Ripples N Reflections

‘Tis the season for road trips — if time and money were out of the equation, what car-based adventure would you go on?

Road trips, you said? Well, as someone who loves trips and a spouse who loves the road we have had our share of “road-trips” and more through the past 27 years plus !

It’s something that binds all of us a family but it’s been a while now since we had one. With one kid at college in another city and another still at school and both of us earning a living at busy jobs finding  common “free” time is not always easy. But today’s prompt allows me the liberty of leaving that out of the equation and Oh Boy, money as well… so here I go “a-tripping”!

The place would be Goa, the car, a state of the art luxury one, the time Oct 2014. Goa needs no introduction to most travel junkies.  To me,  it is extra special as the place I spent my entire childhood in, the place that shaped my thoughts and me through my most impressionable years. 

Coming back to our road trip, I usually take the navigator’s seat, despite my backseat driving always driving my husband up the wall! The kids are usually sprawled on the seats behind. One point of contention is the music we listen to while hitting the road. The consensus is that we alternate “parents-like”  songs with the “kiddos -like”‘ ones. Though I am sure whenever the car system plays “our music”, they have their earphones in place connected to “their music”.

Another reason I also love these road trips for is that we actually talk. About this and that and everything and anything. There is no screen or book to distract, so  we exchange views, update each other on our lives and work , current likes and dislikes,books and songs, movies and friends, dreams and nightmares,  make and break plans, discuss world affairs and homely affairs as well. It makes the trip a lovely time for sharing and caring  updating.

Snacking on a road trip is a must whether on the street food or the motels or  most importantly,in the car itself. Being a foodie, I stock the car with all types of biscuits and munchies water and soft drinks and the bag of goodies which occupies the pride of place on the backseat rapidly loses its girth while we add to our own in a matter of minutes.

Goa invites us like no other place does. The leisurely pace of life, the lovely beaches ( among the best in the world) and more than anything, the happy, friendly, cheerful, helpful people make one want to go to Goa over and over again.  The cuisine a wonderful mix of Indian flavors with a whiff of Portuguese hangover is an eternal favorite  with seafood from fish and prawns to squids and crabs and mussels  Vindalooo and Xacuti  all  often washed down with beer and feni. Goa being connected by a great road network is also best seen as a road trip. The “ferryboats” are unique and they help one cross the various crisscrossing rivers and creeks of Goa while still sitting in one’s car.  The churches and temples, the dances and theater, the flea markets and beach parties – the list is unending as to what one can do while in Goa. But if one wants to do nothing and have all the time in the world to do that in, then too, Goa is your destination. Laze the day away and dream the night through. Ah, bliss!

Last but not the least, here are a few pics from our last trip to Goa.

Goa, here we come…… again!  Hopefully…..

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