If you want a straight-from-the-heart account of a foreigner's first few weeks in India, visit http://marianaintheworld.wordpress.com. This blog belongs to Mariana, my Brazilian friend who arrived here in India in the beginning of 2009.
(The blog is in Portuguese and posts are Google-translated into English.)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Lansdowne, Haridwar, Rishikesh (India): February 2009
Lansdowne (Lancedown) is a small hill station in Uttaranchal – perhaps the closest one to Delhi. I and my colleague Amar were looking for a weekend getaway and this little-known scenic town looked like a good option.
It is located 250 km from Delhi, in the Garhwal region of the Himalayas. Considering the manageable distance we initially planned on hiring a car for the trip but had a last minute change of plans. The Indian Railways online booking system might not be the most user-friendly, but I’ve slowly gotten good at using it. So we booked return tickets from Delhi to Kotdwar, the closest rail head to Lansdowne. The train was Mussoorie Express.
Our train left Friday night at around 10 from the Old Delhi Railway Station and catching it on time was a story in itself. Leaving our Gurgaon office at 7 PM, we needed to pack. Then we had to buy a memory card for the camera for which we parked our borrowed car in a tow-away zone outside the mall, ran like maniacs between showrooms before finally buying a 2 GB card and accidentally getting billed for an 8 GB one through credit card, realizing the mistake only much later. And then the taxi we had booked for the train station did not turn up. Thankfully the station is now connected by metro rail, so we took a painful ride on a packed minibus to the Dwarka metro station. Briefly stopping at Amar’s place for dinner, we managed to board the train, barely though.
After a (thankfully) uneventful eight hours we were happy to finally reach Kotdwar early next morning. I can’t say the same for a German backpacker who disembarked with us. To give you a brief background:
Mussoorie Express goes from Delhi to Najibabad where it splits into two. One part takes you to Dehradun via Haridwar, while the other set of bogies heads to Kotdwar. So when you board the train at Delhi, you need to make sure you are in the right bogie. The German had apparently missed this and landed in Kotdwar instead of Haridwar. Anyways, the angels that we are, we negotiated with a taxi driver to take her to Haridwar (100 km from Kotdwar) for Rs. 400. Pity she never gave us her phone number.
Kotdwar to Lansdowne is a 41-km uphill drive and Jeeps ply between these two for a standard Rs. 400. You can also take shared 10-seater Jeeps for Rs. 40 per seat.
The drive to Lansdowne was lovely with the morning sun playing hide and seek from behind the pines. The local river ‘Khoh’ faithfully accompanied us halfway to Lansdowne offering some fascinating views. The road was smooth for the most part except for a few bumpy patches. It was much colder than we expected; we were told it had snowed a fortnight back in Lansdowne – a rare spectacle.
In one and a half hours we arrived at Lansdowne’s centre, the Gandhi Chowk. We – or rather, I – had the famous gigantic Aloo ka Parantha (fried Indian bread stuffed with potato) for breakfast at the Mayur Hotel. There we also met a funny character – a little brat of a boy who’d show tourists around the toilet and recite a story of how he was being paid half of what he was promised by the hotel owner and how he fed his family from the tips he earned from the tourists. No, we did not tip him – we had done our good deed of the day by helping that German girl.
‘Retreat Anand’, the jungle resort we had booked in Lansdowne, lay 3 km from Gandhi Chowk, connected by a motorable but kachha road. The taxi charged Rs. 150 to take us there. In fact, the taxi charges in this area were fixed with no negotiation possible – Gandhi Chowk to resort was a flat Rs. 150, and to Kotdwar was a flat Rs. 400.
The resort reception was open-air. As I signed the check-in register, I noticed the last tourists came here as long as 10 days back. Whew, our very own Hotel California?
We got a ‘deluxe’ cottage for Rs 1000 a night, after an off-season discount. After some rest and light breakfast, we moved out to trek the hills with a crude map of the area drawn by the resort manager. So we weren’t surprised when we lost our way soon and started charting our own territory. We crossed a stream with big, round boulders and freezing water. Our initial plan, had we come by car, was to carry a grill with us and do a bar-be-que near such a stream. It’d have been heavenly.
While returning to the resort we sighted some local children playing cricket in a small, flat clearing. We joined them and were surprised to see their knowledge of cricket – the urchins carried nicknames of cricketers from across the world. So Amar came to be their Harbhajan and I became the bespectacled Vettori. We played for a while and took ‘team photographs’.
