Pristine white sand beaches Varca, Goa

Pandamic revenge travel our destination Varca,Goa. Post vaccination and when things started looking up we badly wanted a change of scene and on a whim booked a Goa trip. On googling for best beaches of Goa apart from Palolem, Varca stood out as clear winner. There we went and it is an awesome beach no doubt.

Pretravel COVID safety/norms:

Three days before our spicejet flight we received following notification:

For your SpiceJet flight to Goa, passengers who are fully vaccinated atleast 15 days prior to travel and are carrying their final vaccination certificate of both doses are exempted from carrying any test report. For others, it is mandatory to carry a negative Covid-19 test report, sample for which should have been collected within 72 hrs prior to arrival. Passengers without reports may not be accepted for the flight.

Earlier there was a waiver for children right now it's not there. So, we got RTPCR done. As of Oct 2021 following are rates in Bangalore

Anand diagnostics charges 1400rs home collection and 24 hours result - readily available

Apollo lab 1200 home collection 12 hours result but ready to come exactly the previous day

Walked in to nearby lab result came in 14hours as SMS, email in about 18 hours. Labs collects and sends to Anand or some other lab

All tests for the day close by 3PM so plan accordingly.

Day 1: Land, Eat and dive into water

Bangalore Goa spicejet flight at 9:55AM landed at Goa close to 11AM. Vaccine certificate and RTPCR for children are check while boarding and while exiting Goa airport. Post Web checkin you get baggage pass stating we have print and stick on bags etc, those are not necessary now. We can checkin at airport they would print baggage tag and stick on our bags.

We had booked self drive car from Goicar. Fantastic service. We have used Myles,zoom etc in different cities this small car operator Goicar surpass it all. Website was clean no hidden charges, immediate confirmation and contact communication on whatsapp as well. Once we landed we were guided to a place to pick up car and car was ready process was super simple. All self drive cars are parked below a bridge a 5 minute walk from exit of airport. Due to some taxi union vs self drive car agents the self drive cars can't enter airpot. Also, if you are in some resort esp. Mahindra holidays self drive cars not allowed. Please check before you book.

Picked up car(goicar) and had an amazing lunch at a veggie hut. They have interesting batura's like Chilli cheese, paneer and so many others. The food tastes heavenly. Run by a passionate couple they make excellent food as a warm welcome.

About 50 mins drive we reached Majestic Eco comforts Varca for our stay for the next 3 nights.  This place is quiet with a nice medidation hall,spa great resturant with super tasty food. Whole setup is Aesthetically done. Swimming pool is awesome too.

After a little rest we headed to Varca beach. It's 5 mins drive from Majestic eco comfort. 

Varca beach in south goa is magneficecnt. Super soft white sand, endlessly long beach is awesome. Beach is clean. There are many high end resorts too setup around this area. Sunsets are beautiful. Check out the pictures below.

After a great sunset and a good swim we visited Navtara resturant, Madgao for dinner. Awesome dosas but super slow service.

Day 2: Sunrise walk, life guard troubles, more swimming, Pizza and more

After good sleep we tried to reach other side of Varca beach. That's equally mesmerizing. Majestic has another property on this side. We returned for hotel for amazing buffet breakfast including oothappam, magalore bonda, aloo tikki, superb sambar, chutney along with bread corn flakes, coffee & tea. We were all geared to visit beach again.

Life guards are annoying in some areas of beach. They shoo us away saying it's not safe. We are not going deep sea, they simply want to sit watch their mobile.

Thankfully Zuri side of Varca beach life guards don't bother, you can have all fun.

Beach hopping we tried again in Benaulim beach life guard didn't want us around. Visited Colva beach it 's too commericial to our liking. Back to Varca and nice beach playing in water.

We didn't have appetite for lunch, we walked into a nice bakery next to home centre called mongini's cake shop. Super tasty cakes loads of vegetarian/eggless options too.

Another sunset swim on beach we went for dinner at Good fellas pizza. Place is great but their attention is on regulars/elite crowd. Pizzas are great so is the price :). For all the raving reviews didn't find this place as great as Palolem(Magic italy). Care to ask how comforatable are we, do we need anything, how did we like it. Only places where there is care to cater every customer there is growth.

