It was late in the evening and we were all still in the office.Guess what,we were all eagerly waiting for our trip to 'GOA' :). Mails started flowing in with all the instructions : the time to gather, the place to assemble, snacks for the evening, the night dinner.Having planned our trip well, with our thoughts flowing around and closing down our daily chores for the day, we were all set ready to leave to the land of beaches 'GOA'!!.
Twinkling eyes & overwhelming smiles we all reached our BIG BROTHER who is nothing but our Big BUS ready to take us to the Holiday spot!.
The specialty was, it was a big AC bus but still we could open the windows :)
The clock went ticking and our Big Brother(our bus) waited for us but we were all were not inside the bus but waiting for our James Bond :). Photo Clicks, group snaps and as time passed our Bond made his presence, being welcomed with a big round of applause :). With all set, our journey began with the count 1,2,3..... ok ok all into the bus.
Our Big Brother creped through the evening streets and as we moved further, he stopped to pick our last entrant into the bus who was none other than our manager :).
With the flashy 2 eyed head lights moving ahead in the glowing lights, our big brother slowly slipped through the crowded streets to find his space between them, to move out of the city chores,away from screaming horns, to a much calm and quiet sleeping distance away from the city.
Excited and charged up, we started all kinds of conversations beginning with intros from newbie's to the extent of politics..
As time passed, our big brother stopped for our dinner. We got down the bus, rushed into the restaurant, ordered all kinds of dishes and having filled our tummy slipped back into the bus and then no more words to exchange.
With the moon up in the sky, our eye lids started to cover the eyes reminding us that it was Bed time :).
The Bus moved silently leaving us asleep with some of us still turning around to fit ourselves to sleep in the seat and others already into their Dreams :).
As night passed on, we were "still" and "asleep" until our Big brother stopped for the next morning break.
With Sun peeping through the window to have a glimpse of us,we were all up to break our morning fast. Breaking the morning fast with coffee,idly..etc we were out to enjoy the morning cool breez blowing across the face also not forgetting to start our first photo session for the day. Our Camera man..wait wait..we found out our camera man in the team(SAHIN) to take all our snaps, but the only drawback was that the camera man was more interested in his own snaps :P.
All back towards the big brother..1,2,3.... all of us were inside :). Back to Track,dumsharads,famous personalities,cards...etc the bus went with all roaring sounds and then at the end all drained out sat back to listen to some soothing music :). Not to forget we also found out our Duo singers(Lalit and Raghu) of the team but they entertained themselves :).
The travel continued and almost as we reached GOA. The sun was high in the sky as it was already noon. We reached our hotel in which we were going to spend our next two days. We were welcomed with cold soothing big glasses of cool drinks as all of us waited to get our rooms.
It was a 5 star hotel with a beach view at the back side and a swimming pool close to the beach :).
We had to finish our lunch before we went into our rooms.As we finished our lunch we got our room keys and we just rushed into to get refreshed for the day. The rooms were pretty cool with a LCD TV and a beautiful shower :).
Myself along with my pony tail beauty (ANkita :P ) and chubby cheeks shy (Shylaja) were all fresh and ready to head towards the beach to take our first view of the GOA beach . As we headed towards the beach, the swimming pool just aside the beach was filled with guys taking sun bath :)
We 3 reached the shore to catch the beauty of the calm sea. We did not forget to write our names on the sand, to run from the rushing waves or to collect the sea shells on the shore bed just waiting for us :).Few Clicks, few posses, few snaps and left the place to join the team towards the main Marimar beach.
With the smooth waves, we played around the beach catching the waves along with the cameras making few clicks.
Our Organizers (ASif & Ankita) had arranged accessories for us to play in the Marimar beach as we played throw ball, volley ball (with the same ball :P ), ring, disc throw... and ran all around the beach.
