Dona Paula was also visited by us, a beautiful vista looking over the point where the rivers Mandovi and Zuari meet the Arabian Sea. A local myth permeates regarding the spot too. Supposedly, the place is named after the daughter of a viceroy who jumped off the cliff and into the sea when she wasn’t allowed to marry her fisherman lover. The myth goes on that the ghost of Dona Paula still haunts the place and emerges from the river on a moonlit night wearing only a pearl necklace! So if you decide to visit during a full moon and see a shimmering presence coming from the sea – ‘who ya gonna call?!’ Since we were in the area, we visited the casino stretch in Panaji also, where the Santa Fe might have become an inadvertent part of a feature film too! We also stopped at the gorgeous Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception which is one of the oldest churches in Goa, built in 1540.
Having visited all the prominent locales in Goa, I reluctantly drove off, that splendid city slowly receding away in my rear-view mirror. We were headed towards the last stop for this trip, to the city that is also the headquarters for Car
India – Pune. Although we couldn’t resist taking a less direct route and visiting Ratnagiri, Pratapgarh andMahabaleshwar on the way there. The Santa Fe arrived at Ratnagiri to many a turning head, and why not because the car does look rather good, where we stopped at another food joint famous for its fish: Amantran. After an early brunch, we moved on to the Thiba Palace, named so after the last Burmese (Myanma) King Thibaw, who was held under house arrest by the British here in 1935. In fact, King Thibaw and his queen are both buried here too, and the palace now functions as a museum. We also stopped by at Fort Jaigad for one last look at the Arabian Sea, and gaze upon the majesty of one of the bastions of the Maratha empire.
