate Conception Church, Panjim. Another famous Bollywood spot)

The best time to visit Goa is between October to February. Christmas and New year weeks are a huge demand in Goa. March to May is too hot due to the summer while in June, heavy rains lash the state and not advisable to travel. Without much ado, lets visit a few places.

(Casino cruise)

FORT AGUADA:

Fort Aguada is built on hill overseeing the bay of Panjim. It was built by the Portuguese. The fort is about 18km from Panjim. The purpose of the fort was more for storage more than military. It is said fresh water was stored here so that vessels could be replenished. The fort also holds a light house and it is one of the oldest lighthouses in the country. Now there is also a satellite station next to the fort. 

(Fort Aguada)

(View of central jail in Goa and Aguada Fort and lighthouse above)

(View from Fort Aguada)

CHAPORA FORT:

This is the famous fort filmed in the Bollywood movie Dil Chahtha Hai. It is situated overlooking the Vagator beach. This too was built by the Portuguese and has moved many hands since then. It is about 21km from Panjim.

(Chapora Fort)

(View of Vagator beach from Chapora Fort)

OLD GOA:

One of the prominent structures of culture and spirituality can be found at Old Goa. This is about 20kms west of Panjim, on the southern bank of Mandovi river. This city was the capital of Portuguese India. Two main churches define Old Goa among others - The Basilica of Bom Jesus and Se Cathedral.

The Basilica of Bom Jesus contains the relics of St. Francis Xavier. It is said that the saint's body is as fresh as the day it was buried. This attracts a lot of tourists. This is one of the oldest churches in India. 

(Basilica of Bom Jesus)

(Inside view of the Basilica)

Se Cathedral was built to commemorate the victory of Portuguese over a Muslim army. It is the seat of Patriarch of the East Indies. It is a world heritage site. The campus also holds an Archaeological museum.

(View of Se Cathedral)

(Inside view of Se Cathedral)

BEACHES:

It would be a sin to not talk of beaches when in Goa. There are a lot of beaches and each one is special on its own. Let's visit a few of them now.

Morjim Beach:

Morjim beach is located at about 50kms from Panjim. It is located on the northern end from Panjim. This is turtle breeding site. If you are lucky, you get to see small turtles swirling around the beaches.

(Sunset at Morjim beach)

Vagator Beach:

Vagator Beach is about 20kms from Panjim. It is surrounded by cliffs which makes the beach picturesque. Surrounding Vagator are many small stalls and a few churches too.

(Vagator Beach)

Anjuna Beach:

One of the oldest beaches in Goa is the Anjuna beach. It is again about 20km from Panjim and just 1 km from Vagator beach. This is white sand beach and is one of the main attractions. This also holds a flea market where tourists shop for local items.

(Anjuna Beach)

Candolim Beach:

It is among the popular public beaches. Well maintained and with the beach side shacks and restaurants, make Candolim a must visit beach. During peak seasons, this beach along with Calangute and Baga are the most visited beaches. The place is about 12kms from Panjim, enroute to Aguada fort.

(Candolim beach)

Baga Beach:

As I mentioned before, Baga is also one of the most visited beaches. Baga is famous for its night life. There are a lot of beach side pubs and restaurants which offer disco, dance bars and karaoke nights. The night view is mesmerizing and is a onetime experience with the lights all through the beach. It is situated about 18kms from Panjim. 

(Baga Beach)

(Night view of Baga Beach)

Calangute beach:

Calangute is another popular beach in Goa. Sandwiched between Baga and Candolim, one can see that this beach is filled with people. Shacks here too provide a soothing experience. This too is about 18km from Panjim. The distance between Calangute and Baga beach is about 2kms. All along the way, one can find many stalls that sell local and antique stuffs, which makes the place good for shopping.

(Shacks at Calangute beach)

Apart from beaches, Goa also offers a few activities which I'm listing down below:

DOLPHIN WATCH:

Dolphin watch is one of the activities offered in Goa. A ferry leaves from the Coco beach and takes you to middle of the sea where the home of dolphins is present. If you are lucky, you get to see dolphins come up to grab air. Many tour operators offer this activity.

(Enroute Dolphin watch)

(View on the way)

SUNSET CRUISE WATCH:

This is another star attraction in Panjim. Cruises traverse along the Mandovi river to view the sunset. There is a dinner package too. The one-hour cruise journey is one of its kind. The cruise has some shows portraying the local culture and the local dances. There is also a DJ on-board. Paradise cruises offer these tours. One can have a good view of Panjim city and the Atal bridge. There are many floating casino cruises which can be seen along the way.