As the Sun started returning back home, we too bid him a good bye and left the beach to explore our next destination.. "The PANAGI MARKET".We boarded the bus to reach the market.As we reached the place and got down the bus and took few steps towards the market, we were welcomed by the aroma of Fish fry, but for the veggies it was really pathetic!. Few of us closed our nostrils and tried all means such that the smell does not hinder us more :). We roamed inside the market and made sure to purchase nothing else but Cashews after a lot of bargain. But the shop keeper was not convinced with our bargaining talent and had to pay the fixed amount!!. Few of us were split across the market and as it was getting late we had to assemble back at the bus Stop to reach back to the Hotel.
We ended our day with a team activity as Our Organizers were up with their task. They separated us into 2 teams and read out the specialty of each person leaving us to guess who the person was!.With laughter and smiles across as each one was described we made sure we could guess all of them :)
Up for the day, we headed to have our dinner consisting of wide variety of food consisting of both veg and non-veg .The starters, the main course to the deserts. Not to forget the colorful ice creams in small bowls, for which each one of us showcased our talent in decorating it :)
It was a hectic day and all just waited to take good night sleep . With round table talks and corner gossips, we returned back to our rooms to say GOODNIGHT but the guys had their own plans!!.
Early the next day,we all had to meet in the one of the meeting rooms for the most awaited event of the Day!.We made ourselves available in the meeting room almost on time.It was a big room with neatly arranged seats with the facility of morning beverages with a person appointed to serve us on request!.
Our activity executives were ready with the clues, roadmaps and the gifts, all cleverly planned for the big event 'The Treasure Hunt'!
We were divided into 2 teams and were asked ourselves to name our teams.My team decided to follow the path of the Spinach hero 'THE POPEYE THE SAILOR' :) and the other team quite interestingly named themselves with the complicated name :).
All set and ready with the guidelines announced, the first clue was out!
According to the clue, we had to decipher a piece of code to determine the first treasure spot.As soon as we cracked the code, it was a marathon run as all of us ran towards the treasure hidden destination!. Once the treasure was found, we all had to rush back as all the members of the particular team had to be back at their place to receive their next clue! It was all fun with some of us panting, some blinking but all smiling :)
As we figured out the clues one after the other and went to the next rounds, the clues started to become more tougher.
As we reached the last round, the clue was split into two. Yes, we were given two clues for the last round and interestingly one clue was the key for the other.We jumped up with enthusiasm as we cracked the first one as the clue meant 'YES/NO' means HANA- hurray our product name!. Now comes the second one.. a really really tough one!. We had to find out the hidden 'Cleopatra' inside the Hotel!!. We ran all around the hotel, almost every nuke and corner.We left no stone unturned.We searched below the chairs, above the roofs, beneath the paintings and even under the tortoise shells (Stone Shells :) ). Enquired the Hotel security, the guides, each and everyone possible to just find out our 'Cleopatra'. Not to forget that we were Techies, we even searched on net to find out how actually Cleopatra looked like !!
But all in vain, none of the teams could find her out and we were all called back to the meeting room as we had exceeded the time limit.This time we were given another clue to find out Cleopatra!!.We were said that Cleopatra was able to move and interesting we were said that we can find her within the meeting room!!!. Wow!! the clue that seemed to help us made us more confused, we still could not find her :). At last one of the Duo singer Lalith, the captain of the other team, actually figured out that Cleopatra was not a feminine but a masculine in our case!! :D.. It was none other than the person who was serving us coffee & tea inside the room and his name was 'CLETO'..hehehahaha :D
All of us busted into laughter and finished the game by not forgetting to capture a click with our masculine Cleopatra :D
Finished with the game, We all were now ready to check out our next destination for the day which was none other than the famous Calangutte beach :) and
headed towards our Big Brother (the bus) who was ready to take us to the beach. As our Bus picked us and dropped @ the Calungutte beach we walked a few steps before we actually discovered the beach.We Stared at the people, the rising sun all the way and the crowed beach welcoming us.The beach was already overflowing with people all around and we managed to find a place for ourselves. The Sun High in the sky was happy to see us and was shining even brighter :)
AS the guys managed to get a deal with one of the localite in arranging the sea rides, Our care takers (Bilal and James) took care of all our belongings including my big brand new just purchased beautiful CAP :).
