Not so recently, I flew to Goa and back for a short weekend trip. A short one albeit, was quite a lot of fun. One of the many times when I’ve been to Goa, I’ve usually taken the train or the driven down… This time as time was short, we had to fly in and out… my cousin and I. More often than none, trips to Goa are down south. South Goa is the most beautiful place of all the places in Goa according to me and that is where I usually chill out at.

One of my favorite beaches have to be Palolem of course. The deep serenity, the beautiful clean waters, the misty nights and of course the most amazing part of this beach is the sunset point. Besides enjoying the chill atmosphere that Goa has to offer, south Goa and especially Palolem, has to be one of the most cleanest, and quite serene of all the beaches.  While it does take time for you to adjust to the utmost calm and the peaceful nature this beach has to offer, it sinks in quite fast after you have acclimatized yourself. One of the most interesting places in Palolem has to be it’s beach lounge bar, Cocktails and Dreams… Besides being open late until night and almost every day of the year, it has one of the best music that they play at the beach. Much different from most music that you hear at other places across Goa.

However, since time was short, we decided to chill out at Anjuna, see a few places in North Goa and hang out at a resort in Panajim. Which was not so bad after all. We did completely relax and rejuvenate ourselves and also got to see a few places in Goa. But this story is not just about that… Something interesting happened on our way back and that’s something I’d like to share with you guys. But before that, a brief travelogue of the amazing places we explored with a tit-bit of something interesting I realized at the end of the trip…

So our day began after checking out of Dabolim Airport, after which we headed straight to Madgaon. That’s where my regular contact for renting a bike is, yeah, quite a regular at Uncle Periera’s rental near Madgaon bus stand. Best thing to do, especially if you keep going to Goa often. No worries of haggling over a price for rentals and probably expect a discount depending on whether it’s an off season or not. Nonetheless for a Rs. 250 per day, I got a good deal and we set off to explore Goa.

Our first stop was Anjuna beach… It was some 30-40 kms away from Madgaon… On our way, there’s a very interesting place that you might wanna stop and chill out especially for it’s view and most importantly, the relaxing feeling you get, before you get to any beach of course. A resort / restaurant by the river called Danny’s Riverside Resort. Spectacular place, where we had a couple of chilled beers with some breakfast… Of course, it’s Goa, what do you expect 😉

Anjuna Beach a.k.a  Funjuna 

Soon after, we headed quickly to Anjuna, where we stayed at Sea Horse… And considering the torrid heat in May, we had the option for an AC, beach shack. Quite something that was needed, when you aren’t out there getting tanned under the sun or swimming in the sea. But more than that, the place had a perfect Beach View!

If I reckon any beach in North Goa, then it has to be this… Quite chilled out, unlike Calangute or Bagha and your evenings are also quite good especially with some of the shacks playing really good music and the food of course rocks out here. While we spent just one day here, it was quite worth it… The next day, we headed out after breakfast and some amazing fresh lime soda at this beach cafe called Om… Serves quite good food, continental, Italian… But if that’s not your taste, I’d reckon you skip it… A little pretentious this one 😉

Ft. Aguada

Next stop was one of the beautiful places in North Goa, Ft. Aguada. Fort Aguada and its lighthouse is a well-preserved seventeenth-century Portuguese fort standing in Goa, India, on Sinquerim Beach, overlooking the Arabian Sea.

Final tourist destination on this trip of course was Old Goa and it’s beautifully magnificent Church.

And after some real good biking across Goa… it was time for us to just chill out at the Crown  resort in Panaji, one with a terrace view… Perfect for the remainder of the trip, especially to unwind… All we did was drink some good Corona beer, eat some really good food,  some Blackjack, tried our luck, won some, lost some…

Some swimming and last but not least a really rejuvenating spa therapy.  Besides that of course, checking out the amazing Panajim church, which was right across the street for us.

While it was time for us to leave and catch our flight, we realized that our flight was early in the morning… Thanks to Crown Resort, they provided us with a drop to the airport and we were sorted. That’s when this interesting incident happened, one that made me realize something really important… How important, travel insurance was, especially for international travel.

We were waiting in the queue for our boarding passes. Unfortunately Goa doesn’t have kiosk check ins and we didn’t check in online either… Nonetheless, we decided to wait behind this guy, he had a lot of luggage and had his passport in his hand… He was Indian, but was wearing a blazer, suggesting that he had a long flight, maybe connecting from Mumbai probably out to U.S.A or U.K… My guess was right, he had a U.K Passport and was having a long conversation with the representative at the counter. He seemed a little pertrubed to begin with, he was constantly trying to explain something to the rep at the desk, however something seemed to bother him. He realized that he was holding the line and decided to make way for others while he made a few calls. We got our boarding passes and headed out to security check.

We grabbed a couple of coffees and sat at the chairs in the waiting lounge. I was busy on my iPad and while I was reading something on my app, I quickly glanced and saw the same man coming near me. He sat next to my seat and was busy sorting some stuff and figuring out some of his documents. He seemed much relaxed, than earlier… I was a bit curious and asked him as to what happened?

“Ahh nothing, actually I have a connecting flight to London from Mumbai… But this flight from Goa to Mumbai has been delayed…”

“Hmmm, strange..” I thought to myself as he didn’t look disturbed as he was earlier.

“So how come you are so relaxed now?”

“Well, I don’t have to worry about it, I called up the customer care for Moneysupermarket, where I booked my travel insurance, and they said they will take care of it and give me a flight ticket for another connecting flight, which is right around the time  that I reach Mumbai… So I’m cool now.

“Ahh, that’s great.” I said, acknowledging politely, not realizing how big a deal Travel Insurance was up until now… Most of the times, I do click on travel insurance when I book flights, but really don’t fancy it much… Hence I make sure that in most cases, if I take connecting flights, I take them from the same flights, thus, the airlines can’t play the blame game… But yeah, considering that it could be such a big deal, I thought I’d go back and do some more research on travel insurance especially if I’m taking an international trip next time…

Soon, our flight started boarding and I bid the gentleman goodbye and wished him a great flight! He smiled at me and wished me the same…