it just happened that anand was gonna b in goa on a weekend ... and my family has been going through a specially hard time recently and i thot of askin my mom to come along with me for a vacation to goa and she agreed !!! so there i was vacationing wit my mom and boy friend.. wat an european thot na?
the trip there was terrible, we had sleeper seats on the bus which didnt allow us to even sit up ... and thats how we spent 16 looooooong hours. but then we reached goa finally and i caught a view of the sea... we reached hotel delmon where anand was and freshened up and went in search of a new hotel ...why? cos delmon was in the heart of the city and all we cud see was lots of cashew and wine shops...
after a lot of searching and examining, we finally settled on hotel swimsea ... which had a beautiful view and was affordable too!! then came another round of searching ... this time for a place to eat... cos it was 3.30 and all goan restaurants close at 3 there!! so here we were in panjim - the seafood and malwan food capital and u know where we ate? Delhi Darbar!! we made sure this mistake was not repeated again however ... we feasted on amazing seafood every time after that!!
then we headed on to the following beaches: vagator - where we stood on the rocks and felt the waves on us !!
Anjuna - where bargaining is an art
calangute - which is horribly crowded and completely beautiful... it also has a janpath-like shopping stretch there!! after this we went to a hanuman mandir and then headed home.
A fresh sea food dinner later... we ended our first day here...
the second day we headed on to the chapel of francis xavier (where his body is) and saw the cathedral next to it too ... beautiful old churches .. wish someone wud restore them!! then we headed on to the next religious destinations namely the mangeshi and shantadurga temples (astonishing the number of temples in a place so dominantly catholic).
Then came the only so-called disappointment of the trip cos when we reached the state-owned spice gardens which were closed cos of the rains. but it was all ok cos v got more time to spend over our next seafood oriented meal!!
and then we headed to "ancestral goa" where they hav recreated old goa and the way they used to live in portuguese times.. thats all good but they hav put these amazing robotic women as guides who rattle off recorded gems like "in earlier times there were no newspapers so there used to be a khabri who wud go from village to village telling latest news" but to be fair, they had tried to recreate it as authentically as they cud!!
then v got on a sea cruise which was also s'posed to have folk dances but mostly there were horribly unfit people dancing vulgarly to latest himesh yuckiya songs... but we stayed on the lower deck where there was no one .. just us and the sea !! and we got our feet wet in the rain that was splashing in from the sides ... it was sooo amazing!!
then we headed to colva beach and watched 2 goa ppl fishing for fishies which had been caught in the sea current an brought into the shallow pools made along the beach.
we ended off our second day in goa by going shoppin for i love goa tees and found a beautiful flower market right in the middle of a dense marketplace!! and retired back amazed by all the discoveries of this day..
the last day was just caught up with getting ready to get to the airport on time and i got a huge reality check wit mrs.scatty's fone call!! but all's well ... i went to goa didnt i?????
and now i have a dream ... a dream to go back to beautiful, green, romantic, unapologetic and truly content Goa.
2007-07-25 15:37. Cijin Ferry Pier 旗津輪渡站, NT$10, boarded the ferry.
旗津海水浴場Cijin beach
Bus arrival was at Cijin beach, near 市立旗津醫院Municipal Cijin Hospital and Administrative CenterCijin, Kaohsiung
Ferry point at Cijin was beside Cijin Police Station鼓山分局 旗津分駐所
Ferry from Cijin to opposite mountain shore with ice dessert place.
Cijin Ferry Pier 旗津輪渡站
旗津輪渡站 pronounced: qi2 jin luen2 du4 zhan4
New Jersey's a geographically diverse state unlike any other. It's one of the few states where some of the nation's best beaches are just a couple hours drive away from award winning winter ski resorts. Sunset Beach in Cape May is one of only a handful in the country where sunrises can be seen in the morning on the eastern beach, and sunsets seen at night on the western beach. New Jersey's home not only to the HBO hit show the Sopranos, but did you know it's also the home of the nation's first beach resort (Cape May), half of all the revolutionary war battles, the first college football game ever (Rutgers beat Princeton) and the statue of Liberty?
If you're planning a vacation, business trip, or just a week-end getaway, consider New Jersey for its 13 casinos, wild wolf preserve, 130 Miles of gorgeous beaches, both winter and summer skiing, nation-wide largest collection of Victorian Era B&Bs, historical landmarks ranging from the Statue of Liberty to the museums of George Washington and Thomas Edison, and world's greatest collection of beach boardwalks, just for starters.
With its numerous nature preserves, Cape May is world famous as one of the best bird watching spots in all of North America. With whale watching, dolphin watching, sport fishing and evening boat tours, Cape May is a seafarers paradise. For the land lubber who would rather dine on seafood than watch it, at Cape May's main dock spectators can watch local fishermen clean and sell the day's catch to the local restaurateur. The tuna, seabass, salmon, crabs, clams, oysters, and more, caught and harvested on Monday often become Tuesday's specials at Cape May's dinning options which range from sandwhich shops to 5 star restaurants.
Walk Cape May's numerous cobblestone streets, or instead take an antique trolley or horse drawn carriage ride around town. Go on Cape May's lighthouse tour, or visit during the holidays and take one of the several decorated B&B tours. Explore your nerves on a ghost and haunted house tour, or laugh out loud while dinning on surf and turf at one of Cape May's dinner theaters. Wonder on your own and see an early 18th century mansion on your left only to turn a corner and find a nearly hidden meticulously maintained French garden like you've never seen. Come visit, and stay, in Cape May for a trip you'll never forget.
Getting down to Florida! And our first stop is here, at Pleasantville... it is not a big city, is just a very nice beach city, small, with a lot of beautiful houses, the way I've never seen. We're driving the long way through the coast, so we'll take a little longer to get there.
Driving trough the coast, along the beach, with amazing little houses!!! It worth the driving! I've never seen such a beautiful place. The beach is just ok (when you compare to Brazil, of course), but everything is so beautiful, that you don't need the beach, actually.
It's a very nice city, all about history! It looks a lot with Paraty, in Brazil. The same vibe, beach and history. And we took our time to check on the gardens, plantations, and of course, the walking tours with the guide showing us all architecture, all the history and some funny stories.
It's an amazing place to walk around, looking at everything (my kind of travel =). And that was what we did! Of course, with a stop to shop on "The Body Shop" and to eat.
Only one thing I've getting tired of is having no vegetarian options here... only sandwiches... and fried stuff, that is making me slightly chubby...
Eureka I found was truly out of my ability to safely drive. From the hotel I had a two hour ride through misty mountain roads and dog leg turns, steep hills. And that was during the day. I could have made it if I were a coffee fiend with a cast iron stomach. I'll be taking it easy with the stomach abuse for a few more days.