Had a good 4 day trip to Goa, where beer continues to be cheaper than petrol – even though the petrol prices were brought down by 15Rs in Goa, making the cheapest in India. (Petrol in Pune 71 Rs, Petrol in Goa 54 Rs)
The earlier “high” point for revelers returning back from Goa was to carry back 4-5 “khamba” of Whiskly/Vodka/Rum back to Maharashtra due to the 100% cost difference for the same bottle in Goa vs Maharashtra (630 ml Kingfisher in Pune – 95, In Goa – 45).
An addition to smuggling alcohol, the new in-thing is returning with a “tank full” of Goa petrol!
@ Start
We had taken a self driven rental Innova from Girikand travels, with all rental procedures similar to an Avis/Hertx, including the rental jacket with the details of the rental etc.
• Since self-driven rentals are still a rarity in India, you need to a deposit a “blank” cheque when renting the car as a surety that you don’t run away.
• You take it full, you return it tank full, but with a caveat that when returning, it has to be filled up only at the Company Owned, Company Operated (COCO) pump in front of RTO
Pune-Kolhapur-Nipani-a short journey thru Karnataka-back to Maharashtra-Sawantwadi-Goa – made it in around 9 hours - excellent roads all through. Out of which @ 40 minutes spent at 5-6 toll booths on the way.
@ Reaching Goa
The ‘rental’ license plates ensured we got stopped/checked on the Maharashtra side of the border, and with a 100 rs “tax” we entered Goa.
@ Dry Day in Goa
There were local panchayat elections in North Goa, and Goa’s version of a dry day was “no alcohol after 11 PM through 9 AM” – meaning keep the voters sane during the night, so that they can vote during the day
Lot of noise was raised over loss of business due to the 11 PM restriction, and was immediately extended to 11.30 PM the next day
It was a more of a ‘ZNMD’ trip for us, so all 3 days were pretty much about sea/swimming pool/beer/fish/more beer/some more beer.
@ Russians / CEE folks in Goa
Going by the number of Russian/CEE tourists in Goa, majority of the shops displaying stuff in Cyrillic, hotels stocking lot of books in CEE languages, Russian could be very well become one of the official ‘state’ languages!
During the northern hemisphere winter – Americans choose Mexico, Hawaii or the Caribbean, Rich Europeans do Mauritius/Seychelles etc, Relatively poorer CEE/Russians come by chartered plane-loads to Goa!
@ return
After the mandatory buying of cashew nuts , and cheap “khambas” – this time got stopped at both the Goa & Maharastra checkposts. Had kept an half consumed bottle of Vodka to publish – this is the only stuff we are carrying back, and managed to ‘smuggle’ in rest of the stuff.
