GoA In Monsoon : Satte pe Satta

[john70]

Hi friends
Posting this as new thread; a travelogue to Goa in this monsoon. Initially posted in Travel diaries yet due to request from a member posting it as individual thread.

Request to Mods : Please merge this "later" with travel diaries.

The idea arises:

We seven friends were sitting in Café Coffee day, and it clicked that lets all, just men alone go to Goa this monsoon. Another thing also was clear that we are going to drive down to Goa from Vadodara. We felt initially 3 nights and 4 days would be fine. The initial plan was to leave in morning stop at a place inbetween on one night and take a package of 2 nights and 3 days at a five star Resort.



Considerations :

NH4 or NH17 ?

The eternal debate!! All going to Goa from Mumbai debate this often. We read lots of blogs and travelogues from Mumbai to Goa. Almost all felt that though NH17 beauty was too good to miss, yet in monsoon NH4 would be the best bet, due to safety and surety. Finally we decided to go on NH4 only. But.. read down to find surprise "¦surprises below.


The vehicle ?

Our choice was my Ford Endeavour, due to its space, comfort and rough handling. We considered Toyota Innova on hire and drive basis and one of our friend's Tata Safari, yet they were quickly disqualified.


3 or 4 days ?

We changed our initial plan of leaving in morning for Mumbai to leave on earlier day for Mumbai in evening and stay at Hotel Western / Fountain at Mira road,Bhayander. Then leave for Thane in early morning to avoid traffic surge at 7 am. Stay at Amboli overnight and leave for Goa the next morning.

Stay where on second night ?:

We debated to stay at Amboli or Tarkarli for night. Finally Amboli was the choice and we didn't regret. Tarkarli would have been far and by choosing Amboli we got 2 different holiday flavors : ghats and beach.


The journey begins :

All 7 of reached at decided place and left for Mumbai at 6.20 pm. The drive began with slurry of laughs, slangs and jokes which were constant and increased throughout the trip. The car was ready with all papers, tyres checked, music loaded, head lights enhanced, breaks serviced and took a electrically operated air compressor too.


Vadodara to Mumbai : 4/7/2012

The road to Mumbai was just as we all know very comfortable. At a constant speed of 110-120km/hr in evening and night, crossing Vapi was butter smooth. We were worried of traffic jams at Narmada bridge and had debate to whether go via Golden bridge; yet finally we choose to go via routine Sardar Patel bridge. Luck was favouring us and we didn't meet the dreaded. We had dinner at Sugar and Spice between Valsad and Vapi. Food and service was excellent except one of our dishes becoming really Chinese when a fly was pulled out of a drink, which punctured all the good. Our dinner completed with pan and we were back to drive, yet our speed dropped down due to heavy rains. We reached quiet late at around 12.30 pm, a 6 hours drive to Mumbai !!! quiet slow but was expected in heavy downpour. We patted our back for our decision to extend our trip by an evening. The hotel Fountain was not available and we got to stay at Western. A simple road side hotel yet okay for a half night stay. Sleep was easy to come to us and woke up in morning on time and left at 7 10 am for Thane - Pune.

 

[john70]

Mumbai – Pune – Kolhapur – Amboli : 5/7/2012


The road to Thane was traffic-devoid and easy till Thane proper, then took the eastern highway then to Pune expressway. Our Google map navigator on mobile was the constant guide to us throughout this trip. This has become indispensible now.

After taking the Pune expressway the speed touched 150km/ hour. At Khapoli we had some onion-bhajias, they were nowhere near the famous bhajias available in town of Khapoli. We were again delayed in traffic due to a small accident on Khandalla ghats.

At Lonavala we entered the town, and had our tea and breakfast at the celebrated yet humble Annapurna restaurant. The famed Pune-misal was hungrily eaten by all and after a stomach fill left again for the expressway after buying some "walnut fudge" from the Maganlal's.



Rest of trip to Pune was smooth and fast.
The end of Pune expressway is brisk and should be alert to speed down and then enter the Pune –bypass. Pune bypass slowed us due to lots of two wheelers. Road to Kolhapur was fine again and we reached Kolhapur by 3 pm.

Road to Kolhapur and then to Nipani was awesome. Cemented and not as much of traffic, again touched speed of 140 km/hr and swiftly crossed Nipani. Ahead of Nipani on a sharp bend of NH4 is the road to Amboli via Nipani – Ajra link road. One should be careful not to miss this and keep an eye on the Navigator Google Maps.

