River Rooms

We saw Mona Lisa at one of the unlikeliest of places...at the quaint, historic Gandaulim-Kumbarjua ferry point. Mona Lisa is not one of the lovely ladies of the village named after sweet scent but she belongs to a tiny fleet of four rice-boats skimming the splendour-filled inland waters of Goa with excited European tourists. It's actually floating rooms for people who'd love to scour Goa's ravishing interior, untouched by the run of the mill tourist hype.

Joe Araujo, from Santa Cruz, had rigged up a single-room cabin on his weather-beaten fishing trawler to rest while fishing off the coast. When Joe's pals discovered the exciting allure of spending time at sea on the comfy little boat, they leaked the news to their foreign friends. Thus Mona Lisa catapulted from a fishing trawler to a miniature floating hotel. Joe got it majored to two comfy rooms with beds and curtained windows opening out on the aquatic landscape. Covered with a bamboo-matted top, Mona Lisa offers the best option to enjoy a picnic on the placid waters for about a year now.

Joe's added better looking rice-boats to his fleet already. His better half Susie helps run the river rooms efficiently. "We take the passengers up to the mouth of the Zuari river, with a stopover for mouth-watering, homecooked Goan food at the scenic Bambolim beach", Joe says.

"What excites them more is when we show the actual of fishing operations carried out by our fishing trawlers. We naturally provide the best sea food because of our fishing activities. So charter operators like the TCI send their guests for the cruises. Next year's tentative tie-ups include UVI, Banyan Tours, etc," Joe adds.

Being a much better option for the tourist to reach the interior of Goa, the small boats can maneuver even along narrow waterways, Joe and Susie Araujo's innovative enterprise, an offshoot of their actual business, will surely witness a lot of progress in the course of time.

^gnJoel D'Souza