Day 3: Sunset boat ride in river sal

Morning walk on Varca beach the Majestic cottages side. The varca beach is super long and keeps going till you walk.

After a good swim in beach we had good lunch and little rest at Majestic eco comfort itself. This place serves tasty food. Service is also fast.

Highlight of today is sunset boat ride in Sal River. It's backwater/river at beautiful setting.

We used services provided by Jack 's cruises & watersports. It was Fantastic. He charged 3k and boat was exclusive for us. They take you around for a pleasant boat ride crossing Jetty around island and reach a place where River sal meets sea. This setting is just picture perfect.

Picturisque backwater setting - Jack 's cruises

Spotted birds

Island prawn farming

Jetty

Betul light house and temple view from boat

A perfect sunset

Day 4: Bye bye Varca

Visited Betul light house in the morning. Beautiful setting.

Easily reachable in car and a short walk thereafter. Had amazing breakfast, swim pack and check out. Returned car to Goicar and returned home with loads of memories and energy.

Gujarat - Vibrant, Variant , Vast and Vegetarian!

This December we planned a week long vacation at Gujarat inspired by this blog.

Day 1: Land and Rest

We made a last minute change as the original flight schedule changed in Indigo. We left a day early and booked a room in Hotel Ashray inn express near Airport. This hotel is at a convenient location to just stop,rest eat and leave to fly. 

Day 2: Zoom car and Little rann of kutch

After an unpleasant zoom car experience, we finally started to little rann of Kutch. Our stay for the night was at little rann resort. The person was helpful when we reached out to him for a cab in case zoom car couldn't resolve. He helped us with contacts.

Around 3:30PM we left for little rann of Kutch. Gujarat roads are nice, google maps work well. Reliance Jio signal is at full speed at all places we visited.

Reached is little rann resort at a remote village just rested there for that night. Our safari was on the next day morning. This place being part of remote village, night sky is beautiful. If interested carry mobile with apps like google skymap, skywalk lite etc to do star gazing.

Day 3: Wild Ass sanctuary, Flamingos, Pelicans and salt making process

Wild ass little rann of kutch - Salt desert

Little rann of Kutch is for people like us who find rann of Kutch too far and too expensive. This setup is similar. Salty water, soil with interesting animals around. This is world's only wild ass sanctuary. It's a animal looking like a cross of pony and donkey. 

The salty water makes this a paradise for migratory birds of many kind and in huge number. We saw 100s of flamingos pelicans and other common cranes. Safari charges were part of resort charges.

Bird watchers paradise this one is.

Salt lakes - Salt making process, real hard life

After a good two hour drive we are brought to a small hut where the salt making process is explained over  a black tea. Interesting process and hard life in those extreme weather. People are simple and contended which is inspiring.

Returned to room for breakfast and then did the check out.

Day 4: Velavadar black buck sanctuary

Beauty of black buck sanctuary

En route Velavadar stopped at Gallop food court. For the first time entire food court is vegetarian. I was stunned. Domino's pizza place is also full vegetarian. Had food in one of the cafe and continued our drive to Velavadar. We reached there around 4PM. Booking at the forest guest house, over phone. They had kept room ready. Simple room with great view. They told till 6PM safari is allowed. We immediately headed for that.

This black buck sanctuary is a paradise of birds. A guide is mandatory and we can drive own vehicle inside. We did this safari twice. Once in the evening and once next day morning. Spotted Hyena, wolf, blue bull, different birds.

Day 5: Black buck morning safari, Gir homestay

Morning formations

Morning safari at Velavadhar is a must do. Visit the wet land to watch beautiful flamingos flying all over. We headed to Gir homestay.

Hyena

Blue bull - Neel gai

Black bucks

Wet land beautiful take off of flamingos

Busy pelicans and flamingos

The hopping younger ones, delight sight

Our home-stay is hiran holidays. A small home stay with 4 rooms with Hiran river right next. Farms with wheat, sugarcane and all vegetables. Quiet place with a great host. A true home stay with most friendly host. They cook everything homegrown.

