What does Solo backpacking in Goa feel like? #unforgettablesolo

So today, when I was randomly going through all the old pictures on my Instagram, I had a sudden rush of emotions. Oh man! How unbelievable this year was for me. I couldn’t believe so much has happened! Chilling at my space in a village in Odisha where I start the one-year long fellowship, I had this urge to give a space for my memories too. The decision to come here, to start off a new life from nothing was something that a trip pushed me to do. This is the trip I will talk about in a few moments. Backpacking alone in Goa, the “after college Goa Plan”, you know, where there is a 99% chance your friends would betray you, and in my case, they did that. So this is the trip, which motivated me for the next part of my life because out of all the fun that I had in Goa, there were several lessons which would stay with me for sure including how to survive alone and have fun also how help comes to you in the most unexpected way.

Goa is completely different. It’s not like any other state I had ever been to. I got off at the deserted railway station of Thivim, took three different modes of accommodation to reach my hostel at Vagator.

The way to Vagator was so pleasant, all the way there was no traffic jams, no malls, no crowd nothing, it was just so peaceful. I just knew now why I was in Goa, this was the perfect getaway from Mumbai.

Even my hostel – the Forest Monk Hostel at Vagator was just like this, surrounded by trees and welcoming into the nature of wooden cottages.

I settled on my bunk, enjoying the offseason and thus no bunkmates. I had the whole cabin to myself Yayy! Outside the cabin at the center of the hostel surrounded by trees and the cabins were the sofas to relax and the bar. I shifted next there, talking to strangers and making new friends, some of them well one of them is now one of my best friends and someone who will pop up in the story a lot.

That night this friend, the lovely Lenka Daisy and I went out for a walk at 2 AM, we both were struggling to sleep. This was how the trip actually started. It was a rainy night and we walked to the mesmerizing Vagator beach, all windy and moonshine. I was falling in love with Goa already. Later we came down, spent some time at the bar(which runs all night!) and then went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up, got all ready early but I didn’t felt like going anywhere alone because there was no transport available. As I sat on my bed and scrolled through my Instagram stories, I found this one guy posting stuff on Goa, whom I met along back in Delhi. Within some minutes we were chatting about “let’s catch up” and then to “how would you travel around!” finally ending up to “wait for an hour we will pick you up!”. So an hour later I was on a bike with two other guys roaming around the streets of Vagator. The benefits of traveling alone – you are so flexible with your plans. We spent the day at Chapora Fort taking pictures and taking in the sweet breeze of Goa, and of course, we did the Dil Chahta Hai pose because we were three guys. It feels so unbelievable now how I had been in a training with 80 other people and I met this guy then. And today almost a year later I was hanging out with him and his best friend making plans for the next three days in Goa.

Later that day Lenka also became a part of our plan as we shared our beers back at the hostel. While Lenka was busy that day with her shifts, we explored the Calangute and Candolim Beach, taking a boat ride at Aguada and exploring Biryani at Panaji City. These two fine new friends Karan and Yuvraj dropped be back at the hostel which was like 20-30 km away from their place.

The next day we woke up early, today was meant to be the most special trip on this entire journey. It was the day when we finally take off something from my bucket list – The Dudhsagar Falls. Till late at night we had been discussing and debating over the ways to reach there and finally, we had a solution. Also, we reached a conclusion because all four of us really really wanted to be there. The solution was a 90 km car drive to the national park and then a jeep provided by the park authorities.

However, we did come back, unfortunately. I wanted to camp there for eternity, but we were just mere travelers. Nobody could forget the experience as we drove back to Panaji City and explored some of the famous places. Dona Paula was also pleased with night, as was the Mapusa city from where we had our dinner. All exhausted we decided to call it a night and went back to our places.

There was an addition to our group as Lenka’s friend joined us. We explored the Portuguese colony, spent a lot of time there, drinking our coffees, talking about the previous day, knowing each other better, planning for future travels and all of that. Then we headed out to the Miramar Beach, spent some time there too, chilled out for a while. Later in the evening we went to a cafe and ordered a whole lot of cakes. It was our last day in Goa already and Lenka’s birthday was near. So we celebrated our farewell from the beautiful state with varieties of all kinds of chocolate available in the store.