Monsoon Travel Special: 5 things you must do in Goa

Explore verdant landscapes, colourful houses and meet the fireflies
Goa's beaches and beach parties are ever famous, but the monsoons turn the region into a tropical paradise, lush with all kinds of trees, flowers and paddy fields. If you're lucky you'll spot some peacocks too and in the pitch dark of the night, fireflies! Most of south Goa fits this description and in the north you can drive around the quaint little island of Divar. To get to Divar you'll have to drive your vehicle onto the ferry at the jetty point in Ribandar (just a few kilometers from its capital, Panaji). As you enter the island, you'll find people casting the line of their fishing rods in hope of a good catch in the Mandovi river. In the evenings, you'll find some old people chatting over a glass of cutting chai, some uncles climbing up the banana tree to remove its flowers or even killing mosquitos with electric rackets. The top of a hillock on the island gives you a lovely view of the river and is so blissfully green and peaceful that you almost feel meditative. As you drive around in Divar and several parts of south Goa you'll also see lovely one or two stories colourful houses (think red, yellow, purples, orange, green...) reminiscent of the Portugese times. If you're not too fond of rains, you'll probably like Goa's rains even more because they are not incessant and don't go on for hours. During the day there will be a few showers that usually last for 15 minutes (30 minutes is uncommon). What's more, it's very easy to hire vehicles, both cars and bikes, in Goa; during the monsoons you'll get them at a lower rate (the approximate rent per days is Rs. 250 for bikes and Rs. 800-1400 for cars). If you don't want to hire vehicles, you can always go around by bus or on foot. There also several interesting trekking and hiking routes that you can take.

Travel through Time
Goa has temples, churches, mosques, ports and forts galore. Visiting them is a wonderful way to get to know the state's history. But if you're looking for a one stop shop, Ancestral Goa, the museum at Big Foot, Loutolim (very close to Margoa) in south Goa, created by Maendra Jocelino Araujo Alvares, is the place for you.  The open-air museum takes you through Goa's past, including a legend of how Lord Parshuram created it; the traditional houses, occupations and lifestyles of Goans through lifesize models, appropriate plaques and an audio tour-guide; new influences brought by the Portugese and communities that have been coexisting peacefully for years. Towards the end of the you'll also find a wall of Mario Miranda's comics, the legend of the Big Foot and longest laterite sculpture of Sant Mirabai, which made it to the “Limca book of Records”.

Tours of Spice Farms
If you're going to Goa, you want to return with some goodies of lovely cashewnuts, fenny or some spices. Why not go a step further and take a look at how the spices and cashewnuts grow in the wilderness, how cashews are brewed into fenny? There are two spice farms open that conduct tours for tourists, Sahakari Spice Farm and Tropical Spice Farm in Ponda. With your Rs.400 ticket, you will not only get to see the spices, but also taste them in the form of traditional beverages of lemon grass and cokum as well a buffet of traditional goan vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Guides at Sahakari Spice farm also give you recipes to cure various ailments with spices during the tour and around both the farms you can go an elephant ride and also take an elephant bath.

Wild Nights and the Wildlife
A few shacks like Brittos in north Goa and several restaurants in South Goa have live bands playing, karaoke on some nights, jamming sessions and more... While the party places may fewer in comparison to season time, if you go to the right ones, they are just as much fun. You can't have fully experienced Goa's wild side without meeting its wildlife. Goa has several national parks, bird sanctuaries and zoos like the Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park near Panjim, Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary in Canacona, Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary in Chorao and Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary near Margoa.

Sea-gazing at Beach Shacks
Some shacks, especially in Palolem beach in the south and Baga beach in the north, are open even during the rains. During the day, watching the waves in this season is even more fun as they come so close that  sometimes you feel your shack is floating on it. Your mind will quieten, restlessness or the ocd to do something will leave you and if you allow yourself to get carried away like I did, you won't even realise when you drift into snooze.