Never in my life I woke up as late as at 8 AM on so many continuous days, never in life I boozed so much (yeah, taking a sip or two of variety of alcohols is called boozing in my language) and never drank so much of salted water (that’s sea water, silly !).
Ok ok, so I had been to Goa. A nine days sojourn from my hectic schedule, which I so badly deserved. I could have very easily spent another eight-nine days had not other duties yelled for my urgent attention.
It was my first visit to the place but definitely not the last. I need to go there quite frequently to know more & more about it. Nice excuse, eh ?

Till my visit there, I knew of Goa as a place of beautiful beaches, churches, Goan food & music and some carnivals. Today, I’ll tell you something unique about this beautiful city of India which I was not aware of.
To experience a new place, I generally make it a point to travel at least once in the local mode of transport. So that day was a ‘bus day’.

After a tired day when I was getting down from the state run bus at Margao bus stop, I was suddenly overwhelmed to hear 5-6 male voices calling out “Welcome sister, welcome sister”.

Ahaa ! Quelle joie !! What luck ! So many brothers in an unknown city !! They were all on motorcycles. I was beaming with joy errr.. confusion. Can you imagine the look on my face, about to call out “Bhaiyya” ??
Before I could happily hug them like a long lost sister in a mela (fair), the lady who had gotten down after me said something to one of those and sat behind him. The motorcycle went zoooom. Oh so she was THE sister, not me. Sighhhh..
But I was pulled back to senses by telling me that they were “pilots”.
Pilots on motorcycles ???
Yup, they are called pilots and they are actually taxi drivers.
I almost fell down with bemused excitement.
Silly girl, they are “motorcycle taxi” drivers and are called pilots.

Ohhhh, I see !!

Yes, an interesting mode of conveyance in Goa is the motorcycle taxi. These “taxis” carry only one passenger and the lone passenger can carry only a backpack or a small bag as luggage.
Motorcycle taxis are a licensed form of transport in Goa and they are much cheaper than other normal taxis. These motorcycle taxis can normally be identified by their yellow-and-black coloured paint and they have proper taxi stands as well. The fare are supposed to be fixed in advance, the rides are not metered.

As far as I know the other cities where one can see motorcycle taxis are London and Bangkok.
So, how many of you knew that Goa is the only city/state in India where motorcycle taxis are available ??

Note:- If I am in mood, I’ll write here only little stories about my recent Goa trip. The major chunk will go to my travel blog.

And I am listening to a lovely lively French song. What else ? .. d d d danse dans…

Current Song:- Je Danse dans ma tête – Celine Dion
Technorati Tags: Goa Motorcycle