Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Explore Goa: Introduction

Satellite View of Mobor

I was born and brought up in a small village called Mobor in Goa (India). Life was pretty hard for us as children. We had to walk nearly 1 hour to the nearest bus station as there were no roads where we lived. The River Sal flows 100 meters in front of our house, and the Arabian sea is 500 meters at the back of our house. Both the river and the sea meet up about 1 kilometer down and we are locked up in a peninsula.

When the monsoons hit, everything would get flooded. The only advantage of living in a peninsula with all this water surrounding us is that we never had to pay for fish. When we wanted to eat fish, we would go either to the river or the sea and catch fish. Fresh fish all day, every day!!.

It is only after I left Goa and started living in Kuwait that I came to the realization that I was brought up in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The pristine white sandy beaches, lush forests, amazing wildlife, fruit bearing trees all around. It's all there. In fact, I've realized that there are many interesting places in Goa that I have not yet been to - especially the wild life sanctuaries and the national parks.

I travel to Goa regularly for my vacations - but I always look at this time as an opportunity to sit with my family & friends, relax, eat good food and return back to Kuwait. Besides an occasional trip to the amazing Dudhsagar Falls, I have rarely ventured out to explore Goa.

I have decided to try something different this time. Instead of looking at Goa as my home town, I am going to look at Goa as a travel destination to explore and photograph. I plan to visit most of the wildlife sanctuaries (hello 80-400mm lens, you will come in handy here), and visit different villages and towns to appreciate Goa and the place that I call my home.

I fly to Goa on 4th December, and in the next 3 weeks, I will be documenting my journey on this blog.

My other passion (i.e. fitness), and the fitness blog, will have to take a backstage for 1 month.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Cajie. I like ur blog and think of goa as the same way u do after staying in dubai for 15 years. Life is dull over here. Nothing except dough. .. Looking forward to see your photos of goa thro' that massive lens of yours. Enjoy ur trip to goa. Fran Martins.

Cajetan Barretto said...

Fran.. Thanks. I will do just that.

And I know what you mean by the dough. At least you are in Dubai, where things are a bit more relaxed. Think of us poor people here in Kuwait.

Vaidegi J said...

really appreciate you for thinking of and doing a trip like this one. Goa is truly beautiful and has a mix of everything, and people fail to see the many sides of Goa, sadly.