By far, one of the best places that I have visited in a long time.
I happened to visit Mayem Lake View a few months back in December’10. It was an unplanned short vacation that my friend & I took just to beat the hustle & bustle of city life. We had just called and made a provisional booking with them as we were unsure of the duration we would want to be there. We thought of securing a reservation with a GTDC place and then hunt around once we had reached Goa. However, we checked in and then that was it. We never wanted to get out of there.
Mayem Lake View is a quite & serene resort situated on the banks of the Mayem Lake in Bicholim, North Goa. it is one of the last villages in north Goa. The resort is surrounded by a small hillock with its beautiful flora & fauna. A must visit for people wanting to relax.
We had driven down from Mumbai at 10PM after work and decided to take the route via Kolhapur, Nipani, Belgaum and then enter Goa. Pune was our first destination where we halted for around an hour and got back onto the road. The next pitstop was at Kolhapur at 4AM where we managed to find a small street vendor who was kind enuf to make us some tea. In Decemeber, Kolhapur at 4AM was nothing less than a chiller in a refrigerator. Through with tea, we headed to Belgaum. Reached Belgaum at around 7AM and had some breakfast.Almost lost my cell phone to a waiter cleaning the table. The guy probably thought it was an empty dish and almost put it into the soiled dishes basket that he was carrying while cleaning the tables.
the next part of the journey was supposed to be through a shorter route to reach Castlerock in Goa, however, passing through a forest and a small ghat where the road was only meant for DUMPERS. Believe me, there was no road. All that our poor ALTO had to tread on were BOULDERS.Anyways, we touched Goa at around 11AM and headed straight for the resort.
We were greeted at the reception by a 50+ lady who was kind enuf to ask us for some refreshments before we even checked in and paid her. In Goa, you pay some advance as soon as you check in. Since we had travelled all night, we had almost exhausted cash and had thought of visiting the ATM prior to checking in. Completely drained from the journey, we had missed stopping over at an ATM. We checked with the lady and paid by CC. We never expected this place to have a CC machine.
After checking in, we freshened up and decided to hit the restaurant for lunch. Being tired, we did not want to drive any more, especially if we had to reach Panjim which was around a 30 km drive. We walked down the resort to its restaurant which is situated on a patio right on the banks of the lake. Breathtaking view and a relaxing feeling. We called for some Fried Surmai and Chilly Chicken with a round of drinks. All our exhaustion was wiped out the second I poured some juice out of a freshly cut lime onto the fried fish.and there it went sizzling! Awesome lunch.and there started the fun in Goa!
We visited almost all the beaches driving up & down north & south Goa on a daily basis, but always longed to get back to the resort even if it meant at the dead of the night. The security at the gates was one of the best that I had ever witnessed. We would come back almost daily after midnight to be lead to our room with a security escorting us all the way.Simply awesome.Imagine, we had to tip him and ask him to stay away as we did not want to trouble him. The lady at the reception would call each morning to wish us and ask us what we wanted for breakfast and then have the same sent to our room.
Truly awesome service!
Unfortunately, we could not meet the lady the last day we checked out, but she had left a message for us, that she was on leave for the day and if we checked out, she would be more than glad to receive us back again.
It was the most amazing unplanned trip that I had undertaken. Hospitality at its VERY BEST!
Be sure to visit this place and experience it.