Hiran holidays farm

Day 6: Gir forest, Somnath temple

Gir forest safari is all online and you can book up to 3 months in advance. The online system is easy and transparent. No need of any agent. Go ahead book yourself.

Gir forest we had booked the first safari at 6:30AM, reporting time was 6:15AM. We were there at 6AM and not a minute wasted the safari was ready. No plastic bottles(including Tupperware) is allowed, no snacks. So leave everything and just carry camera/phone and head into jungle. Steel water bottles available on rent if you want. 

Gir forest safari, Dam with peacocks everywhere

Gir information center

Camera charges: Rs. 200

Guide charge: Rs.500

Gypsy charges: Rs. 1400

All these are extra apart from online payment of Rs. 1000.

Jungle is dark, cold and quiet. The stillness of the jungle is thrilling.Good 3 hour safari we spotted many peacocks, blue bull, samba deer.

We did not spot any Asiatic lion. The forest experience was well worth it. There are 523 Asiatic lions and happy to hear the numbers are increasing. The people here seem to be naturally animal loving. During safari a dam is shown there are lots of birds here. There are twelve different routes when your tickets are provided the routes are assigned, the gypsy takes only that route.

Returned home stay, had yummy taplas for breakfast and rested for a while. We then took a dip on hiran river. The river water was cold despite hot sun.

Around 3:45 PM we headed to the famous jyothilinga temple, somnath. This temple is next to beautiful beach. From Gir it's an hour drive. We spent an hour at the beach watching sunset before heading to temple. It's a crowded beach. 

Spirit of Somnath beach

Temple security check is an elaborate one. Please note no electronics allowed inside temple. Please leave them all in your car. Even car key with electronic locking facility is not allowed, but some people told they allowed. So decide asking people around. The security locker has huge queue. This takes a lot of time. If you plan to attend the maha aarthi at 7 PM keep a good 1 hour for all the security checks.

Temple is beautifully lit in the night. It's huge and clean. Sound and light show is nice but it's crowded. Buy the tickets in advance.

Male and female queues are separate so pick a spot where you guys will meet again after darshan. Remember no mobiles.

We had some chats around temple good food is available little further down with lots of sit down restaurants. 

Gir is safe, roads are nice and clean. With pride Gujarat folks are able to say confidently it's safe here.  Drive in the night. All that is just fine. I am impressed.

Day 7: Devalia - Gir, Self drive into jungle

Gir forests don't want to send people home without spotting the majestic Asiatic lions. They have made Devalia wild life sanctuary for that very reason. This reasonably big place has all the flora, fauna and all the animal species of the gir forest.

Beauty of Asiatic lions

Ferocious lioness

This again book online same site with the charges apply. We took a gypsy here too. We got a close look of 2 lioness and 1 lion. More interesting were jackals, blue bull, deers, wild cat. This one is a must do safari. This is suppose to be for 55 minutes but they take you around little longer. Leopard enclosure is very good. 

We had breakfast at a place opposite to the meeting point. Super hot and yummy parathas. Bought some slovenlier and visited the information center where some simple quiz for children are there.

Returned to home stay and checked out. 

The little extra- 22KMs drive inside jungle

During safari and from the home stay person we learnt there is a pass provided to reach other side of jungle driving own car. It's free and you can only exit on the other side. This is to reach to a village and a temple. It's a good 22 KMs inside jungle drive on reasonably okay okay road. 

Please collect the pass from Gir side of forest and drive thru slow speed. You can spot monkeys and deer's interacting, peacocks and buffaloes playing. There are train tracks inside the gir forest. End of this road is a knee deep water with an encouragement from fellow driver we drove thru it. It was scary enough!

Our next destination is Palitana. Interesting and very important jain temple. This is first vegetarian city in the world and food is totally awesome.

We went to a place called Sankalp as it had the best reviews and food was first-class. It's a south Indian restaurant after eating parathas,poha roti for a few days, dosas were a great change! Do try when you are around.The sides for dosas are served in silver cutlery. 

