Goa Day 2 – Dil Chahta Hai….

This is the day – 2 of my visit to Goa where we will be visiting Chapora fort and a couple of beautiful beaches. If you haven’t read my Goa Day – 1 post then do check it out as well.

Best of the Beast: One of the best vantage point at Chapora Fort

After partying till 2 am yesterday, no one was ready to get up early in the morning. The only thing which motivated us to wake up was the complimentary breakfast which usually closes by 10 am. The breakfast was average, aloo paratha is not what we south Indians are used to have for the breakfast.

The second-day stay was booked in South Goa, so we had to check out from the current hotel. We had few nearby places to be explored so after checkout, we kept the luggage in the storeroom and decided to visit Chapora fort and Vagator beach.

The Dil Chahta Hai Fort: Chapora fort was just another fort until the epic scene of the Hindi movie Dil Chahta Hai was shot here back in 2001. It’s surprising to see how deeply indeed Bollywood infiltrates the life of an average Indian, I was no exception either. Chapora continues to remain a perfect vantage point for gazing at the sea as the waves gently nudge the shore in silent harmony.

Did someone say hike?

Incredible view of the Vagator Beach

Doesn’t Morjim Beach look more beautiful from here?

Chapora fort was just 5 minutes away from our stay, it was 12 in the afternoon by the time we reached. There were already a lot of bikes in the parking area. This is the only place where we had to pay the parking charges 🙁 Sun was high in the sky and it was burning hot. Even 75 SPF sunscreen lotion gave up at this point.

Trying to recreate the epic scene of the movie but got photobombed by so many people

Well… We did find a perfect place for a group photo 😀

5 minutes of the short hike took us to the fort. Fort offers a spectacular view of the Vagator beach and Morjim beach. Watching the setting sun from this point would be a magical experience, we had planned to visit this place yesterday itself for sunset but we couldn’t manage time. As time passed, the place was flooded with the tourists, somehow we managed to get a good spot for photography. The fort is a great destination for landscape photography and I managed to click pretty amazing shots. I wanted to recreate the iconic scene of Dil Chahta Hai movie but we were constantly photobombed by the strangers.

Vagator Beach: After spending close to an hour at the fort, we came to the Vagator beach which is adjacent to the Chapora fort. We were extremely tired and hungry. We wanted to crash down at any shack for the lunch but sadly there were none. Even the beach wasn’t as beautiful as the Calangute and Anjuna we visited yesterday.

Vagator beach. And the Chapora fort is built on top of this small hill

We clicked some amazing slow-motion shots only to realize it was already 3 pm. One hour plan got stretched for 3 hours and we still had Ashwem beach on the bucket list. I googled to see the Ashwem was 13 km to the north from Vagator (the place we were), which means it’s in the opposite direction to our hotel in the south. Visiting it would cost us extra 26+ km and consume minimum 2-3 hours. This secluded beach looked irresistible in the photos and we finally decided to visit it. Since there is no traffic in Goa we reached the Ashwem beach in less than half an hour.

Do you remember this kind of shot from the Dil Chahta Hai movie?

In search of shells

Ashwem Beach: The beauty of the beach unrevealed as soon as we stepped on the white sand. I could hardly observe any crowd except few foreigners taking a sunbath. As we walked on the beach we couldn’t be more excited to see the lovely beach with no trash at all. Ashwem has a beautiful scenery known for its rocks all around it carved by the shellfish. The view that the beach provides is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen. Ashwem isn’t very crowded which only adds to it beauty that would’ve been ruined amidst a large audience. There was a shack on the beach called La’more which served great food. We enjoyed magical sunset right from the restaurant. We spent a few hours until the sunset. Goa would have been incomplete without visiting Ashwem Beach.

Ashwem beach was one of the cleanest beach I have seen in Goa

Less crowd more fun

Sun-kissed beach 😉

Getting the real feeling of Goa

Panaromic view of the beach from the restaurant

One of the best food we had in Goa

Enjoying the sunset right from the restaurant

The sunset was one of the best sunsets I witnessed in recent times

Riding cycle on the beach is such a relaxing activity

It was time to leave this beautiful place. It was already dark and we had to travel close to 60 km to reach our stay in south Goa. Goa is pretty safe to travel in the night no matter if its a busy road or an isolated area.

North Goa to South Goa: We collected our luggage and we started riding back at 7 in the evening. GPS guru said it should not take more than an and a half hour. Riding in Goa is always fun as you will be accompanied by beautiful surroundings and zero traffic. There was a drastic change in lifestyle as soon as we entered South Goa. There are not many pubs, no stupid drunk people on the roads, no tourists, the streets were little spooky though. You get peace of mind when you come to South Goa. Probably this was the reason why few people who seek serenity visit South Goa rather than the North Goa. Navigation took us straight to the hotel we booked. we checked into the hotel at 9 pm.

We could feel how sweet the South Goan people were as compared to the North. The closest beach was just 700 meters so we decided to have dinner at a shack. Upon inquiring we learned Mickey’s is a pretty famous shack for food and drinks. After freshening we visited Micky’s which was just 2.5 km from our stay.

Mickey’s: The place seemed really good. Unlike the mad crowd in the north, the people here were in their mid 30’s and were accompanied by the family. The live karaoke added spark to the night. We sat on the table facing the beach. The peace of mind you get visiting the south Goa was nowhere comparable to anything I had experienced so far. The food and drinks were amazing. We were surprised when the waiter approached us to take the last order at 10.30. We realized that the south Goa doesn’t do late night party 😀 After dinner we came back to the hotel at 12 in the night. We spend a couple of hours chitchatting outside our hotel. Finally, we went to sleep at around 3 am, hoping to explore the South Goa on the next day 🙂