Traveling to the Northern tip of Goa

We say goodbye to the beautiful Presa di Goa to make room for the movie stars coming in for the India International Film Festival (which has filled all the hotel rooms within an hour of Panjim). Following a tip from Vijay Pinch, we make reservations at a 7 room inn in a historic fort at the very northern tip of Goa.

Maggie walks to the porch of the Presa di Goa Inn, a Portugese historic mansion which has been converted to a 4-room bed-and-breakfast by Turkish owners.


Here's how we travel on a trip like this....rent a Toyata Qualis, carry the luggage on top (if we're lucky) and hire an Indian driver who knows the roads and when to swerve. This kind of car and driver costs about $25-30 a day for long trips.

On the drive, we stumble into a Bollywood movie set, which is using a bit of road for a motorcycle chase scene. Police are holding vehicles back at either end of the strip of road, but for some reason we are waived through onto the deserted section of road which is now a movie set. The cameramen perched on the top of the hill -- waiting for the actors to come around the bend -- have never seen anything like Mark, particularly since he is leaning out the window singing O Solo Mio as we pass them.


I wish you could see the incredulous expressions on their faces....


Clearly, the "talent" don't know what to make of Mark's offer that he join them in the chase scene.

After an hour's drive, we wait for the ferry boat to Fort Tiracol.


While we're waiting, we patronize one of several hundred thousand shacks selling potato chips and soda on the back roads of India.


Kobi and Uncle Matt on the ferry boat


Twins?

Fort Tiracol was built by Indians from Maharashtra in the mid-1600's with an eye to defending against colonial invaders. In the mid-1700's, the Portuguese succeeded in capturing it, and rebuit it, placing a large stone church at its' center. The fort's most recent role was as an outpost for freedom fighters in the 1950's as they protested the continued Portuguese presence, since the British Empire had pulled out of India in 1947. A few of the "revolutionaries" were killed here, and there is monument to them under a banyan tree. The Portuguese finally left in the late 1960's.

The Fort was converted to a tourist hotel a few years ago -- very swank, with incredible views of the Arabian Sea. We drop our stuff and head for the beach...


To get to the beach, Maggie and Karma have their first....and last...motorbike ride. They liked it a lot....but it made mom nervous!

We have the beach to ourselves, except for a delightful school-bus full of 12-year-olds who have been driven 3 hours to come play here.