Our stay is at hotel Shumeru - Gujarat government hotel. Huge rooms with huge bathrooms. Wonderful hosts they were very helpful.

We did a light dinner at hotel Sukh Sagar returned to room and rested.

Day 8: Palitana trek

Palitana is a temple town. There are so many temples all over the place, we need to ask people which is the main temple. We selected this place as one day halt as the temple complex hosting over 800 temples sounded exciting and our drive back to Ahmadabad would be too long from Gir. 

The Palitana main temple complex is about 3 kms from hotel sumeru. Note: the bags are checked throughly. No camera allowed, mobiles are allowed. 

Single use plastic not allowed(water bottles- like kinley, bisileri not allowed, single use plastic covers not allowed). Please avoid carrying those.

This Shatrunjaya hill Palitana is an important Jain temple. You would hardly see any non jains but place is clean beautiful!  It's total of 3200 steps well laid clean steps. Took us good 4.5 hours to reach top,explore and return to base.

Bird feeding points

We did spend sometime at the top. It's all marble and nice architecture. It's grand! Do visit when you are around this place. We started around 7:30AM was down by 12 noon.

We checked out the hotel in the morning kept the luggage in our car and went up and came down. There are beautiful bird feeders along the way. Do carry rice to feed them.

Jains do not eat/drink anything during the entire trail. At the top no one touches food, so try to follow the principle. Entire walk/steps are super clean, do not litter.

The entire steps route is so clean people walk only with socks/bare foot too.

There are doli's available for 3000rs for people who cannot walk. You can negotiate do part doli's too for kids/luggage. There are also helpers who would give you a push to climb.

After nice trek and great food at Hotel Sankalp started our drive back to Ahmadabad.

Highway flamingos

En route we had a beautiful sightings of hundreds of flamingos right next to highway. We did a short stop at Lothal - Harappan civilization with all the eviction site and museum. It's interesting to see humanity has thrived with all basic things taken care of.

From Lothal museum

Reached our hotel Skylon at Ahmadabad, ordered room service and slept. 

Day 9: Sabarmathi ashram/ river front, Queen's step well, Vintage car museum and Gujarati meals, Law garden shopping

Morning fresh start at Sabarmathi ashram. This place is truly inspiring with a touch of history. Significant moments of Gandhi's life is placed as picture/letter/quote. This is a must visit place to draw some inspiration on what is commitment,patriotism and handwork.

Inspiration 

We headed to queen's step well which is little outside the city. This place has an interesting story behind and a great architecture, beautiful work.

We visited a vintage car museum on the highway. It's an interesting private collection with over hundred cars. All looking good. Kids especially motor heads won't leave this place.

Gujarathi village is a place inside the same car museum place where great gujarati thali is served. Awesome food. They have a place to rest post food which makes even more interesting.

Beautiful queen's stepwell

We returned hotel, rested and headed to law garden night market for shopping. This place is colorful and interesting. Majority of our shopping we did at National hand looms, tiny things we bought at law garden. Overall interesting experience. 

Had awesome dabeli's for dinner and returned hotel slept. Autos were available at 10:30PM. Place is totally safe.

Day 10: Bye bye vacation over

After packing bags returned zoom car and packed yummy stuff for lunch headed to airport. Holiday season and fog delayed flight by 2 hours. Enjoyed the packed food and said a good bye to safest, most vegetarian state we have visited.

Lessons learnt:

1. Gujarat highways(NH/SH) do not have as many eateries as south indian roads. So do carry some snacks or packed food from your starting point.

2. Unless otherwise specified Gujarat hotels are default vegetarian only

3. People are friendly and helpful. Places are safe. We locked our luggage at parking lot in our car and did palitana trek 5 hours. No one touches anyone and everyone tell you that and it's true.

