Yeh dosti: 'We did Goa in Rs 1,800 per person!'

Share pics and stories of your best memories and good times shared with your closest friends!

Last week, we invited readers to write in with fabulous stories of fun times with your closest pals. Here we bring you the first set of responses!

First up is Naveen's story of an adventure trip to Goa in the year 2002:

We had a small group and called it 'Fearless'. Yes, the name says it all and that is what the story's about!

As usual we were skipping classes and warming the stairs in the basement right next to the canteen, and as always the tea had a special ingredient which made us think and do the unthinkable. Let's go to Goa was the 'aakashwani' and we were all excited -- strangely, we never even went to Ghatkopar or any other place for that matter before this plan!

When second year college-going teenagers decide to go to Goa on their own, well you're in for an adventurous ride. With no cash, no maps, no travel history, no tickets -- we were all set to go to Goa.

I was good with pocket money and had also completed a small designing job which paid something that I thought was sufficient for this trip. Adil and Vinnay had to work part-time to raise the cash; Vinnay claims to have worked as a waiter to get his share of the money. The fourth guy in our group was Rishit and he managed to get cash from unknown sources. Well, in total we collected Rs 1,800 per person which was to cover all the expenses of this fun trip.

We collected as much information as we could and found out that Calangute Beach was one of the best beaches in Goa and that is where we wanted to visit. We decided to live near the beach, but not on it as that was rather expensive. Mapusa City was perfect, as it is closest to Tivim Railway Station and we were going to travel by night train.
We got the train tickets on RAC (reservation against cancellation), as Adil said we could travel even if the tickets were not confirmed and we were confident that they would be. Bags were packed, parents had things to say but then it was all fine and we were going to Goa.

The train came and we were still stuck with RAC tickets with no backup plan. We had to get on the train and hoped that people skipped this journey so we would get their seats, but God is not always kind, else shit wouldn't happen in life. With our bags, we sat down next to the toilets as that was the only place which was not occupied. Two hours went by and even after requesting the TC we could not get a seat. When you travel by train, always carry a newspaper as it helps to pass time, but for us it was our bed for the night. Those who wanted to use the toilets looked at us in disgust but when you're half asleep, you really don't care.

At 10:30 am, we reached Tivim and planned to take a taxi to Mapusa. The taxi guy quoted Rs 400 for the ride and all we could do was laugh at him. I asked him, "Where do we get the bus?" He said "Bus? No bus, this is Goa, you take this taxi or auto." We could see some people walking by and an old guy told us that we could get buses, but they were private and not like the red buses we have in Mumbai. We waited for the bus and after taking many circles and dropping kids to school, the bus finally reached Mapusa. The first word I read after getting down was 'lodging' and I said, "Let's live here.' After walking up three floors, we reached the office reception and he quoted Rs 500 per night, which was cool with us doing the math.

We were about to pay up the money and suddenly this voice came out of nowhere, "Hey guys, you from Bombay?" Yes, we said, nodding our heads. "Why you staying here, young people should stay on the beach." Yeah we knew that, but this was better as we didn't mind the travel to the beach. "No no, this no fun. You travel, Calangute far from here." We could barely understand what he said with that Goan accent. "I'm Joseph," he introduced himself.

"Come, I give you my cottage on Calangute Beach, one minute walking from the water."

"How much? "

"Rs. 300 per day, big room, 10 people sleep."

"Hmmmm, okay."

Somewhere inside me, I was scared this guy would cheat us. He took us in a private taxi and after 30 minutes we were finally at his place, Captain's Hut.

"You pay Rs 200 to taxi," said Joseph.

"What!"

"He is a friend, else it is 350."

"No, take Rs 150."

"Okay, give it," and he said something to the taxi guy in Goan.

"Where is the room?"

"Pay Rs 1,000 advance."

"No, first show us the room."

"Okay, my daughter will show you the room."

The room was nice and so was the price; the balcony had a sea view. What more could one want? Well, wait a minute.

Vinnay: "Hey Joseph, what are those red marks on the passage walls? They look strange."

"The guys who last rented your room fought at night, they were drunk, one guy was bleeding."

Vinnay: "Hmmm, okay..."