After lunch at the resort we went downtown again to Gandhi Chowk to check out the local attractions – the Bulla Lake and the War Museum. Lansdowne is a cantonment area maintained by the Garhwal Rifles regiment of the Indian Army. Perhaps this is also the reason for its striking cleanliness compared to other hill stations.
We had planned to stay two days in Lansdowne, but ran out of things to do on the first day itself. Lansdowne proved much smaller and lonelier than we anticipated. Plus, the jungle resort was starting to get on our nerves – it was super-cold, dead silent, the food was bad and outrageously high-priced. It was as if the staff was saying from behind that pretentious smile – “the nearest shop is 3 miles.. you want something cheap and tasty? Go, walk through the jungle and get it.” So we decided to get moving and spend the spare Sunday in Haridwar-Rishikesh. (For the uninitiated, Haridwar and Rishikesh are important Hindu pilgrimages located on the banks of the river Ganges, where devotees descend in thousands to take a dip on sacred dates determined by the lunar calendar.)
We set off early in the morning to Kotdwar from where we took a bus to Haridwar. This two-hour bus ride through the ‘jungle route’ was more intense than racing a wild camel in a sandstorm in the middle of Sahara. There is a ‘highway route’ as well to Haridwar, though the ‘jungle route’ is a lot shorter. At either end of the dusty jungle patch were beautiful little villages which afforded a peep into north India’s agriculture-based lifestyles and ecosystem.
We disembarked at Haridwar from where Rishikesh is around 30 km. Blue-coloured three-wheelers (called ‘Vikram’) frequent the route. They charge Rs. 30 per side on a sharing basis and Rs. 250 if you book the full vehicle. We took the latter option.
From thereon we did the routine – a dip in the holy Ganges, lunch at Chottiwala (near Ram Jhula, Rishikesh), and the evening Aarti at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar. We also visited a Gurudwara which holds significance as the first checkpoint on the way to Hemkund Sahib, an important Sikh pilgrimage. Everything done, we had a couple of hours to spare before our train left, so we engaged in a spiritual dialogue on religions and beliefs by the side of the Ganges.
The trip was almost over, but there was a twist in the tail. Our train reservation to Delhi was from Kotdwar and here we were in Haridwar. The train was the same – Mussoorie Express, but our bogies coming from Kotdwar were to join with the train only at Najibabad, one hour distant from Haridwar. So we boarded the train and explained the situation to the ticket examiner. He raised concerns but was more cooperative once we expressed our willingness to pay for the un-reserved ride from Haridwar to Najibabad, whereafter we moved to our reserved seats and had a sound sleep. We woke up to the hustle-bustle of Delhi early next day, and had all the time in the world to go home, get ready and drive to the office.
Though our 2-day trip was far from the calm, serene, relaxing weekend getaway we had planned for, in retrospect I feel that it would have been incomplete without all these surprise turns.
Expenses:
Delhi-Kotdwar one-way rail ticket (AC 3-tier): Rs. 350
Kotdwar-Lansdowne taxi (jeep): Rs. 400
Lansdowne downtown to jungle resort taxi: Rs. 150
Forest resort cottage (Deluxe): Rs. 1000 per night
Bus from Kotdwar to Haridwar: Rs. 50
Three-wheeler from Haridwar to Rishikesh: Rs. 250
Getting lost while trekking, playing cricket with locals, a bumpy bus ride through the jungle, and a spiritual discussion by the Ganges: Priceless.
You can view the pictures from the trip here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106318&id=597905358&l=5acf1c05ea
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Zenith Waterfall, Maharashtra (India): July 2009 (Planned)
I love waterfalls. One of my fantasies is to jump from the edge of a steep rock into the plunge pool of a waterfall. Amen!
I've found some information about a waterfall near Mumbai. It's called Zenith Waterfall, located 90 Km from Mumbai on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Nearest railway station is Khopoli and is well-connected with Mumbai. I'm planning to visit the place this Monsoon season. I've seen some pictures and they look tempting. The link for one travel account is:
http://www.oktatabyebye.com/travelogues/659-maharashtraslashamazin-waterfall.html
It looks like a crowded tourist destination, but I still need to check out. I'll post the details once I make the trip myself.