4. Most people speak and understand Hindi

5. Roads are good almost in all parts of our entire 1200KM drive.

6. Zoom car can fail, have lot of time to resolve

7. December is off season at Gujarat, all places are empty

8. Gujarat is a dry state, no liquor is sold anywhere, is that why Decembers are empty here?

9. Gujarat tourism/forest highly digitized and online, book your rides/rooms online easily and early.

10. Didn't pay any tolls for car. It's free. Zoomcar comes with fasttag not sure how it works.

11. Morning safari's are cold, do carry something to cover ears

12. Lions unlike tigers do not attack humans unless we trouble. That is the majestic beauty of the animal.

Zoom car - Convenience with a broken system/customers

We had a week long booking from airport to airport in Zoom car. This post is about the experience and tips

Our booking for a week at Gujarat from and to airport.

Booked well in advance about 2 months ahead of schedule

A week before our schedule we got a call saying our car met with an accident, so it's going to be a free upgrade to a Eco sport. We said we are okay as long as car is ready

On the day of pick up we reach airport to hear from them saying it's going to be a swift instead and it is not near airport. We were asked to reach to a point about 10 KMs away from airport. Taxi bills will be reimbursed was told. We accepted and proceeded. 

We reach the place to see a swift car parked outside apartment complex. We were suppose to do self check-out and the option to unlock car didn't appear in our app. We call call center reach to a person explain the story, he unlocks for us. We enter to see there is no key anywhere. Searched for about twenty minutes, then called reached to another call center representative, he send a mechanic. He comes checks and says no key. Then we were given a different car and different location.

We take a taxi reach there to see there is no car there. By this our vacation mood is little stressed. We cannot stand with all the big luggage in the middle of road. We gave up on zoom car and tried to take a taxi. But last minute taxi for a week is hard. 

Zoom car said they would call us back. After back and forth calls, we were asked to reach to another place and there we found the car and the key.

Lessons learnt:

1. There is a equal chance of zoom car to just work and just not work
2. People who are using their unlock and go kind of system are less and less profeesional, the car given to us was very dirty (sand, windshield full of dust, punctured stepney, no jack for change, boot without any cover which could damage our luggage
3. Every time you call you reach a  different zoom car person. It is so hard to start the story from beginning and explain all the details. Painful yes
4. Carry power bank multiple phones as you are going to be on phone for long time in the time of issues like this.
5. Better to keep a lot of cushion time for entire zoom car process
6. India and Indian are still getting used to rental market
7. Zoom car app doesn't get updated of change of location of car and other details though the call center folks tell you it will come
8. Carefully note down the latitude and longitude location given by zoom car folks. Repeat recheck, ask them to whatsapp you the numbers. A digit mistake will put you at a wrong place with no car. 
9. Check the spare tire ,tools, carry a spray waste cloth to clean the car before getting in.
10. Ultimately they work to resolve the issue, patience is the key.
11. Be kind to the person who is going to use the car next leave it at clean state.

Moist Misty Monsoon Vacation - Shimoga and Jog

#Karnatakafloods changed our original plan to do Gokarna+Jog to only Jog. With loads of tense moments whether the tour is ON or not, we did make it to an awesome three days trip to Shimoga.

This tour is with all family, extended (14 adults+2 children). 

Day 1: Just a start - Train journey

Talguppa Express from Bangalore to Shimoga. Salute to Indian railways on Independence day. Clean fast train at Rs.125 per person(Ola/Uber to reach station costed much more :) ) from SBC-SMET. Convenient buggy(electric car ride) from the backside of city station to the platform at Rs.24 per person. The train started on time pleasant weather wind breeze loads of talking munching. We were at Shimoga before we realized at 8PM. Van picked us up from Shimoga station to the place of stay, blue crystal lodge(2KM from the station). This is a new lodge freshly renovated/constructed. Everything functional with an owner who goes out of the way to impress you! Very reasonable rates too(900-1000rs per night).

Day 2: Wet Weather, Super yummy food, morning routine with Elephants!

After a sound sleep woke up to a wet morning. Awesome breakfast at Meenakshi Bhavan. Vada, Rava dosa, masala dosa must try! The old hotel feels like time travel. This place in itself is an attraction.

Shimoga town carries the old Bangalore feel
. Roads, hotels, shops everything giving a feel of 1980-90s Bangalore.

Headed to Sakrbyle elephant camp after an awesome breakfast. Sakrebyle is a place where wild elephants are treated trained and taken care of. If you reach early(9-11AM) you get a chance to give elephants bath, feed. Massive giants are friendly and it's an experience. The place is scenic. 

