Journey

 Hey everyone. Brace yourselves, this is a long one.

I'm hoping this year's being kind to all of you. It feels great to write again. I had the most hectic month of my life. I had my end-semester exams, which meant two weeks of no sleep, scrolling Instagram when I needed to study, panicking, and then spending the entire night to finish. The exams went decently, I think. Hopefully, the results don't suggest otherwise. As soon as the exams were over I took a bus home. I missed home so much. I hadn't been home in months, I missed the food, and I missed my bed. As soon as I got home, I slept for like twelve hours. 

I was home for only two days though. It was time for a life-changing vacation, the first one without my family. Me and the boys were going to a place that is on almost every fun-loving Indian's bucket list, Goa. My first trip without guardianship and I was off to Goa. Life couldn't be better. I bought a couple of things for the beaches. A little bit of the beach drip, if you will. I packed my bags and was off to Bangalore, I met the boys there and we boarded the bus to Panaji. Pro travel tip: Do not expect the Goan government bus to be comfortable or clean. I had the fortune to be sitting right underneath the AC. Pro travel tip: DO NOT. You cannot sleep because your body is too busy freezing. I powered through the night by shifting seats. The only problem, there were three seats free and all were right under the goddamn AC duct. I was miraculously alive when the sun rose, my phone vibrated and it was the happiest I had ever been receiving a message from Jio. Welcome to Jio Maharashtra-Goa, the message read. All of my struggles were over. We had reached paradise. As soon as we reached Panaji, we got two scooters for rent at a pretty fair price. We then went to our first location, Cafe Real. We ordered Dosas, which were pretty average. But then we had Pav and some masala which was pretty amazing. We then went to the Museum of Goa, a modern art museum. Some of the art there was pretty amazing and some were just meh. Overall, it was an amazing place and we were some of the very few people there, I guess tourists don't go to museums on vacation. Pro travel trip: Go to a museum. 

The pictures above give you an idea about the museum. Amazing pieces of art with depth and rich colours followed by clay vagina. Overall, a pretty amazing experience. 

 

We then checked in to our hostel. Hostels are a great way to meet new and interesting people and most importantly they are really cheap, which is great. We went to the beach and then in the evening, we saw the sunset, which was pretty incredible. It was an amazing day, couldn't have asked for a better day 1. Day 2 was probably the dullest day of our trip. We traveled around Panaji on our scooters, that's all we did. Our initial plan was to go to a waterfall but the waterfall was dryer than <insert dry joke>. So, we just kept driving across Goa. We crossed the river on a ferry which was pretty fun. It was public transport and free for two-wheelers, which was pretty cool. But yeah, the day was pretty dull. Day three was our last day in Panaji. We were going to Canacona, a place in south Goa. We checked out, our hostel was near Vagator beach, 30 kilometers from Panjim Bus stand. My friend who was supposed to drive was really tired and so I volunteered. I don't have a license but I drive better than most with one, I'm just too lazy to go to the RTO office. So we started driving and the journey was pretty smooth till we got to this very pretty bridge.I got on the bridge. I heard the police whistle when I got on the bridge. I thought they were whistling at someone behind me, I hadn't done anything wrong. So I continued riding, the view was amazing. Halfway through my friend sitting at the back says "Two-wheelers aren't allowed on the bridge", I realized I was screwed. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that our budget was pretty tight and I was managing really well, after all, I'm a responsible boy. The moment I got off the bridge all my planning went to absolute shit. The police stopped me and well challan kaat gaya, then he asked me for my license. Now, I don't have one. The fine for not having a license is 10000, and the fine for the bridge was 2000. I asked my friend to send me his driving license.

My friend and I next to smiling mystery Jesus for reference 

 

 Now, the policeman knew that the license wasn't mine. But, after some sophisticated negotiation skills i.e. begging, I was able to talk him out of the license fine. The first chalaan of my life. Well, the fine still took a massive hit on my pocket, and well, I somehow scrapped through. Legit scrapping, but I guess being an adult means barely scrapping through sometimes. I got to get rich soon. Anyway, we traveled by bus for like an hour and a half and reached Canacona. We reached our hostel and this one was way better than our last one. The hostel had a nice cafe attached. We were tired, so we spent most of our day sleeping in. It was an eventful day. After dinner, we went to the beach to chill for a while, and there I saw the prettiest night sky. It sort of eased my pain. I just kept staring at the sky for a long long time. It was truly beautiful. A great way to end day 3.

