Aksa Beach: People, Water, Sand and Reflections

You saw in one of my earlier posts, the birds at Aksa beach located in Malad, Mumbai. Best option if you are looking for beaches in and around mumbai. This post is more about the people at the beach, the sand, the water... well all in all the beach itself. Since it was a Sunday a lot of people were present at the beach with small kids playing in the sand and water and a little older kids playing cricket on the beach. There was also a small group, assuming they were from a Photography institute or a workshop with 2 models dressed for Indian Classical dance form called Bharatnatyam. The two models were posing and the photographers with the camera were experimenting with their cameras taking shots at various angles and perspectives. Well, my friend Bharat and I too tried to click a few snaps albeit without any permission from the group (Read the disclaimer below). 

We also noticed that despite many warnings and drowning incidences, some people just don't understand and go for swimming. If you googled for Aksa beach and reached this blog post, please do make note that Aksa is one of the MOST DANGEROUS beaches for swimming so even if you do enter the water, don't go too far. The sand keeps on shifting and the currents are very strong.

Disclaimer: Photographs of people on this blog post are shot with no intention of using them commercially. The same can be removed upon request.

A boy playing at Aksa beach

Bird Photography at Aksa Beach

Aksa is a popular beach and a picnic / vacation spot in Aksa village at Malad, Mumbai. When my parents first took me to this beach, it used to be very clean and least visited with a variety of snails and shells found here. It's not the same anymore but it's still a good picnic spot for weekends.

With many private cottages, hotels and resorts, Aksa is a popular weekend destination with youngsters.

Warning: From swimming point of view, this beach isn't safe as there have been many drowning incidences. Strong currents and shifting sand make the beach dangerous.

Last weekend my friend Bharat and I visited the small forest-like area at the shore of Aksa / Dana Paani beaches. I could catch a glimpse of birds like White-throated Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper, Red-whiskered Bulbul, White-browed Bulbul, Asiatic Koel and few more whose names I’m still searching. Sharing the photos of these birds below.

Asiatic Koel, Male

Bullock Cart at Manori

The bullock cart photo posted here was captured at Manori Beach. The cart wasn't exactly for carrying goods. Although bullock carts are very common means of transport in rural parts of India, we're not sure about the purpose of it on the beach and were quite surprised to see it there. We assume that it was only used for personal transport by the fishermen as it hardly had any space to keep any goods on it. In a mood to experiment, I used some filters to give this photograph a painting-like effect. The photograph was originally shot using a Canon A 710 IS Digital Camera.

Palolem Beach: South Goa

In South Goa, once again we decided to move around on a bike and visit the beaches which we had already shortlisted. We'd read a lot about the Palolem Beach and were to visit despite the two and half hours journey through the difficult passages of the mountains. The crescent shaped beach is surely one among the best destinations in Goa. With white sands, coconut palms, dolphin spotting trips, snorkeling and a lot more to offer one just can not miss going to this place. Palolem, locally also known as Palole is considered to be one of the safest beaches for swimming. However, the day we went there, swimming wasn't all that easy with the waves reaching heights of up to 7 feet and more. But, seeing others go neck deep in waters we just couldn't resist going further. It was pure FUN. I later also came to know that this beach had featured in a Hollywood movie. "The Bourne Supremacy". It has been showcased as the Indian residence of Jason Bourne (Matt Damon).

This man is about to catch the flying disc. Not only swimming but options for all kind of sports were available at Palolem.

This does not at all mean that the beach was crowded. It was quite peaceful and really relaxing!! The next time we go there I am determined to go to the place from where crescent shape of the beach can be captured properly. It really looks amazing that way. View the video captured at Palolem beach and listen to the song the waves at Palolem Beach Goa are used to sing. It's simply a very amazing Beach. An absolutely "must-visit" place if you are in Goa.

The photos and the video are captured using our Canon A710 IS Digital Camera

Note: If you were a member on my Google Friend Connect gadget earlier, I request you to please join again. If you were not, well you're most welcome to join now!!

Baga Beach: North Goa

Baga, a beach town at Goa has a perfect party atmosphere. It isn't a quiet beach and that is what makes it so special. With all the commercial features like beach shack restaurants, sunbathing beach benches, water sports and a lot more to offer, this beach town has an atmosphere, perfect for a rocking party. I'd mentioned in an earlier post that we'd stayed at a resort called Cavala which was about a 2-3 minutes walk from the beach. Even this small distance walk had a lot to offer on the way to the beach. The very first day we had our breakfast at a eating joint called Brittos located right at the Baga Beach, a really cool open beach shack restaurant. I had expected a buzz-buzz but early morning on a weekday, the beach benches looked empty and there were a very few tourists around. We had to spend about three hours before we could check in to your hotel room and we just stayed there relaxed and enjoyed our time talking and hearing the waves sing their song. And as usual, I never miss out on photography. Here are some of the captures from the Baga Beach in North Goa. These were captured using our Canon A710 IS Digital Camera. Looking forward to hear your comments.