Joseph: "If you need drink or anything else let me know, I will be here only."

Captain's Hut was nothing but Joseph's own house, where he lived with his family and rented out the rooms on the first floor.

At about 7:30 in the evening, it got dark, shops closed and there were hardly any streetlights. Trust me, Goa got dark and scary back then, it is way cooler now. We started hating Goa already as there was nothing to eat, no light and discomfort. We had some beer and after getting lost, we somehow made it back to our room.

Joseph gave us some cooked rice and vegetables along with fish, so we had a good meal and started playing cards on the bed. In the meanwhile, Adil happened to pick up his pillow. He turned it over and exclaimed, "What the f***, what is that?" The pillow had red and black stains underneath it. I asked him to take another pillow and put that one away. Adil said, "No dude, this is not right, we paid for it," He then flipped over the mattress and it had huge stains on the backside. "Dude this is blood, the entire pillow and bed has blood all over it!"

We were dead scared and locked ourselves in the room as it was already around 1 am, very spooky outside and even more spooky inside.

The 'Fearless' group was now full of fear and nothing else. We planned to get up early in the morning and just run off from this place -- something strange had happened there.

Vinnay: "Dude, the good thing is, this is Goa and I don't think they practice narbali (human sacrifice) here."

"What the f***, shut up man!"

The high on beer was shortlived and none of us could sleep that night. We got up early and with all the courage we could muster, went to tell Joseph we were leaving. His wife said, "But you were going to stay for four days."

"No we changed our minds, we have to go back, so if you can give us the money back, it would be great."

"No money, Joseph has money, wait for him to come back," she said in a harsh tone.

We decided to just run off from there and never go back.

We took the bus and went back to Mapusa and stayed there for the next three days on a very tight budget. Thanks to the city bus tour, we saw the whole of Goa in just Rs 80 per person. We had a good time thereafter and came back to Mumbai on RAC tickets once again, sitting next to the toilets.

Disorganised, insane, scary, low-budget -- it was still the best trip for the four of us and will always remain so. A lot of time has passed since then and my friends now live in different countries, but whenever we meet this is the most talked-about event in the lives of the Fearless -- Naveen, Rishit, Vinnay and Adil.

If you have fabulous stories to share about fun and crazy antics with your closest pals, write in to getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Hamari Dosti') along with a photograph of all of you, if possible and we'll publish the best entries right here. Hurry and send in your experiences and pics today!

And here is Abhijeet Singh Chauhan's story of a failed trip to Rala Mandal:

It was just another Sunday in June 2008 and we were hanging out at Hemant's place. To kill boredom we decided to go to Rala Mandal. It is a wildlife sanctuary, a beautiful hill about 20 kms from Indore which houses an ancient palace built by the Holkers. So we took our bikes and headed to Rala Mandal.

At that time, it was only Hemant who was married -- the rest of us (Mihir, Dilip and me) were not yet struck by lightning (kidding!). Hemant had bought a new digicam from eBay and being an enthusiastic photographer, he started clicking snaps even as we were on our way. When we had nearly reached our destination, he started giving Archana, his better half, lessons on how to ride a bike. Mihir took the camera from Hemant and started trying his hand at photography too, clicking snaps like a pro. He even succeeded in clicking one of himself in the rear view mirror of my bike. All in all we were enjoying our ride.

When we reached Rala Mandal, we were disheartened to see that it was past closing time -- we had reached too late. In our desperate need to get out of the house on a weekend, no one thought of checking the opening and closing times of the sanctuary. Anyway, we went that far with high hopes and did not want to go home with nothing. So we just went a little further, parked our bikes and started enjoying ourselves clicking snaps. Just for fun we started throwing small stones into the large field ahead. At the heights of the enjoyment, we started competing to see whose stone went the farthest, to the extent that Archana even video-recorded our performances. After a while, when our arms started aching a little and it became dark, we decided to have dinner at Jal Restaurant and head back home.

Technically speaking we did nothing that day, neither explored a new place, nor conquered any new heights, but the fun that we had just throwing stones made me remember my childhood days. Even today, when I see those snaps or the video, it brings a smile to my face.