Avinash’s Goa Trip - November 2008 (with Radhika and Raj for company)

We just returned to Bombay from Goa, having completed Avinash’s first holiday, (our trip to the South was more pilgrimage than holiday - :)) and hence we decided to immortalize it on this blog.

Our vacation planning started in advance of Avinash’s first birthday, back in early September. Initially we were quite aggressive in our plans, thinking of a two week trip to Singapore and Bali. But then wisdom dawned on us, driven by both the downturn in the markets post the Lehman collapse (increasing the value of “conserving cash”) and the realization that we had never travelled out of town with Avinash without support from Amma, Appa and Dad before – and that a two week overseas trip where food even for Radhika and myself would be a challenge was not the best way to test our ability to manage him sans support. The other constraint was the need to avoid missing too many of Radhika’s German classes, and that implied a strong preference for the period between Diwali and November 14 – since her classes were off for the weekends of Nov 1 and Nov 8. We therefore decided to go for a three night trip to Goa, and originally scheduled it for just after Diwali from Nov 2^nd to Nov 5^th.

I finally got around to making our bookings on October 15^th, deciding to stay at the Taj Holiday Village, in North Goa. But two days later, disaster struck – a business trip to Hong Kong got scheduled for Nov 3^rd. Fortunately, both airline tickets and hotel reservations were easily adjusted for the following weekend – and the trip got scheduled for Nov 9^th to Nov 12^th.

We were booked to travel by the 1235 PM Jet Airways flight. Avinash was extremely excited by all the packing that was going on – he seemed to realize that this was a bigger occasion than the routine trips to his Thatha and Amamma’s place. Radhika carted along everything but the kitchen sink – packing a rice cooker, rice, dal et al in addition to large quantities of baby food, medicines, and toys (including Avi’s basket ball) – but managed to somehow fit it all into two normal sized suitcases. Radhika also managed to convince me to purchase a (somewhat) lighter travel stroller for Avi – I was initially reluctant to buy the same, but finally gave in deciding that discretion was the better part of valour. Surprisingly, all the packing got done on the night of the 8^th itself, and we were ready relatively comfortably on the 9^th morning.

A minor hiccup arose when Meru Cabs sent us an Esteem instead of the Marina we had requested for – however, the driver was quite efficient in packing our suitcases into the tiny boot (which is compromised by the CNG cylinder) and was able to place the stroller on the front seat. We reached the airport quite early – by 11 am, and barged into the lounge. It being a Sunday, the usual business traveller crowd was not around – and Avi had plenty of space to “lounge” about. He was not fazed by the sight of planes taking off – and was more interested in attacking the flowers and flower vases that were kept there. Around 12, Avi had his lunch and we were all set for the flight.

The flight was quite empty and Avi took it quite well, working his charm on the cabin crew. We managed to keep him entertained with his “Animals” book and by playing with the overhead reading lights. Avi seemed thrilled when we landed in Goa, settling into his new stroller with ease. The coach from the Taj was waiting for us – the driver indicated that some other passengers would be joining us and that we would have to wait for a while, but after 10 minutes, gave up on them and set off for the resort.

The drive to the resort took ~ 1 hour and Avi and Radhika slept through most of it. The resort lobby was beautiful, with high wooden ceilings, and old fashioned ceiling fans. Avi displayed a remarkable appreciation for beauty, and gave both me and Radhika a number of hugs and kisses, as if in gratitude for having brought him there. We were then driven to our room using an electric golf cart. A room was one of four in a cottage, with a small lawn in front, and shielded from prying eyes with thick foliage. There was a huge bed (a double king size, if I am not mistaken), a stone sofa built into one of the walls and in general gave an impression of space. Avi was delighted (as can be seen from the attached photos).