I've found some information about a waterfall near Mumbai. It's called Zenith Waterfall, located 90 Km from Mumbai on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Nearest railway station is Khopoli and is well-connected with Mumbai. I'm planning to visit the place this Monsoon season. I've seen some pictures and they look tempting. The link for one travel account is:
http://www.oktatabyebye.com/travelogues/659-maharashtraslashamazin-waterfall.html
It looks like a crowded tourist destination, but I still need to check out. I'll post the details once I make the trip myself.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Patagonia (Chile): June 2008
Patagonia forms the southern part of Chile, referred to as 'sur del mondo', south of the world in Spanish. I had the opportunity to spend a week-long vacation there last month. It was last week of June and hence in the middle of the winters. There were not many tourists around.
I started from Santiago and took a flight to Punta Arenas, the second-southernmost city of the world, next only to Ushuaia of Argentina. The flight lasted 5 hours and had two stops in between.
There are regular transfers to the city center, Plaza Muñoz Gamero, via taxis and buses. Several hostels are located around the center and I took a room in the hostel El Calafate. You may like to refer to the Lonely Planet guidebook on Chile/South America for a bigger list and addresses. The room cost me 8000 Pesos (16 US dollars) for a night.
Punta Arenas is a small, delightful town with helpful people and adventure gear shops. Lomit's is a big, happening restaurant. I ordered a chicken burger with 'Shop', a popular local drink of beer mixed with Fanta. I was also intrigued by the number of hair salons in the city; I got a nice haircut at one for 5000 Pesos.
The Plaza Muñoz Gamero features a statue of Ferdinand Magellan, the great Portugese maritime explorer who navigated the channels around southern Chile and Cape Horn. The Straits of Magellan and the Magellan Clouds are named after him. It is customary for sailors to kiss the foot of the 'Patagon', a giant Patagonian inhabitant sitting below Magellan in the statue.
The main attraction of Punta Arenas is the centuries-old cemetary which has the graves of some of the earliest settelers in the region. I can't read Spanish but I've heard the inscriptions are quite heartfelt and touching.
Near the cemetary resides a German family that makes cholocates in-house. They sell from their home under the name 'Norweisser'. These are amazing chocolates in a variety of flavors.
From Punta Arenas, I took a bus to Puerto Natales up north. It was an amazing 3-hour ride on a straight highway running through the infinite, unending, yellow Steppe grasslands. With only our bus on the highway and utter silence all around, it was a transcendental, spiritual experience.
I arrived in Puerto Natales late evening where dense fog, frost and bitter cold welcomed me. I had to take a cruise ship from there, which would navigate through the fjords of Patagonia along Chile's coast, northwards to Puerto Montt. This service is run by Navimag; they also offer southbound and glacier cruises.
I had booked the cheapest ticket - 390 dollars for the 4-night trip, all meals and bed included. Luckily due to the off-season, I got an upgrade to a 1000-dollar cabin with private bath. We were only 20 passengers on a ship with a capacity for 200.
The following 4 days were truly memorable - I get nostalgic even as I write about it. The first two nights went well; the sea was calm and the wind, though strong, was bearable on the deck. On the third day it started getting bad. We had to cross a stretch of the open ocean as the last leg of the course. However the weather gods seemed to have different plans. The captain of the ship told us he had never navigated in such conditions before. We were advised to take sea-sickness pills considering what awaited us in the open ocean. I decided otherwise - I wanted to experience it once at least. We waited before steering into the ocean, but seeing no respite coming, the captain took the plunge. The ship tossed wildly - the panels of cupboards went crazy, doors were banging, it was total chaos. The stomachs were now complaining. Not many came down to the hall for dinner that night. I wanted to climb on the deck, but it was so impossible. The wind would've thrown me into the ocean which would then happily swallow me without leaving a trace. I'm glad I listened to my mind and not my heart that night! The captain, during the rough night, carved out a lovely sculpture out of soft wood, depicting the ship caught in the storm.
The next day we woke up (with body-aches) to a calmer sea. The wind was still strong and we faced a delay of one day before finally docking at the lovely Puerto Montt. The ground was still swaying beneath our feet!
We 20 'voyagers' developed an amazing camaraderie during these 5 days. The gloomy weather outside was forgotten among wine, poker, chess and pictionary games. We exchanged our Facebook contacts and plan to remain in touch.
