Some notes!

(1) If we had chosen to travel by hired tempo traveller kind of vehicle from travel from Mysore/Bangalore, our travel expenses would have been almost the same (sachi's car + local car hire + your train tickets), but we would have had almost 1.5 additional days and add to it, we would have had good time inside the vehicle also. Driving by car is a bad decision !!!! For next such trips (where travel time exceeds 5+ hours, we should consider hiring Tempo travellers).

(2) I felt that we had very less time to talk one another; most of the time was spent in playing in beach and eating!

(3) From next trip onwards, we all should plan for better and good group games which we could play in the travel time or at the staying place etc.

(4)Anu chinni doesn't like stored food! Dont carry tiffin-box for her on long journeys! Fruits, biscuits and probably local restaurant foods suffice.

(5) An average spend per couple for 4D/3N: 12k to 15k ( about 3-5k travel, about 5k stay, rest for food and others). 

In Goa

December 3: Rest and dinner at Sea Pebble in Dona Paula - fantastic restaurant and a great king fish.

December 4: Arambol beach: a fresh water lake joining the sea ! fantastic place followed by a great lunch on the beach. Thought of staying in beach huts in next visit!
Evening: Gouda's reception

December 5: Callengut beach - water sports; lunch and dinner again at Sea Pebble with Mr and Mrs Gouda.

December 6: 4:30 AM  left Panaji with a promise to meet again! Breakfast in Hubli; wasted 30 minutes to go inside Hubli; better option: Kamath just after Hubli standing on left side of the road! should be the option for next year! Reached Mysore at 5:45 PM.


Photos' link here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/basavarajaps/GoaPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHt4O2Ah-OnZg#

Drive from Mysore to Goa

With a lot of searching around, the following route was followed for driving from Mysore to Goa : About 720 km !



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Leaving a few mega humps between Huliyar and Hiriyur, rest of the route is very good. The road between Hubli and Belgaum is the best I have driven in India. Belgaum to Panjim drive is very scenic and has a lot of twists and turns with a few bad stretches in between.


Left Mysore at 4:37 AM and reached Panaji around 5:30 PM. A fantastic drive of around 720 km in around 13 hours with a breakfast break near Hiriyur (not so good place; not recommended) and lunch at Kshema Inn in Belgaum(decent) and a lot of breaks in between; we could have had about 2 hours spent on breaks.




Fuel point: Petrol price in Karnataka during this time is around Rs. 58.90 while in Goa it is around Rs. 52.5. So plan your petrol refill accordingly!


A mega hump between Huliyar and Hiriyur:

Fantastic 2+2 lane NH4:

Scenic Belgaum to Panaji - NH4A

Re-plan!

Alter a long gap, I got my a** sticked to write this up. The plan all got changed and messed up towards the end of Nov. The real execution happened this way:

Sachi, mr and mrs. me an anu driving from Mysore to Goa;
Mr and Mrs Vinod and Basu - Train from Bangalore to Londa and then by bus from Londa to Panjim;
Mr and Mrs Shrishail by bus/train to Panjim and reaching early on 3rd December.

Guys! Plan getting changed?

If travelling in Bus, Seats (sleaper) are avaliable on thursday evening in VRL and Paulo Travels. We can Book it. available for return also (sunday/monday).
http://www.redbus.in

Meeting point on the onward journey

As two groups: one from Bangalore and the other from Mysore drive, the meeting point would be Hiriyur on NH4.Mysore to Hiriyur is about 214 km, which is about 4 hour drive.Bangalore to Hiriyur is about 161 km, which is about 3 hour drive from Bangalore in the early morning. Here is what looks to be a feasible plan:

On 3rd Friday:

• Leave Mysore at 4:30 AM to reach Hiriyur at around 8:30 AM. Any good place for breakfast somewhere nearby ??
• Leave Bangalore at around 5:00 AM (depending on pick-ups and traffic situations) and reach Hiriyur at around 8:30AM
• Rest + breakfast - 30 minuts
• From Hiriyur to Hubli, it is about 270 km = about 5 hours; reach Hubli by about 2:00 PM for lunch. 
• Rest + lunch - 1 hr.
• From Hubli to Panjim/Dona Paula is about 170 km = about 3:30 hours; reach Panjim by about 6:30 PM.
• 9:00 PM party !!!!

Key-points:

• Leaving earliest in the morning ensures no night driving!
• End leg of the journey goes through lots of twists and turns; so need to cover maximum distance at good speed in the initial part of the good straight roads.

Here is the map:

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Bangalore to Goa road!

With the advice of experienced drivers and some googling, here seems to be the best available drive from Bangalore to Goa:


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Vacation home

For such a large group of 8+ people, we felt a 4 bedroom apartment / vacation home would best suit. Accordingly, after an extensive googling found this  fantastic vacation home http://www.goavacationhomes.com ; quoted at USD 150. Got a decent discount on rated price for Rs.6500 per day and booked it!

Have a fantastic holidays!

Best available route from Mysore to Goa!

With all searching around and taking to experienced drivers, the best available route from Mysore to Goa seems to be this one (as on date!):


View Larger Map

Confirmed participants

Here is the confirmed list as on 19th Nov. 6:30 PM:

(1) Sachi - stag

(2) Mrs and Mr Basu
(3) Mrs and Mr Srishail Chavan

(4) Mrs and Mr Vinod
(5) Mrs and Mr me!

(1) and (2) - driving from Bangalore; better half of (3) 'training' from Manipal and worse half driving from Pune;  (5) driving from Mysore and will be joined by (4) in Davanagere with packed "davanagere masala dosa".

The beginning

4th December 2010: Gowda's marriage reception in Goa!!!
Why don't we plan for a "swa karya swami karya" trip to Goa?



This blog is all about that trip.