December 24th, 2009. 4:45PM..
Packed, fueled & ready, my friend Daroga & I finally set out on a motorcycle for a long weekend from work. We made good time on the highway & reached Kolhapur for a night halt. We dropped off to sleep after a very tasty dinner - Kolhapuri style. Come morning & we were on our way again to our final destination...GOA! We reached Mapusa in North Goa in the afternoon and - very luckly - found accomodation fast enough. As soon as we could, we were standing on the sand at Baga beach.December is one of the peak tourist seasons and the place was filled with people. Beach shacks were visible everywhere with people sunbathing, reading books, boozing & generally enjoying themselves.
We had planned to look for a place to stay closer to the beach. Instead, we just sat down on the sand, facing the sea and opened our beer bottles.. Cheers!
Evening.. and the crowd was growing everywhere. We already had our minds set on dining & spending the night at the beach instead of a disco (Sorry Tito's & Cafe Del Mar... you may be good but you weren't what we had in mind). We bought our booze from local stores instead of paying the heavily jacked-up beach shack prices and settled down at a shack where we could use our booze. Sand, music, wind, lights, sea, fireworks. This was our christmas eve. One waiter from the shack put on a very nice show of juggling flaming bottles. They had very recently started up their beach shack. Hope they do well.
Later on, Daroga put forth a dare of sorts.. he wanted us to go & strike up a conversation with any girls that we choose, and see where things went from there. He knows i've never done such a thing. Maybe for the experience, maybe for something deeper, he wanted me to try it. I was VERY apprehensive. He saw that & reminded me what I already knew: That the worst that could happen is nothing! Daroga went for the first attempt. It was very silly and I was left laughing at the end of it. Come my attempt and the girls we were scouting for so long ended up being already hooked to some other blokes... Dissapointing, but not unexpected.
Somewhat dejected but overall happy, we left next day for Palolem beach in south Goa, about a 100km south of Mapusa. Drive down, stop somewhere for breakfast, reach Palolem by 12, stay till 5, head back to Mapusa for dinner & other activities.
This was our short & simple plan.
Palolem was beautiful. Less crowded & less loud than north Goa and definitely more laid-back. Not the kind of place where you'd expect energetic water sports and discos. Daroga took charge of my high-zoom camera and went to work photographing many bikini-clad heavenly bodies. He also reminded me that yesterday's 'dare' was still on. He successfully asked a beautiful woman from london in a black bikini to pose for him while she was just coming out of the water. I successfully received a 'No, no!' from all the women that I asked. Otherwise, the day progressed ok with regular trips in the water and in the circumference of groups of gorgeous women.
Some time later, we needed to cross a chest-deep section of water to get to some part of the beach. I tried from one place. Daroga went ahead to try from a place where two girls who had just crossed the natural canal were approaching. Something happened and I saw daroga standing with them for a photo session.
This is where the plan changed...
My friend wished the girls a merry christmas & kissed one of them on the cheek. He then asked if we could meet up later for drinks. They said "maybe, yes". There names were Anna and Barbara.
For an hour after that, we spent useless time taking pictures of ourselves in various places in the water, on big rocks.. all the time I was thinking that we must meet them again! We started looking for them starting from the nearest shack and went quite a distance, our hopes diminishing with each passing shack.
Finally, we decided to call it a day since we had a lengthy drive ahead of us back to our hotel in Mapusa. We went into a beach shack first to tank up on some food & beers. We were about to start when Lo & behold! In walked the beautiful girls we met just a few hours ago! I called out to them & we re-introduced ourselves. It was initially a bit akward but then we began talking. We all became more comfortable with one another. We talked, had lunch, talked some more and played several games of Foosball (a table version of football). Anna & Barbara were both very energetic. Daroga and Anna finally won the game (Which reminds me... I need to work on my wrist action). Finally, we all sat down outside and continued with our conversations.
Ever since college, I'm a better listener than a talker so I sometimes have a problem keeping up a conversation. Daroga and I made a good team.. He knows what to start talking about and I'm good at continuing the discussion once the topic is known. The result: We were at Palolem beach at night, talking to new people, without any idea on where to spend the night and had absolutely no intention of returning to Mapusa as we planned to meet again next morning at 10.
Anna wasn't feeling well and the girls retired to their rooms for the night. We searched for and luckily found accomodation nearby - after a lot of bargaining - for an unthought-of 500 bucks. We threw our things in the room and went to the beach to open up two decoration-bottles of Black & White Scotch whiskey. We sat there, thinking and talking about the day and the next.
We met Anna & Barbara again next morning. We talked, played frisbee and swam. We talked about hiring a motorbike to go to another beach nearby but the thought wasn't too appealing. A local guy came and asked us if we wanted to go boating. I looked at Anna, Barbara & Daroga, wanting them to say an emphatic 'YES'. Daroga took charge and began discussing not on whether-or-not-to-go but YES-we're-going-but-give-us-the-right-price.
We went for an hour long boat ride to beaches named Butterfly, Honeymoon and Agoda.
This was the highlight of the entire trip. The girls really opened up in talking about themselves and another friend.
It was getting late. We had a long journey ahead of us and it was time for us to leave. This is where we couldn't change plans.
We talked for a bit more, exchanged email id's.. at the end, we exchanged hugs and short pecks on the cheek.
Thank god for everything in this trip.
Thanks to daroga for the initiative.
Thanks a lot to Akshay for suggesting the trip & evantually not being able to join us.. Cheers buddy! Keep it up!! For without you, this trip might never have happened and with you, Palolem might never have happened!
Thanks a lot to changing plans, without which, Anna-Barbara might never have met Indraneel-Daroga.
