Reis Margos fort: Two Wheels, Two Nomads, One Thrilling Adventure

Day 10: Dec 31, 2007

We had planned to chill out today and not get fatigued as we had a long way to go tomorrow. So we took it easy and slept tight almost until noon. We did not want to be lazing around for the whole day though, and hence we thought its now time to get out of the guest house to explore something new, including the Reis Margos Fort.

Old Goa

We set off for old Goa following the HN4A and reached there in around half an hour. We visited the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Santa Monica, and the ruins of St. Augustine Tower. All these have been preserved as World Heritage sites. What fascinated us most were the ruins of St. Augustine Tower and the efforts to preserve the same.

We then quickly grabbed our lunch and then visited St. Cajaten Church, built on the lines of a chapel in Rome. This too was part of a World Heritage site and the interiors were well preserved. The silence inside gave the feeling of sanctity and the experience was wonderful.

We also visited the viceroy arch and the gate to Adil Shah’s royal palace. Unfortunately, the gate was the only thing remaining in the entire palace.

Aguada Fort

Though both of us had been here a couple of times earlier, I was still keen on getting here for getting some good snaps. Aguada is split into 2 – the small upper Aguada which served as the main castle and the lower fortification which we see as just a bastion these days. The lower Aguada has been taken up by the Taj and a beautiful beach resort stands here with pride sheltering a number of tourists.

Next to the lower Aguada is a small beach with loads of options for water sports. The banana ride was an attraction here. It was a huge inflated balloon in the shape of a banana. It was tied to a boat which was to pull it into the sea for a joy ride. Unfortunately, the currents were so strong that the banana balloon could not withstand itself and the riders fell off into the sea several times. It was fun to see the plight of these riders.

Reis Margos fort

The map we carried mentioned about Reis Margos pretty close to Aguada. We were under the impression that the Upper Aguada is Reis Margos, but we were proved to be wrong by the locals. They instructed us to go over to Coco beach and Reis Margos Fort would have been very close. We followed their instructions and went over to Coco beach. It was the most secluded beach with not a single soul around and we were highly flabbergasted to find such a beach on the night of Dec 31^st. We quickly took some snaps, enjoyed the virginity of the beach, and headed to check out the fort.

Reis Margos Fort had a strong fortification atop a small hillock that overlooked the quiet shore of Coco. There was a church at the foothills from where the road led right up to the fort entrance. The fortification was still very strong and the canons guarded the bastions. The remains were a mute witness of the golden era that might have existed long ago.

Bambolim Beach

It was quite some time before it would have gotten dark and we decided to go over to Bambolim beach to have the saline bath. We had not had it since we were in Goa and I thought it would have been an injustice to Bambolim Beach if we did not go there even after being put up in the guesthouse that overlooked the Bambolim Beach. So we got to our rooms, changed, and rode to the beach which was a km away. There was no one at the beach and we had the whole beach for ourselves. It was surprising to find such a secluded place in Goa on New Year’s Eve. We were there for an hour before we got back to the guest house.

Review

It was mere 7 pm on our watch and we thought it was too early to step out as most of the parties would begin late. Since we had quite some time in hand he wanted to review all the places we visited on the trip. So we reviewed the entire list of places all over while Akshay jotted it down. We were so engrossed in the same that by the time we finished, it was already 9 pm. We realized it was high time we needed to move out as we had no intentions of spending New Year’s Eve in the four walls of the guest room!

As we were put up near Dona Paula we thought we should check out if any parties were happening on Dona Paula & Miramar. But to our surprise, both the places were dead and we never felt that it was New Year’s Eve, and that too in a place like Goa.

Calangute Beach

We checked out at Cida – de – Goa, Sun ‘n Sand, Fidalgo, and some of the cruise liners at the Panjim port. Things were very costly and every place was overbooked. So finally as suggested by most of the guys we asked; we headed towards Calangute.

Half an hour to the beach and a huge crowd greeted us. The place was overcrowded and we took another half an hour to reach the parking place. Finally, we were at the beach, and oh! It was a nightmare to be here! The crowd was cheap with drunkards lying all over and a few dancing to silly songs. It was a big-time turnoff & I desperately wanted to get out of there. We did so in no time and were off to find a good eating joint en route to Candolim Beach.

Candolim Beach

After considering plenty of available options we finally settled for a small restaurant known as ‘Bending Bamboos’. This place made our New Year. Good ambiance, just a handful of people around, and neatly cooked authentic Goan food were the attractions. To top it all there was a one-man band. ‘Rudy’ as he called himself played some wonderful numbers to make it a sweet end to the year gone by and welcome the New Year ahead.

We were out until the wee hours of dawn and reached the guest house only at 3 am. The caretaker was fast asleep and there was a huge lock to the main entrance. We tried hard to wake him up but all our efforts were in vain. Tired, Akshay finally thought we should sleep outside on the benches. I was not quite comfy but reluctantly agreed as we were out of options. We would have barely slept for 5 minutes when mosquitoes started biting and it was getting unbearable. We then woke up and decided to sleep in between the glass door and the iron gate. As we were about to do so we realized that we could slip in through the small gap between the gates. We did so successfully and went over to our rooms and were off to sleep.

Continued… Day 11