Puerto Montt is also a lovely, small port city. The main plazas and the bus terminal are built on the waterfront. I took a flight back to Santiago the same day. All included, I'd spent around 800 US dollars on this vacation.
This week-long trip was a lifetime event for me. It felt like I met myself somewhere along the way. Don't remember where.
I started from Santiago and took a flight to Punta Arenas, the second-southernmost city of the world, next only to Ushuaia of Argentina. The flight lasted 5 hours and had two stops in between.
There are regular transfers to the city center, Plaza Muñoz Gamero, via taxis and buses. Several hostels are located around the center and I took a room in the hostel El Calafate. You may like to refer to the Lonely Planet guidebook on Chile/South America for a bigger list and addresses. The room cost me 8000 Pesos (16 US dollars) for a night.
Punta Arenas is a small, delightful town with helpful people and adventure gear shops. Lomit's is a big, happening restaurant. I ordered a chicken burger with 'Shop', a popular local drink of beer mixed with Fanta. I was also intrigued by the number of hair salons in the city; I got a nice haircut at one for 5000 Pesos.
The Plaza Muñoz Gamero features a statue of Ferdinand Magellan, the great Portugese maritime explorer who navigated the channels around southern Chile and Cape Horn. The Straits of Magellan and the Magellan Clouds are named after him. It is customary for sailors to kiss the foot of the 'Patagon', a giant Patagonian inhabitant sitting below Magellan in the statue.
The main attraction of Punta Arenas is the centuries-old cemetary which has the graves of some of the earliest settelers in the region. I can't read Spanish but I've heard the inscriptions are quite heartfelt and touching.
Near the cemetary resides a German family that makes cholocates in-house. They sell from their home under the name 'Norweisser'. These are amazing chocolates in a variety of flavors.
From Punta Arenas, I took a bus to Puerto Natales up north. It was an amazing 3-hour ride on a straight highway running through the infinite, unending, yellow Steppe grasslands. With only our bus on the highway and utter silence all around, it was a transcendental, spiritual experience.
I arrived in Puerto Natales late evening where dense fog, frost and bitter cold welcomed me. I had to take a cruise ship from there, which would navigate through the fjords of Patagonia along Chile's coast, northwards to Puerto Montt. This service is run by Navimag; they also offer southbound and glacier cruises.
I had booked the cheapest ticket - 390 dollars for the 4-night trip, all meals and bed included. Luckily due to the off-season, I got an upgrade to a 1000-dollar cabin with private bath. We were only 20 passengers on a ship with a capacity for 200.
The following 4 days were truly memorable - I get nostalgic even as I write about it. The first two nights went well; the sea was calm and the wind, though strong, was bearable on the deck. On the third day it started getting bad. We had to cross a stretch of the open ocean as the last leg of the course. However the weather gods seemed to have different plans. The captain of the ship told us he had never navigated in such conditions before. We were advised to take sea-sickness pills considering what awaited us in the open ocean. I decided otherwise - I wanted to experience it once at least. We waited before steering into the ocean, but seeing no respite coming, the captain took the plunge. The ship tossed wildly - the panels of cupboards went crazy, doors were banging, it was total chaos. The stomachs were now complaining. Not many came down to the hall for dinner that night. I wanted to climb on the deck, but it was so impossible. The wind would've thrown me into the ocean which would then happily swallow me without leaving a trace. I'm glad I listened to my mind and not my heart that night! The captain, during the rough night, carved out a lovely sculpture out of soft wood, depicting the ship caught in the storm.
The next day we woke up (with body-aches) to a calmer sea. The wind was still strong and we faced a delay of one day before finally docking at the lovely Puerto Montt. The ground was still swaying beneath our feet!
We 20 'voyagers' developed an amazing camaraderie during these 5 days. The gloomy weather outside was forgotten among wine, poker, chess and pictionary games. We exchanged our Facebook contacts and plan to remain in touch.
Puerto Montt is also a lovely, small port city. The main plazas and the bus terminal are built on the waterfront. I took a flight back to Santiago the same day. All included, I'd spent around 800 US dollars on this vacation.
