Murud, Kashid, Janjira Trip - December 2006

It was 6:50 am on a fairly cold morning of December 30, 2006 and I was impatiently waiting at the Gateway of India with no sign of Deepak. I decide to call him up.

“Abbe tu kahan hai”.

“Dadar pahucha hai”.

“Ajanta (the name of the company which runs the ferry) ka jetty 7:15 ko hai. Uske baad next jetty 9:15 ko hai. Tu kab tak idhar pahuchega”.

“7:15 tak mein Churchgate touch ho jayega”.

“Thik hai; tu aaja phir dekhte hai”.

The don finally arrived wearing a light blue jeans and dark blue shirt. We boarded the 7:30 am jetty to Mandwa. As the jetty departed the Gateway of India the majestic galore of the Gateway, the Taj Mahal hotel, the Taj Intercontinental and the skyline of Mumbai was waning our sojourn had begun for the quest for new lands. The Murud – Janjira.

It was a 50-60 minute ride on the jetty to Mandwa and then a 30-40 drive to Alibaug. The temperature at the sea was a tenish less than that on land. Deepak and I bit the bread with pineapple jam to satiate our immediate hunger.

Once we reached the Alibaug at 9:15 am I was amazed the see the good natured people and good development. I wonder the cliché “Tu Alibaug se aaya hai” has any meaning. Nevertheless, we enquired about the ST to Murud which was at 9:30 am and decided to have snacks at around corner restaurant. Our idli wada sambhar and medu wada sambhar was good.

The two hour ride on ST from Alibaug to Murud via Chondi – Revdanda – Kashid was picturesque although no less than a ride on the surface of the moon. The Kihim beach is off chondi 3 kilometres towards the west. Revdanda is another sea shore town. However, Kashid is the best of all (more to come later on Kashid).

We got down the ST at the cross roads at the beach road at Murud. BSNL is the only service provider for cellular phones. Murud and Kashid both have no cell operators and you are cut-off from the rest of the world. Kindly note that the calls from Murud to Bombay are local calls and can be made with the STD dialing code 022 appended before the number. We had a good look at the long beach of Murud and decided to look for accommodation. We trotted hard on the by lanes of Murud; barged in plenty of hotel and houses but nowhere to our requirement. There were quite a few places to spend your night on 30^th night but nowhere for the 31^st. Finally, we got hold of a Mr. Mestry a grumpy old fellow on the road off beach road with a vehicle spare parts shop and rooms adjoining it available for rent.

At Rs. 350/- a night we thought it was a good bargain. It had two rooms – one with 100 square feet and another 50 sq. feet and an attached toilet – bathroom. And Mr. Mestry claimed it was for 8-10 people. NONSENSE. At least 2-3 people may to sleep on top of another if that room has to be for 8-10 people.

We quickly changed, relieved ourselves, locked our “palace” and darted to Patil Khanaval for a sumptuous lunch. We chose a place beneath a coconut tree for our lunch and ordered two thalis. The lunch was good with chappatis, aloo baigan, mutter, dal, toop, pickle, rice, gulab jamuns and all had the local Konkani flavour in it. No soda bicarbonate, no ajinomoto, only gavti masala used. The sol kadi was mind blowing. I never saw Deepak eat so much. He had cleaned his plate to the last morsel. We tipped the waiter and good whole sum of Rs. 5/- and he was more than happy to extend the fennel seeds which normally does not come at the end of the lunch.

We sat there for a while to jot down our expenses till that time. As we were having a look at the aunties and girls Deepak’s eyes fell on the ripe coconuts on the tree beneath which we chose to sit. We moved out quickly and decided to take a stroll on the beach. As we were moving from the southern end of the beach up north at the length of the beach we noticed a balloon rising in the sky at the farther end of the beach. We decided to check it out and increased our walking pace to reach there faster.

A trekking group called adventure lovers were there from Revdanda for the year end and were organizing para-sailing. I decided to take a shot of it with Deepak not in favour of it. Nevertheless he also fell for the love of adventure sports.

You first wear a jacket with couplings which is tightly strapped on. As the carabineers of the parachute are thread you begin feel the pressure of the air pulling you back. There is a rope attached to the rear end of the sumo which would pull you along and the chute behind you will help you soar in the air. Once that rope that is joined and threaded the fun starts. You run as the sumo pulls you and within seconds you are in the air. The feeling is stupendous as if a particle of life in suspended animation between heaven and earth. As a minute’s soaring ends with a thud on the ground half a kilometer away I hurried my way as the next man i.e., Deepak was already ready waiting for the Sumo. I had strict instructions from him for the photos of him to be taken so I had to position myself for the best shot.

At Rs. 250/- per person it seems an exorbitant price that we paid. Some may call us fools but nothing is comparable to the rush of adrenaline and the gush of enthusiasm for adventure sports. Adventure sports are just picking up in India and with more and more people wanting to taste it I am sure the prices would stabilize.

