What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Goa? I bet it’s the beaches or palm trees. Same with me, because in my many visits to Goa and even living here, I usually stuck to the coastline.

If you look at the map of Goa, you will notice there is a lot more to Goa than just the coastline. No doubt the coastline is spectacular but after many visits, San and I decided to visit the eastern part of Goa… or you may call it “the other side of Goa”.

Goa is massive, so in order to explore the other side, we decided to stay at a place from where we could easily access the places that we wanted to see. We didn’t have a specific plan, but had a general idea that we wanted to see a few waterfalls, visit a spice plantation and Goa’s forest area. Just for this purpose, we decided to stay at a centrally located place called Dudhsagar Plantation.

With hardly any research about the place or the surrounding area, San and I hopped on to our scooter and drove from Anjuna in North Goa to Dudhsagar Plantation. In just about two hours, Google Maps announced that we had reached our destination, which felt like middle of nowhere.

Inside Dudhsagar Plantation

We saw a little board that confirmed that we were at the right spot. As we entered, we saw a little cow shed on our right and a few chickens walking around on our left. As we followed the path, we saw palm trees, banana plantation and many other tall trees. We were inside a tropical garden!

A man who introduced himself as Ashok greeted us and took us to a gazebo. We sat here with him and found out that Dudhsagar Plantation is aa family run place, which was started by Ashok’s parents Doris and Ajit Malkarnekar. Inside the gazebo, I saw many other people sitting who appeared to be from different nationalities. We couldn’t help but wonder if they were all one family. We got our answer within the next few minutes

Beautiful Family

Ashok’s father is a Goan and his mother is from Germany. Ashok himself lived in Goa, Germany and Indonesia, and his wife is from Indonesia. Ashok’s sister lives in Mandrem and is married to a Goan. Ashok’s brother, who looks a lot like Ashok is married to a girl from Russia. Quite an international family, no?

Free Spice Plantation Tour

After the introduction, we put our luggage in our large airy room and were ready for a tour. As we walked further, I realized how massive this place was! Ashok informed us that there were more than 150 kinds of different plants and trees in this plantation.

The first thing we saw was pepper, which was easy to recognize. We saw yellow turmeric, white turmeric, cardamom, bimla, cashew, gooseberry, cinnamon, lemongrass, mace, chilies and many more things. Of course I don’t remember everything but I do remember that cinnamon leaves were very sweet to chew and the taste kind of reminded me of Christmas.

The most interesting thing for me was the lipstick flower. It is a natural coloring agent, which is used in food and cosmetics. The tour of the spice plantation must have lasted 45 – 60 minites, during which Ashok educated us about the fauna and entertained us with his jokes.

Fenni and Urak Distillery

At the end of the tour, Ashok informed us that they even have a Fenni distillery in the farm. Fenni is a local alcoholic brew of Goa, which is made with cashews. He took us to the distillery and told us about the process. Honestly, I have had really bad experiences with Fenni before so I wasn’t so interested, but Ashok made us try a shot with Bimla (citrus fruit) and I had to change my mind. He also made us try “Jungle Juice” which is made from Urak. Urak is the first distil of cashews before Fenni. I fell in love with Jungle Juice and drank a lot of it. You’ll be surprised to know that I had no hangover the next day and woke up clearheaded, despite multiple late night Fenni shots. If you also hate Fenni like I did, you need to try a glass here and you’re gonna change your mind.

Water Well

This may make you laugh but I have never drawn water from a well and I got very excited when I saw one here. I played around with it for a long time but finally managed to draw just a liter of it.

Variety of Animals

Guess what – on our little exploration walk with Ashok, we saw a deer inside his farm! A little while later, I saw a bison at a distance. When I thought things coulnd’t get more interesting, I saw a wild hedgehog here. No, these are not Ashok’s pet animals but the farmhouse is near Bhagwan Mahavir Forest Sanctuary so some of them come here for a little stroll.

