To Goa In Monsoon - Satte pe Satta
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.