Goa the land of 3 B’s Beaches, Babes and Beer not in any particular order. I decided to find out if marriage has any effect on the 3 B’s in Goa. We were four of us including my wife, sister and her husband. We booked well in advance on a KF flight to save time and ogle at what else but the ’sexy stews’ as Austin Powers likes to call them. We did our booking through the Rediff Auction site and got a good price on the onward journey. You get the PNR number atleast 7 days in advance and if for any reason there is a delay, the customer center is very helpful.
The journey started at the airport with me reaching a full 2 hours early, only to be greeted with one of Mallya’s choosen ilk saying flight is delayed by a full 2 hours. There are not many options at the Bangalore airport except the KF counter and I could not risk staring at it for 2 hours and not earn the wrath of my wife. We finally arrived at Goa at 4 in the evening. The flight was worth the wait. For the first time I saw people watching the usually drab safety instructions with rapt attention as Yana gupta was going through the safety instructions.
We checked in at Haathi Mahal resort in Margoa. We had booked a cottage and it looked more like a house with a full kitchen setup including microwave ovens and cooking utensils. The rooms were very spacious and it had Goa’s only Cornish Pub whatever that means. There are other facilities including day care for children, night entertainment with local singers, a good bar in the swimming pool and decent food.
The only thing we could do that late in the day was hit the night clubs and we decided to go to the best , ’Titos’ at baga beach. We found a guy owning a brand new Scorpio to drop us at titos. He turned out to be a Sunil Shetty in the making assuring us in chaste hindhi that any problem in goa "Antony Bhai hain naa". After a pit stop at Delhi Durbar for dinner (avoid if wanting genuine goan food) we arrived at titos. My cousin had a 2 year old baby Aryan with her. At titos we were told that we would have to wait for a bit since we had a child with us. Well the waiting period of 18 years was a bit too long for us and we decided to go instead to Mambo, an open air version of Titos. The people were still pouring in till 3 in the morning. Its a huge open air dance club with people of all ages and sizes from 8 to 80 age/weight wise letting go of themselves. There were women in saris as well as minis dancing to whatever was on offer. One thing to be careful about is the food is very basic here, better have and come and then just have drinks which are mainly breezers and pint beers.
We finally came back at 3 am. By then the driver had become a good buddy. At the hotel he handed over the keys to the Scorpio and later nonchalantly asked whether I could drive. This is the only place in India where the people have so much faith in you to hand over a Scorpio without taking even deposit for it.
With Scorpio in hand we decided explore the length and breadth of Goa. On the second day we decided to cover the beaches, usual suspects being Calangute, Vagator and anjuman. We had lunch at a place called as Ritz classic in the inner lanes of Panji which is as goan as you can get. The spread was all the marine beings possibly imaginable, right from fish, lobsters to crabs. After stuffing an aquarium and spending the good half of the day we hit Calangute. But not before loosing our way and traveling twice the distance. But who really minds getting lost in a Scorpio. Maybe that was what was on my mind?
Beaches in Goa are good for swimming as the depth is just about ankle height. For us the only way to explore the beaches was with one of the B’s in hand. No prizes for guessing and believe me it tastes much better on beaches. We then decided to try out the supposedly only live casino in India the “Caravella”. The tickets are around 500 bucks per person and include entrance to the casino and drinks and snacks. It starts at Panji around 5 PM and continues till 7PM after that you have to shell out 1500 bucks to stay till 3 in the morning. For hardcore gamblers it is a disappointment , since it’s a pretty small casino just about a size of small card room. It has roulette , black jacks and all other games though. But if it’s the only one in India , then its ok.
On the third day we went in search of water sports. We spent the whole day traveling to Dona Paula to miramar beach. At dona paula, the place famous for the sacrifice of a young lady we found some scooter boats. So we readily shelled out 70 bucks each for a ride. To our utter disappointment you neither have direction nor speed control. Everything’s in the hand of the driver. Disappointed we decided to explore and ended up at Fort Aguada made famous by the DCH scene where the protagonists spit out philosophies on life. It’s a beautiful place with fort built right on top of the hill overlooking the sea. The fort comes attached with its own lighthouse to add to the effects. Shooting the customary DCH poses we headed back home.
After the disappointment of water sports on the previous day we headed to Cavolism beach, close to the resort. It’s a beautiful stretch of sand mainly due to the fact that it’s not crowded and to our surprise we found all the water sports activity here itself. There’s the jet ski’s, Paragliding, banana rides. We did everything multiple times. Believe me there’s nothing more exhilarating than to be lifted on a parachute and then having to hang on the ropes in order to come down. It’s an out of the world experience.
Now to answer the question posed at the beginning, on whether the 3 B’s get diluted after marriage, A big NO.
On the expenditure side, if you wanna travel DCH style with AC Scorpio ET. Al it costs 1800 per day. Water sports around 6k for 4 people. Food around 6K for four people for 4 days. "Nirvana attained priceless".