(Paradise Cruises)

(Sunset at Panjim)

(View of Atal bridge)

Apart from these activities, there are other water activities too at the beaches.

Calangute beach has activities like parasailing, jet ski, banana boat, speed boat ride etc.  A few tour operators also offer hiking trips to Dudhsagar falls. These are like cherries on a cake. There are a few night markets near Baga and Calangute on weekends. These have a good number of stalls and hold music and food festivals. Lest I forget, Goa is a paradise for sea food lovers. Local food contains fish, prawns among other sea creatures. Since, I'm a veg guy, one restaurant I would definitely want others to try is Hotel Rajdhani at Panjim. You can see a lot of Navtara restaurants which offer veg food.

To conclude, Goa has everything to offer and it is called the Party Capital of India rightly so. One must visit Goa once in their lifetime, just to experience the feel of the place. A 3-day vacation in Goa is a must to enjoy all the activities. With a partly budget of around 10,000, one can visit Goa for a nice long vacation. Do visit Goa and let me know about it.

Maldives

 Maldives 

Maldives is an archipelago of islands in the Indian Ocean surrounded by blue and teal waters around. It lies south-west of India and is the smallest country in Asia. It is one of the least populous countries. The capital of the country is Male and is one of the highly inhabited islands. This is the only place in the country which has an international airport.

As I mentioned before, Maldives is an archipelago, meaning it is comprised of multiple islands. A few of them are inhabited while a few are not. A few uninhabited islands are converted to private exotic resorts, which one would often see on social media. Today, I will cover one of the inhabited islands - Maafushi.

How to get to Maldives:

There are several direct flights plying from Bangalore, Goa, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kochi. It's a 2-hour flight journey from Bangalore. One can get some beautiful views of the island from the top as we approach Maldives.

(View of an island in Maldives as seen from flight)

Once you exit the airport, you will be attracted by the teal waters of the jetty. From here, all the boats are available which take you to different islands. There are direct ferries and speed boats available here. While direct ferries to specific islands are cheap, they are time specific and usually take longer to reach the destination. Speed boats are quicker but slightly expensive. But the best method to reach any hotel or resort, is to check with the hotel and resort for transfers from and to the airport, which by the way all the hotels provide. Maldivian Rufiyaa is the currency of Maldives. However, USD is widely accepted throughout.

(Sunrise in Maldives)

(Jetty in Maafushi)

Maafushi is located at about 27km south of Male. It takes about 30-45 mins on a speed boat to reach the island from Male airport. Maafushi is a small island with length of approx. 1km and width of 300m. It is one of the few inhabited islands with a population of roughly 2000. Since Maldives practices Islam, alcohol is not permitted in any of the inhabited islands. However, it is allowed on private resorts. Maafushi has its own administration and holds a prison, a mosque, a football ground, a health center, a school among other hotels.

Things to see/do:

Since Maafushi is a small island, an hour is more than enough to roam the island. You find a few souvenir shops, a couple of juice shops and some stalls which offer water activities. Apart from that, there is nothing else to see on the island.

However, there a lot of things to do. Snorkeling, Scuba diving, surfing, Jet Ski, Parasailing, Island hopping to name a few. One needs to plan well to make use of all these activities.

Snorkeling:

A lot of tour operators offer half day and full day tours around the island, which include snorkeling too.

There are a lot of coral reefs which are home to different species of fishes. Other marine animals include the dolphins, sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, manta, whale sharks, nurse sharks etc. Since each of these animals have their own habitat, it is difficult to cover all of them in a single day. The one I choose was snorkeling in Biyadhoo reef (home for many fishes), sea turtle snorkeling and dolphin watch. The cost varies from USD $25 to $35 for this half day trip, which includes lunch, boat ride, snorkeling gear and underwater pictures.

(Snorkeling at Biyadhoo reef)

(The Great sea turtle)

(Dolphins)

This trip also includes a stop on a sand bank. A sand bank is nothing, but a small island filled only with sand deposits. It makes a shallow land mass in the sea.

(A sand bank)

Scuba Diving:

Another important activity that one can do here is scuba diving. Again, there are multiple, certified diving tours available here. One dive session might cost between USD $70 to $120. The experience is undefinable. No words can explain the diving experience. There are many diving sites. I was fortunate to visit a site which had a wrecked ship too.