As all of us were ready to get into the sea..wait wait wait... CLICK CLICK CLICK..Snaps were shot as we wore the life saving jackets.
Our first ride was Parasailing :). We all got into a boat which took us a distance into the sea and transferred us into another boat which was actually carrying out the para sailing activity.
One after the other, we set ourselves to fly up in the sky without wings!. AS each ones turn approached, we were tied to a tight rope along with the parachute and the other end of the rope tied to the boat. Then the rope was slowy released such that we could move towards the sky, above the water!!. I too had my turn to make a trip in the air between the sky and the sea :). With all my friends in the boat waving their hands ad me left to take a view of the entire Panaji with the waves dancing below and the clouds floating above, it was a wonderful experience :). It was just for few minutes and even before you take another look at the beauty again, you would be pulled down to reach back to the boat!...
Each one of us having taken their fly in the sky.. reached back to the shore to get ready to the one and only banana ride :)
It was a sea ride which had a banana kind of balloon like structure which could float on the sea and we could be seated on top of it. To start with the ride, our brave Heroes came in first to experience it first :).. The ride capable of accompanying 4 people at a time, took the first 4 guys a bit far into the sea and suddenly dropped all of them into the sea. Yes! that was the fun of the ride :), but the guys were taken aback at once and came back a bit trembling.. This made the boat rider not take the people in the next ride into the sea but instead performed the stunts almost close to the shore.
Then came my turn along with the duo singers. The banana boat started the ride smoothly, took a slide on the sea and crossed over the waves and then we were asked to let our hands free and not to cling to the boat. As soon as we followed the boat riders instruction, Thub!!!! the boat over turned and we were all inside the water :) As we just came back to the surface of water to take our lost breath ...What a fall!!.. we were just dipped and taken out of the salty sea water!
As we were done with the rides including the bike ride on the sea surface, each one of us jumped over the waves, water splashed across, ran behind the waves and took snaps in all kind of posses as the water did not allow us to move out of the place :)
Fully wet, washed with salt,dripping with water and golden sand grains on our pants, we went back to take our belongings so that even our care takers could enjoy the rides :)
As everything was done for the day at the Calangutte beach, we had our last sight at the roaring waves bidding a farewell to us.We ran over the hot sand to reach our big brother waiting silently at the corner. We actually stood in the bus until we reached the hotel such that we carry back all the sand stuck on us with ourselves and not transferring it to our big brother :).
We reached the hotel and it was already afternoon and we rushed back to our rooms to take a dip in fresh water and get back for lunch. With the sweet 60's and 70's dancing for the lite English music and the smell of fish in the air we finished our lunch along with sugarcane juice and chats and if this did not suffice we even had the wonderful ice creams awaiting for us :). With all this into the stomach.. everyone were ready to just lay down and take a short and deep nap :).
As time passed, it was already evening and we decided to take a stroll and go to the market to take back something from GOA back home. We reached the market purchased wahtever we could and then went back to the hotel to end our day with the last team activity.
As we reached back the hotel, the last team activity was up and it was to test our communication skill. Again we were split into 2 teams as usual and then one member from each team was called and showed a picture in secrecy. The person had to come back to his team and explain the picture he had seen and the others had to draw. It was all fun as each of us let our creativity flow and drew all kinds of diagrams and drawings and tried to match with the description given :P :) but which could no place even reach the originality :D but all together a new creation :)
Having done for the day, we headed back to the rooms after dinner. We had to leave GOA the next day.
Early in the morning, the next day,we packed our bags and were all present in the main reception area of the Hotel after the breakfast to say Goodbye to GOA and finish up our last Photo Shoot :)..
Done with the shots,Done with the beach view,Done with the 5 start hotel, we headed towards our big Brother bidding our last smile to GOA ,to return back to our always everlasting and ever welcoming cosmopolitan city of Bangalore :D.
