Goa, a tourist’s guide

First of all, I would like to thank Mohamad Al Karbi for allowing me to guest post in his blog. It is a great honour.

My native is Salem, a beautiful city in southern India. I live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with my husband and during our previous vacation to India, we visited Goa. It was a four-day trip and it was a fabulous experience.

Goa is a state in western India with its coast lines stretching along the Arabian Sea. It had been a Portuguese colony and it is well known for its beaches, churches and architecture.

Here are few of the places that we visited during our trip.

Cavelossim Beach

Our stay was at a beach resort in the area so it was very convenient to visit the beach every evening. We loved to sit and relax in the sand watching the sunset and it was a beautiful experience.

Basilica of Bom Jesus

This is one of the oldest churches in Goa and in India as well. The basilica holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier and it is a UNESCO world heritage site. Here is the view that we clicked from a park bench outside the church.

Fort Aguada 

This fort was so big and old with stunning views of the Arabian Sea. It was said to be the chief defence of the Portuguese. Personally, it was so amazing to stand and imagine how it would have functioned back in the days. Here is the view of the sea from the top.

Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary

This is a mangrove habitat declared as a bird sanctuary. We were taken by a boat and it was a few minutes travel over water. The path was narrow, with huge dense trees on either side in a swamp. Unfortunately we could not spot a single bird. My husband was making fun of me, saying “There’s a snake! There’s a snake!” Though I was acting like I was not scared, personally it was creepy as hell and couldn’t help but click this.

Food

I have to make a special mention on the food because the authentic Goan food is so different, may be because of its rich history and culture. There were many recipes that I liked called chicken xacuti, chicken cafreal, goan fish curry and many more. I liked it so much that I had to try cooking the recipe myself one fine day. It was not the same but it was good. Here is the picture of chicken cafreal. (I apologize for the bad quality of photography!)

There are also so many other attractions, boating, clubbing, markets for shopping and temples. Goa is known as the Pearl of the Orient and Tourist’s Paradise. We could see why and we would love to go anytime again.

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