Goa - A travelogue

Date: 13.11.2007

On 1st and 2nd of October, I happened to tour the Indian state of Goa along with my Mom, paternal aunt and a friend of mine. On 30.09.2007, at 8:45 PM we boarded a bus at Mangalore of Karnataka and on 01.10.2007 we landed at Panaji, the capital city of Goa, at 9:00 AM. Soon after alighting from the bus, we boarded a taxi and checked in at Hotel Nova Goa, which is situated at Dr. Atmaram Borkar Road, Panaji. Panjim is the old name of the city of Panaji.

After finishing off our breakfast, around 10:30 AM we hired a car and went to the world famous Basilica of Bom Jesus. There we happened to see about 500 year old undecomposed dead body of St. Francis Xavier. The dead body is kept in a covered coffin at a particular altitude. The sides of the coffin are made of glass so as to enable the tourists to view the dead body. Immediately to the right of Basilica of Bom Jesus, the largest Roman Catholic Church in Asia, by name, Immaculate Church is situated. Every year in November - December for about 45 days, the coffin containing the dead body of St. Francis Xavier would be kept open at Immaculate Church. The dead body is devoid of one of the hands. It is at one of the museums in Rome.

The next tourist spot that we visited was a Shiva temple. The name of the presiding Diety is Mangueshi Prasanna. It is said that it has been built by the ancestors of the famous play back singer Latha Mangeshkar. After our worship at Mangueshi Prasanna temple, we proceeded to Shantha Durga Temple. From Shantha Durga temple, we proceeded to a spice plantation , which is being maintained by the Government of Goa. The entry fee is Rs. 300/- per head which is inclusive of lunch. The spice garden is situated in a sprawling area of 130 acres. But tourists would be travelling only about 2 acres with the help of Botanists as guides. The guides apprise the tourists a lot about spices and spice plantations. (Infact, I have to draft the learnings that I had there in a separate blog. I would do that at the earliest). We were served a healthy drink and a delicious lunch in that spice plantation.

Our next tourist spot was Aguada Fort. As we all know that the state of Goa was ruled by Portugese for about 400 years, the two storeyed fort owes its construction to Portugese. It was built by them to water the ships. The fort also houses a jail for drug addicts. Entry into the jail is prohibited for tourists. Goa has innumerable beaches. Since we hail from the city of Chennai, which is also a littoral city, we wanted to drop in at only one of the beaches. Consequently we decided to drop in at Calangute Beach. Just infront of the beach, one would find the statue of Dayanand Bandodkar, the first chief minister of Goa and Diu and Daman. We spent about 15 minutes there and then proceeded to witness two Goan folk dances (one a welcome dance and the another is normally performed during harvest) and a Portugese dance by travelling in a ship. With that we terminated our tour for that day and got back to the lodge, post dinner.

The next day morning around 10:30 we checked out of the lodge and hired the same car. To cherish our trip to Goa, we got into a textile shop and purchased some dresses. Post our purchase, we proceeded to see St. Augustine's Church. The church is in a dilapidated state. The walls of the church serve as asylums for several colonies of algae. We then stepped into a Christian Museum. There are so many exhibits of Christianity and celebrated Christians. We happened to see an old, big Portugese version of Holy Bible. From there, we proceeded to Catalan Church. The architecture of the church is laudable. One of the fascinating things in the church is that the altar(the place from where the Christian priests deliver sermon) has been constructed around a well!!

We then proceeded to Immaculate Chruch. As said before, it is the largest Roman Catholic Church in Asia. The church houses a wooden Holy Cross, which is referred to as Medical Cross (or) Cross of Miracles. It bears such an epithet because it keeps growing! We offered prayers there. We terminated our tour there. We then stepped into a hotel for lunch and then proceeded to Dabolim Air Port at Vasco to board our flight.

The state of Goa is being inhabited by Konkani speaking Hindus and Christians. It is the only Indian state where bigamy or polygamy of a Hindu is legal, whereas that of a Muslim is illegal!!!

Since the script of Konkani language is not that popular, Marati is being patronised throughout the state. English is also being patronised throughout the state of Goa. Marmagoa or Margoa is an important port. Various cuisines are available at Goa. The best season to tour Goa is October - December. Also, the cost of hotels and lodges shoot up phenomenally that time.

Panaji is well-connected by road to places like Karwar, Mangalore, Mumbai etc. The railway station and the airport are situated at Vasco. Goa is well-connected by rail to Chennai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Bangalore etc. It is well-connected by air to several destinations. Margoa is also one of the important railway stations.

To sum up, "Life is like an ice-cream; Enjoy well before it melts"