14 May 2008

Wanderlusting

Work's been hectic, and I and Macavity were feeling more frazzled than normal last week,. By Thursday, we were only idly dreaming of running, off to the sea for at least a few days. Friday morning, she called me and asked if I was serious about escaping, and when I replied in the affirmative, we both decided to leave that night. I threw in some clothes, my Bible, my journal, and my favorite book of poetry and I was set.

I will boast that we have fantastic facilities like the best travel agents and the best concierge service in the office, yet nobody could get us tickets to Goa. 'Overbooked for the next several days' they said. We called I don't remember how many travel agents, who all said the same thing. "No buses, no trains." And Macavity's leaving for Sydney in a few weeks and saving money for the trip, so she refused to spend money on air tickets.

But still, despite all that, this is where I was for the past few days :-) (Yeah yeah - I will admit, in such a difficult situation, besides Divine intervention, only a will like mine will get you here! hehe)
Macavity had given up, and making consolidatory party plans for the night. But I refused to listen and dragged her to the government bus station as soon as work was over, asked for a bus to Goa, I was told the last bus to Goa left at 2 PM. I asked for the nearest town to Goa. They sold us tickets to Belgaum. From there, we were directed to Panjim. From Panjim to Margau, amd from Margau finally the beach of our destination - lovely, empty, serene Palolem with its fine white sands!This is Belgaum in the morning when we "landed" in the morning :) Pretty town, lovely weather, clean and clear air -It was almost 24 hours of traveling, but god, it was so good. And all that in non-AC buses, torn seats hard as rocks, no sort of luxury at all. Yet I felt alive, invigorated, rejuvenated, happy, it was good and worth every sore muscle in my butt!

We loved the adventure of it so much that we decided not to book return tickets either and do the random wandering again. This time we went from the beach to Margau, from Margau to some town in the middle of nowhere called Bonda -
Bonda - Belgaum, Belgaum - Hyderabad. This is the bus from Bonda - Belgaum, which took 4 hours. A very long 4 hours! Bus this crammed, full of people who seem to find our epidermal pores so fascinating they stared at us unflinchingly during the entire trip. And people reeking of cheap alcohol. And sweat. And old men with colorful turbans and shawls, with noble, callused hands and dignified mos.

The best thing about this trip is that uit was spontaneous and yet so do-able, and cheap as dirt. Just to show how easy it was, I will give a detailed description of fares and rates below -

Hyderabad - Belgaum = Rs 440/-
Belgaum - Panjim = Rs 85/-

Here, we were exhausted, and decided to stop traveling in buses, and looked for taxis, rick shaws, and motorbikes to take us to Palolem. They all asked for Rs 1000 to Rs 1500. So we looked around, and guess how much we paid when we decided to take the bus -

Panjim - Margao = Rs 19/-
Margao - Palolem = Rs 20/-

And when you get to the beach, there are tons of pretty little shacks along the beach, all you have to do is kick off your shoes and walk along and just pick one that suits your fancy. But since it was just me and Macavity, we decided to play it safe and got a hotel with concrete walls with AC for Rs 900/- a night.

I will always love Maharashtra! Wada Pavs and Shankar Balis and Marathi Hindi - the Hindi I understand and like! And funny incidents, like this one where we stopped to eat a meal, it was kind of dirty and we were both afraid of getting sick from the food but were too hungry to not eat. After the meal was over, we asked one of the waiters where the bathroom was, he said "Just go out to the back into the fields." Food poisoning loomed large in my thoughts for several hours after that.

But we built castles in the sand, went for a dip in the ocean in the middle of the night under the moon and stars, and even got to see a couple of shooting stars, went for long walks, read poetry to each other and cried over the sad ones.....
I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

14 comments:

Mizohican said...

So you finally went for the Goa plan rather than the Mumbai plan huh? Inspite of the amount of time I spent trying to convince you to change your plans to Mumbai... It hurts. Like Hot coals. Up my pants.

Heh :-)

As always, it was nice reading through your travails complete with pictures and expressions. And glad you took precautions against the locals fleecing you. That's what they do at all those places, especially tourist attractions like beaches and resorts.

"Just go out to the back into the fields."

What's so surprising about this? Like you never do this at home back in Chaltlang? :-P

Anonymous said...

i love beaches...i love wada pav...the non-AC bus ride part sucks!

-Pi Blackmaziki

Sekibuhchhuak said...

nawm hmel hle mai.last pic khian lung a ti leng ruih ruih hle mai :-)

sawmpuia said...

Nia nia.. bus khi maw miss ruspui tawt hmel tawp.. khawlum nen.. chuan khaw maw kan kal dawn a?Sangha man ang u... nuam dawn rura..

claytonia vices said...

You should know how lucky you are to know at least one person who suddenly calls you and says, 'Let's escape!'

I think shaky buses give a very good workout as u need to really work to keep yourself from falling! :)

mnowluck said...

Have you copyrighted the last photo?
If yes.. then I'm sorry :)

Calliopia said...

LOL Goa on a shoestring budget nimaw? Nawm hmel chiang alom

Jerusha said...

kim - uih e mai - going out to the fields to do business in Chaltlang is different from the same thing in a different part of the world. Next time I do it in Chaltlang, in in bulah ka rawn ti ang LOL

bmw - wada pav hi chu tuio thlot ani tiro! Ka ei nasa bawn tawp, ka riltram tawh loh thleng khan Maharashtra awm chhung na na na chu ka tia ka ei lui tron tron.

The non-AC thing was difficult during the short travels, overnight ones it actually got so cold I was wearing my parka zipped all the way up!

seki - nia tupui leh ni hi a awm ser ser chuan mihring hi hlim te hi awl bikin ka rhia a, a nnuam tawp ani mai!

Jerusha said...

sawmpui - thla leh lamah kan zuk ti dun dawn mi? Sangha len nen kan kal ang a bus tawt ah :)

clay - my muscles still feel sore. I felt my stomach was flatter after the trip. I guess if I do this on a regular basis, I may become Miss India some day! hehe

Jerusha said...

mnow - ka nau I nih manah ka phalsak mai ang che :) Mahse ka zahpui deuh ania, ka bungbu posi khi ka duh vak lo nia :PP

J - nuam ltk! rawn zin rawh u, tlawm thei ang berin ka lo hruai ang che u Goa ah, ka inti expert tawp tawh! :)

Jinx said...

Nawm hmel hle mai..Thian tha tak 'lets go' tihpui nghal zel thei ka duhve eee :) Keichu mahni nen chauhva inthurualpui ngai thin a, mahse mahni chauh pon zin dor dor tho lolz!

Hun neih phei chuan plan awmsa em2 lova zin thut hi nuam ber mai! In zin leh hun chuan min sawm ve toh roh omz :P

Jerusha said...

jinx - ni e keichu thian dul dul a tih hi chu zin leh [hei chu ka peih vak lo a, mahse 1/2 vel zinpui tur hi chu awm se nuam ka ti ber mai. Mahni a zin pawh nuam tho. Kan zin leh dawn chu ka rawn sawm chiang viau ang che lo in ready reng rawh.

elvy Leivang said...

The pics are awesome......thats all i can say....

Jerusha said...

elvy - lo kal leh tawh la, heng zawng zanwg hi I ta ani ang heheh