[This article has photos]
This New Year I partied at the most happening place for New Year in India. Yes, it was at Goa. I went to Goa with 5 of my college friends Vp, Maski, Mote, Aashik & Timloo. It was great fun all the way!

We reached Panjim pretty late, at 12:00 PM on Friday. This was due to the 18 hour travel Air Bus of Sharma Travels with a powerless engine. If we could have managed to get seats in Volvo bus our journey time could have been around 12 hours. Most of the time of Friday afternoon we spent in searching for vehicles. We couldn’t get 2 wheelers as all were booked because of the New Year Season. With great difficulty we managed to rent a Maruti 800. But we had to shell out Rs.2000 per day for it as rent ! I am sure it’ll be much lesser on other days. We had some good food at Maski’s brother in law’s house at Mapusa & then we started off towards beach!

Our first beach destination was Arambol beach which is one of the northern most beaches of Goa. It was very near to getting dark when we reached. The road gets very narrow when it get near the Arambol beach & we got stuck up in a traffic jam. There were cars in front of me which were coming in the opposite direction & there were cars behind me coming in my direction. We hit deadlock there. It was a real test of my driving skills to come out of the mess. I had to go on reverse for a long distance to come out of the traffic mess. Finally we got some parking space in a paid parking lot. The quality of crowd near the Arambol beach & their dressing was fabulous. Arambol beach is far from Panjim & is not easily accessible through public transport. Because of this percentage on Indians in this beach is less. And most of the Indians who can be seen on this beach are the ones who have come in their car & the Indians seen here form a good quality crowd unlike on other beaches.  

When we hit the beach it was absolutely dark. We just walked around in the dark and talked to some restaurant people on the beach and came to know that there is place on the northern part of the beach behind the cliff which is a bit secluded. Its called the lake area. Late night parties happen here pretty often. We went to that place, sat in a restaurant and waited for the party to start. There was a big rumor that that night there is going to be a party here on the beach. But nobody knew who’s going to organize the party. We sat there in the restaurant, had some booze, the food there was superb. Till 12 in the night we were the only people in that restaurant. Even other restaurant were sparsely populated. We came to know that because of police problem the party has been cancelled/postponed, but again this was a rumor. After 12 lots and lots of people started coming to this side of the beach. The restaurants started getting filled. And now the only questions in the air were ‘Is there a party tonight?’, ‘When is the party starting?’. We just slept in the restaurant & at night 2:30 we could hear loud music. Yes, the party had started!! We joined the party & danced till morning.

Saturday morning, we left for the Ozran beach which is near Vagator beach. Again, this beach is a bit secluded & not too crowded. But, it does have a quality crowd! We hit the water in this beach and swam for good amount of time. We then had breakfast & booze & slept till the afternoon. We then went to the Anjuna beach & had our lunch. 3 of our friends were feeling tired, so they took the car & went to Maski’s brother in law’s house in Mapusa to take rest. The remaining 3 of us went towards sand & water. To our shock Anjuna beach was dirty and crowded. I felt as if I am in the Majestic Bus Stand of Bangalore. This is because Anjuna beach is very famous & is easily accessible through public transport. Because of this all the cheap crowd which comes to Goa hit this beach & make it a dirty and crowded place. With great difficulty we found some shaded place here to sleep & we slept till the evening. Later we hired an auto and went to Ozran beach which we felt was 100 times better than Anjuna. Vp, Timloo & me played Frisbee on this beach. It was great fun. I then had another swim in this beach. The other 3 joined us and we bought tickets for new year party at ‘Hill Top‘ which cost Rs.500/- per head.

We had our lunch at Mapusa at a vegetarian (I was pretty surprised to see a veg. restaurant at Goa) restaurant called Navtara. The food here was damn tasty. We then headed to Hill Top for the the New Year party. It is one of the most happening places in Goa for New Year party. It had great music, big place for dancing, food & booze were not too costly either. The crowd here was 70% foreigners. Even the Indian crowd here was very glamorous. I had never in my life seen this quality Indian crowd. When it was near 12 the whole place was jam-packed. There were so many people moving in and out of the club that the crowd near the entrance was going almost out of control & there was a near stampede situation near the entrance. I and Mote had gone out of the club & we tried to get into the club near 12 & it took 30 minutes for us to get in! When the time moved and the year changed we were actually standing outside the club. But we never minded it because at 12 the whole Goa sky was lit up with fireworks. The crowd outside the club (many didn’t have money to get in, some with money were still trying to get in like us) was equally colorful. We managed to get in and then we danced till 1 A.M. Even though I didn’t want to leave before morning (the party went on till 10 in the morning!) my friends forced me to leave the party. Would you believe it, at 1 A.M. there was a huge traffic jam neat the club. Our car was parked somewhere in between in the ground. There were hundreds of cars parked on that ground & it was a very very difficult for us to get our car out because we were blocked from all the side. The ground was very uneven & during our circus to get the car to the road bottom part of the car (chassi) was hit many times. Finally we reached home and had great sleep.

I got up at 6:15 AM. All my friends were sleeping like logs. I asked few if they would join me. None had the energy. I took the car and headed to the Arambol beach alone. This time I got the real experience of the Arambol beach. I went for a jog till the southern end of the beach. Arambol is a very long beach. Its very clean & less crowded. This was best of all the beaches we visited. I had lemon tea & breakfast here & then I slept for sometime in this wonderful beach. The weather was very good. There was cool breeze on this beach. I think I can stay in this beach for my lifetime. Even though I didn’t want to go back, I had to leave. I went back to Mapusa were my friends were waiting for me. We then went to Kumta in Karnataka on Bus.

We reached Kumta in the evening at around 7 PM and went straight to Maski’s home where his parents stay. Although it was a very shot stay here, it was very very memorable. I took bath from the well water in Maski’s house. The water was very sweet and the temperature of water was just perfect. It made my body totally fresh & injected more life into my body. We then had great food at Maski’s house prepared by his mother. Although we were traveling, we just couldn’t control ourselves & we ate heavily. I would remember this food feast for a very long time. We then took the bus to Bangalore which had been booked by Maski. 

I was finally back in Bangalore on Monday morning, took some rest & then went to office for work. Although I was really sad to leave Goa and come back, the Goa trip injected lot of life in me. I really enjoyed driving car in Goa & now I have realized that its big time that I bought a 4 wheeler & I am going to buy one pretty soon. I have been thinking of some alternate profession after I become 35 year old. I don’t want to be a software engineer after another 10 years. After the Goa trip, I have got lot of food for thought. I am thinking of opening a guest house near a beach either in Goa or in Costal Karnataka near Gokarna or Karwar. I just hope that I can make enough money in the next 10 years to fulfill my dreams! Anybody joining me?!!

I think its time to stop my fingers. This is one of the longest posts I have ever written on my Blog!

Vp, Mote, KG(timloo), Maski & Aashik. KG is bargaining with the beggar

Arambol beach

Sunset at Ozran beach

PS: I’ll upload more photos here when I get the photos taken from Maski’s cannon camera.