This week-long trip was a lifetime event for me. It felt like I met myself somewhere along the way. Don't remember where.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Goa (India): December 2007
22-26 December 2007
Four of us friends started from Delhi for a Christmas vacation in Goa. Direct flight to Goa was quite expensive, and direct train was fully booked. So we decided to take a flight to Mumbai, and from there, a train to Goa.
We reached Mumbai late in the evening. Two more friends were to join us for the trip from Mumbai; we stayed overnight at their place. Early next morning we boarded the train to Goa. The track is part of the Konkan Railway zone which is famous for its tunnels and scenic landscapes along the way. After a long 8-hour journey we arrived at the Thivim station, which is probably one stop before Vasco da Gama, Goa's main train station. It was around noon.
Once in Goa, we had to decide on a place to stay. We ruled out Panjim as it was far from the main beaches, although cheaper. We decided for Calangute beach which is a hip, crowded beach in north Goa. It took around one hour by taxi from Thivim to Calangute. We got down at Calangute Residency, a hotel run by the Goa Tourism Development Corporation. The hotel was full, so we inquired around and took a single dorm-style hall at a 'shack', small restaurant-cum-hostels built along the beach on sand. Owing to their location right on the beach, these shacks make good business selling food and drinks, in addition to renting out sun umbrellas and beach chairs to the tourists.
After settling down in the hall, we went for a dip in the ocean. The afternoon was quite hot, in contrast to Delhi's cold winters. In the evening we went out for dinner and later hired a car for the next day. It was a red, open air Maruti Gypsy exuding classic charm!
The next day we had breakfast at the shack. This is one of the best things to do in Goa - having breakfast on the beach in the warm sun with waves gently lapping your feet. Fresh fruit juice and omelette were amazing. Cheese sandwich was also good. We also ordered paranthas with butter.
We then took off for south Goa in our Gypsy. We drove almost 70 kms southward to reach the Palolem beach, crossing Panjim in the midway. The Palolem beach is completely different from Calangute. It is curved, with whiter sand, and lined with Palm trees. The beach is dotted with a number of nice restaurants. Palolem is perhaps more popular among foreigners as compared to Calangute. We had a heavy lunch at a beach restaurant and stayed in Palolem till evening. The Gypsy developed a snag and we returned to Calangute by late evening after spending an hour getting it repaired at a petrol station. We went out for dinner at a lovely place in Calangute with candle-lit tables and good service. A great thing about Goa is that even the fancier places offer cheap drinks!
We retained the Gypsy for the next day. It was the day before Christmas and we had heard a lot about Goa's Christmas eve parties on the beaches. After breakfast at the shack, we headed for the Agwada fort (of Dil Chahta Hai fame). We had a great time there photographying. We met my cousin there who had come to Goa with his friends, from Pune. They had hired motorcycles instead of a car. They told us that they had booked a cruise party for the night at Panjim.
We headed to Old Goa after that and saw two churches (right opposite across the road). Then we went to a beach in Panjim which had very coarse sand and a quite unique landscape. We returned to Calangute after enquiring about a few cruise parties that we did not find very interesting. Calangute was a let down as well - the organized indoor parties were very expensive, and the beach parties at the shacks were too crowded and noisy - with all men. We found a quieter bar with a group of people enjoying a nice party. We had a good time there with them.
Later in the night we had dinner at a Punjabi dhaba near the Calangute Residency. It was quite cheap, and the only one serving at that hour (around 12:30 am).
Next day was our last in Goa - we were to take a train back to Mumbai in the evening. So we stayed in Calangute and enjoyed watersports through the day. I liked the banana ride the most - I took that twice. Parasailing was uninteresting. Later we shopped for Goa's specialties - Port wine and rum balls (chocolate balls marinated in rum).
In the evening we hired a black Scorpio for Vasco da Gama train station. The hour long drive was sheer delight with old bollywood disco songs playing all the way.
The overnight train from Vasco da Gama reached Mumbai early next morning from where we took a flight back to Delhi and reached home by afternoon.
Expenses:
Delhi-Mumbai return flight: Rs. 5000
Mumbai-Goa return train ticket: Rs. 500
Taxi from Goa's train station (Thivim) to Calangute beach: Rs. 500
Dorm accommodation at the shack: Rs. 2000 per day for the hall
Car rental: Rs. 1500 per day, petrol extra
Food and drinks: Rs. 1000 per person per day, maybe less
The total cost of the trip was between 10 and 15 thousand rupees per person.