At 4:30 all said and done, we could see the people pouring into the beach to enjoy to evening weather and salty waters of Murud. Deepak and I quickly changed to shorts and returned to the beach and jumped into the water. After we ogled at all the girls around us and took quite a good amount of photographs, we decided to sit down and enjoy the time pass by. Deepak got some coconut water and bhel. But my coconut water was not inside a coconut, but inside a plastic pouch tied with a straw. I still do not understand what enjoyment one would get drinking coconut water from plastic bag and not from a coconut and more importantly how did Deepak manage to get the coconut water into the plastic pouch. Nevertheless, both the coconut water and the bhel tasted great after a good splash in the salty waters of Murud.

We retired for the day and went back to the room en-route buying some toiletries for a good bath. The water was chilling cold. At 7:00/7:30pm we had some vadas and missal pav at Hotel Vinayak. Both were good. Tea was great. As we were savouring on our nasta a tall (probably 6 feet), fair, hunk wearing a army pattern pant and tight T-shirt with a jacket on it entered the hotel asking for some tea. He was accompanied with another guy. We were the only four in the hotel. Deepak informed me that he is “Ravan” the TV serial actor. He did not look like a Ravan in any sense. We paid bill and moved out to the back of the hotel which faced the sea and the stage which hoisted the gala festival – the “Paryatan Mahotsav 2006” which was organized by the local municipal body.

As the programme progressed our conversation moved from politics to adventure sports to the absence of dust bins on the beach, the good and helping nature of the people etc. As the night progressed we decided try the Chinese manchow soup. The soup served as a good relief for the bitterness of the cold that we faced.

We had our dinner at Anand Vatika the only place which probably has tandoor items on the menu. The food was good and as usual we ate to our hearts out.

The “EOD” was done at around 12:30 with me pledging to wake up early and go for jogging. I set the alarm to a very ambitious time of 6:30 am and went to sleep.

December 31, 2006

As the alarm rung hard at 6:30 am I could not raise my butt even for an inch till 7:30 am. I hardly had couple of hours sleep the day before due to preponements.

I was on the streets by 8:30 am. The streets were practically empty; the beach had sparse population with some in the water and some locals playing cricket on the beach. If one wants to know the serenity and beauty of a place early morning are the best time to know the same.

We had kanda poha at Patil Khanaval. The grated coconut on the kanda poha tasted great. Deepak had some idli wada sambhar and vada at Hotel Vinayak and some tea as well for me.

Soon we were on a rick heading for Rajapuri which is five kilometers from Murud – a place from where Janjira Fort is about one kilometer in the mid sea. It cost us about Rs.50/- a princely sum I must say. We had our tickets and sat in the boat. I knew it was a sail boat but I wasn’t prepared for anything like this.

As the boat was hauled ahead by a group of three to four people the anxiety increased. The moment there was a speck of air the sail – the cotton cloth with rope at the end of it was thrown to the person standing at the middle of the boat. The boat swayed a little increasing the apprehension of the people in it. As the pressure of wind increased the sail boat smoothly reached the base of the majestic fort. The base of the fort is not seen from a distance is strategically built and hidden to the people approaching it from a distance.

The description of the fort would run into pages if scripted here. I would like to leave the Janjira fort only by saying that you are definitely missing something in life if you have not seen the fort with your own bare eyes. We hired a guide for Rs. 100/- a great sum I would say. I do not know how much of the information he said to us are correct. They are not licensed and are the boat men who double up as guide. We spent around three hours in the fort and each place was great to visit. The fort is under the Archeological society of India (ASI) however vast parts of the interiors are dilapidated. As our sail boat swayed from Janjira fort back to Rajapuri the site of the fort going farther from me overwhelmed me. It was magnanimous, austere, majestic and a standing example of an unconquerable fort yet very humble welcoming very visitor into its fold and bearing the cruel waves of the merciless sea.

We checked out at 12:30pm – 1:00pm and argued our case strongly with the old grumpy man to get back an amount of Rs. 100/-. We caught the Murud Mumbai ST to Kashid. We had our lunch as Kashid at Rs. 50/- per person. The non-veg are still costlier. The places for boarding and lodging are very few in Kashid. Kashid has white sand and the water is less murky than that of Murud. It is a long beach and should nearly empty on weekdays and other period of the season.

As we plunged into the water and enjoyed we had an eye on our baggage that we had kept on the beach with no one to look at. So that was not much of ogling at the girls. We changed on the beach itself and Deepak was constantly looking if any one was taking a snap of him. I wonder what Deepak had worn underneath his cotton pants as that was the last of the two under wears he bought which got wet in the sea water. Nevertheless Deepak and I were enjoying every bit of it.

We waited for the ST at the beach road as we were having coconut water (this time directly from the coconut!!). We caught the Murud Alibaug ST and alighted at Alibaug ST stand. A ticket from Ajanta’s office at Alibaug for gateway made sure that we would be surely back to our home town in another couple of hours. As we boarded the jetty at Mandwa we could feel the cold breeze piercing through our bones. The jetty departed Mandwa for an hour ride to gateway the sea gulls flew closer to bid farewell to our visit. The jetty swayed hard to cut through the choppy waters of high tide at 6:30pm. The jetty would fill with shrills of girls each time the cold sea water would lash out and wet the people and the benches of the lower deck.

A great man had once said home is where your heart is. No doubt Bombay may be filthy, getting dangerous day by day, living by edge being order of the day; it is the place you identify yourself with. As we stepped at the Gateway bunder we found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of revelers and more and more still flocking to Gateway to celebrate the New Year.