After unpacking, we set out to explore the resort. The resort is beautifully done, with a long frontage abutting the beach. However, the beach itself is very severely eroded, and parts of the resort have been cordoned off due to the risk of landslides. The beach slopes steeply, and given the strength of the waves, it was clearly not advisable to even wade in knee deep water. Having visited this beach about 20 years ago, my first impression was that it had shrunk very significantly – I recall a reasonably broad expanse (albeit not as wide as Calangute or even Juhu) with a large number of beach chairs laid along it – what we saw instead was a beach barely 10 feet wide, with a severely eroded resort wall abutting it. The sight made even a confirmed Green Sceptic like me worry about sea level rise and made me somewhat willing to concede the wisdom of CRZ type laws at least in beach resorts. After a brief walk along the beach, we returned to the resort, and had an evening snack at the Caravela restaurant which is gloriously perched above the sea.

The next morning, after breakfast, we set out for the pool. We had purchased a bunch of swim diapers for Avi, and also bought a baby float for him. The kiddie pool was ideally designed for Avi, with a depth of just 1.1 feet – on entering the pool with the float, Avi promptly started walking around it, and chasing the various balls and other floating toys that had been placed by the hotel staff in the pool. Avi had a real ball of a time in the pool, and after 30 minutes (by which time it was past 11) when we forced him out of it, he registered his protest in the strongest possible terms. Nevertheless, we managed to pacify him and get him back to the room.

We had decided to avoid lunch at the resort, but it was almost 245 by the time we got ready to leave for lunch. The Concierge suggested a vegetarian restaurant in Calangute that we could go to (albeit somewhat disapprovingly) and was kind enough to call them and ask them to keep the kitchen open for us. We then hired a taxi (for a ridiculous round trip cost of Rs. 450 – I think we got gypped badly), and set out for the restaurant. We had a good Punjabi style meal, and Avi seemed very happy with the Khichdi they prepared for him. After a good meal, we set out for Calangute beach, reaching it around 445. Radhika and Avi went to the edge of the water. Avi loved it, and was extremely keen on heading out to where others were standing, in much deeper water with large waves breaking around them. With considerable difficulty, Radhika managed to drag him away from the sea, and got him focussed on the sand instead.

Avi really enjoyed himself. He attacked the sand castles that we attempted to build, dug deep into the sand, and even created some patterns on the sand by “swimming” on it. Within a few minutes, he was covered with sand all over. In keeping with his “mastery of misdirection”, he also made several attempts to walk into the sea, while pretending to be playing with the sand. He saw people parasailing and jet-skiing, and seemed keen to get started with these adventure sports. After about 30 minutes at the beach, we set off for the hotel. After showering in the room, and refusing to eat dinner, Avi pointed us to his stroller, indicating he wanted to go for a walk. We went back to one of the restaurants, where Avi went to sleep listening to the live band. Given that we were out of the room, and that Avi was asleep in his stroller, we went across to the Thai restaurant, Banyan Tree, and had a delicious dinner of Thai Red Curry and Rice.

Day 3 started with us waking extremely late. By the time we returned to the room post breakfast, Avi was sleepy, and not in state to hit the pool. For lunch, we decided to try out vegetarian Goan food at the Beach Café. Given our experience at Calangute, we also ordered Khichdi for Avi. This turned out to be a complete disaster. The Goan dish was ok, but they served relatively undercooked long grain rice with it, which Radhika just could not eat. The Baby Khichdi was salt-less, bland, and completely tasteless. In an attempt to spice it up, I added too much pepper, with the result that Avi flatly refused to eat. After this decidedly mediocre lunch, we headed back to the room, gave Avi some fruit, and then headed for the pool. Avi had a blast once again, this time attempting to swim. The evening was spent lazily, strolling around the resort, with Avi plucking the grass (Radhika’s calls it “Yaaru Picchha” or Who Tore This?), and playing football.

Before we knew it, the day was out, and it was time for us to return to Bombay. We spent the morning packing – Avi soon realized that we were about to leave his new and nice home, and started to protest vehemently. He kept trying to prevent us from packing, moving all the stuff out of the bags. Finally, I had to take him for a walk to let Radhika pack. We left the Taj Holiday Village with nice memories, and a real admiration for the degree of observation and consciousness that our 14 month old has. We were also relieved that we had made it through our first vacation with Avi, without any mishaps.

When we got back, Avi seemed decidedly disappointed – when asked where is Goa, he responds with a sad look, and a quizzical expression meaning “Kaanamme” or “Its missing”. Guess that’s the way life is.