A Zesty Weekend at Goa!

The journey is about to begin!

An event in Goa –> Reaction: Interesting

A blogging event in Goa –> Reaction: Delighted

A blogging event for test driving a car, meeting awesome bloggers along with an all expense paid trip and stay at a 5 star resort in Goa –> Reaction: Jumps with joy and waiting eagerly to go

The fun begins!

What started as just a simple note from the BlogAdda Team on my availability for the 26th July weekend turned out to be a weekend truly well spent. From 5 star luxury to test driving a beautiful car, from meeting Narain Karthikeyan to meeting some amazing bloggers and making new friends, there was lots of fun and more.

There were about 50 bloggers and predominantly most had come from Mumbai or Delhi. By the time me and Shashank (we are the two lucky ones from Hyderabad ;)) arrived at the Dabolim Airport, almost everyone seemed to have made it to the Zuri White Sands Beach Resort & Casino at Varca, our destination. That’s what we thought, when we met Vinitha, Sharon, Arun and Siddharth as well in the bus.

Priyanka had already tweeted a pic of the lunch awaiting us. How could they start eating without all of us? But thankfully, she was just trying to entice us so that we get to it faster before they finish it all :P.

The lobby at Zuri

After a sumptuous lunch (though I wish there were non – veg options as well :P) and freshening up, we all gathered in the Unicorn Ballroom where Ankita from the BlogAdda team got the session going. She gave an overview of the various BlogAdda initiatives. When she said “We all have gathered here for love”, the entire crowd came alive ;). Maybe, we could have used the 100 character profile sent to BlogAdda as a official way of introduction for each of us during the session.

Doesn’t that look enticing?

Pic courtesy – Priyanka

Nonetheless, the High – Tea time gave a good opportunity to go up and interact with the different people. From meeting the multi talented Roshan to the dynamic Kavi, from the talkative Shwetabh to the interesting Pranay and others, it was a great experience.

The highlight of Hi-Tea were the delicious cakes below.

How many of the social networks have you tasted? 😉

Next on the agenda was what all of us were called here for. The bigwigs from Tata Motors were there to talk about the Tata Zest, the journey in designing it as well as various features and specifications. And we also had the famous Miss Malini aka Malini Agarwal to compere the event.

Selfie time with Miss Malini and others!

Pic courtesy – Pranay

Self time with the God of Indian motorsport

Pic courtesy – Nivedith

The session was named the Master Class and it sure was able to depict what a Master Class the new Tata Zest is.  It was pretty successful in building our excitement towards driving the car the next day. What I loved best about the session? The appearance of Narain Karthikeyan, the motorsport icon of India to talk about the Revotron Engine. He has been involved in the various aspects of Tata Zest’s creation.

Look whose here!

All the while, everyone was busy tweeting using the hashtag #ZestUpYourLife, Facebooking and Instagramming to glory telling the world what they were witnessing.

Pic courtesy – BlogAdda

Drinks and snacks followed by a lovely dinner full of Goan specialities whether fish, chicken or sweets completed the beautiful day.

The rooms were really pristine with all the major facilities you expect out of a 5 star hotel. The surroundings with all the greenery complimented it even better.

Our room!

Pool time

The next morning we were up pretty early and set off for the Varca beach which is located just behind the resort. Though there were some dark clouds, the Arabian sea was really peaceful.

Tranquil!

After a delicious breakfast spread, we had to check out early. And then, we had the final briefing on the route we had to take during our drive.

Our 25km route!

And so along with Roshan and the vivacious Sneha, we were off for the drive.

Partners in crime!

Pic courtesy – Sneha

There were 3 bloggers along with one volunteer in every car. We had a detailed route map and there were various volunteers also stationed on the various junctions along the route. There were 2 pit stops for giving of all us an equal chance to drive. But there were some groups having only 2 out of 3 who had a driving licence. We also had a QR code given to us to share the experience with the world as well as a selfie contest. We got a chance to drive both the automatic and manual versions. All in all it was a beautiful 50 kms driving experience around various parts of Goa with almost no traffic and lovely roads.

The drive..

Once back, we had a session of live blogging. Now this is what we were there for. But again, the time in which we needed to write two posts was quite less especially for many of us who need time to think and articulate our thoughts well. Nonetheless, we all tried to express our thoughts as well as we could in the time. And left the rest for later.

After lunch, it was time to go!

Selfie as we get ready to leave!

Pic courtesy – Pranay

But the trip wasn’t still complete since the majority of us were traveling together to Mumbai and beyond. While the flight to Delhi got delayed by a couple of hours, the flight to Mumbai was delayed just by 15 minutes.

But our waiting time was enough for Mansi, Arun, Bhumika, Ila and I to discuss on our blogging experiences on how we began and what we do.

A couple of bumpy rides, scary landings and incessant delays later, I was finally back to base after a zesty weekend of networking with some amazing bloggers, driving a lovely car on Goa’s roads and making some new friends.

No one has a clue when flights would take off..

Thanks to Harish, Ankita, Anand and everyone else at BlogAdda as well as Priyanka and others at Tata Motors for a really well organized event.

Some more pics of the beautiful landscapes of Goa –