Museum of Goa is a contemporary art museum established by Dr. Subodh Kerkar. I immensely enjoyed the entire place. It had some very intriguing art installations and many interesting facts about Goan culture & history. It has paintings by Dr. Kerkar of course, along with a floor showcasing works of local artists.
Our hotel had recommended this museum, but I was not sure what to expect. I thought it was just another tourist trap and would be a boring place. But every artefact here had something to say and I am glad I visited this place.
One of the days in Goa, we went to visit Fort Aguada early morning. We didn’t know that the fort opened at 8:30 am, so had to wait for a while. It’s a seventeenth century fort and has a picturesque view of the sea. There’s an old lighthouse in the fort, but that’s not open for visitors any more. The fort is beautiful, but needs some maintenance.
Goa has a vibrant live music scene and it’s always a pleasure to listen to local artists and bands. Most of the singers I’ve listened to, are quite talented. Last year when we were there, we were lucky to catch a performance of Toto and Petula(both of them are fabulous) from The Retro Project.
This time around, I looked up some places with live music and The Lazy Goose looked promising. The eatery has a beautiful view of Nerul river, but can be a little tricky to locate. I suggest calling up the restaurant and asking for proper directions.
Days were considerably warm in Goa, and we were looking for non beachy places to explore. We got multiple recommendations for Spice Plantation tour. Our hotel’s concierge recommended Tropical Spice Plantation in Ponda.
It took us around 1.5 hours to reach there from Calangute. I would recommend you start early for this tour, wear comfortable clothes since it’s always warm and humid inside the plantation. Entry is priced at INR 400 per person, and that includes a welcome drink and lunch. It takes a couple of hours to finish the tour and then some more for lunch.
Tio Tilly’s was selected for dinner one of the days. It was located right in front of our hotel and turned out to be smallish place. It had no more than ten tables, minimal decor and a small bar counter. The only noticeable thing was a big illustration of this very popular painting.
We travelled quite a bit this time around. On our second day of stay we went to ‘Three Kings’ chapel’, which is supposedly haunted. The chapel was closed, but the place was serene and had a beautiful view of sea.
For lunch, we went towards Cavelossim beach. This beach is beautiful and has plenty of eateries around. We have decided to stay there next year(dates are under discussion) :).
During our annual(well, almost) Goa trip this year, we stayed at Royal Orchid for the first two nights and then at Le Meridien, Calangute for three nights. We had rented a car(Hyundai Creta) from https://www.goacars.in/ and it turned out to be pretty good.
Royal orchid is located right on the Utorda beach, which like most of the South Goa beaches is clean and quiet.
This was our last evening in North Goa and we thought “you can never have enough of beaches, isn’t it” :)? And so, we went to the lovely Candolim beach.
Mum & Dad enjoying the lovely beach
This beach was less crowded than Baga and Calangute, and hence cleaner too. Waves were high here and we couldn’t go much deep into the waters. But we did have lovely walk to Fort Aguada.
We moved to South Goa on the last day of our trip. We had booked a house in Benaulim using Airbnb, and it took us around 1.5 hours from Calangute to reach there.
As you move South in Goa, you’ll notice a steady decline in the number of eateries, pubs, shops etc. And at times, you might end up with no mobile network as well 🙂
We woke up a little late on Day 3, courtesy all the partying last night. For lunch we went to Fisherman’s Cove, on my BIL’s recommendation.
All of us 🙂
The restaurant is shaped like a huge hut with comfortable seating. It was not so crowded when we visited, and we got a big table of our choice.
We ordered for a round of beers, masala pomfret, chicken xacuti curry with rice, mackarel curry with rice, dal, palak paneer and some breads. Service was good and our food arrived soon.
Pomfret was coated in an abundance of spices, accompanied by fries and salad. It tasted good, though personally I’m more into the bong style of cooking fish 🙂
Chicken xacuti curry was average and the gravy lacked flavour, I had had better ones in Goa last time.
Mackarel curry was delicious and flavoursome. The fish was perfectly done and spiced.
Palak paneer here deserves a special mention. It was surprisingly good, and tasted just like what you get at typical North Indian places. It was mildly creamy and paneer was fresh & soft. Dal was good too.
We polished everything off and went to Mario Miranda’s gallery in Calangute for a while. This is a small gallery which sells Mario Miranda‘s paintings(not originals though), with a variety of other things with fun and quirky quotes, like postcards,t-shirts, bags, cups etc. Do visit if you are nearby.
Hungry Panda's diaries 