Four of us friends started from Delhi for a Christmas vacation in Goa. Direct flight to Goa was quite expensive, and direct train was fully booked. So we decided to take a flight to Mumbai, and from there, a train to Goa.
We reached Mumbai late in the evening. Two more friends were to join us for the trip from Mumbai; we stayed overnight at their place. Early next morning we boarded the train to Goa. The track is part of the Konkan Railway zone which is famous for its tunnels and scenic landscapes along the way. After a long 8-hour journey we arrived at the Thivim station, which is probably one stop before Vasco da Gama, Goa's main train station. It was around noon.
Once in Goa, we had to decide on a place to stay. We ruled out Panjim as it was far from the main beaches, although cheaper. We decided for Calangute beach which is a hip, crowded beach in north Goa. It took around one hour by taxi from Thivim to Calangute. We got down at Calangute Residency, a hotel run by the Goa Tourism Development Corporation. The hotel was full, so we inquired around and took a single dorm-style hall at a 'shack', small restaurant-cum-hostels built along the beach on sand. Owing to their location right on the beach, these shacks make good business selling food and drinks, in addition to renting out sun umbrellas and beach chairs to the tourists.
After settling down in the hall, we went for a dip in the ocean. The afternoon was quite hot, in contrast to Delhi's cold winters. In the evening we went out for dinner and later hired a car for the next day. It was a red, open air Maruti Gypsy exuding classic charm!
The next day we had breakfast at the shack. This is one of the best things to do in Goa - having breakfast on the beach in the warm sun with waves gently lapping your feet. Fresh fruit juice and omelette were amazing. Cheese sandwich was also good. We also ordered paranthas with butter.
We then took off for south Goa in our Gypsy. We drove almost 70 kms southward to reach the Palolem beach, crossing Panjim in the midway. The Palolem beach is completely different from Calangute. It is curved, with whiter sand, and lined with Palm trees. The beach is dotted with a number of nice restaurants. Palolem is perhaps more popular among foreigners as compared to Calangute. We had a heavy lunch at a beach restaurant and stayed in Palolem till evening. The Gypsy developed a snag and we returned to Calangute by late evening after spending an hour getting it repaired at a petrol station. We went out for dinner at a lovely place in Calangute with candle-lit tables and good service. A great thing about Goa is that even the fancier places offer cheap drinks!
We retained the Gypsy for the next day. It was the day before Christmas and we had heard a lot about Goa's Christmas eve parties on the beaches. After breakfast at the shack, we headed for the Agwada fort (of Dil Chahta Hai fame). We had a great time there photographying. We met my cousin there who had come to Goa with his friends, from Pune. They had hired motorcycles instead of a car. They told us that they had booked a cruise party for the night at Panjim.
We headed to Old Goa after that and saw two churches (right opposite across the road). Then we went to a beach in Panjim which had very coarse sand and a quite unique landscape. We returned to Calangute after enquiring about a few cruise parties that we did not find very interesting. Calangute was a let down as well - the organized indoor parties were very expensive, and the beach parties at the shacks were too crowded and noisy - with all men. We found a quieter bar with a group of people enjoying a nice party. We had a good time there with them.
Later in the night we had dinner at a Punjabi dhaba near the Calangute Residency. It was quite cheap, and the only one serving at that hour (around 12:30 am).
Next day was our last in Goa - we were to take a train back to Mumbai in the evening. So we stayed in Calangute and enjoyed watersports through the day. I liked the banana ride the most - I took that twice. Parasailing was uninteresting. Later we shopped for Goa's specialties - Port wine and rum balls (chocolate balls marinated in rum).
In the evening we hired a black Scorpio for Vasco da Gama train station. The hour long drive was sheer delight with old bollywood disco songs playing all the way.
The overnight train from Vasco da Gama reached Mumbai early next morning from where we took a flight back to Delhi and reached home by afternoon.
Expenses:
Delhi-Mumbai return flight: Rs. 5000
Mumbai-Goa return train ticket: Rs. 500
Taxi from Goa's train station (Thivim) to Calangute beach: Rs. 500
Dorm accommodation at the shack: Rs. 2000 per day for the hall
Car rental: Rs. 1500 per day, petrol extra
Food and drinks: Rs. 1000 per person per day, maybe less
The total cost of the trip was between 10 and 15 thousand rupees per person.
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