By Ashish Arora on December 30, 2016
Goa tour and travel
This was an official tour for around a month in Goa. I was working fora film festival as coordinator. Most of the month spent in Delhi office to streamline everything and one month in Goa to coordinate the festival. The first week of November, 2016, team had already moved to the beach state. I was still in Delhi to get completed some publication work for four days.
Then came boarding day, when I hired cab from home in evening for Delhi airport to board a Goa flight. That would land at Dabolim airport, Goa in two and half hours. As I collected my luggage and went out, a vibrant and chatty driver with a cab was already waiting to take me to the festival venue. Unseasoned rain had already made Goa weather fabulous and the night on road was a worth sight.
Goa tour and travel
And the driver said, “you come here with rain, you are most welcome.” We would reach the venue office in Panaji in an hour. As I reached there, colleagues met and shared their happiness about my being with them. The office work was already over for that day, thus we went for dinner, after which cab took me to the guest house.
With a little exhaustion of the journey and full excitement of being in Goa, I went asleep in my bedroom. Before I slept I knew this very well that the work would be in its full swing from next day. Next day, I would get up early to get ready for the office. A cab would pack me up from the guest house. Meanwhile, we would stop at a small café near the venue to have badapav with coffee or tea.
I reached office and took my official work in hand, before taking seat at my workstation. Simultaneously, I had to visit one of the auditoriums allotted to me for coordination with cast and crew of the films to be exhibited in the film festival. We would eat lunch provided to us in office,however, we would have to arrange for dinner on our own. So,one of nearest food point worked out for that. After dinner, we would be again in office to finish our remaining arrangements for the next day.
Film Festival amidst sea and beaches
We would reach the guesthouse around 02 am, after leaving office for the day. Same schedule would follow for around a month, same breakfasts, same lunches, same dinners, same tasks, but a few different challenges related to our job, food and accommodation. Oh yes, we would attend four different parties – opening dinner, closing dinner, and one lunch and one dinner from the organizers and special film guests.
We would also watch a few movies exhibiting in auditoriums in night after being free from the work. After 28 days of exhaustion, film festival was over and we were free from work then but we had four days left to be in Goa. So, I decided to cover the beautiful sea region, some places with friends, others alone; some spots by cab, others by bus; some destinations in day, others in night.
The most important destinations in Goa I visited were in and around Panaji, Vasco da Gama, Margao and Doblim. I visited a few beaches of Goa – Arjuna beach, Candolim beach, Calangute beach and Baga beach, among others. The worth mention places in and around Punjim which I saw were, Mandovi river, Mala Area, Miramar beach, Bambolim beach, Dona Paula beach, Church Square, Our Lady Church, Goa State Museum, Archaeological Museum and Kala Academy, among others.
Goa travel can be lot more
I wanted to visit many more travel places in Goa but time ran out. That day in the first week of December was the day to move from Goa to Delhi. My colleagues had already left in morning. Mine was a late night flight, so I had some rest and early dinner at guesthouse after coming from a destination.
The driver came in some time with the cab, and I checked out and got in the cab, which took me to Goa airport. We reached early, so I had a few hours of wait before boarding the flight. That would land at Delhi airport in two and half hours. Reaching Delhi early morning, I would hire a cab for home.
