BOMBAY TO GOA

The title of my blog is a lift from one of my favourite movie starring Mehmood and assisted by Big B who was not that big at that time. The title is also famous with the opposition as well as many of us traveling to the smallest state in our country.....the eternally uncompleted highway. The highway NH-66,now, almost in completion stages would be one of the best things to happen for the 2 states and it's people and we were one of them who witnessed the beautifully done road and the equally gorgeous journey.

Road trip has been my off late fascination which gives utter satisfaction of experiencing some of the awesome places in my state, in my country. The grass was,is and would be greener on this side.....always....trust me. So myself, Aditi, Shailendra and Manasi our closest friends decided to take the journey in the scorching heat of May for 6 nights and 7 days. The sole aim of the journey was to 'Get Lost'

Our first leg was to reach Devgad in the Sindhudurg district and was a 400 odd kms drive. In just 90 mins we reached Pali where temple of one of the 8 vinayaks lies in front the majestic Sudhagad fort. This was one of the many splendid temples we saw in our trip. A very satisfying darshan of Ballaleshwar as there were hardly any devotees at that given time. Vada-pav and a cup of hot tea and we were ready to move. Instead of going straight on the NH66,we drove on the empty highway taking us to the back of the most famous fort in Maharashtra.....Raigad. The under construction road from Raigad to Mahad took lot of time and by 11.45 am we stepped into Visava for some Brunch. So almost after 6 hours we were finally on the Bombay - Goa highway and trust me.....it blew my mind. 6 lane, smooth,pot free, challenging with mini-ghat every 5 odd kms and extremely scenic. An hour of drive took us to the heritage 'wada' belonging to the Kanhere family (Shailendra and Manasi)  descendents of great freedom fighter Anant Kanhere. Typical Kokani house with not 1-2-3 but 32 rooms with a fountain in the centre and a huge swing (Zopala in marathi) where almost 8 odd people could enjoy the fun. Homemade kokum sarbat gave us strength to drive further. Khed-Lote-Parshuram-Chiplun we crossed in no time where we took a diversion to reach Devrukh and later to Sakharpa. A quick tea break and we were on our last leg of our journey. Sunset and fading light,we crossed orchards and orchards laden with thousands of mangoes....no exaggeration.....we finally were crossing Rajapur. A small heritage bridge above Arjuna River with Hanuman temple beside and long narrow road leading to the masjid sitting in front of the Western ghats and the sun disappearing behind made us stop,see and smile. It was almost 7pm and yet we were not at all tired.... courtesy these beautiful landscapes. In exactly 90 minutes we reached our hotel at far end of this village famous for its Alphonso mangoes.....Devgad.

11pm sleep was early for my standard this got up early so took the car and went towards the lighthouse. A couple of km drive through the old town,masjid and the fort took us to the dead end where the lighthouse stood up. A brief view from the top of the lighthouse and more briefer visit to the fort which is in ruins,we were back to our hotel. Healthy breakfast and early checkout followed by a walk towards the windmills which were a stone fall distance from the hotel. A well-maintained manicured garden on the top of the cliff overlooking the vast virgin white sand beach of Devgad and crystal Blue-Green waters of the sea nicely complemented each other. This garden has an international feel infact..... more. Visualization of beach and waters from above gives a different perspective. This place was super addictive but time was running too fast. Can we leave this mango-village without buying them....Nah....no chance. The best place to buy was from the farmers co-op. More than two thousand farmers have been enrolled from the district where thousands of mangoes are brought, segregated according to the weight and exported to different parts of the world. We bought couple of dozens as a souvenir and left Devgad on a satisfactory note.

By end of the day we had to reach South Goa and the sun was almost above us. Super scenic coastal drive first took us to the temple complex of Kunkeshwar where beautiful murtis of gods and goddesses are placed. Still sticking to coastal route we crossed twin villages of Tar- Mumbai and Mith-mumbri taking breaks every 5 mins. The landscape was just magnificent to say the least. Photos don't give proper justice to this heavenly place. Mithbav followed by Hindale and we came across another temple,a huge one dedicated to the goddess. It was 1.30pm,lunch time and we had reached Malvan. A sumptuous thali with Ukdiche Modak followed by a walk under the clear skies with heritage structures all around,Malvan is a place worth visiting once again. A quick shopping at Vijaya bakery which has grown to really a classy one,we left Malvan, again, taking the coastal route reaching the second last village on Maharashtra -Goa border.....Redi. This village is famous for its Ganpati Mandir and more so for me for its ever beautiful idol. This is one of the most beautiful idol, I would say, have seen so far. Sun was retiring for the day and I gave it a try to grab the opportunity as the sea was just behind. Mild risky traverse took me to a place where I could get a perfect shot of the dipping Surya. A sip of a cuppa of chai and our S-cross refused to stop anywhere as we took NH66. We reached our hotel at colva in south Goa by 9pm......tired!!

Late rise followed by breakfast at the nearby restaurant....we had no agenda in particular today then to get lost. So from colva we took Dabolim-Cavalossim road visiting interiors of the South Goan villages of Benaulim,Varca,Fatarde,Cavalossim and finally reaching Mobor. Heatwave prevented us to go further and we needed rest this drove down back to our resort. The evening was spent at Birla Mandir at BITS where my nephew,Shlok studies. We retired early after a dinner at Margao.

Our check-out was done early as we shifted our base from South to North-East the village named Assnora. The distance was just 50kms and we took almost 8 hours to reach. Why?? It was a temple-run or temple - hopping day. We covered 5 temples each having its own unique features. Shantadurga,Mangeshi,Mhalsa-Narayani,Nageshi,Damodar and Datta Mandir. The last one we visited by fluke and it was the best one. Temples in Goa are classy,huge,clean, maintained with hardly any beggars though the idol size is too small to visualise. Our resort was huge spread over 60 acres situated in the midst of mini forest with plenty of plantations all around this plenty of birds and their songs to refresh our souls.

