Exploring the Coastal Beauty of Goa....

On my way to explore Goa.......

Goa is one of the prominent tourist attraction in India, which draws tourist across India and overseas for its beautiful white sand beaches, nightlife and cultural habitat. Goa has a mix of both Indian and Portugal influence for its Architecture. Goa is basically a coastal area, which spreads across the Arabian Sea.

Sometime back during my college days, we have been planing to visit this place for a quite longtime, and all off a sudden, during our final year of Engineering, we happened to get a time slot to visit Goa, so we started immediately by next day itself. As sometimes, things would happen at instance. So we had to take connecting train from Chennai to Bangalore and from Bangalore to Madgaon,so it was a long journey for about 22 hours, yet we enjoyed it thoroughly. We reached Madgaon around 6:30 am, and we hired a cab to old Goa, as we know the hotel charges are economical, when compared with North Goa.

At Basilica of Bom Jesus Church.....

On the way to Panjim.....

We luckily happened  to find a beach view, kind off a home-stay hotel at Colva beach and the amount that we paid was just 2000 for a 4 sharing room. So on the first day, we took some rest and then, we spent sometime at Colva beach, which was just few meters away from hotel, we happened to meet a friend, who has come come all the way from Finland, as he gelled up with us well,he also joined us with the trip with us and we went local shopping and the next day, we hired 3 bikes and we headed Madgoan and visited many historical places and the famous Basilica of Bom Jesus Church, the design was influenced by Portuguese and the construction of this was started on 1594 and this was active from 1605, and UNESCO, declared Basilica of Bom Church as a world heritage, the church has the body of St Francis Xavier, who is a close friend of St Ignatius Loyola, public is allowed every once in ten years and it is also believed that the saint has good healing power. But we weren't able to see.

Baywatch at Colva Beach......

With Oscar at our Hotel....

Dudhsagar Falls...

The Next day, we headed to Dudsagar falls, it was an awesome experience, we hired a Jeep with a driver as, we had to go through a forest area, it took us around 2 hours, approximately around 54 kms from Colva beach, it was literally, a journey through a dense forest, at-last, they stopped at a particular juncture from their, we gotta to walk to see the Dudsagar falls. As we reached the spot it was such a feast for my eyes, as I saw the Dudsagar Falls, from an height of about 1017 feet and width of 100 feet, it looked majestic, with 3 splits and pool at the bottom, followed by that the beauty, overwhelmed heading Arabian Sea.

If your are a person seeking more adventure, you could take part at the trekking program, which is organised from a village called Kuveshi, which is apparently near by, but trekking is not offered at this location during Monsoon alone as the climatic condition is worse during that part of the season, apart from that trekking is available through out the year.

Cafe Cocktail with Moumit......

Next day it was a strike out their, no food was available anywhere, but somehow, we managed to get a freshly caught King-Fish, which we bought from a near by fisherman and we cooked our-self and had nicely and at the evening, we went to a nearby cafe and had some cocktails, later spent some quality time at the Colva beach.

It was our last day, we visited Panjim church and also visited the Arjuna beach, as this beach is famous for Nightlife and rave parties and mostly, this beach would be crowded, as it was Holi festival, people were celebrating and the beach seamed Colourful.

Holi celebrations at Colva Beach........

Followed by this, we started our way back home from Goa, we got a train from Madgoan to Mangalore and from Mangalore to Chennai and there by, we had some great time and created some good memories to cherish about.

Best Time to Visit :

Between March to November -  At this period the climate will be clean with breeze air.

Place to Watch out :

Party Town Panjim

If you are a person, who is party Frolic, you gotta to camp yourself on north Goa, where you could your enjoy Nightlife Parties..

Mosques :

Safa Masjid :

This Masjid is one of the two 16th century monuments, which has managed to survive till now. Safa Masjid is located near a place called Ponda. This Majestic Architectural monument was built by Ibrahim Adil Shah,The King of Bijapur, which was built on 1560.

Safa Masjid has an elegantly designed arches with octagonal pillars, that provides shades for the worshipers and most interestingly the Masjid also has a hidden tunnel on the walls of the tank that connects to the near by reservoir. Safa Masjid will be open for prayed only on Id-Ul-fitar and Id-UI-Zuha.

Churches :

As Goa was under Portuguese Colonization for a while, the city has many Portuguese influenced Churches, which I have listed below :

Basilica of Bom Jesus Church,

The Convent of St Louis Cajetan and Church of Divine Providence,

St Augisten's Tower

Se Cathedral,

Church of St Anne Talaulim 

Temples:

Anant Temple..........

Anant Temple :

This Temple is believed to be located 45 Kms from Panjim. This temple is dedicated to Lord Siva, this temple is very neatly maintained and it also has good wooden interiors that really makes this place divine and has a small pond just near the temple.

On the bays of Colva with Udhaya...........

Beaches :

As Goa is a stretch of coastal area, you could find many different beaches :

Colva Beach,

Panjim Beach,

Arjuna Beach

Vagator Beach ,

Dona Pola Beach,

Palolem Beach,

Majorda Beach,

Bogmalo Beach,

Benaulim Beach,

Baga Beach

Aguada Beach

Ideal Duration : Approximately you would require 7-10 days.

So, if you planing a trip to Goa, make sure that you plan between March and November as the climatic condition would be good, and as get their, you could hire rental bikes, which starts from 350/12 hours, which is economical, so prefer bikes and as you have google maps you could hover yourself.