Too bad the deer was so fast and shy that I couldn’t make a picture. By the time the other animals were there, I didn’t have any camera battery.

Natural Swimming Pool

If things couldn’t get better, Dudhsagar Plantation also has a natural swimming pool inside the farm. No chemicals or bleach is used here to clean the water but a few plans are grown in the corners to purify the water.

Organic Farm Food -Yummy

Did I mention that everything that grows in Dudhsagar Plantation is organic? Moreover, there are no pesticides used, so everything can be handpicked and eaten directly from the trees. During our time here, we got to eat freshly made home food from organic farm produce.

I love Goan seafood and I don’t remember ever eating vegetarian food in Goa. However here, I couldn’t help but taking three helpings of every meal because it was so darn good! Chapatis, rice, Konkani daal, two kinds of veggies, buttermilk, salad and dessert – the food here was perhaps the best food I have had in Goa. It felt healthy; it was not oily and was light. Seriously, I can eat this food my whole life without getting bored.

 

Self-Sustainable Fuel and Biogas

I have seen this at music festivals, but I was very happy to see that almost everything gets recycled here. At Dudhsagar Plantation, they care for the environment and recycle everything.

 

Swimming in a Clean River

Right behind the farmhouse is a little river, which comes from Dudhsagar waterfall. If follow our blog, I’m sure you know by now how much we love jumping inside rivers, waterfalls and natural swimming holes. It was a good way to end our day here and cool off inside this river’s cold water.

 

Our Exploration Outside Dudhsagar Plantation

Honestly, we had so much fun inside Dudhsagar Plantation that we forgot we wanted to explore the nearby areas. Ashosk literally had to kick us out so that we wouldn’t miss out what’s outside

 

Dudhsagar Waterfall

Visiting the famous Dudhsagar Waterfal was the most obvious choice, because it is very close to where we were. This is India’s tallest waterfall and I had only seen it from the train while crossing Goa. To avoid the crowds, we arrived here at 9 am on our scooter. Since the waterfall is inside Bhagwan Mahavir Forest Reserve, we were not allowed to take our scooters inside, so had to buy jeep tickets.

A single jeep holds 6 people and costs around INR 300 per person, including the life west. And no, you can’t enter without a life vest. Even though the waterfall attracted quite a lot of tourists, we found our personal swimming area and had a lot of fun swimming in the cold water here.

 

Bhagwan Mahavir Forest Reserve

Even though we had entered the forest reserve when we visited the waterfall, we were not really allowed to explore on our own because of the jeep restriction. Just for this, we decided to enter this forest reserve from Surla. We couldn’t; help but stop after every few minutes to make a few photos because everything was very beautiful and green inside. We also met a lot of monkeys here.

 

Tambdi Surla Temple and Waterfall

If you enter the forest reserve from Surla, you can also visit an ancient Hindu temple that’s inside. What’s unique about this temple is that it is made with black stone where as most of the temples are usually white or multi colored. There is a nice garden outside, which looked a little too well kept for my liking. Don’t get me wrong, but the forest and the temple had a very wild look, so the excessively well kept garden looked out of place. Oh and there is a hike to Tamdu Sural waterfall from here, which you should seriously consider if you’re wearing comfortable shoes.

 

Walking Route and Village Exploration in Goa

If you like walking, you are going to love a little map that Ashok has made. This map depicts a route that he has made which you can follow to visit the nearby village and see some interesting sights. It is total 8 KMs, so do this only in the morning when the weather is cooler.

Anyway, if you’re heading to Goa, I urge you to try something different and explore the other side of Goa. Stay in Dudhsagar Plantation Homestay and experience the simple life. Cleanse your system by eating organic food here and chill in the natural pool. If you’re really adventurous, then don’t miss the forest area that only a few people visit. Oh and you can book Dudhsagar Plantation on AirBnB. Use this link to book and get a $15 discount.

Visiting Goa soon and need more info? Feel free to ask me anything! Post your questions as comments below and I’ll answer as soon as I can.

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