Elephant listening to commands, turning sides, breathing with just tip of trunk outside!

A quick stop at Thunga dam and headed to Badra forest safari. After reaching there we learnt the Linganamakki dam is also closed. Safari also closed due to heavy rains :(.

We headed for a nice lunch at Pawan ice creams. Do try their Kaju masala lip-smacking! To compensate for the disappointment of not doing safari we headed to Shimoga zoo. This is a small neat zoo with a very good collection of animals. Safari is awesome! Lion, lioness, tiger, tigress are majestic and such close to watch!! Lovely set up! Due to flood news all around the zoo was empty and we were the only ones in the van too!

Post zoo we headed to an old temple called Guli Guli Shankara. This is a small temple at a scenic place.

Instead of dinner, we headed straight to ice cream. The best ice creams in town are Panchatara ice creams! Super yummy delight! A must do at Shimoga!

Day 2: Jog falls here we come!

Hosgunda Uma Maheshwara Temple

Post breakfast we headed to Hosagunda temple - Sri Umamaheswara temple. This Shiva temple is recently renovated, it's clean and old. Location is beautiful. Please verify route with the locals. Some roads are badly damaged due to rains. Our van got stuck and locals assisted by adding hay to the mushy road.

There is another temple ten minutes walk from here we skipped it due to lack of time. Next stop we headed to Ikeri temple. Another old temple with huge Shiva idol and Nandi. 

Post temple visits we pre-ordered food at jog at Brahmin Bhojanalaya over the phone. According to internet, this is the only pure vegetarian place in the jog.

Ikeri temple

From Ikeri, Jog is about an hour drive. Jog welcomed us with misty mountain and wet ground. The air is so moist,wet and pure pushes everyone to take a deep breath which is energizing.

Jog welcomed with water fall is full flow playing hide and seek with clouds. Our one night stay was at KSTDC which is closest to jog. 

After a quick walk around KSTDC to have a glimpse of Jog falls, we headed to Brahmin bhojanalaya. Super hot simple home-cooked food. Do try lunch at this small shack. Sambar, rasam chapati all are awesome. A family runs this place working at tight margins. They are scared about preorders and people not turning up. We enjoyed our lunch very much.

Returned to KSTDC for refreshing and headed back to jog which is the backyard of KSTDC. Every room has a view of jog all the time. Waterfall sound is the background music all thru day and night. This viewpoint is very well designed.

Till dark, we spent time simply watching jog from all sides. This is meditative. Sit and watch the magnificent Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer. 

Once night fell we headed to the sound and light show. A 20-minute musical fountain show which was nice. Enjoy the location weather too. There is suppose to laser show which didn't work the day we were there.

We found a small hotel inside the shopping complex near the gate of jog. Hotel Anusha. Run by a lady. We met her asked for options set dosa, parotta, chapathi, Maggie were the options. Told her we would come back after the show. She was amazing. We were a group of 16. She served dosa, maggie chapathi all in parallel. Super homely food with the most friendly owner. Freshly prepared sambar, palya everything. 

If you are looking for simple food, reach out to hotel Anusha inside the shopping complex of the jog. Super fast, super clean, super fresh home-style hotel.

Jog is lit in the night. Don't miss that too!

Jog - 4R's!

Day 3: Adventure, water play

We had fixed a guide for day 3. Our bus broke down, we hired two omni's headed to Nupulli falls. This is a small waterfall safe to enter and play. We had a refreshing bath here. This is a must-do for whoever enjoys water play!

After that, we headed to circuit Bangalow another view point of the jog. This is a stunning view of the jog.

Later, KSTDC check out after a nail-biting wait for our bus to start. reached Shimoga quick lunch at hotel Shubam near the railway station. 

Took the train back to Bangalore. 3:30PM @Shimogha - Shimogha Yestwanpur express. Reached Bangalore at 9PM. Again used the buggy ride to the entrance.

A moist mesmerizing monsoon vacation ended with a smile on everyone's face and a beautiful memory!