Anyway with Bush behind us, a goa transport vehicle deported us from karwar to cancona in like 1 and a half hours, the entire bus was getting entertained by our antics. From canacona another short journey and we finally reached Palolem beach. New years is peak season in goa, this time they are expecting special guests like Al-abdul Eh-rahim Yo-saleem and et all and to welcome them were the Goa Police. The peak season had peak rates, we hired the bikes at Rs300/day(helmets are mandatory in goa, thank god!) With fuel in both man and machine, we head straight to AGONDA, our abode for the next 2 days! In literary terms, Agonda is the antonym of Bangalore(or for that matter any city other than chennai!), yes in every little sense. I have to admit my special affinity to chennai, lets not get into that now. Agonda is just a sleepy little village with nice long beach and surrounded by hills, the perfect place to holiday. How could i forget, nil crowd, thats what i think makes or breaks ones holiday! At rush hour you "might" find a scooter, 2 dogs and a cow running around! Laidback,thats my kind of a holiday.
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Oh, I forgot to mention, we were 10 guys on the trip! Grapevine has it that the women dropped out because of the notoreity of the author, anyway the jackals can fight for the sour grapes! After the boys got kicked out from quite a few places(it seems 10 boys make a lot of noise, seriously???), I finally found one Mr Abel who was ready to rent shacks right on the beachfront! From then on it was just sand,sea & whisky for the next two days. From now on, the sand,sea,whisky routine will be replaced by the word "Burp!". Lunch at a place run by a maharashtrian family and we started burping even before we were done with lunch! sumptuous huh! so thereafter followed a long long burp session, call to hear more about the burping!
The rest of 30th dec '07, was just spent burping around on the beach. We had the entire beach for ourselves, so the question of troubling others did not even arise.There was a special surprise awaiting us later in the evening, we were the uninvited (still burping) guests at a catholic wedding on the shores, by far the prettiest wedding i have ever witnessed! More than guys, i think the wedding is every girl`s dream wedding, all romantic and mushy. Well, the guys will have penthouse at the back of their minds, even on wedding day!! We burped our way to dinner and burped back to see the wedding cake and the other rituals.At around midnight, somebody mixed drinks (whisky & vodka dont go well!) and the author and his dear friend experienced a black out! Seriously from sometime late on 30th Dec to 6 AM 31st dec i have no clue what happened!! It seems a funeral was also performed that night beach, I`m sure they followed all the rituals very strictly!
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Aargh... hangover on 31st dec!! So burping took a little break and bikes began screeching their brake`s across goa.The journey starts at 7 in the morning, shows the discipline set by brigadier ghosh, early in the morning! talking about ghosh, sujoy ghosh, people take my word, you have to meet him to experience the enthusiasm he carries and spreads, he clicked as many as 1050 pictures on the trip, all by himself! He is also a little weird though! A steaming hot coffee to bring a spring in the step and off we go to cabo de rama, apparently rama spent a few days here on his way to Lanka. See even the lord visited goa for a little..!! Did nothing but gaze at the vast blue sea and hey we discovered a new beach from the fort! After some vada pavs and omlettes for breakfast, we managed to detour and find out the route to this nameless,fameless and habitatless beach. Oh, another excuse to just sit around and laze, but mind you there was one person not resting and you know who!! back on the road after a while we were on our way to bask in the famous goa which people are actually aware off. A drive through the country side and free ferry across the sal river, puts us on Benaulim Beach(off Margoa). this beach had too much activity to our dislike, yea lots of good looking women, but then the crowds are a huge turn off! Lunch at benaulim(good seafood) and we are at a margoa supermarket, accumulating stuff for the party later that night!
A superfast ride took us back to palolem by 5 30 in the evening. A few more minutes and the daylight over 2006 would fade away. Bikes handed back quickly and hitched on to a boat ride back to agonda. We paid something like 100/head and its one unforgettable journey! Such things just cling on to your mind and boat ride is one of those kinds. For me boat ride on new years eve was the second time(did it last year as well), ask the rookies(sumanth) how they felt about. Sumanth to have him speechless, he had that dazed look in his eyes! I knew His trip was made at that very moment. To see the last sunset of 2006 amidst the high sea was quite an experience, there was a sense of fury in the evening calm.
The boats men motored us to butterfly beach before safely dropping us in Agonda. A few more hours and another year would pass by us. We were getting retrospective as we got ready and getting things ready to usher in the new year. While still in retrospection, I realized I dint burp all day!!! For Christ`s sake you are in goa I told myself, getting ready quickly for dinner. We had quite a sumptuous meal, as though this was our last meal and we wouldn’t eat again in 2007!! All the fat was burnt up though setting up the campfire and arranging things on the beach. At 11 PM, it was the perfect setting for an all boys night out! Not a soul on the beach other than the 10 of us! The drinks(black dog) were made and the campfire lit,(I guess an item number for the boys at that moment would have been perfect, anyways!) we cheered until 12:00 and celebrated cutting a cake(I stole the rose on the cake). Quite a celebration followed welcoming the new year and wishing everyone a Very Happy New Year. Ok lets skip the detail here!
January 1st 2007, I got up as early as 6 30 in the morning, got ready quickly and attended the early morning mass in the village church. What`s gotten to me, I thought, but then it felt nice to start off the new year in such serenity. All morning I sat along the shore admiring the will of sea. People slowly woke and it was time we said a good bye to agonda after a rather amusing lunch(the servers were taken aback by the self service we dished out!). Agonda was past us by 3 in the afternoon. We clung on to a local goods vehicle like cattle and got dropped at canacona. A horrible terrible bus ride takes us out of goa, to karwar. Some wisecrack decided not to drink(I think it was me!) and we spent time on the beach playing volleyball(anup took the honours!). All dusty and muddy we catch the sleeper bus back to Bangalore. The tired souls are back to routine again!
Oh we forgot our bait! The 13 trillion economy manufactured a pseudo Bush, the qaeeda searched goa and thought bush was dead when they didn’t find him, we didn’t get a bargain for the real bush and thought it would be in the best interests of humanity that we let him rot in the dungeon! The masterplan worked!!!!
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