Goa to Saputara and back

Travel memories- By Geet

Day 1-Saputara

After a tiring long drive to Saputara accompanied by extended tea- breaks, father honking and cursing random drivers and the occasional and somewhat irksome songs played by speeding truck drivers, we were rewarded with a one day stay at a resort in Saputara called “Tree-Bones”. After a quick family reunion only two things needed to be taken care of; food and sleep. After a hearty meal and a nice hour nap we proceeded to check out the activities in the resort. We zip-lined (Is that a verb?), did a suspiciously wobbly obstacle course, had a fall through a broken hammock and we were more than ready to go back to the room. After a good nights sleep we went to Saputara main square. There I checked two things off my bucket list. First i got a 3D tattoo which was so cool. They said it would last for 10 days but it came off on the third. Talk about scamming. Any ways there was also paragliding and dozens of cable cars which were claimed to be for sight-seeing (Insert Jazz Hands).It actually seemed ironic that Saputara was a hill station. To me it seemed as if you were in a sauna 24/7. Even the AC in the car hung us dry and failed to cool down the car even when on blast. After that me and my brother did paragliding which was so thrilling. After that we had to make a move as we had to reach Shirdi before sunset.

Day 2-Shirdi

Ok!! so I think that my brother has a superiority complex. Like, sure he was born 7 years before me but none of that should allow him to switch seats with me to the back seat. As if the car wasn’t cramped enough with all the luggage and 5 people, Nanaji had joined in leaving me wedged between Mom and Grandma (Aai), Varun having the time of his life alone with the luggage. I was just awkwardly perched between a chit chatty Mom and a drowsy Grandma. It actually seemed hysterical how Papa and Nanaji had teamed and now we did not have one but two people cursing in the car. Me and Varun kept on glancing at each other and shaking our heads as our eyebrows skyrocketed up our foreheads. We reached Shirdi at a pretty decent time considering we stopped at every place we found interesting. The stay was quite cozy and to my delight Varun was stuck with Papa, Aai and Nanaji which seemed like a sweet payback for leaving me off the hook. Everyone took a quick shower as everyone was smelling. For my case, I had not had a proper bath since I left home and was practically avoiding smelly clothes with body mist so, a nice long bath was more than welcomed. We left for the mandir at 8.00 -8.15 pm. Since we were trying to move fast, we took the VIP tickets. Now, the picture formed in your mind is not quite the reality. I thought it would be something crazy like walking on the red carpet wearing dark shades and hordes of paparazzi surrounding us. But it was just a line separating us from hordes of people pushing and chanting. Despite being in the VIP line it was quite a long walk. Me and Varun were mostly entertained and intrigued by how some kid was screaming so loudly. But believe me nothing could save us from the pushing and yelling in the end. Despite all the barricades they had put up, people seemed to be climbing over them or in a kid’s case crawling through underneath. It just morphed into one giant stuffy room where I was mushed to sandwich by a bunch of aunties. After darshan and the nightmare of pushing Kungfu aunties, it seemed like a relief to have breath of fresh air. We got prasad and a suspiciously ash looking like powder in a packet I and Varun instantly dug in the prasad and all was well.

Day 3-Shani Shingnapur

We bid farewell to Nani, Nana, Dhyan, Dolly didi and Gyan bhaiya before continuing our journey to Ellora, Aurangabad. The roads were not bumpy, so we caught up on some sleep. Mom and dad were admiring the roads but all I wanted to do was sleep. Also, I was happy to get my place back in last seat. Even though it was piled with luggage I was more comfortable than I could have ever been mushed between Aai and Varun. We had lunch before going to the Ellora caves where we found ourselves sitting near a random family because all the seats were full. OK, to be honest my expectations for the cave were high, after all it was a world-famous sight. At the best, I was disappointed. The caves itself were beautiful, intricately designed and had a lot of history embedded in them. Despite exploring only 2 of the 16 caves, it still cost us an hour and a half and exploring in the scorching afternoon heat didn’t help. I also used this opportunity to buy “souvenirs” for my friends. We continued driving and I slept, watched anime and slept again. My dream was broken when the car came to an abrupt stop, and I thought “ohhh! Chai time”. But guess where we were??? Another temple. At this point I couldn’t even keep count of the number of temples <Small and Big>we had visited in the past few days. It was called “Shani Shingnapur”. You know how most of the temple’s smell like coconut water, incense, dhoop {Thick Incense Sticks with tree resin} and flowers??? This temple had some exposed sewerage lines which made the air around quite unpleasant. Ok anyways after that we took a little tea break where we had “tambda pandra rassa” and “matki bhel”. The quantity was generous, and we felt drowsy after food. We decided to take a halt near Daund and our accommodations weren’t the best to be brief. The rooms were hot, stuffy and unclean. the bathrooms were barely functional, and the weather was freezing cold. But, at this point we were more than done and retired for the day.

Day 4-Kolhapur

We started off early in the morning planning to reach Kolhapur by evening. I played “eye spy” with myself and eventually fell asleep. We reached Kolhapur at 2.00 pm where we struggled to find a car parking and got yet another one of papas cursing masterpieces which I rightly called “Kolhapur’s fiasco”. our plan was to visit the Kolhapur mandir, so we took a rickshaw and guess what??!!! Me and Varun were asked to sit in the “Dikki” (extended boot of the rickshaw). After a bumpy ride we finally reached the temple. Despite our high hopes we still couldn’t get darshan as the line was too long. We did get mukh-darshan and I also tried rolling a bottle of jeera soda through a bag scanning thing. Even the scanner seemed confused. Okay, anyways we continued our journey from Kolhapur to Goa after our lunch. My memories after that were mostly sleeping and me making jokes about how we struggled to find an open restaurant at 4,00 pm. As we started to get closer to goa the scenery changed. The industrial buildings and bajillion cars were replaced by beautiful trees, roads and ghats. The trees seemed much livelier and happier. It was about nine when “casino advertisements” made it certain that we were in Panaji. There was also a small imitation of what you call a typical influencers photo stop on the way. It was a alley way covered with beautiful red and white stars and holy and mistletoe popping out from the blank spaces. Lively, cheery music played by in a distance. We took a few photos and I snickered at a bunch of people doing tacky poses. Moving on, we reached home by 9.00-9.30. the keys turned and the lights were switched on as the familiar warmth of the living room engulfed me. I took a deep breath and said, “home sweet home.”

About me Geet: I am a restless school going girl, who hang’s around with friends, like’s to play badminton, love’s art and when in a mood put’s pen to paper.