I must mention that different hotels in Baga offer the visitors, live music by locally well-known artists almost every evening. Beaches, Food, Drinks & Music, what else do you need to party?

Water: Benaulim Beach Goa

Water, can't live without it for sure!

We were having a relaxed time at an open shack restaurant at the Benaulim Beach in South Goa. As my wife Mukta, poured some water in our glasses, I captured this photo using the macro mode of our Canon A710 IS Digital Camera. The surroundings reflecting on the streaming water encouraged me to capture this moment.

In front of us was the beautiful view of the Benaulim Beach but for some reason I was more interested in photographing the water flowing out of the packaged mineral water bottle. I'm a Cancerian and my wife is a Scorpion. Both water signs and that is why I feel we both love beaches as much as we do!! May be now you guys can understand why every other photo that I post on my blog is that of a beach :-)

The beach benches: Goa

Going back to my Album from Goa. In my next few posts I intend to share some more photos from Goa. I had mentioned in one of my previous posts that the best part of my last trip to Goa was the bike rides. During our earlier trip we hired cabs to see places. This time round my wife and I had decided to figure out the MUST SEE places in Goa and reach there on our own. Some of these places like Querim Beach (also known as keri beach locally), Arambol Beach were really far. We started our journey as early as 7:00 am in the morning as I knew that we would have to be back on our way to our hotel (Cavala) pretty early in the day. The roads really didn't have adequate lights to be riding a bike in the night. Querim is the farthest of the beaches in North Goa we had decided to go to. It took  us almost 2 hours to reach there but going through the rural parts of Goa was really fun. I may not have visited too many tourist locations in India but I feel Goa can easily be among the TOP three "Must Travel To" locations.

Once we reached Querim beach, we decided to rest at an open beach shack where we also had some fresh fruit juice. As you can see in the photo above, the view of the beach was totally mesmerizing. The beach benches lying at the shore made this place perfect for a romantic outing. We could have spent the whole day there but were there wasn't enough time. Despite not wanting to leave the place, we had to bid goodbye to Querim beach.

The Goa Beach Photo above was shot using my Canon A710IS Digital Camera.

End of the world: Mandrem Beach Goa

When we visited the Mandrem Beach at Goa we had our evening snacks at this beach shack named "End of the world". Couldn't really figure out why it was named so but, it seemed to be very popular among the foreign tourists who seemed to be on very friendly terms with the owners of this beach shack. The food was nice. We had a North Indian Snack called "Aloo Paratha" with Poi (Goan Bread) and Butter. It was sure very yummy. Anyone going to Goa, I'd surely recommend this place. Awesome Beach, Awesome Food! It's fun to be at Mandrem.

Evening at Mandrem was spectacular. I had earlier posted a photo of the Sunset at Mandrem.The wet sand had an almost crystal clear reflection of the sky on it. More REFLECTION Photos

Aamir Khan: The Gola Maker

This man is Aamir Khan, the Gola vendor at Manori. He was not the only Gola Vendor there but he claimed to be very famous with a lot of tourists and also mentioned that people really talk a lot about the Golas he sold there. Well gave it a try and the Golas were really Yummy!!!

He'd also got a side mirror on the ice crushing machine. I couldn't figure out the use of it and even he wasn't sure enough or willing to share the reason. One thing I should mention here is that Aamir Khan is also, name of one of the best actors in Bollywood; The Indian Movie Industry. You can read more about Aamir Khan, here.

Finally Another Skywatch Photo from Manori. The highlight of the one day trip, The Sunset!

Sunset at Manori

Sunset pictured at Manori

This was a view from a resort named Manori Bell.

Click here for more Skywatch photos

Reflections and Skywatch at Goa

Goa's Mandrem beach gave me ample opportunities to shoot pictures for Skywatch and Reflections in my try to capture the reflected clouds properly, I ended over-exposing the actual clouds that were above the hill. Wish I could have avoided the wire some how. My wife and I loved this place a lot. More than even being at Mandrem, what enjoyed the most was the bike ride from Baga to Morjim & Mandrem beaches.

