A Goa Trip Gone Crazy- Water Sports Edition!

Goa is one trip you can definitely take when all else fails. Two of my friends and I planned for many trips throughout 2019 but never succeeded. So, we decided to hit Goa and that too unplanned. We booked tickets for the first week of October and reserved a beautiful boutique hotel called Treehouse Sonnet (Vagator), through MakeMyTrip.

As we reached there, I knew this was going to be a crazy trip because we ended up being out of Goa for over 15 hours and we didn’t know this until the very last minute. It all began like this: I was enthusiastic to try something new and my bucket list had loads of unticked items. We decided to have some fun by going for some adventure activities. With a friend’s recommendation, we called up an agency and found a package for just Rs 2000 including transport, breakfast, lunch and scuba diving with five other water sports. It was a steal and we booked instantly by paying in advance.

We were picked up at 7:30 a.m. the next day in an Ertiga and we marvelled at the service provided. Little did we know we were about to be transferred to a minibus carrying 30 other passengers. When the exchange happened, we, unfortunately, were the last three passengers so we had limited choice in seating. The bus, true to its name, was mini in all aspects and though we were of average height (5’4”-5’6”), our knees still grazed the front seat. We sat at an angle to avoid being bruised.

Once we adjusted ourselves, we started up a conversation with the others and then we realized we were about to travel to the Malvan beach, Maharashtra, which is around 3 hours away from Goa. After the first shock, we accepted our mistake and sat back snoozing and looking out of the tiny window the rest of the time.

We reached the destination and it was final that we screwed up big time! The coast was filthy with tons of plastic in the water and dead sea fish on the shore. It was a huge awakening to my no plastic decision. To get on boats we had to walk across the dark waters with plastic and what not clinging to your legs. My personal hygiene took a mental hike away from the scene. But once we got used to it (yes, we had to get used to it) we enjoyed being thrown into the dirty water during the banana ride (I might have gulped in lots of water due to panic). I liked the spray of water while riding the water bike and even clung tight to the rope during the bumper ride. All in all, it was fun.

Then arrived the scuba diving bit! You would think I will be very excited but ironically, I was nervous and dreading the moment. I have an eyesight power of minus four and things are blurred when I remove my glasses. So, I had no clue how I would see much and enjoy the experience. And as you rightly guessed, scuba diving in dirty water? Yes, we all had that issue. Eventually, when it was my turn the instructor gave me less than three seconds to get used to breathing from my mouth and then, I was dunked into the water. To avoid choking, I put in my full concentration on breathing, but my plan was foiled when the instructor made me wave towards the camera. In doing so, I forgot how to breathe. I was up within 40 seconds of my very embarrassing scuba diving experience but after some coaxing was taken down for another go where I ended up seeing a blurred version of some brown substance and then I was back.

After this it was a silence of four hours, not because we were recuperating but because our tour guide was nowhere to be seen. We saw other groups finish their activities and load up, yet we were stuck till 5 p.m. at the same spot. Then we had our parasailing. We were frustrated with no lunch to keep us going but the parasailing experience was so beautiful, we couldn’t hold in our excitement. We were taken two at a time in a brilliant parasail wing, and we got to watch the sun set in the horizon while we were in the air.

That sealed the end of a very adventurous day which was loaded with beautiful memories, lots of laughter despite having many cringe-worthy moments. Do any of us regret it? No! We still love that trip very dearly and still laugh uncontrollably at our antics.