We planned to start very early in the morning to witness effects on sky of a rising sun at the place called Parra but somehow we got late. Parra is a place where Alia Bhatt and SRK rode a bycycle all for 45 seconds in a movie named Dear Zindagi and it became an instant insta-sensation with this generation and as we reached this place at 10 am on a Monday morning it started getting crowds full of pre & post wedding shoots, pregnancy shoots, couples decked up all looking so pretty waiting for that perfect shot. This place is just 1km long narrow road connecting to villages with coconut -palm trees lined on both sides of it. The crowd swelters so much so that it becomes a nightmare for the locals to commute smoothly. We proceeded to Fort Aguada crossing most famous places of Calangute and Baga. The fort was very well maintained had a big aged old lighthouse but hardly any other things to appreciate. It was rather dull. As we were descending the hill,we saw a board with Aguada jail written on it. After inquiring the details we decided to have a look. We spent almost couple of hours at this place. Opened recently to public and 200 bucks as entry fee lead us to a place where there was no crowd that too in Goa. Goa got independence from Portuguese 14 years after rest of the country. For these many years freedom fighters were lodged in this jail. There are couple of galleries which shows rich culture of India from the Vedic period and history of independence of Goa which I was not aware of. This has indeed an international feel with online guide helping us with different sites. Couple of hours and a cold coffee at a cafe with an ambience to die for concluded our day. It was hot,40 degrees and we were seriously exhausted. It was time to take rest as tomorrow was our return journey.

Our destination was Ratnagiri with 2 pit stops but destiny had 3rd for the day with almost burst tyre. Luckily it was at a place where the mechanic was easily available even though it was a polling day. A guy coming from Punjab working as mechanic for years and today he is owner of three shops. Hard work always pays. First halt was at Dhamapur,20kms from Kudal. Just a km before reaching the lake village we saw a board 'Ajgaokar ajji Cafe' in a very tiny bit picturesque village. A typical Kokani Hut with a mechanical engineer starting his startup with this Cafe'. We  ordered ......Fresh natural Jackfruit icecream which was just superb. We asked for Ajgaokar Ajji(Granny) and out came grand old gracious octogenarian in a Navvari sari with her son, daughter in law and granddaughter welcomed us. There was no connectivity but WiFi showed four green lights. Digital India was on full form so were we after having the icecream. In no time we reached Dhamapur. A small climb we reached a huge peepal tree and besides it was the age old Bhagwati Devi mandir and behind it from nowhere was the majestic lake nestled amongst the dense forest. After sighting few birds and a water-snake we were ready to move on to another temple at Kasheli. 

From Sindhudurg to Ratnagiri district we reached Kasheli at 5.30pm. It was fun to drive on the newly built highway. Kasheli has 900yr old Sun temple. The real fu started after we took the darshan of the celestial god. A km of drive upwards on a dirt road took us to a plateau ahead of which was the vast expanse of the Arabian sea almost 180 degree view with a beach of hardly 50 feet in a sloping manner. Aditi was ecstatic while I was speechless. It was a feeling of a discovery,like finding out a treasure. There were very few locals and couple of families going down the steps of the hill. We decided in no time to join them but not before garam chai and Vada pav in a solitary dhabha. As I entered the owner gave me a smile and I reciprocated. 'Kaay doctor saheb ekde kase aalaat'??. I felt like bacchan or srk for a moment. He was my patient's father hailing from the nearby village but was a Girgaonkar beforehand. Chai Vada pav and the ambience matched each other and in no time the trekker in my soul got up from the hibernation and in no time I reached the smallest beach I had ever seen and been. It was a blue lagoon feel nonetheless!!

There's a viewing deck where one can see 180 degree view of vast expanse of the waters offcourse the sunset. This was the sixth sunset of the trip and all were stunning. Couple of them at the seashore, couple of them on the highway one at the river bay and other from the resort room. Within minutes the Sun sat and we stood up as diminishing light encouraged us to clim the last leg of the hill. One more round of vada-pav and a 90 mins of drive on a dark night with starry skies took us to our destination for the night. One more samudra(sea) but this was our resort..... Kohinoor Samudra at Bhatye.

This was and is the only 5 star resort in this region though it has shown signs of greying but the view was next to none. This place has advantage of a plateau overlooking the beach. After many days of simple diet we took a four course meal and a properly spread out breakfast the next day. It was a last day of our road trip. A not so quick shopping of  famous shrikhand from Patwardhan's we took a coastal road for one last time, The now famous Aare-Ware road to bypass Ganpatipule to reach Jaigad jetty. To our luck the ferry wharf was just round the corner. Crossing the river, reached Hedvi and reached NH 66 after about 90 mins. Lunch break in Chiplun and nonstop at a steady speed we reached Mangaon. The road post Mahad is a horror. But we had no option or choice.  From Pali route we reached the expressway and then the Atal Setu to reach out karma-bhoomi.

This was not the first time I went to Goa and offcourse not the last time either but driving on the newly built highway was a pleasure. 1350 kms of drive, 14 temples and 1 church crossing plenty of bridges over plenty of rivers meeting the sea at different places. Being in Goa and not visiting any of its beaches. A solitary beautiful lake and orchards with countless mangoes,the flora and fauna though fading but healthy refreshing our minds and souls equally. Not to compare.....but Goa has 35 odd beaches,thousands of hotels-resorts and lakhs of tourists visiting year after year. Here in our Kokan, there are almost double the beaches but inversely proportionate hotels and tourists. So go to Goa if you want good infrastructure,crowd,food and drinks but visit Kokan for sheer bliss........