GOA trip-GCETians

Hi all, this is to tell you about the much planned and awaited-for recent Goa trip attended by a bunch of fun-loving, care-free, corpo-GCETians.


After facing many failed attempts(for planning a trip) during the college-period, and about a month of planning that went into this trip, these 9 dudes were finally able to hit the Goan beaches in the second year of their corporate life. This group consisted of Bhavin, Samar, Sagar (me), Shalin, Mitul, Nehul, Premal, Mayank, Siddharth, Hardik all from different locations in India, namely Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore.

The dates planned for the trip were 26th-29th April, almost near the off-season period of Goan tourism. The plan was for everyone to reach Panjim by about 26th afternoon, and then searching for some hotels to put-up.

26th April: Considering the bus drivers, who never reach their destinations on the stipulated time, everyone came in at drastically different times to meet at the bus-station. Thus, Pune-Mumbai guys having reached earlier did a good job of finding a nice hotel in Calungute and reserving rooms over there. Thus all of us met at the hotel itself well in mid-afternoon, wherein everyone bathed, having travelled 14--18 hrs in a bus, chatted, and took a nice nap. The evenings were quite pleasent, so the bunch went to the beach for a walk and to have a look-around of the neighbourhood.
The evening trip to the beach was quite satisfying, some having pints of beer, some splashing around in the waves, and some capturing it in their hi-tech gadgets. There were many groups like us who had come over to Goa to relax, and fortunately we found one such group playing volleyball over at some distance. Finally we also joined in and we realized how the time flew by only when it was dark and the floodlights were lit. Paying money to the shack owner, we went to our hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner. Dinner mainly consisted of drinks, with food being taken just to fill up some space left after the drinks. Finding the beach and the food shacks to be satisfactory, it was decided to stay over at the same place for the whole duration of the trip. All had a sound sleep that night.


27th April: Early risers went to the beach for a short bath, whereas the late-latifs woke up quite near the afternoon. Having already told the hotel manager for arranging bikes for us, the proprietor was already present with a couple of bikes, from which 3 pulsars and 2 avengers were selected. This day was reserved for visiting the nearby major areas, Panjim, Mapusa, etc.
All had breakfast cum lunch at a small restaurant nearby, consisting of cheese pavbhaji, approx. 2-3 bottles of colddrinks per head, cheese pakoda, etc. The first destination was the fort shown in Dil Chahta Hai.
The journey was much more exciting and fun-filled than the destination itself. Had quite a race, and lots of shooting on the way. On the way we came across Kingfisher Villa, and some nice and rather expensive resorts. The total stay at the fort was about 1-1.5 hrs wherein we had a photo-session in different poses, made jokes and some leg-pulling, etc. which made the fort-stay quite enjoying and relaxing. After that, all of us went to Panjim, roamed around aimlessly, following any major road which might seem worth travelling. There was an incident in which Siddharth left Hardik behind and left him stranded on the road just like that!!! That was one really funny moment. After that, the trip back was uneventful, except for the fact that me and Nehul were topless for the complete ride back.
On the way back, having spotted Dominoes, we had our dinner over there, consisting of 2-3 cheese burst pizzas. These pizzas were really bursting with cheese, unlike the ones found in the metropolitan cities. Again, drinks followed, and reaching hotel, having had a chat for a while, everyone slept.

28th April: Again the early-risers had a field day, having had a chance to bathe in the sea before the routine trip started. Today's destination: all the beaches lying north of Calungute.