Bars in Goa

I am in Goa for a day on work (yeah..I know its a bad time to come here on work while half of the world comes to Goa this time of the year to party party..but lets get to that issue). On my drive from the airport one can't miss the hundreds of bars that line up the main road.

There are fancy bars (with lovely sit outs under coconut trees), average bars (which have some amount of food on the menu), mom & pop bars (with the owners house right behind the bar), cheap bars (the only food they serve is chips), wine shop bars (the retail sale of liquor is as good as that in the bar), grocery store bars (you can pick up biscuits, detergent etc. while you finish your drink) and god knows how many other types.

You will also spot numerous wine shops peppered along the road in addition to these bars. Going by sheer numbers its amusing to see how much liquor can help in generating employment and income for people not to forget the incentive to spend and get intoxicated.

Will try & drink to that later tonight. Cheers!

Train Travel

As children, train travel was always the most crucial aspect of our holidays. Thanks to Dad's LTA we would be nestled into the, long gone, first class coupes. My brother & me would enjoy ourselves thoroughly, playing cards being the main feature.

During Engg college, boarding the Sidheshwar Exp was a ritual we followed once every month in our first year and gradually once in the entire term towards the final year. Downing a couple of drinks before boarding at Solapur was a ritual we followed in the last 2 years.

My most memorable journey was in the 3rd AC compartment of the Kurla Bangalore Exp, sometime in Feb 96, for a site visit while working for Batliboi. In a journey that lasted 24 hours, I slept for 19. Pure bliss.

AC travel is the least stressful and most enjoyable as it forces you to relax. Look out of the window, read a bit, get tempted with the hordes of food vendors, fall for some of the temptations (I never miss the Soup) and the best of all... Sleep!

A ride on the Rajdhani is enough to convince you on the pleasures of train travel. A friend has highly recomended that I try the 1st AC on the Rajdhani. We plan to do so in Feb when we are hoping to visit the Mughal Gardens.

This is the first time I have blogged on the train. Remembering some of these train journey was indeed quite nostalgic.

KSRTC

Travel in and around Kumta usually happens in my father in laws Maruti 800. So went to Karwar for some amazing fish at Hotel Ankur and then to Gokarn to meet my aunt in the 800 with my father in law at the wheel.

So when I had to go to Shirali & Bailur, I decided to get there alone by bus. Shirali is where our Muth is located which houses our community's spiritual leader. It is about 50 kms from Kumta. My main purpose of going there was to meet my Dad's aunt who was very fond of me. She is 93 and lives in an old age home run by the Muth. The tears in her eyes upon seeing me, made my trip worth every bit.

From there I headed to Bailur where my mother's family temple Laxmi Narayan is located. I met my uncle, attended the puja and had an amazing lunch after which I headed back to Kumta.

Bailur is a lush green town nestled away from the highway and the approach road is dry and arid making the town a welcome change as the approach road end.

And this brings me to the subject of this post, KSRTC. I depended on the KSRTC buses to get me to & from Shirali. And eventhough they are rickety and all that (they are called Lal Dabbas in Maharashtra) but they run frightfully on time. The conductors are equipped with handhelds which dish out tickets printed on thermal paper. This must be an amazing efficieny move. Along with having a control on the money, it must be giving vital data to analyze traffic movements to add/remove buses on key routes.

Ironically I boarded the same bus both ways & was greeted by the conductor with a smile when I boarded the bus from Shirali.

So in all it was a nice trip. We ended the day with a stroll on Hedbunder beach with a few friends and had dinner at Kumta's only open air garden restaurant. I have never had such thick & juicy Surmai in a long time.

Holiday Woes

The week long break to Kumta started on a bad (disastrous) note. I forgot my laptop in the train while getting down at Kumta at 4 in the morning. I realised only after I woke up at 9 in the morning.

All efforts to get it back were in vain. My cousin even went to Mangalore station to see if anything could be done. And the loss was not only of the laptop. My haversack had my wallet with my driving licence, my credit cards and cash and my digital camera too.

Though I was a bit nervous initially but I cooled down after a while since there was nothing much we could do. Fortunately my office folks should be able to claim the insurance since we managed to file a FIR at the local police station.

My brother managed to block all my cards. So next week is going to be co-ordination & getting back to normalcy week.

Till then I am going to relax and try and make the best of the holiday. Thanks to my new phone and a blazing GPRS connection I am connected!

More later

Raipur Again!

Just a day's stopover at Raipur for some work. The city is just the same. You get a feel of an upmarket rural town. The only construction you see here is a few malls that are coming up. Quite a difference from cities where every available piece of real estate is being converted into a township or a housing complex.

Guess Raipur is a few years away from all of that.

My blogging has been lethargic. I am yet to update the Kerala travel.

We leave for Kumta on Saturday for a well deserved break. Snehal will stay back for a week more. AM really looking forward for some reading, walking and yeah eating some yummy fish!