Cruising North Goa: Trees, Forts and Beaches

January 10th, 2011

A group of four of us: myself, Englishman Jon and the New Zealand women, Rewa and Mallory, who are staying in the hut next to me, decided to rent a couple of motor scooters to tour around some of north Goa. I wanted to show them the big banyan tree (the biggest and oldest in Goa) that I visited with Zohar back in December. Around midday, we walked to the same place where I had rented a scooter before for only 150 rupees a day but now the going rate was 300! Even though we’re only talking a couple of dollars difference we were all taken back a bit and decided on principle to go somewhere else. The next spot wanted 500! Eventually we located a couple of bikes for only 250 but it did cost us about half an hour of wandering around.

Live to ride...ride to live...

Cruising by a large field:

Jon and I were on one bike while Mallory drove with Rewa on the back. Mallory loved riding which was obvious by the omnipresent smile on her face. We cruised along some nice curvy and hilly roads en route to the small town of Pernem and then moved on to the big banyan tree at Parcem. I ran into Deepak, the man who invited Zohar and me into his home the last time I was here. We chatted briefly but didn’t go into his house this time. There was a cute little puppy sniffing around as we prepared a small picnic. We tossed him the odd potato chip which he happily gobbled up. A truck came driving by and stopped beside us. I tried to pull the puppy closer to us but it frightened him and he lurched backwards right under the front tire of the truck. Quickly Jon yelled to the driver and we pulled the dog out of harm’s way...whew.

The lady bikers:

Warning: Objects appear much closer than they are...

Jon and I are starting our own gang...

The happy Kiwis:

The girls riding:


The river near Pernem:

The big banyan tree:


The rice has grown a lot since I was here in December:

Rewa's impression of a monkey:

Having lunch:

Mallory was itching to get back on the bikes so we headed off towards Vagator Beach and Fort Chapora. There was a bit of a sobering sight as we neared the fort. On a side road there were a couple of scooters lying in the middle of the road and a blonde foreigner woman lying in the recovery position with someone tending to her. There were a number of people already at the scene so we decided to carry on although about half a kilometre later we spotted a police car on the side of the road so Jon told them of the incident and they headed back to help out...nice work Jon!

Jon getting the lead out:



We parked the bikes part way up the hill at Fort Chapora and began to hike up the barren hill. The fort was built by the Portuguese in 1617 and although it was heavily fortified it was captured several times. I read that on one occasion the Portuguese captain of the fort decided to surrender stemming from the fact, if legend is to be believed, from the manner in which the invading forces managed to breach the fort’s defences: it’s said that they clung tight to tenacious one and a half meter long monitor lizards who were easily able to scale the rocky walls!

Hiking up to the fort:

Looking north towards Morjim Beach:

Rewa wall walking:

Looking down to Vagator Beach:

Rewa jumping in the entrance...and Jon got the pic on the first try!

We soaked in the views, snapped a few pics and then headed back to the scooters to cruise down to Vagator Beach for a swim and a drink before riding back just in time to catch sunset back in Arambol (Jon’s a firm believer in the “sunset beer” concept).

Englishman Paul kiting around sunset:

That night there was some festival happening at a nearby temple. It had actually started with some pretty nasty canned music at nine in the morning before we set off scootering. In the evening the music was interspersed with the odd explosion of fireworks and the occasional diatribe by some guy on a loudspeaker. Although he spoke in Hindi I could pick out that it was “Thanks this” and “Thanks for that”. I decided to check out what all of the commotion was about. The temple was colourfully decorated with flashing strings of light. People milled about, looking at stalls selling cheap toys and trinkets. There was a procession of people led by a bicycle that had a big loudspeaker mounted on the front, a battery pack in the back and a man playing a small keyboard. The bicycle looked like it had been stolen from the Whos in Whoville (from “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”). After about ten minutes I returned to my hut. The festival continued until 5 or 6 in the morning but thankfully my earplugs were able to drown it out.

The temple:

The festival at the local temple:


The awesome bike:

The bicycle music train: