Guhagar Venleshwar Hedavi

We moved on from Murud in the afternoon post lunch and again we decided to move by coastal road. We went to Karde ->to-> Ladghar –>to-> Karajgaon->to-> Burundi –> to-> Kolthar –>to-> Dabhol.

Ladghar beach

The jouney now was deep in Konkan region and signs of modern development had vanished. The beaches of Ladghar and Kolthar are nice and secluded but they are not huge in expanse like Murud. For a traveler who is seeking total peace and privacy this can be very good experience.

We reached Dabhol in the evening and straight went to ferry. There was some more time for the ferry to come so we had nice hot tea and had a stroll in the town. It has significant population of Muslims and hence has big mosques. There is one very old mosque but it is in bad condition. Unfortunately there is a board of Archeological Survey of India stating it is protected monument. Neither, I could see any effort from them to restore this building and nobody else is allowed to touch it. Few religious men were present there to offer evening prayers.

The town of Dobhol is relatively big but is pretty sheepish without much of activity. May be this was due to my image of the town. The image of this town in mind was due to issue of Enron power project; when this town was in news for quite some time. The magnitude of issue was probably overriding on my mind while I was looking at the town and hence found it too small.

Dabhol Creek from Jetty

Interestingly the power plant is not in Dabhol town; but is on the other side of creek. We boarded ferry and reached Dhopave- Anjanvel on the other side. By then it was dark, luckily we got great view of sunset from the ferry.

Dabhol Power Project

We headed straight for Guhagar, found Rajgad Kutir and stayed there. The next day morning we got up early to have a stroll on the beach, which was close by. The beach is long with white sand but at places it is slightly risky as the depth of sea changes. This has happened in many towns as people have removed sand in bulk for construction, making a pit under water. Visitors therefore should be careful while venturing in sea and should ask for guidance from locals.

Guhagar is relatively bigger town along the coast; hence you can experience buzz on the beach with; lot of vendors selling refreshments. The main road in the town runs parallel to the beach and it has many restaurants and shops.

Guhagar Beach

Old Stone Constructed wells

We came back and post lunch finished our work. By then it was late in the evening. The next day was for sightseeing. We saw grand old temple of Vyadeshwar in the center of the town. It is an ancient temple with really beautiful complex with carvings on stone.

Vyadeshwar Temple

Vyadeshwar Shiva

We then went to Durgadevi temple complex. This is a very beautiful complex with a lake inside. The temple has beautiful wooden pillars, with marble statue of the goddess. If you visit Guhagar and you have some free time in the afternoon, this is a good place to visit and spend some time.
Post lunch we again went to the beach and enjoyed sunset. Came back tired and slept.

Durgadevi Temple

Next day morning we went to Velneshwar, which is named after famous temple of Velneshwar (Shiva) which is Kuladaivat (deity of the clan) for over 24 clans in Maharashtra. The temple is old and with spacious complex constructed in the stone. It is a quite and serene place where you can plan to stay for few days if you wish to re-energize yourself. It is also a great place for people with Kids to stay for few days and experience nature and village life.

Chief attraction is the fact that at Velneshwar the hills come close to beach. This is probably the best combination of serpentine roads, hillocks, great greenery and nice beach. It is delight to see Dolphins that come very close to the coast and you can spot them play on the tides sitting on the beach. At the south end of the beach there is fisherman village. At night when the fishermen head towards deep sea in their trawlers or small boats with lights on; it is worth a watching them disappear in the darkness before you fall asleep.

Velneshwar Beach

Velneshwar Beach

We stayed at Velneshwar and planned to go to sea in one of the fishing trawlers. So we found the head fisherman (Tandel in Local Language) and spoke to him about our plans.

From him, we learnt some interesting aspects of fishing. He told us that they going to start their voyage early morning the next day. We would be taken in small boats at 10.00 p.m. to the big trawlers anchored at 1 km in the sea. We would sleep that night on the trawler, which meant sleeping on wooden plank with ship rocking all the time.

Velneshwar Temple

Velneshwar Shiva

We would start at 4.00 a.m. and would be back the next morning. Our idea of venturing in the sea vanished with this plan. It is difficult to sleep on the ship and also difficult to manage morning chores. On the other hand these tough and brave men of sea; do this day in and day out.
They also follow certain rules, they don’t catch very small fish which is not fully grown. They never kill dolphins because there are stories where dolphins have helped human beings. There is a standard procedure for division of catch with the owner of the trawler, head fisherman and the sailors.

We dropped the idea of going to sea, but we kept awake till late in the night watching twinkling lights on the boats in sea. We had a great time.
Next day morning we headed for Hedavi, and reached at 11.30 a.m. Hedavi is destination for all Ganesha followers as it is believed that praying here results in fulfillment of wishes. The deity here appears different from its normal self with Dhashbhuja (10 hands). The temple was constructed by Kelkar swami with donations from the Peshwas. The statue is constructed in stone with look of Ganesha as warrior.

Hedavi Ganesha Temple

Hedavi is also on the coast but the beach here is not great. It is small and rocky. So we decided to keep going and take a break at Ganapatipule. We again decided to follow coastal route, we crossed bridge at Bhatgaon and moved on towards Jaigad.

Harnai Murud Karde

We left Harihareshwar in the evening after late lunch.

As decided we were going to move along the coast without touching NH-17 i.e. Mumbai Goa highway. We went to Bagmandla and took ferry from there. This is huge boat which can carry 2 big buses with passengers easily. We loaded out car and enjoyed to breeze on the deck.

I spoke to the captain of the ship about his job. It is quite interesting as well as difficult thing to drive this big boat. He told me that one needs to have knowledge of current and depth of the creek. During high tide water levels are high and the water is gushing in from sea, so it pushes the boat inside and hence they have to factor in this and leave a margin while taking direction. It is exactly other way round at the time of low tide however additional difficulty is that water levels are low and ship can hit rocks. It is also quite difficult to turn this big boat and put it exactly in front of the small jetty. We were impressed with his abilities, at times it is so important to have skills; knowledge alone is not the best thing to have in life.

We reached Bankot and then went to Velas to see Shri Nana Phadanavis Memorial. This village was his ancestral place, but his father migrated to Satara. In the village there is a temple for which he had given donation and his small statue. One feels sorry that about ignorance of our society, where we don’t even maintain memorial of stalwart we was one of the mail pillars of Marath Empire. His abilities were so great that there is a old saying in Maharashtra “Jab Tak Nana Tab Tak Puna”. If we build a decent memorial and give information then our kids can really experience history. This would be much better way of learning and reading books.

Road to Harnai

Anways we move on to Anjarle and Harnai. The road is not great but it is true fun with green forests around you and very few vehicles around. By the time we reached Harnai it was 5.00 p.m and we could see the fun of fish auction. One needs to see it, to believe. There are numerous varieties of fish and fisherwoman bargaining for the same. The entire process is over in an hour and half; and everybody goes back. The road passes through the market and there is little room for vehicles to go at this time. Harnai is a port from good old days and hence fisherman community is strong here. When people from Konkan used to come to Mumbai, in steam ships in good old days this used to one of the important boarding points.


By the time we left, sun was setting on the west. And the awesome look of a great beach and endless ocean in golden and orange colours was in sight. It was difficult to move on leaving this experience. So we parked car on roadside and enjoyed the view.

Sunset at Harnai

By the time reached Murud, it was dark; we found place to stay. We ate dinner and went on beach for walk. On the entire beach we could not hear voices of more than 4 people excluding us. The only company was the roar of the mighty sea.
Next day morning we got up early, actually it helps when you don’t have TV around you. You sleep early and well too and get up early.

We went to beach to see Dolphins!!!!

It was 7.30 in the morning and we walked on the road leading to beach. As soon we were on the beach we were awestruck……….

Undoubtedly this is one of the best beaches in Maharashtra. It is 7 km long and flat with white sand and crystal clear water. It can make any other beach appear to be a compromise. Alongside the long beach are villages Harnai – Murud- Karde with coconut and betel nut plantations along the coast line.

A great attraction to this place other than long quiet beach are the dolphins that come very close to the shore; sitting on beach you can spot Dolphins in the sea with your naked eyes. Such a sight is rare at most beaches in India. If you are travelling with kids especially in winter; make it a point to experience the Dolphin Safari ride in boats in the morning. Best time to see Dolphins is around End Nov to Mid Jan. It is worth travelling extra 70 to 80 km on NH17 and reach here to get all this and more.

Murud Beach

We met Jayesh Nagavekar over there. He was among the most dynamic and energetic person I met in my tour. He has bought a speed boat for Dolphin safari. Rarely people have taken such initiative to mate travelling experience rich. We waited for Dolphins to come near the coast, had tea with Jayesh and spoke about tourism business in the village. He was extremely motivated and clear about promoting this industry as means of additional income to villagers. It was 8.30 and we could see some tails in sea at a distance.

Jayesh started the boat and took us less than 1 km inside. The dolphins were really close now, he switched off engine; so that the dolphins coming close do not get hurt. We kept following them for almost an hour, it was really pleasing. We were jumping, clapping and happy like a child.
We came back took bath and visited Durga temple. It is nice temple with typical rural interiors and big hall. Murud is also birthplace of Bharatratna Maharishi Karve with his memorials. Maharishi Karve was a renowned social reformer who pioneered the cause of girl education in the country. Howevere, there is no memorial for him. There is one statue and nothing else. It again shows apathy of today’s leaders towards promoting good. On every corner of the streets of Mumbai, one can find hoardings for Birthday Greetings dedicated t o some god forsaken local nut, but when it comes to people who have done great job, there is only a chapter in history books.

Durgadevi Temple

Post lunch we moved on to Karde, where we met Mandar Rumde, he has also bought a speed boat. He returned to his village after running a small business at Mumbai. He told us that he was happy to return back and moreover he was making more money here.

Murud Karge Marine Drive

There is one more, funny thing that happened with him. The beach here is flat, so it takes some 5-6 persons to pull the boat on the shore. So he bought a pair of bulls to do this job. Now that he had that pair which had no work but for some occasions; he bought a second hand bullock cart and started new business i.e Bullock cart ride on the beach. We laughed heartily on this, enterprise is sometimes born out of such instances as well.

Karde Beach

We spoke to homestay owners at Karde, all of them have houses facing beach. But they don’t have bigger lands. Still the beach is nice and their eagerness to do business is very high. They are learning this business slowly from their customers and I am dead sure that they would make it big in next 4 to 5 years.

We came back to Murud and stayed for the night. The next day we finished some work at
Murud. We met Mr Pendse, he left a cosy job with Bombay Dyeing and returned to his village. His homestay had really sophisticated interiors, which reflected his background from Mumbai. I was pleased meeting him, he has lots of wisdom in his words.

We then moved on to our next destination ……….Guhagar.
Again our mandate was to travel by coast. So we moved on following route

Murud--> Karde -->Ladghar-->Karajgaon--> Burundi-->Kolthar--> Dahol

This route is picturesque with Sea Coast accompanying you at times and greenery around you all the time. The road is narrow but there is hardly any traffic. We reached Dabhol and took ferry, loaded our car and moved on to other side to Anjanvel….

Dolphins and fantastic beach made this journey really memorable. Wehighly recommend this place as a get away destination for those who want peace for few days away from the daily grind of the city. A stay for 3 to 4 days (either Murud or Karde) can make you re- energize to go back and take on the world.

The more I travel the more I am convinced that the business of Homestays is ideal for rural development and to make travel enriching experience….

For great option of Homestays across India visit www.mygreatstay.com

And now I can see Anu following my blog…Anu hearty welcome to you !!! Please comment if you find some mistakes or short comings; as I am not a great writer but you can make me one………you are the first person to follow this blog and it makes me excited to know that somebody really wants to read on travel……..

Technorati Profile
Technorati Profile

Murud to Shrivardhan and Harihareshwar, Dive Agar - Journey for Bikers, Motorists and Nature lovers

link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Ckishor%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping">
Journey : from Murud to Shrivardhan & then Shrivardhan, Dive Agar and Harihareshwar.

If you wish to travel to Shrivardhan either from Mumbai or Pune, the commonly used route is to first reach NH 17 at Kolad via Roha and then go to Mangaon –> Goregaon and take right turn for Mhasla and then to Shrivardhan.

However we decided to take another route which goes along the coast through villages, the road is narrow and not in great condition, but it is unbelievably beautiful journey. We, set on course in the afternoon post lunch. We drove towards Janjira fort and half way took left turn to Agardanda.

Once we crossed Tokerwar, our one of the most spectacular journeys along side Arabian see began. Interemittantly, we were seeing creek on the right side where as lush green hills on the left hand side. It is very difficult to believe that such virgin and unexplored area exists; so close to Mumbai and Pune. If you are a nature enthusiast or you like driving or you are biker - this is the most recommended route by us. It may take more time but the experience is amazing.

We crossed following villages on the way

Tokerwar

Savli

Bhalgaon (after this village is bridge over the creek)

Mandad

Rovla

Varal

Tamhane

Kandalwada

Nigadi

Pabhare (the road goes thru the village so don’t get confused)

Khargaon – Budruk

Surai

Mhasla (From here turn right to Shrivardhan approx 18 km)

At Mhasla, you can decide to either turn towards Shrivardhan or to Dive Agar. We had decided to go to Shrivardhan as we had to meet Mr Bhagat or Bhagatsir (he is a teacher) over there. We reached in the evening, and located him.

Towards Agardanda

Savali to Bhalgaon

Rovla to Varal

He was one of the most impressive, knowledgeable and outgoing personalities that I met in my journey. Given the fact that he is a teacher; he had knowledge of grass root level issues and realities. We kept chatting till it was almost 9.30 p.m. We discussed many topics;; right from 1993 RDX landing at Shekhadi (its pretty close to Shrivardhan), to social issues involved in homestay business, to education to governance etc. His energy levels and would put a 20 year old young, to shame. Especially Ali had a special liking for him (because of ali's pseudo-socialist inclinations !!!!).

We then ate dinner and slept.

The next day morning we surveyed the whole town.It is a very interesting town which has great blend of modernity and tradition. It being a Taluka town there is trade and commerce,, which makes it cosmopolitan at the same time town also has historical importance. It is birthplace of Balaji Vishwanath, the first Peshwa of Maratha Empire. He was the first person to expand empire much beyond Maharashtra and bring unity across factions.

The town thus has significant population of Brahmins and they stay in a particular area ( named as Brahman Aali). This has added some colour of tradition, which make festivals very vibrant in the town.

The town is situated on coast and has very good beach, but access to the beach is a problem, you need to really look for access road. However, if you are travelling with family and want to experience traditional flavour this a place to be. With one of the persons here, we saw Dolphin and whale skeleton for the first time. It was interesting to see skeleton of huge whale, it is simply huge and strong.

Do not miss to see Jiwaneshwar Temple here at Jiwana Jetty. It is fabulous as not many people know about it. Wooden carved pillars are awesome. Also there is Laxminarayan temple in town which is really famous.

Jiwaneshwar Temple

Jiwaneshwar Temple - Wooden Pillars

Shrivardhan Beach

Balaji Vishwanath Statue

We spent day meeting people in the town and stayed overnight. This town has some natural advantages to develop tourism, being a big town access by public transport is easy. It is also possible to develop more restaurants over here and also activities on the beach. However there is general apathy in the governing bodies. Even the memorial of Peshwa is in real sorry state of affairs. We will have to wait till some other organization takes up the cause. In fact I would like to appeal to organizations of Chittapavan Brahmins to take first step in this direction.

The next morning we moved on to Dive Agar. This journey was also equally picturesque along side coast. You would see folllowing village en

Valvati
Aaravi
Shekhadi (known for RDX landing in 1993 Mumbai bombings)
Bharadkhol

Near Aaravi for the first time in my life I saw Dolphins while sitting in car and driving. They had come so close to the coast. Seeing them got down, and jumped like small kids. We spent almost 20 mins watching them and then moved on further

Dive Agar is a really interesting town, in fact its a village. It was a sheepish village, with progressive farmers growing Areca nuts, coconuts etc. The village has significant population of Brahmins. It also bear distinction of having its educated sons(they are educated in Pune and Mumbai) returning back to village to cultivate farms. As a result the village is very progressive as far as farming in concerned. It shot to fame in 1997, when a lady from the village by the name Mrs Draupadi Dharma Patil found a copper box in her fields while digging. When the box was opened it had a mask of Ganesha, made from pure gold. It is estimated to be 1000 years old, the quality of gold is superb and it weighed 1.3 kg.

As the news spread, the tourists thronged this place in hordes. This spirituality of tourists with consumptions of spirits disturbed the peace and serenity of the place. Thus in initial few years there was a lot of resistance towards tourism. However over a period of time things settled and now its a destination place.

Suvarna Ganesh

We met Mr Uday Bapat, Sarpanch of the village, he was nice person with lot of knowledge. That day was also a very interesting day, it is called World Hand Wash day. Staying in Metro I never realized that there are days like these, as well. This day is to increase awareness about cleanliness and sanitation among children. All the schools were having some program or contests to make kids aware; that they should wash hands before and after eating anything. I realized that to bring change such small initiatives are important, also there are people who are trying to do something. In Mumbai I had seen a lot of empty talk and celebrity buillshit on women's day and children day and all sorts of days in media, It had almost no relevance to reality. However at grass root level people are working with honesty and integrity for benefits of society, we are far away from such realities.

We tried meeting President of the Homestay owners association here but he could not give us time. We also discussed tourism initiatives with many homestay owners in the town. In the course of discussion we realized that this has social dimension also.

Every village is more feudalistic in structure either economic or social; as compared to indstrial socities. And thus there is a lot of gap between rich and poor, the landlords and small farmers or farm labours. While we asked people why cant you join us so that we increase business, the small operators told us that we need to go thru the association. It is controlled by the rich and famous here, they would not like us to come up in life, else their social dominance would be questioned. Hence nothing would happen thru the association.

My experience of cancelled meeting with president, was compelling me to believe them, but my progressive mind was not willing to agree. Later in my meeting with Mr Bapat, these doubts were cleared he promised us to hold a general meeting of homestay owners.

Dive Agar Beach

Dive Agar panchayat is doing a lot of efforts to promote good for the society. To mention specifically we found ladies employed by Panchayat cleaning the beach, this is not done even by Zilla Parishads at other places. Though we did not achieve a single tie-up we appreciated work of Panchayat a lot. We felt there was not much merit is waiting for another day here, and we decided to move to Hariharshwar and visite Dive Agar again on some later day. My pesonal opinion is that there is a lot that can be done to promote tourism here. However people in general and association in particular need to look at Marketing as Revenue Initiative than cost. As of now everything is literally "god given" and if efforts are not made this place would become full of lodges like Shirdi or Ganapatipule.

We reached Harihareshwar in the night.

Bhairav Temple

Its a nice small place with hills coming closer to coast. It has famous temple of Shiva in the form of Harihareshwar. The beach near temple is rocky and risky so swimming here is not possible. However very few people are aware that just 1.5 km ahead are the beautiful coconut plantation stays. The beach here is safe and you can enjoy your stay while being on Pilgrimmage.

Typically, places which are famous for temples rarely have good stay options e.g. Shirdi, Ganpatipule, vaishnodevi, guruvayoor etc. The reason is that most of the owners of hotels or homestays do not really need to focus on service and experience to gain business, everything is literally "god given". However, at Harihareshwar we could locate few homestays which were really nice. We listed them and moved on.

The next stop for us was even more interesting: We had decided to move in a ferry across creek with our TOYOTA INNOVA loaded with us ......................................coming shortly

for interesting homestay options in virgin areas : visit www.mygreatstay.com.

Murund Janjira and Kashid

We reached Murud at around 8.30 p.m. After checking in at Mr Hamdule's homestay, we moved on to Patil Khanaval for food. This is the most famous place for food(especially sea food) in this town. Most of the homestay owners do not serve food and instead direct guests to have food with him.

Next day morning, we got up went for a jog on the beach as it is touching Mr Humdule's home. After break fast we began exploring area around.

Kashid and Murud are famous for beaches and clean water. Kashid is the first beach; which you come across while travelling down south from Mumbai; where you would find clean water and white sand. Travel to these destinations have been on the rise since last 8-10 years. At that time Murud was a town and Kashid was a village; so there were no stay options at Kashid. Most of the travellers used to stay at Murud and travel to Kashid to enjoy beach. However Kashid got quite popular among youngsters as the waves here are strong.

With the increased traffic new developments came here; as of now there are a lot of homestays which are good in quality and very close to the beach over here. There is only one resort which is close to the beach and is pretty expensive. The rest of the resorts are quite far and they arrange for transport to go to the beach.

There are few wonderful places to see in this area, which are listed here:

Janjira Fort:

The fort was under control of local fisherman head Rajaram Koli, who later lost it to Siddhi’s. The fort is impregnable due to presence of rocks under water around the fort. This prevented large ships from reaching the fort and small ones were not effective given the size of the fort. Even Siddhi’s conquered it by deceit. Siddhis later built this fort on 22 acres of land with 22 bastions on the boundary w all. There are 3 big canons here namly Chavadi, Gomukh and Kalal Bangdi. These are made from alloys, the metal is so thick that in the middle of the afternoon you would find them cold on touching.
To reach the fort first go to Rajpuri village(lot of autos are available) and then take a boat ride. You would also come to know that the sea is quite shallow, as most of the time the boat is push ahead by pushing bamboos on the sea bed and for very small interval sails are opened. These boats are not motorized at all.

Inside view of the fort

Giant Cannons: Gomukh, Chavadi and Kalal Bangdi
Ruins of Durbar inside fort

Murud Beach:
Murud beach is beautiful and flat with white sands. As it’s quite far from Mumbai you can experience clean water which you miss at Alibaug. The waves are not very strong here and hence it’s a nice beach for families and kids. Its adjoining the main road of the town hence can expect some hustle-bustle of the locals. An early morning walk on the beach can get you see fishermen going to the high seas and that is a delight in itself to watch. Later in the day till late evening you have vendors around the beach and can enjoy local snacks, coconut water etc.

Datta Mandir:
A beautiful but rarely visited location close to Murud is Datta Mandir as not many people are aware of this spot; however it is a highly recommended spot at Murud. It is great to enjoy sunset in the evening from this place as you can get panoramic view of the sea on the west and thick green forest covered hills on the east. Although vehicles can go to the top of the hill an early morning trek to this place is equally enjoyable in a group, if you are a trek lover.


View towards west and Duttmandir


Eastside view

Nandgaon:
On your way from Murud to Kashid; approx 7km from the hustle bustle of Murud is a real quiet and serene place called Nandgaon. While you travel by road, you are likely to miss this beach and as there are homes on both side of the road blocking view. We highly recommended Nandgaon beach for people who want peace and privacy. The cool breeze on this beach works like a balm to you soul. You will find the communing with air, water and sand at Nandgaon beach a supreme rejuvenation. The beach is safe and waves are not as strong as Kashid. Therefore, we highly recommend for families and young couples. As this is an unexplored locations you would not find hawkers on the beach so ensure you carry food and water. You can buy these in the village as well. There is a beautiful temple of Ganesha in Nandgaon village. Make it a point to visit the same.

Nandgaon Beach

Siddhi Vinayak Temple

Kashid:
Kashid is one of the most famous beaches near Mumbai. It is known for white sand, clear water, strong waves and blue sky. Young guys in groups flock this beach to enjoy the strong waves. Families with small children need to be careful while entering water; as you may be caught unaware with a sudden big wave after 5 or 6 small ones. Even youngsters are advised not to try stunts in the sea. Along side the beach there are food stalls and you can get refreshments here; however no beer is available.

Kashid beach view of Left/right hand side

We enjoyed our stay at Murud for 2 days. We tried convincing Mr Hamdule but he was not even interested in promoting his homestay. He wanted peaceful, no hassles life and did not show much desire to develop business.



So we moved ahead .................on the day 3 morning ahead to Shrivardhan. We had two options 1. Hit NH17 again from Mangaon go to Mhasla


2. Travel with coastal road from village to village and reach Bhalgaon from there on moving to Mhasla - Shrivardhan.


Ali and me decided to take coastal route.. we wanted to try the unbeaten tracks ... in the morning we went to meet two of our business associates and then moved on after lunch...........

For more pictures, information about places of visit and homestays/bed and breakfasts visit http://www.mygreatstay.com/

Coming next .... one of the most beautiful journeys along the coast and definitely most exciting for bikers and nature lovers --- Murud Janjira to Shrivardhan

Also coming up details of my visit to Kolhapur and Panhala

Alibaug

contd....

(In case reader finds any difficulty in understanding this post or they want additional travel tips do not hesitate to write to me at kishoraher@gmail.com)

We reached Alibaug towards late in the evening. On the way I called up the place where I had stayed earlier; but he was already having guests so, he suggested me to stay at Shree Holiday Resort owned by Mr Kaustubh Raut. We went there, Mr Raut is really a nice and humble person. He started this business of Homestays just last year. He has only 2 rooms for guests but lot of open space with garden. The garden does not mean the one with lawns ( I find it too artificial and too much in order to be called natural). So the garden here means plantations; and across coast of Konkan gardens are only plantations)

We had food and kept chatting with Mr Raut for some time. He moved here after taking VRS from his earlier employer. He was constructing 2 more rooms. His eagerness to provide service was amazing. I was thoroughly impressed. Next day morning we got up and had breakfast. We got some travel tips from Mr. Raut. We also explained him about our venture and he was willing to join in.

Over the next few days we wanted to see all the interesting places around Alibaug. We also wanted to compare which beach is the best.

Accordingly we visited all the beaches on Rewas - Mandva - Alibaug road. We also met quite a few number of people and following is the essence of our findings.

There are mainly 3 beaches in this area; if we move from Southern tip to north, the first is Saswane, the second Kihim and then Awas. Alibaug is the hottest destination for weekends and you would not get place to stay unless booked in advance. Still not many people know about these beaches. Of the three Awas is the best one, but very few know this. Kihim has a lots of rocks and Saswane is full of rocks. However most of the people know only Kihim as MTDC has promoted it heavily. So while you go to Alibaug make sure that you see Awas as well; besides its not too far and local transport is available.

Awas Beach

Kihim Beach

Saswane Beach

In addition there are two more places that one must see..

1) Kunakeshwar Temple : Going to this temple can be a nice trek. However it would take more than 1.30 hrs so avoid afternoon climb.

2) Karmarkar Shilpalay : This is known to very few .. but in my opinion this place is a must visit. You get to see master pieces pf sculpturing.

To see more pictures and know about stay options visit http://www.mygreatstay.com/
There is also the fort of Alibaug but it is closer to Alibaug town and not to this road.

There are also two forts namely Khanderi and Undheri in the sea; you can tie up with fishermen to go there. These are among the first 2 forts; in the chain of 65 small and big forts from North to Suoth; that Chhatrapati Shivaji built to protect coast of Maratha Empire.

The interesting aspect of tourism about this place is that it is controlled neither by service nor by location. It is controlled by mode of transport and proximity. Till Catamaran service was not existing; bus and car were the popular modes of transport. From the road to alibaug, Mandva road is quite far and as such buses do not come here, they rather go to Alibaug town. As such Nagaon beach(which is on Alibaug - Revdanda road) was more popular.

Then started Catamaran service, the operators of Catamaran also deployed buses which would drop people on the way. Thus, travelling on this road became very comfortable. This brought boom in tourism business.

When I met people along this road to promote their homestays; they were simply not interested. I met chieftains of their association; they were of the opinion; that they need business only on weekdays or get us foreigners so that we can charge more. Putting such condition on our portal would have been nothing less than stupidity; so I did not really put effort in this area.

The other reason sited by them for avoiding tie-up was that they would have less profit margin. Anyways in my first two days of Konkan visit, I realized four key aspects of homestay owners:

1. They believe volume can not increase so there is no point in losing margins. In other words, Cost orientation is much higher than Revenue Orientation.

2. People with exposure to tourism or apparently educated people; also are not confident of bringing in premium customers to their homestays. All of them are competing for the same set of middle/ upper middle class customers.

3. From the people I met, I found out that people who can speak English(it is not a measure of education always; as there are many people educated in Marathi here); believe in questioning rather than listening to you. They are also the most suspicious kind of lot (while I write this in English; I am suspecting that you would bunch me along with them).

4. People are divided on the basis of need. Established people do not need marketing efforts where as new comers do need it. Unfortunately associations or social bodies are presided over established people so the associations do not try or rather discourage marketing tie-ups. This leads to, not so established people feeling that, established ones do not want them to come up. Funnily later in my journey also wherever I met associations I could not do business. Thus progress is an individualistic or at best family phenomenon; associations have not much contributed to it.

On this note, we moved on further south to Revdanda and then to Murud; bidding farewel to Mr Raut.

Murud is approximately 1.30 hrs drive from Alibaug.

We started late in the evening and reached Murud at around 8.00 p.m.

Travel Tips:

• Do not forget to carry Mosquito Repellent.
  

• Do not venture in deep sea, the coast here is rocky and you can suffer injury.


• In case you wish to see clean waters; you need to move ahead to Kashid at least.


• Do not create noise; homestay owners' are hassled with behaviour of tourists. As most of the people only consume booze during the visit and create raucous. These are homes and they do suffer from indecent behaviour
  
  

Soon coming Murud Janjira and Kashid..............this journey will continue till I cover entire western coast of India... so keep reading and keep writing to me


for better quality homestay options please visit:

http://www.mygreatstay.com

Travel From Mumbai to Alibaug

The first Journey Mumbai to Down south Coastal India:

As I start this blog to share my experiences in my pursuit to follow my dream of travelling to every nook and corner of this great country India and let you all see them thru my words, lenses and not to mention guide you in case you would like to come and stay at these places thru my travel portal.

I was joined by Ali in my maiden trip and we decided to start with the western coast of India by road. Our mandate was to travel thru the small roads connecting villages and avoid highways as much possible. We did not want to miss any village around the coast; so that we come across the most unexplored areas. We wanted to discover virgin beaches, forgotten monuments of historical importance, local faiths and stories around the worshiped deities and also get a flavor of local cuisine, customs and home stay that we could share with all people.

I had decided to start a portal on the concept of home-stays (Bed and Breakfast) while Ali was on the lookout for an irresistible spot where he would start his resort. Though both of us were sure about what we wanted to do however we had different approach to our business (but obvious, Ali was all the time trying to convince me that how dumb I was; and without his guidance I would be nowhere in life).

Following is the extract of our journey and also about lots of people whom we met; their approach to tourism, business and of course have a slice of their way of life, faiths, believes, convictions, aspirations – we were dealing with personalities totally different and some of them probably you would never meet in your day to day life. We saw lots of places and had tremendous insights into the interiors of this giant nation. Hope it makes interesting reading for you all.

Before we start I need to specify that I have travelled a lot in India before, ranging for Kashmir to Badrinath (in Himalayas); from Jaisalmer to Benaras etc. However I had not travelled much on the coasts. My earlier travels were about seeing places and a hurried running around with the local guide to complete one tourist location to other. On the contrary this time I was a traveller and not a tourist – I had time at my disposal so I spent at least a day even in a smallest location that held me with its heavenly beauty rarely known to many others. I spent time with locals. So this not a journey only about places, rocks, trees, rivers and sea but this is about living beings as well. Who I believe are the real essence of India... so welcome to my version of real India and real life...................

We began at from Mumbai by 4.00 p.m, Ali had landed at airport by 12.oo to join me. We had lunch meeting with Khan (our engineering college friend) at Vashi and moved on towards Panvel. The moment you cross Panvel and turn right to Goa highway; you cross from grey concrete world to emerald world, with lush green hills around. The air becomes clean and to feel it well a/c needs to be switched off.

Approximately 12 km head of Panvel 12 km is the fort of Karnala. Just 5 km before you reach the fort is Shirdhone, birthplace of Aadya Krantikarak (first Revolutionery) Vasudev Balwant Phadke.

Shirdhone:
Born on 4th November 1845, he was grandson of Fort-in-charge of Karnala, due to which he had happy and luxurious childhood. Since early days he was fond of bullock carts so he was presented with a Goat Cart by his family and you can see it even today.Born on 4th November 1845, he was grandson of Fort-in-charge of Karnala, due to which he had happy and luxurious childhood. Since early days he was fond of bullock carts so he was presented with a Goat Cart by his family and you can see it even today. While he was working with British Military Finance Dept in 1870, his mother expired and he was not granted leave. This episode had deep impact on him and he decided to revolt against British Rule.



In the famine of 1876 while people were dying of starvation, he raised a force of locals and to raid the rich and famous in order to feed the poor. His vision was to achieve freedom for nation, and create Indian Republic. Subsequently, he was caught British and charged of treason. He was sentenced for life imprisonment and shifted to jail of Eden in 1880.
On 17th Feb 1883 he died of tuberculosis. His old home is today in dilapidated state; but there is a memorial built in his
honour. While you travel on this road please do not forget pay homage to this hero of the nation.

I had seen this place before but Ali was pretty excited to see it. While I was clicking pictures of the Memorial, he explored the rest of the village. We then moved on to fort and bird sanctuary.










Karnala Fort and Bird Sanctuary:
The climb to fort of Karnala is approximately 3 km, however the last 1 km is slightly rocky path and hence difficult for those who are not used to it. It can be really refreshing trek as the surroundings are lush green.







There is also a small bird sanctuary around the fort. As per laws birds can’t be kept in cages now (earlier this was the case); therefore try nature trail of 1 km in the sanctuary. There are close to 130 varieties of birds here, morning and evenings are better times for bird watching. Do not forget to carry binoculars.

I had climbed to the fort twice before and Ali once, besides it was getting late in the evening so we decided to move on further............

For information of good quality stay options and homestays visit:
http://www.mygreatstay.com/