The beach getaway - Goa

Goa is a smallest state in India. It is located in west coast of India, bordered by Maharasthra in in north, Karnataka in south and east and Arabian Sea in the west. It has lots of Portuguese influence as it was the first place which Portuguese ships landed in india.

I went there for a 3-days weekend, and it was worthed the trip. Here I can see the things which is completely different with Mumbai (and India in general, as I assumed). Took a 1-hour flight and arrived at Goa's airport. Then we the hotel bus took us to Taj Aquada.

The name comes from the name of the portuguese fort, Aguada, which used to be a stop for the ships to fill up the water. The fort itself located very near with the hotel. The hotel is great, very luxurious, and I stayed in a cottage, apart from the main hotel building. Above picture wa staken from the fort looking to the hotel building.

The back of the hotel was a semi-private beach, clean, with not-so stong waves (They said that we come at the right time when they just took the notice sign of not to swim the day before). Seems that there is a certain moment when the beach/sea is safe for any water activities.

In one part of the beach, located a part of the fort, as seen in the picture. As almost all other old building in Goa.. this forts was made of laterites rock, reddish in color. The fort is still quite sturdy and is safe to be a tourist attraction. The part of the fort looks like a peeping tower, since it is located in the fartest part of the land towards the open sea.

We took a day-tour package to see the main town, some churches and temples. We went with a small 4-seats car, with a driver and guide, towards the old Goa.

The first stop is a remnant of the old church, named St. Augustine. This was destroyed by Portuguese at that time after they thought that the influence of the religion is too much, that's what the guide explained to us. The church was consisted of the main altar and church building, also the monastery, where the priest and students stayed, completed with the library. When I walked to see around this ruins, my thinking wander to the movie: Timeline, based on Michael Chrichton books, about a group of archeologists who traveled back to the old time to find some of their friends who had been trapped there. This ruins seems so quiet and lonely to me. Nothing has moved, nothing has changes, as it has its own story and won't share with anyone else, keep its mouth closed.

Nobody knows what the people at time were doing in this rooms and places, nobody can feel how was that when they destroy the main pillar of the church.

As I notice, that in some part of the church's floor, an old emblem was placed as part of the floor. The guide said that it was a noble family had some members burried under, so it is a tomb of a person, burried inside the church. The more noble the family, the closer the tomb located to the altar. This is a common things in catholic community, but not to me, as this is only I knew it that time.

Then we continue the trip to the main-old Goa, where they have 2 big churches or basilicas, located one against each other. First is Basilica do Bom Jesus, this church has the relics of St. Francis Xavier. Lots of people were inside the church, some of them were praying, whereas more people were tourist to see and take pictures of the relics. Inside of the church is similar as Jakarta-Chatedral.

Then the second church is Se Cathedral, Se means Big., similar architecture with the other church, here the guide explained about how they built this huge building, using massive pieces of rock without any cement or plester. They had a special rock, shaped in a way that it can hold other rocks, called the key-rock. usually it was placed at the center and top of the building/door/gate.

Finished with the church, we went to a spice farm, they organize a tour around tha farm with aguide to identofy each spice plants, which a big possibilities, some of the tourists have never seen it, except in the kitchen or dinner table, ready to use.

The trip is continued with a self-serving lunch in the main hut. The food, they say is an original daily goan food, which they served a free-feni (local alcohol drink - made of the cashew fruit). Nice package of a tour and food.

Then we went to the capital of Goa, Panjim. Here we saw a temple - Hanuman temple, as the name, this temple is devoted to hanuman, monkey god. With bright colored architecture. This temple has an unique shape and it is located in a high spot overlooking a part of the town across the river. All hindu temples is devoted to a particular deity/form of god/goddes. It has a holy shrine with holy basil planted in front of the building, as hindu houses should have as well. The duty of a married woman to water and circle the shrine 3 times. Also as a duty of married women to present the prayer.

The city of Panjim has several nice beaches, but full of people and domestic tourists. We visited one beach - Donna Maria beach. It has beautiful tower structure. Said that it was built by an English-family. Top of the tower was a veranda-like, to see the whole town. There is a statue of a woman, waiting for somebody.

Then the trip was continued to the town itself, where the guide took us to a housing area, influenced by portuguese style, as can be seen in below pictures.. the houses was painted in bright color. Very interesting. The alleys's names also using portuguese's names such as Rue de Natal. The environment is quite tidy and clean..

We took some walk going here and there around the houses and took some pictures. Not much to see.. but the houses and environment around is already an interesting things to explore.

After that, the driver stopped at a local store and we bought cashew nut (a speciality from Goa) and port wine - a sweet - portuguese wine.

Then came the boat trip, where a bunch of people shoved into the big-open boat and some people performed songs and all of them danced and shouted. Well.. not that so nice experience..but.. :)