Day 8 & Day 9- Goa, Day-10 Goa to Pune

Day 8

Went for a morning walk along the beach. shutters were still down on most of the shops. Decided to have a heavy breakfast and thus ordered american breakfast which included toast, egss, baked beans, fresh juice and coffee. Met this German girl Linda, who was on a voluntary program in Kondapura and had come to visit Goa during the weekend. It was her first visit to India and she had a cultural shock travelling to kondapura alone. infact she was scared to go out alone. but in goa she felt at home just like Berlin!

Took to off to Agondo beach which was about 10km South of Pallolem. it was absolutely empty, but the ride was great though. SInce it started raining again, I had to come back to my place, was wondering if i shd stay or leave to north goa. Left the decision in luch and went for lunch. Surprisingly just as I ordered rice and dal, Linda came back again. Her train was at around 4 in the evening. Asked me if Id be there next weekend, NOPE, on  my way up north. anyways gave her enough inspiration to visit Gokarna! Another Australian lady Susan joined me at the table. Guess what, she had just lost her entire home at Brisbane to the wrath of the floods and had begun rebuilding her life. Came to Goa through a sponsored ticket to restore her sanity. The best thing abt her visit was tht she was planning to go to Madurai, not to see the temples but to meet Krishnan, the man who left his Five star hotel chef job, to feed the destitute. Amazing rite? Her friends in Australia too chipped in with whatever they cud. You can imagine her mindset after losing everything in the floods and now just 6 months later she has come to contribute whatever she can to this noble human in madurai. Humanity and mankind still exists!!

Left Pallolem to Mapusa where my friend eashwar was kind enough to put me through to Girsh his friend. Stayed at Girish's house for 2 nights. Along with his wife and super kid Bharath, this small knit family are the epitome of hospitality.

Girish n Bharath

Day 9

Since Girish had work the next morning, he coud'nt accompany me but gave a list of places that I could visit. Started off with Fort Aguada, once again the drive was awesome. Unlike the south, this part of goa was very crowded, mainly with the Indian tourists. There were tourist buses, vans and hired scooters everywhere.
People where running and jumping posing around for pictures.

Calungute Beach

I then rode down to Calungute. The beach was filled people everywhere and vendors plying their trade, which was brisk actually, I noticed that most guys loved to carry around a beer can wherever I turned, So very different from Pallolem, which was more of a relaxed place where foreigners outnumbered the locals.

King of the Road @ Calungute

Next stop was Baga beach and I was drenched by the time I reached there. Nothing much to see, I rode off to Anjuna.

Here too there were tourist bus and vans bringing in loads of tourists. Had super hot chai and mirchi pav in a small tea shop sitting right above the ocean, tasted like heaven amidst the rains.

Anjuna Beach

The sun finally came out and i decided to ride around the place, and stop at some village for lunch.

Vagator Beach

Found an interesting bar/restaurant where there were abt 5-6 customers sipping their drinks at the bar table which was laid along the roadside. An overly drunk italian started singing hindi songs to me. Imagine a firangi singing and dancing around in the middle of the road during afternoon. a belgian guy tried to give him company, but could hardly move out of his bar stool. He then told me that he had been in goa for more than 6 yrs and had married a lady from nagercoil, who now ran a bar in goa.i realised the world is very small!! After both the gentlemen left, Steve a barman from Belarus told me that his stay in goa was long enuf too. He was trying to find a permanent work in some bar in goa and did no plan to return to his country any time soon. Then there was this american couple from Colorado who had been studying Tibetan in Himachal for two years now. they even gave me some tips for my visit out there (next week). And for lunch had this amazing Curried Chicken Pasta salad.

Reached home in the evening and played around with Bharat until dinner time. Filled my stomach with awesome roti, groundnut chutney and palak dal, before snoring off!! One another thing I forgot to mention, the entire state of Goa was devoid of any petrol due to some blast at the refinery. Hence the city of Mapusa was filled with thousands of vehicles queued up at the petrol stations. I managed to buy some 4 litres of petrol for Rs.100 each. I believe the crisis wud continue for the next few days. Bid goodbye to the wonderful family and hit the road to Pune.

Day 10

As suggested by Girish, I went to Kohlapur and then took the NH 4 to Pune. Before Kohlapur, you need to cross the Amboli ghats, which is one of the most beautiful hill stations ive ever seen. bad that i couldnt do justice to the beauty with my camera (not blaming the camera though, its just my limited photographic skills).

Ambuli Ghats

Once you hit NH4, the roads r just too good and you can reach Pune in no time. At about 5:30 pm, i reached Eklavya's apartment, once again thanks to Eashwar's connections.Rain followed me throughout my journey and but I still enjoyed the drive from Goa to Pune.

Distance Travelled- 460km
Journey- Goa to Pune via NH 4 (there is an option of NH 17 also)
Roads- Excellent (finding ATM is very difficult)