The portion of road from the turn to around 10 kms is very bad and speed of 20kms to 30 kms/hr was the max we could achieve. We were worried about this being throughout the road to Amboli, yet just after 10 kms everything was fine and we were again back to good speed of 60-70km/hr on a fairly decent road. We reached Amboli at 5:30 pm and were awestruck with thick fog and unable to see more than 10 feet. We were slowly cruising when we saw our hotel RJD international.


The Hotel is very lovely- not exclusive class, staff courteous and helpful, a simple hotel with 1000 Rs per night rate. We had hot pakodas – onion, potato and chilli with some drinks and little later at night a simple dinner of egg curry, rice and roti –vegetables. Sleep was again fast and easy without trouble.

 

[john70]

Amboli – Sawantwadi – Goa : 6/7/2012

Woke up early morning at 6 30 am for stroll in lush green - fog filled Amboli. After some time of fun and frolic in the fog with friends we had a heavy shower of rains. We took cover under a left alone rickshaw to escape the gush.

Then we left for the the waterfall at Nangartas. Amboli has 2 main waterfalls; the one that is simply called as "waterfall" and the other one is Nangartas, this one is on opposite side to the road to Sawantwadi - take the route to Ajra then at a junction of three roads take the one to Belgaon. This fall is around 10 kms from Amboli. This falls is unique in that, you cannot trace its bottom; it was an overwhelming sight. We had some wadapav at the only stall traceable there.

We left Amboli at 10:30 am for Sawantwadi. This route was the most scenic one, of all the way to Goa and back. The monsoon has done wonders to this route. We were looking for one waterfall, yet the whole route was filled with waterfalls, cloudy atmosphere and lush green mountains – we were awestruck.

We reached Sawantwadi and thence our destination Goa was stonethrow. Our spirits soared as spirits filled us taken from road to Goa, and the only one whose didn't was the one driving among us. Drinking and driving is out of question. Our joy was no bounds and our words too !! Our sentences were filled with too many verses from our gang scriptures, so much so that when a phone rang of any member a loud "Jaishikrishna" was a must to stop other members from speaking those verses that could be overheard over the phone !! These fun and outbursts are going to be our lifetime treasured memories.

The strings of waterfalls from Amboli to Sawantwadi.

The deserted rickshaw which gave us shelter in gush rains.

 

[john70]

the "Waterfall" at Amboli

 

[john70]

Destination reached : Goa

Our Hotel the Fort Aguada Taj was chosen so that we are on the beach and in North Goa. Most of the 5 star properties in Goa are in South Goa while the "happenings" are in North. We wanted to be where the fun happens in Goa. Our checkin completed we moved to our rooms. The day and night on 6th was for the hotel, beach, Fort Aguada, Taj experience, dine & drinks and friendly gapshaps till late night.

7th July Goa

After an early wake up, enjoyed the pool , breakfast and lunch, we left for Goa – Panjim on bikes. After a long time on bikes finally. I was driving bikes after a gap of almost 10 years and my friends too after a long time. The bikes enjoyed thoroughly and came back in evening, took our dinner and left for "The Tito's club". Danced to the tune to our heart and then enjoyed some great "cocktails" at a bar at 2:30am in night and left for hotel.

8th July Goa to Vadodara.

We had initially thought of all going back to Vadodara in Flight and our driver was called in train to pick up our vehicle and drive it back to Vadodara. Yet we changed this few days back - to one of us going back in the car with the driver and rest 6 by air to Vadodara
The return journey by one of our friend was taken by NH17, he left at around 12 noon and reached Mumbai at 1130 pm at Bhayander. According to him Nh17 was better than NH4, less traffic, excellent condition roads, shorter and till 100 kms away from Panvel almost traffic-devoid !! His words "most beautiful" road still echoes in our ears.

Ready for departure


Finally the most memorable tour in our life has ended, a "dream" has come to halt, and back to the routine world. The "Satte pe Satta - Goa" shall forever remain our dream trip.

 

[john70]

Some memorable snaps :

Seven shadows at Night on Baga Beach

Nangartas Waterfall off Amboli

Camera-mati and Bag-mati ... taking our snaps on automode

 

[john70]

Some more...

The fun on bikes.