The Goan List

Everyone who visits Goa will have a list of things which makes them wish coming back to this amazing place. A foodie may want to come back for all the xacuti and lobsters, a baba bhakt may have other obvious reasons. There is just something magnetic about Goa. I made my 10th visit to goa this march to celebrate my 1st wedding anniversary. And I cant wait to go again this year. Let me just list down the 10 things that make me go to Goa again and again....

1. The first point has to be the beauty of this place. Agreed the beaches are the selling point of this place. But there is more. Coming from a city, the moment you get down here you start seeing colorful shirts and skirts around. Rent a bike and the drive from panjim to baga will make me forget the city.

2. Oh the food......prawns , mushrooms, king fish, pompfret....mmmmymmmmm!!!! The last time I stayed in Taj holiday in Goa. Most of our food was from the hotel. Ahhh waste!!! I was missing the goan touch there.

3. Has to be the beer....my husband will not touch any other drink including water in Goa!!!

4. The dinner at shacks on the beach. Perfect weather or not...a candlelight dinner with relaxing chairs and your feet in the sand with good music playing in the background ....makes me wanna just stay there forever.

5. The walk down the beach....lame as it sounds I am not the person who counts waves or sees her entire life in the ocean. I just like seeing the people around....couples, college groups, families and even locals. Its fun:-)

5. The place is soooooo cheap. The stay, food and drinks!!!! Now who would not like a pocket friendly vacation.

6. The water sports....ahhhh parasailing.....ya the hassling with the locals over the rates is a pain....but the parasailing experience with a scared husband tied to you is amazing!!!

7. Ferries....Well this one is an oldy....i have not really done it in a long time...i remember going on it with parents....cruising in the river watching the sunset....while a group performs in the background....hmmm...maybe something to do again!!!

8. Saturday nite bazaar.....This is a rather new choice.....its foolish to buy anything there unless you are carrying dollars and are fairly good  at bargaining....but its something worth seeing in Goa....The stuff there is beautiful....all glittery...the ambience is upbeat....there so much going on there!!!

9. The people....well even when I am writing this I am not very sure....I have met all sorts of people in Goa....they are loud....but there are some who will make u smile....just a part of Goa which struggles in all ways to make your stay there perfect.

10. The fact that it stays the same. I have been going there since 2002. Nothing much has changed since then. I know that if I go back I will have the same amazing experience as I had last time.

Well there is my top ten reasons. What's yours????

Nagarjuna sagar dam

I am a lazy ass. I travel to the most interesting places but too too lazy to write about it. So I begin with a very small day trip I made with my husband and in-laws.

I moved to Hyderabad post wedding. Lovely city but getaways are very few. Weather too doesn't help a lot. So when my in laws came down, we decided to make a day trip to the Nagarjuna sagar dam.

Woke up at 6 am and by 7 am we left our place. Our mode of transport was Maruti Alto. Packed some snacks from home as for the first 50 km we were going to be on the Outer Ring Road which has no eateries. ORR is a 10 minute drive from our house. Once on ORR  its like you start putting the car to a speed test. But not if you have a wife monitoring the speed :). Anyway with an average of 100km/hr we covered the approx 50 km on ORR. Taking the exit 12 we were now on the SH to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. The road condition was great, no potholes and you could keep an average of 80km/hr easily. After taking a short breakfast break at Ibrahimpatnam for breakfast we reached the Dam by around 10 am.

The first sight of the Dam is amazing. The size is daunting and enough to leave us amazed. The launch location of boats to the Nagarjunakonda island is on the right side of the dam. Although the directions were not clear enough the locals guided us well.

APTDC has a done a fantastic job of maintaining the place. Its clean, well-maintained and well-managed. A boat-ride to the island takes around 45 mins. There are specific timings for these rides. Last one leaves at 1:30pm. We took the 11:30 am ride to the island. Although the sun was extremely harsh that day but still the breeze is cool. A 45 minute boat ride later, we reached this island. Nagarjunakonda island is a buddhist place. The main attraction here is a museum which contains excavated remains of Buddhist civilisation in the area. Sounds boring and type of a history lesson revisit but I did not find it so. The limestone carvings and the standing Buddha statue was actually quite amazing. On top of that, the island itself is beautiful. Its absolute quietness, the flora around is worth a visit.

We took the 1:30pm ride back to the mainland. We had lunch at Hotel Siddhartha. The Chicken biryani was ok.(Coming from Hyd, biryani anywhere else is never satisfactory). Our plan was to see the  Ethipothala Falls too but we decided to skip it(tired parents plus the heat) and headed back to hyderabad. Reached home at 7pm, tired but happy. A good drive(with my choice of music),awesome roads and a beautiful destination made it a fulfilling day.

Next trip is Ramoji Film city.....till then signing off.....:)