We had already spent 3 wonderful days in Goa. We had visited most of the beaches in North Goa along with couple of Forts. One of which of ever famous Chapora Fort, Dil Chahta Hai fame.
I had heard and read about some good churches in Old Goa. So the last day we had planned to visit as many churches as possible in the limited time we had.
We had hired a bike on our first day to roam around Goa. It was a wonderful feeling to ride around Goa on the Activa. Luckily we had got a brand new bike from a shop near by hotel for Rs. 300 per day. We had to return the bike by 10 am on last day so we thought of starting early and returning back by 10 to return the bike.
As planned, we woke up at 5.30 and got ready by 6. We started from our hotel in Calangute at 6 and started towards Old Goa. The weather was very pleasant, compared to the weather the last 3 days. Me and Kavi both never liked the beaches so much and on top of it I had an allergy to salty sea water. But Goa had been different. Weather had been humid most of the times but still it felt better than the humidity we felt in coastal areas of Tamil Nadu or even Mumbai. It felt good to ride around as Goa was surprisingly much more greener than we had expected. But today was even better. The temperature was around 22-25 Degree and we could feel the chilly air as we rode.
We had listed few churches we can visit within 3-4 hours we had that morning. Our first destination was 'Basilica of Bom Jesus'. As per Google maps, it was a drive of around 30-35 minutes from our hotel to this church. I had checked the route in maps but still used navigation. Roads in Goa were very good. We had to cross the bridge built on Huge Mandovi river to reach the southern Goa. As we ascended the bridge, we were surprised to see the amount of fog around us. The river was scarcely visible from the bridge. We crossed the bridge and took a right turn to get on the main road which would lead us to old Goa. Most of the churches we wanted to visit were in old Goa and very close to each other. We had to travel on the banks of the River for at least 10 kms to reach old Goa.
We could feel the mist increasing as we started driving on the road beside the river. In couple of minutes the fog was so much that we felt the visibility was only around 15-20 mtr in front of us. We started driving slowly on an almost empty road covered in mist. The river on our left side was so huge that we could not even see the shore on the other side. Sometimes we came across small water bodies on our right side too. It felt as if we were riding on an island. The feeling was amazing but at the same time a little scary too with huge unseen river roaring on our left and lonely very misty road in from of us. I could have expected to ride in such weather either in Coorg or Ooty but never in Goa. This was completely unexpected and no one we had asked had ever told we could see this weather in Goa. Well may be because no one going to Goa would have been crazy enough to get up at 6 in the morning go roaming. :-)
It took almost around 20 minutes for us to come out of that road and to reach old Goa. As per what I had seen on internet, 2 churches 'Basilica of Bom Jesus' and 'Church of St Francis of Assisi' were at the same place on each side of the road. But when we reached that spot we could only see 'Basilica of Bom Jesus' on our right side and only fog on the left side of the road. We thought of visiting that first and then try to search of the second search while coming back if fog clears out by the time we return.
'Basilica of Bom Jesus' was a big church, exterior mostly covered in bricks. We took some pics outside the church and went inside. We could see many people inside. I had head from someone that this church holds the mortal remains of St Francis Xavier and they would hold the public display of the body every 10 years. Mass was going on when we reached there so we could not see the body of St Francis Xavier. We sat there for sometime and started for our second destination. When we came out of basilica it was around 7.30 am, but still we could not see anything on the other side of the road. So we thought of visiting the next church 'Church of Our Lady of the Mount'.
Basilica
The church i wanted to visit the most was this one. Mainly because I had seen this in 2 movies, 'All the Best' and 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai' and it looked beautiful. We again took the help of Google maps to find our way. Unlike the first church this was not on the main road. We have take a diversion and go on a single small road. Going left scared us a little as we thought we might directly land into monstrous Mandovi river which was on the left side of us. But now visibility was getting better. The road to this church was little creepy and looked abandoned. We could only see trees around and no houses or shops. We understood the reason when we reached the church. It looked like an abandoned church with no single soul around. We had to climb few steps to reach the church so we left our red activa and started climbing. When I had seen the church in movies, it was all bright with many people around. It was always shown in bright Typical Goa sunshine. But today it was all gloomy and empty. The steps to the church were so old that small grass had grown on them. That looked like a perfect place to shoot creepy horror movies. First I thought this may not be church I had seen in movies but we recognized it when we saw it. It was an abandoned church. Doors of the church looked as if they were long closed. The land around the church was mostly covered in grass and leaves from the trees around so we were sure that no one visits here to pray.
I had seen in the movies that we could see the Mandovi river and the valley from one side of the church but we could see only fog and nothing else. As usual we took some pics there and started climbing down. As visibility increased around us we could actually see how beautiful the surrounding was. It was green all around the church and around the stairs which lead to the church.
We started back on our Activa to out next duration. It was already around 8.15 now so we thought of covering 2-3 more and head back to the hotel. Next church we visited was Se Cathedral. This was a very big church and it was said that it was the biggest church of Goa. We could see many people coming there for prayers when we reached there. There was a well maintained garden all around the church. We could see that there were couple of more churches around this. We could see that the Tower of this cathedral held a big bell. The bell was known as the Golden Bell. The church was very beautiful inside.
We could see another church right in front of this church but thought we could better start our way back as we were losing time. We started back on the same route we took. As we reached the Basillica, we were totally surprised to see a big church on our right side now which was completely invisible earlier. It was the 'Church of St Francis of Assisi' which we couldn't see earlier because of fog. This church had a huge lawn in front of it. It was an amazing church. We could see some small cannons and bells placed outside the church. We took some pics outside the church. We could not go inside as it was closed. We could see the Se Cathedral right behind it and thought we could have walked from there directly if we had known which church this is.
As we climbed down to main road from the Portuguese colony, I felt as if I saw a very familiar place. I turned back to that place and was so happy to see a place which I had seen in 'Dil Chahta Hai' song. It was a beautiful boutique called "Sosa's". When I had seen this in the song I had thought is was a hotel but it was a shopping boutique. For some strange reason I felt very happy to see that shop whereas Kavi was clueless about what that is until I showed her the song. Somehow I was appalled by that shop in the song even though it was just covered for few seconds in the song :-)
Sosa's from DCH :-)
It had been a pretty useful and happy morning for us. We had seen some unusual weather, some spectacular views and beautiful churches. It felt like a perfect end to out short trip to Goa and we were sure we could never forget these few hours in Goa of all the 4 days we had been there!!
- Karteek Joshi
P.S : Amazing 4k video on Old Goa Churches : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvdCTR7mb5s