Reflections: Mandrem Beach, Goa

 

We bade Mandrem beach in Goa goodbye and in our quest for Morzim beach reached this place. This however turned out to be another end of the Mandrem beach. Here we noticed this rock formation in a small crater-like dent. My wife, Mukta, thought this formation resembled Shiva-linga. The sun had already gone down the horizon and Mukta was in a hurry to get back to our hotel in Baga before it got dark because there's nobody around to ask for directions after 7-7:30PM. Locals in Goa call it a day pretty early as compared to us nocturnal Mumbaites. And yet I managed to convince her to pose for this photo as just the rock formation without the reflection wouldn't have had the same impact. This photo too was clicked using my good old Canon A710 IS digital camera.
Join us here for Weekend Reflections at James's Blog

More Skywatch Photos

Captain of the boat

Welcome back! You may have seen the older version of this photo here. A few days back I started experimenting with HDR effects on photographs. Some people may think that processing of photos after photography may make them look artificial. After seeing the results by the treatment of this photo, I think some times, it really makes the normal images look very dramatic. The displayed photograph was shot by my wife Mukta, using our Canon A710 IS Digital camera. One of my first experiments on HDR. Also contributing this photo to SKYWATCH Friday!

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Gola at Manori: Double Reflection

We had a great time at our Manori family picnic enjoying the sand, water and the sunset. The most amazing though, was the GOLA; Ice-candy which is also known as snow-cone. The Gola-vendor's hand cart was full of bottles of colored syrups. When I stood very close to the bottles, I observed closely to see the bottles reflecting me on them. That's when I captured the above photograph using my Canon A710 IS Digital camera. Do watch out for the next photograph as that's the one I liked the most out of the whole lot of Manori photos. Checkout more Reflection Photos on James's BLOG ......

Moon at noon: Manori

Well, not exactly at noon but it was only early evening at Manori beach in Mumbai. We were about to witness yet another perfect sunset scenario on one side and, on the other side we could see the moon already. I really loved the way the moon was showing from between the two trees. This photograph was shot using my Canon A710 IS which has a 6x optical zoom which I feel is a boon despite being not enough :-)

Click here to see skywatch photos from various parts of the world

Sunset at Mandrem: Goa

[Click to enlarge the image] 

 At Mandrem Beach in North Goa  we saw the most stunning and beautiful sunset ever. The sky was full of scattered pieces of clouds and the sun setting upon the ocean created an amazing gradient of orange, red and blue in the sky. It was a visual that has got photographed not only in my camera, but also in my mind. 

If you ever visit Goa, do visit this beach without fail. Mandrem, Morjim in North Goa and Palolem and Benaulim in South Goa are the best. We traveled more than 200 Kms on a bike in 4 days, to reach these beaches from our hotels. We spent 2 days in north and 2 days in south. It was for sure an amazing experience. 

My wife Mukta and I are soon coming up with a new blog Travel Sagas, on which we are going to write about our vacations and weekend getaways to some of the beautiful places in various parts of India. We are looking forward to your visits and comments there too.

Click Here for SkyWatch images from arround the world.

Learn Fishing

The toddler playing with his dad at the Bagha Beach Goa seemed extremely excited about the fisherman throwing the net and splashing water in the process. The kid couldn't resist the scene and would end up going close to where the fisherman was to observe the whole process in excitement. He didn't look scared of the small waves formed in the otherwise still water. I loved this scene and pictured it just when the fisherman had thrown his net, thus splashing water.

ABC Wednesday - L for Learn! Checkout the wonderful MEME

Green Giants

Although we were busy enjoying the Radhanagar Beach at the Andaman Nicobar Islands, we couldn't resist shooting these Giant Green trees which were there a little away from the shore. You will realize the height of the trees when you notice the two kids standing at the bottom, under the shade. Amazing creation by mother nature. I think Green Giants is a perfect name for these trees. I shot this photograph using a Canon A710 IS.

Standing Single

This was an awesome view captured from our hotel window during our visit to Andaman Nicobar Islands. The hotel was named Sinclair's Bay View. The view was so awesome with vegetation located right at the shore. This was not the only tree around though, I have posted one of the earlier pictures also title Standing Single

The Big Foot

This was at Goa's Anjuna Beach where amongst the rocks we found a shape which look exactly like a Giant Foot. Here's my friend Rahmat, posing to show how exactly he dent had shaped up due to continuous erosion, to look like a Big Foot!! Goa is an awesome place and I sure had a great time with my Camera and Photography!!