North Goa Beaches- Goa Part 2

Goa- Part 1

I am back with our Goa story and let me take you all to a virtual tour of North Goa which is apparently the most happening place in Goa. North Goa has a lot to offer. Different types of beaches like sandy beach, sandy-rocky beach, rocky beach, beach with river mouth (Estuarine type). Each of the places we visited here had a unique feel to it. Food was amazing. Thanks to Google search and reviews, we could select some amazing places to eat with great reviews. We stayed near Calangute-Candolim area for four nights which is quite a posh and happening area. I really liked the night life there. Everyone was minding their own business. Overall, the atmosphere was electrifying.

However, during night time, the auto/taxis get expensive to the tune of 2x after 8 pm and their availability also gets scarce. So, its better to have your own rented vehicle. The parking charges all over Goa is flat Rs. 100/- for first four hours. Our daily routine started with a relaxed breakfast buffet followed by some art/ reading at the resort. After that we got freshened up and set out to see places just before lunch. We tried to avoid itineraries like visiting too multiple places in a single day.

Places we visited in North Goa

Which areas come in North Goa?

Baga Beach

This beach is very popular. Highly crowded, relatively dirty beach with lots of beachside shacks which seemed Okay’ish. This beach can be avoided by peace, nature and music lovers. Just after sunset, hundreds of shacks play awfully bad music at unbearable decibel levels and jarring LED lights which are non-aesthetically put. This should be checked and regulated by the district administrations. Imagine the level of destructive sound interference which we got to hear from a distance. Music of one song clashes with lyrics of another; completely out of phase is what you hear in cumulative form. Not going back there in our next trip. Its not that we did not enjoy at all, just did not like it enough to make a second visit

Somehow, in all the cacophony, we managed to locate a shack named ‘Zanzibar’ with normal warm white lighting with no loud music. They were kind enough to serve us coffee on a super busy weekend. In addition, lots of discs, night clubs are situated near Baga beach in the Tito’s Lane. Later in the night we visited a discotheque which was enjoyable though. We were entertained by a tall, thin and good looking Russian dancer and a person disguised as a panda who were dancing to bollywood tunes in their own way. The panda obviously stole the show because it’s not every day you see a panda dance. At times, when the Russian dancer approached our table, we got a closer look at her dance moves. A few moments later, I realized that I was enjoying the dance while the wife was staring at me.

Me (surprised): ‘Dont look at me, enjoy the dance performance.’

Wife (smirked): ‘No, I was just watching whether you are enjoying the dance properly.’

We laughed it out loud at it and enjoyed the performance together henceforth. Food was below average but, sweated it out through dancing. I am a ‘Pappu‘when it comes to dancing. Except the ‘Naagin’ dance move, I cannot execute any other moves, But, in the dim light and full blast music and AC, we danced our heart out as if no one was watching. We enjoyed that a lot.

Arambol beach

The name Arambol itself says “Aram”. It is a beautiful, laid back, chilled out beach. This beach is very popular among foreigners. We saw lots of foreigners there just basking in the sun, playing with the waves. We played with the waves for sometime and then lazed in a deckchair fitted with umbrella. Wife tried some beading which the local ‘didi’ it very nicely. We both got a head massage done which was quite relaxing. There is a sweet water lake which is basically a river mouth opening to sea (a 20 mins walk). Initially, we planned to visit, but did not go and preferred to sit back, watch and hear the waves swaying, drank lots of coconut water and other tropical juices. Next time will experience more of Arambol and visit the sweet water lake for sure.

Calangute beach

Classic white sandy beach. This beach is relatively cleaner than Baga beach inspite of huge footfall. Bought some spare clothes and changed them to jump into the water and played along the waves. Enjoyed sunset while soaking in the water. It was an amazing feeling. Later relaxed after sunset and headed for Candolim area for a wonderful goan local cuisine. If you find asking yourself which part of North Goa is best to stay, then Calangute- Candolim is the answer.

Aguada fort

Located atop hill overlooking Panaji and the Arabian Sea in the horizon. The lighthouse was quite enchanting and the views from the fort were breathtaking. We visited for a brief moment, clicked some photos, had masala raw mango (kairi), built some memories and came back to Calangute beach for sunset. The to and fro drive was quite refreshing.

Chapora fort

A.k.a ‘Dil Chahta Hain’ Fort. We had to climb 225 stairs (local information) to reach there. Just did a mandatory visit, clicked a few pics from that iconic place. The view from top was great. It was 2 pm in the afternoon and was quite hot on a clear sunny day. We argued over something here.. (LOL) and did not talk for 5 minutes.  Once we reached the fort we forgot that we fought over something. As usual, we had lots of tropical juices on the way up from the roadside stalls.

North Goa experience

Goa has this wonderful vibe which is missing in any other states of India I visited till date. Pondicherry has a bit of it though. I have so much more to share that it will become a small book chapter if I do so. The food is amazing in Goa, especially their traditional cuisine. Our food experience in Goa will be dealt with in another post. Inspite of being a tourist hotspot, crowded at most of the times, overall the local people are very accommodating and warm.  The Goa saga continues with our south Goa visit which had a totally different flavour compared to our North Goa experience. A good friend of mine with his family based in Bangalore joined us in our south Goa trip. That will be my final post related to our Goa visit which is also an ‘S’ post.

This post is part of  #BlogchatterA2Z challenge and this is the N– post