(Scuba diving - next to anemone)

Other water activities:

Other water activities like the Jet Ski, Fun Tube, Parasailing, Kayak, SUP (Stand up pedaling), Surfing.

(Jet Ski ride)

(View enroute Jet ski)

(Parasailing)

Things to note:

• As I said, alcohol is not permitted on the inhabited islands. However, there are safari boats which provide alcohol. These can be enquired on the island. 
• Island hopping is another popular activity among the tourists. You can visit other local islands or private resorts. 
• Snorkeling with nurse and whale sharks are a popular adventure.
• Short swim wear is not allowed on the island. There are private beaches which allow these kind of swim wears.
• A lot of crabs and molluscs can be seen on the island.
  
  

(Another sunrise view)

(A small crab)

(A small, live mollusc)

To conclude, Maldives in one of the must places to visit. Be it for the blue waters or the adventures or to have a peaceful vacation, Maldives offers each one the right spot for all these. Widely regarded as a honeymoon spot, Maldives has a little more to offer than just honeymoon. I enjoyed my stay in Maldives. Hope you too enjoy yours.

North India - Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh - Region of snow. One of the beautiful states in the country in the midst of the Great Himalayas. A lot of valleys here in the state are worth visiting. Himachal Pradesh or HP is one of the mountainous states. Due to the Himalayas, a lot of streams and rivers flow through the state too - Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Yamuna to name a few. Let me take you through some of the places that I have visited in this state. There are a lot more places than these few.

MANALI:

Manali is a resort town situated in the northern part of the state. It is a popular tourist destination. Along with Kullu, Manali is one of the often-sought tourist places. It is a small town but with various attractions surrounding it. Situated on the banks of the river Beas, amidst the view of the beautiful Himalayas. A lot of Bollywood flicks like Jab we met, Krrish, 3 idiots etc have been shot here and these places are vividly visible.

Let us traverse through a few places in and around Manali.

(River Beas in Manali)

(View of snow laden mountains from Manali)

Hidimba temple:

This is one of the very few temples where a demon is worshipped. Hidimba or Hidimbi was born to a demon or rakshasa family and later got married to Bhima, the second of the five Pandavas. It is this Hidimba who is worshiped here. It is said that she and her brother Hidimb stayed here. When Pandavas visited here, Bhima defeated Hidimb and married Hidimba.

(Hidimba temple)

Mall Street:

Mall street is the main street in Manali. It is here that all the government offices, banks, shopping centers, eateries are present. No automobiles are allowed here so one can easily walk through the street. For shopping, jackets, sweaters, woolen wears are available here. Hot samosas and jamuns welcome tourists every day in the evenings.

(Mall street in Manali)

Rohtang Pass:

Rohtang Pass or Rohtang La is one of the higher and oldest mountain passes. A pass is small, navigable way between two mountain ranges. Rohtang is one of the passes between the Kullu valley and the Lahaul and Spiti valley. The place is around 50kms from Manali. It is one the trickiest and deadliest roads to traverse. But once you are at the top, the views from here are exquisite. The roadway to Rohtang is filled with army and military supplies. And thus, you can see a lot of heavy trucks around. In summers, this road is filled, and you experience a lot of traffic jams. That's because this is one of the roadways to reach Leh/Ladakh and many private cars and bikers use this road. On reaching the top, you get to ride a quad bike, from where you can visit a nearby lake (sometimes frozen during snowfall). The pass is only open from May to November. Once the snowfall starts, the road to the pass is closed.

(Quad bike in Rohtang)

(View of Himalayas)

(Treacherous road on the way to Rohtang)

Solang Valley:

It is another valley about 15km from Manali. It is known for its sporting activities, especially skiing in winters. In summers, skiing is replaced by zorbing. Along with that, you do get horse riding, Bungee throw, paragliding among others. It also has a cable car, where you go could on top of a hill and enjoy the rustic view of the Himalayas.

(View from Solang Valley)

(Cable car at Solang)

(Zorbing)

(Paragliding)

Manikaran:

About 40kms from Manali is a place called Manikaran. This place is famous for its hot springs. This place has a gurudwara and majority of the population here are Sikhs. There are a lot of temples too. Another legend says, that Manu, the creator of humans, recreated human life here after the great flood and hence the place is named after him.

