Some of the famous lines that pop up in our mind whenever we think of Goa "Goa ka plan banta hi cancel honey ke liye hai", "Goa ka plan fir se cancel na ho jaye", and so on, and this is quite true. The same thought came to my mind too when I was planning for the trip. But at the same time, somewhere in my mind, I was pretty much confident of making this trip a successful one. And "Yes", now I can say I did it.
Last November, during the lockdown, when travelling restrictions were easing up, I ended up planning for Goa. I took the permission from high command (family...LOL) and started asking some of my friends if anyone wants to join me on the trip. My inital plan was to do a solo trip (still on my wishlist), but I realized that's it's good to have someone with you in these unpredictable times. Luckily, one of my good friend Aditya who lives in Bangalore was ready to join me on this adventurous trip.
I was travelling from Mumbai, so I had to carry an RT-PCR (COVID-19) test report. Going through the test was a waste of money as nobody asked me about that report, neither on my route nor during the stay, but you know sometimes, it's good to follow the protocols because you never know what will happen next.
GOA it is...
So, it was a nine-day plan, out of those nine days, four days were part of weekends, and we took leave of three days from our respective offices. The remaining two days we worked from the resort (yes, this pandemic has made people do crazy things).
I got an extraordinary deal from Booking.com; I booked Lands End Beach Resort for nine days stay, the charges were 16.5k, including breakfast and taxes. The resort was very near Morjim Beach and a good 20km distance from Thivim station.
After an overnight journey from Mumbai, I deboarded at Thivim railway station at 8 am on the 5th of December. Just for the information, if you are staying on the north side of Goa and you are travelling by train, then it's better to deboard at Thivim than to go to Madgaon. If not, then you will end up burning a hole in your pocket.
*There is no OLA and Uber service in Goa
I still remember the long line that started from the exit gate of the station. Three medical staffs were standing near the exit gate and monitoring the temperature of each individual. My turn came after 40 minutes, so at first, they recorded the body temperature and then noted down some details like name, phone number, address from where you came from and so on.
After the formalities, I came out of the station and took a prepaid cab from Thivim station, they charged me like 500 bucks, and within 45 minutes, I was at the resort. Well, to be open and candid, the very first thought that came to my mind while I was on my way to the resort was, "Is this Goa?" A single-lane road, trees on both sides and single storey house well that's not what you imagine when you hear the word Goa, that's the description of some village right, but later I realized that Morjim was a bit far from the main city centre.
Morjim
Morjim is also known as "Little Russia" because of the number of Russian immigrants living up there. The two possible reasons I can think of more immigrants living up there is that the place is less crowded, and the beaches are clean when compared to the other beaches of Goa but who knows what the actual reason is? I think Google is the right source to explore the rest of the history of Morjim. So without wasting any further time, let's continue to my travel story.
After reaching the resort, I completed the check-in formalities and asked the receptionist to provide the room with the best internet connection as two days we were supposed to work from the resort. So as per the request, they made the necessary arrangements.
The only picture that I have of the resort...
Unlike other resorts that you will find in Goa, Lands End Beach resort was small, clean and beautiful. The best part, it was just a 2-minute walk from Morjim beach, in fact not even 2 min.
So after a mid-day snack, I decided to rest a little bit so, I took a nap. After the nap, I went for a walk on the beach and shot some pictures while sitting on the rock with my new Sony Alpha 6400, and the images that I shot came out amazing.
Out of all the places in Goa, Morjim Beach is one of the best places to witness the sunset. Just sit down somewhere on the rocky side or in the beach shack and enjoy the jaw-dropping beauty.
At 5.30 p.m., my phone started to ring, and look who's there? It was Aditya. He was at the resort, so I went back there, and we greeted each other. We started to chit-chat a bit because that's what you do when you meet your friend after three years. And later, we discussed the plan (the places where we were about to visit) and which you are going to read in my next blog.
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For more images check out my Instagram page @trampingtrotter.