I am not a person who enjoys large social gatherings with heart thumping loud music and parties. For me relaxation comes in silence, slowness and engaging in self-paced activities. I had always thought and heard about the cultural amalgamation that Goa is and what Goa must have been before the Europeans came. I have friends from the Saraswat Brahmin communities who always mentioned that the temple of their Kula devata (patron God of their community) was in Goa despite their long history of residence in Karnataka. Infact, the name Goa itself is a corrupted version of GauMantak, a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Land of Cows’, a sacred animal as per Hindu mythology. I wanted to learn more about this cultural amalgamation brought in by the influence of the Portuguese and that is why I decided to spend my post-monsoon vacation in the southern parts of this state. Through a fortnight long on a backpacking trip, I explored Mollem- Old Goa- Rivona-Netravali-Colva- Ponda-Rachol- Louterim- Shiroda-Palolem-Panjim. In this post, I would like to share the places we explored in and around Mollem.

Day 1: Exploring the “Nightlife” of Mollem

My family and I started our drive from Bangalore by early morning, and arrived at the nature-stay / an eco-friendly luxury resort we had booked at Mollem by late aftermoon. Fortunately, or unfortunately for us, it had been pouring cats and dogs since the previous day of our arrival. Unfortunate because, driving in the rain was extremely blinding; Fortunate because, heavier the rains, better would be the sight for which we had driven down all the way. So what sight am I talking about? We had specifically booked this resort to do the night walk with them in the rainforests due to its proximity to the Mahavir National park. The night walk was a unique way to explore the lesser known “Nightlife” of Goa, a night crawl that introduced us to the nocturnal flora and fauna of the region rather than the bars and pubs.

The lunch and dinner menu featured an all-local cuisine made with only locally sourced ingredients and tasted divine. Post dinner, we wore our raincoats, gumboots and headtorches and marched towards the forest after a short briefing. A guzzling water-steam flowing somewhere along in proximity stayed invisible in the darkness. Spiders, lizards, scorpions (that glowed under UV light), snakes and several types of mushrooms kept us accompanied in the constantly pouring rain during the entire walk. We then arrived at a spot in the middle of the forest, surrounded by massive trees and thick canopies. Our guide asked us to turn off all artificial lights and close our eyes for about a minute. It was for our eyes to set into the darkness of the forest after walking with flashlights until there. When we opened, we were all stunned by what our eyes beheld. The entire forest floor and the tree trunks were lit like radium. We were witnessing truly magical moments as bioluminescence was seen at its peak. The luminous fungi growing all over the ground, on tree trunks and even tiny wigs below my feet were glowing in the dark. An experience that I had wished to witness since so rftany years had finally come true.

We then returned to our cottages still holding the magic of the flowing forests still in our eyes. The other times of witnessing nature’s magic with light have been documented in separate posts.

Day 2: Exploring the countryside and history- Surla

It was still raining as we devoured our breakfast and checked out of the resort. Our first visit was to Tambdi-Surla Mahadev temple. This is the oldest surviving Hindu temple in Goa, established by the Kadamba-Yadava dynasty and dates to 12th Century CE. It was a peaceful little temple built on the bank of the river Surla, whose upstream forms a cascading waterfall called by the same name. However, due to the monsoons, entry into the river or the hiking to the waterfall was prohibited at the time of our visit.

Upon our return from the Tambdi-Surla Mahadev temple, we were enchanted by the green cover all along the way. It was so tempting to the point that we parked our car by the roadside and simply walked into the neon green meadows running parallel to the road. We jumped across a tiny rainfed stream flowing across teak plantations which led us straight into a place that looked like a Windows wallpaper. We took lots of photos before coming across another random location on google maps that was named as a ‘crater lake’. Curious to find out what the lake was, we drove a little further and hiked a short distance by following google maps until we came across a small round shaped lake in the middle of a forest. I am still unsure if that was man-made or a natural pond which looked almost perfectly rounded in shape, but nevertheless it was a beautiful setting for yet another set of photography.

The stretch was mostly cut-off from mobile Sonnectivity, and we loved the peace we found amidst the chaotic monsoon drive. We occasionally stopped by at shops running in the backyards of small homes along the way to use free Wi-Fi in the name of drinking chai or coffee, local snacks sold in glass jars. It was thus far a beautiful trip exploring Mollem and Mahavir National Park.

We then proceeded towards Colva where we found our home for the next few days to explore the least explored places in Goa beyond beaches and parties. To be continued as Goa backpacking: Makarotsav Celebration and Temple Hopping.