(Gurudwara at Manikaran)

Kullu Valley:

The headquarters of the Kullu district, is about 20kms south of Manali. Kullu is more famous for its river rafting on the Beas river. 

(Beas river at Kullu)

(Rafting at Kullu)

Food, Accommodation, Shopping, Ways to reach and other places to see:

Manali is about 570kms from New Delhi and 380kms from Chandigarh. The roadway is the best way to reach Kullu-Manali. The drive is quite treacherous, however, with the views around, it gets eased out. If one has watched the movie 3-idiots, the road they travel is the route to Manali. There are a couple of tunnels and one of them is about 2kms. So, you can imagine the drive to this place. 

There are no trains to this place. The nearest airport is Kullu airport located in Kullu. However, only one flight operates from here. The other airport is at Kangra, which is about 200kms from Manali, where you can get many flights. The best time to visit Manali is from May to November. The snow fall starts in October end and once it gets heavier, the town is closed.

(Drive to Manali)

Manali is a resort town and there is no dearth to find accommodation. However, the town gets crowded during summers and it becomes difficult to visit places. Pre-booking is recommended.

All types of food are available here, although they are a bit expensive. But the best part here is the apples. You can see a lot of apple orchards and apple trees along the roads and in winters, the trees are filled with them.

(An apple tree)

As I mentioned before, winter wear and woolen wear are available here and are a must buy.

Below are a few surrounding places from Manali which can be visited (distance from Manali in brackets)

1. Mandi (106 kms)
2. Dharmasala - the abode of the Buddhist monk, Dalai Lama (220 kms)
3. Dalhousie (320 kms)
4. Pathankot (300 kms)
5. Bilaspur - famous for its cement factories (200 kms)

(Dam at Mandi)

SHIMLA:

Shimla is the capital city of HP. It is about 250 kms from Manali and about 350 kms from New Delhi.

It is another one of the after sought hill stations in the country. However, in the recent times, due to commercialization and global warming, the cool climate does not bear the same effect as it used to and thus the demand for this place as a tourist destination is deteriorating. Nevertheless, it is still a good spot for a vacation. Some of the surrounding places here are Kufri and Jakhoo temple.

Jakhoo temple:

It is a temple of Lord Hanuman and is situated on the tallest peak in Shimla. It is said that Hanuman stopped here on this hill while looking for Sanjeevini. Now a tall Hanuman statue has been raised here, which is deemed to be the tallest statue in the world. The temple is accessible by road, walk, horse and more recently by a ropeway.

(Hanuman statue at Jakhoo temple)

Kufri:

It is about 20kms from Shimla and is the highest point in the region. This is famous for its viewpoints. It also has a zoo which holds many rare animals like the antelopes. To reach the highest point, one must ride on a mule. A mule is cross between a horse and a donkey. The ride is completely different as they wade through the path without any guidance. Even in heavy snowfall, they can traverse without any difficulty. There is also a go-karting path on the top. The view from here is blissful. One can see many peaks surrounding Shimla and during winters the snow laden mountains look amazing. If you are familiar with the Bollywood movie 3 idiots, then you can see the house of Ranchod Das Chanchad. This is a palace of a king who used to live here during summers to enjoy the cool climate.

(View of peaks from Kufri)

(Ride on mules)

(View of the palace)

(Go-karting at Kufri)

Food, accommodation and how to reach:

Shimla, being the capital city, has no issues with respect to food or accommodation. Here too, there is a Mall Street, where you can get all good eateries. Hot pakoras on a chilly evening, along with a cup of tea, is what one can call divine and nothing tastes better.

A lot of resorts and hotels are available in Shimla and Kufri. During summers, the city usually gets rushed so better to pre-book before arriving here.

Again, the best way to reach here is by road. A lot of buses ply here from New Delhi and Chandigarh. There is a small airport in Shimla but currently I don't think any flights ply here.

The nearest broad-gauge railway station to Shimla is Kalka which is about 15 kms from the city.

However, the star attraction here, is the narrow-gauge train which runs from Kalka to Shimla. This runs along the highway and through some gorges and is a view to watch. The Shimla railway station is a UNESCO world heritage site as the station was build more than a 100 years ago.

(Kalka to Shimla train - view)

There you go friends. I have covered a few places in Himachal Pradesh. I know there are a lot more to cover and I will update them too. The best time to visit HP is just before the onset of winter - October end. It is when the snowfall starts, and the temperatures would just start dipping down. Hope you had great time reading this blog.