GETAWAYS IN GOA

You will never get tired of the beaches or the temples or the churches at Goa in India, but just in case, you want to try something different, then there are many getaways in Goa, India.

FORT NEAR TIRACOL

Drive along the full length of Goa's 130 km coast line and when you come to the last beach of Goa in India, Arambol, just look across the Tiracol river and you will find a pretty little fort which looks as if it has come out alive from a fairy tale. This fort has now been converted into a hotel.

To reach this fort at Goa in India, you will have to take the road which winds up through a little settlement of comfortable Goan cottages: wild lush gardens, coconut palms throwing dappled shadows on the red tiled roofs. After a slight uphill-climb, you reach the little Fort-hotel run by a husband-and-wife team who promises to make your stay a memorable one.

A beautiful little Goan church dominates the central court around which the fort of Tiracol rises: a living church full of light and quiet elegance. Cross the court and walk up the narrow stone stairs through short passages into split level rooms which follow the contours of the headland: old furniture, superb views over the river and the beaches and out to the blue horizon of the sea. The Portuguese had sailed in from there, established themselves in the old conquests like this one, taken over an existing outpost, converted it to a fort to repulse the latest technique of attack.

Tiracol gives an insight into the attitudes of the old colonials; invading Iberians determined to maintain their hold on the seemingly inexhaustible cornucopia of India.

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