Roadside Hotel

Day 16: I decided to head to Vagator beach in Goa for the weekend. As such, I hired a cab and picked the scenic way to travel from Pune to Vagator. It was a 10 hour journey, and yes, the plane would have been much quicker, but if you want to get to see a place first hand then driving is the way to go! That and the fact that the cab cost about 1/3 of the price of the plane; price aside, nothing can replace the experience of traveling through the cities, villages, mountains, farm lands, and road side cafes along the way. Speaking of road side cafes, for some reason most of them were called “Hotels”, and while some had actual rooms, some did not. The place you see in this picture was called “Hotel Satyawati Palace” where we stopped for lunch about 4-5 hours into the trip. It reminded me of my childhood days when we traveled from one end of Iran to another with my parents, usually during summer vacation, stopping at places very much like this; dirty, run down, middle of nowhere, with flies stopping to say hello around your table. The old man sitting on the pink chair near the entrance was my favourite. I do have to say, the food here was actually pretty good. I ordered Dal and Mutter Paneer (green peas and tofu-like chunks of cottage cheese in the usual thick curry/gravy) with fresh naan (what else?) which the driver and I shared. According to him, “this is one of the better places to eat along the way, unlike “Hotel Goa Ves” across the street whose staff sit around talking, ignoring you for a while”. I must add that I was lucky to end up with a pretty amazing driver who not only proved to be an excellent guide and spoke great English, but was also a very nice man and ensured I was not ripped off at every corner along the way; so thank you Asif Khan! :)