 

Day 4, we started the day off with Kayaking, it was really really fun. I expected it to be difficult but I was able to grasp it quickly. My arms gave out by the end of the ride though. But the ride was amazing. The unending sea was a sight to behold. It was the first time I did something water sporty and it was memorable. 

The next stop was butterfly beach. It was the hardest beach to get to, we had to trek for one and a half kilometers but I have to say it was worth it. Surrounded by hills on either side and the cleanest water of all the beaches we went to. The thing is I don't know how to swim, so I decided to start climbing the hill to see the sunset from a higher point. We had been told that the sunset at butterfly beach was magical and it was good but I guess I expected too much. Anyway, the rock climbing was worth it, The view from the top was amazing. The small gaps were overflowing with crabs and I even saw a couple of urchins. It was the prettiest beach I had laid eyes on. I would definitely visit again. 

Doesn't capture the essence of the beach but it was truly amazing

 

 

 

And we ended the night watching Netflix.

 

 

Day 5 was our last day and we decided to go to this unexplored waterfall, which needed a lot of trekking. We walked for almost an hour and found nothing. But the trek was probably my favorite part of the trip. There was a stream of water flowing throughout the climb. The sound of the water flowing was calming and the water was so clear. Undisturbed by human beings, we were the only people on the trek. The trek did not lose its beauty for even a second. It was mesmerizing throughout. I wanted to go further but we had to stop. But we just stayed there listening to nature's voice. I discovered a love for trekking that didn't exist before. I felt so peaceful at that moment.

Not having human beings around is truly amazing, at times.

Our final stop was the Rajbagh beach, it was the point where the sea and river meet. It was the first time I was seeing a beach like that.The beach was totally empty except for the four of us, which was shocking since it was a really pretty beach. There were shells scattered all across the sea, I collected some and brought them back home. We sat there for an hour just looking at the horizon and just listening to the sound of the waves.We knew our trip was coming to an end. We were happy. A fitting conclusion to our trip. 

Well, that should have been the last memorable thing from our trip. But, trips never go according to plan. We missed our bus to the railway station and the only option was a taxi. Pro travel tip: Never take a taxi in Goa. They are extremely overpriced and there's basically a taxi mafia there that controls the prices, and the prices are ridiculous. Anyway, we took a taxi. At this point, all of us were pretty much broke, so this taxi was like the final blow to our wallets. My friend here pulled the biggest big brain move ever, he took some money out of his wallet while we were in the taxi and showed the driver his wallet which had a hundred rupees less than what he was asking, convinced the driver that we couldn't possibly pay more. He let us go. Absolute top G move. We got on the train back to Bangalore. All was good.

 

The train was supposed to arrive in Bangalore at 12 35 PM. I booked a train back home at 2:25 PM. The train arrived at 3 30 PM. I was going to cry. I couldn't even get on the bloody metro because I was carrying alcohol. Life was no hits and all misses at this point. I got on to the unreserved coach, it was my last option. I would have to stand for nearly 7 hours, I thought. I was standing there, rethinking life. Then the universe decided to rekindle my fire of hope. If you have travelled unreserved, you know that people sometimes sleep on the top berths. They have to give other passengers space, I could have woken them up. But, I hate confrontation, so standing for 7 hours seemed like the better option. Then comes this nice lady, who wakes the man up and tells me to sit in Kanada and leaves. She is the reason I haven't lost my sanity yet. Standing for hours on end after the tiring week I had would have broken me.

I have heard that it is important to travel because it teaches you a lot of things before but only now have I understood what that means. 

The lesson I learnt was life throws a lot of lemons at you. Catching the lemons is adulting and an important art. I learnt the basics of adulting on this trip. Have to learn the art of making lemonade now. 

But sometimes, when you least expect it, life throws at you the life equivalent of ice cream. I am going to be forever grateful to that woman who gave me hope, again. 

And I'm also grateful to these three for the trip of my life, love you loads. 

With Love,

Pranav.