Beaches, birds and famous places in Goa

When I read something about Goa it takes me back to the time when I used to spend all my weekends in that lovely land of beautiful beaches and friendly people. I wanted to use few other words about the lively residents of Goa the heaven for tourists but then I stopped short thinking that I should not cross the limits while describing their friendliness.

It was just after completion of my training period I was posted at Belgaum city of Karnataka state. I was bit reluctant in the beginning as I did not want to leave Bangalore also known as Bangalore then but my manager said the company wanted me to cover Goa also along with Belgaum division. I was to join another engineer at Belgaum whom I did not know until then.

I am sure most of you will agree with me when I say that change is the only thing that remains constant but in spite of agreeing to that I feel we promise to hear each other’s stories. I have written number of posts about my favorite state Goa but my writing was always limited to beaches and water sports but I missed writing about forests.

Actually, it all started on one of my weekly trips to Goa minus my regular companion Khan who had gone to Bangalore so I did not feel like going to beach directly as we used to do otherwise but stayed in Panaji instead. Next morning when I came out ready to move I saw a newly married couple in the lobby of the hotel enquiring about Mangeshi Temple.

I had heard about that famous temple but had never visited that so far. Suddenly the man noticed me and asked me whether I would be accompanying them as it would save all of us on taxi fare. I was not much interested but I agreed and took that shared trip to Mangeshi Temple in the village of world famous singer Lata Mangeshkar and Old Goa.

We visited famous Mangeshi Temple and several other churches in Old Goa including St. Francis Xavier’ church incidentally, the basilica holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier. This church is also known as Basilica of Bom Jesus or Borea Jezuchi Bajilika. The couple had already visited all the beaches so they suggested me to accompany them for their next day’s bird watching trip which I accepted happily.

Tourists generally do not look Goa as a place for bird watching or camping in forests but the fact is Goa provides other activities at Mollem National Park, Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary which is a wide spread protected area. Next day we took a trip to Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and the largest Bagula Forest about 50-60 km from Panaji. We visited both these places in one trip starting 7.30 in the morning and back to our hotel by 6.30 pm.

Oh there is so much to see and in Goa provided you have enough time. I have lots of memories of this place to share with you.

Image source https://pixabay.com/en/church-goa-religion-altar-1836512/