This is the first of the many parts of my Konkan Trip that started with 5 friends.
From 25th to 29th December 2009.
Its been a while since I blogged but am sure I will make it worth the wait. The reason being that on 25th Dec. 2009 at 3:00PM I and my 4 friends from WeSchool embarked upon a trip that had so many twists and turns and am not talking about the roads here, that we were all mesmerized as much as from the beauty of Konkan as we were with what was ahead of us at all times during the trip.
To begin with the preparations for the trip began a good 45 days before 25th of Dec. 2009. The locations that we planned to trip upon (pun intended) were Ganpatipule, Ratnagiri & Tarkarli, Malvan. The bookings for Ganpatipule were full as the weekend that we were planning had two holidays (Christmas 25th Friday & Moharram 28th Monday) and a Sunday, so all in all one Saturday off made it a 4-dayer vacation. We were not getting accommodation at ganpatipule so I tried my luck and got the rooms booked at Ganpatipule for 5 of us (Me, Gautam, Vinayak Rahul & Rameshwar). Happy that I did the same, I earned the bragging rights (atleast for the time being) that, what no one else could do I did. Days later I received the receipt confirming the booking I just gazed through it and text messaged my friends that the booking is confirmed. Fast forward to 25th December 2009. After a rather early waking up at around 8:00AM I helped mom with some errands as she was leaving for Malvan, hadpiwadi on the same day but by train.
So, at 11:30 AM on 25th December I left home but to stop over at my good friend’s place for the Christmas lunch. We were 4 of us for that lunch. Old friends from my graduation years. The lunch was really yummy with non-vegetarian food galore. The good time at this friends place got over as 2:30PM was nearing. The time we planned to leave Thane for Ganpatipule. As I called up Gautam, in-charge of the car to see if they had left, they were unfortunately late by about 30 mins or so. I had to wait in the sun though the cool breeze made the wait bearable to say the least. So at 2:55 PM after the TATA Indigo came I sat in it and left to pick up Rameshwar at Airoli Bridge the last of the 5 as Rahul had already come to Thane. So, our Journey started and we headed towards Navi Mumbai for NH-17. Slowly and surely we were able to leave the city behind us and it felt really good with every passing kilometer. At around 5:30 I got behind the wheels with the idea for the trip being that Gautam and I driving for 90 minutes each. This was the second time I was driving this car but the first time in the ghats. Being an entirely new experience I tried not to be too conscious but somehow I was not that easy on the gears with Gautam giving me instructions at every corner of the road. At 6:30PM Gautam took over, as the speed of my driving was not that favourable for the trip. Reaching Ratnagiri was our main motive as Ganpatipule was just a half hour drive from there. After reaching the so called left for Ganpatipule we drove a few feet away and thought of enquiring a shop that was open at 11:30 in the night. He directed us towards the road that was just a few paces behind us, which eventually took us to Ganpatipule. Reaching there our search for MTDC resort, which we had booked a month earlier, got over in 15 minutes, thankfully. Once inside the premises I searched for the receipt that was in the bag kept at the back of the car. Royally we 5 of us walked inside as we were seeing people around us searching for accommodation and believe me all the resorts/ hotels were full with not a single room available. But, we were carefree, as I had the room booking receipt in my hand. I kept that receipt on the counter and the two men standing across the counter glanced at me rather surprisingly, as if to say ‘What am I doing here at this hour of the night?’. Between it was past 12 that time and they were getting ready for there good nights sleep. They saw the receipt and at once pointed out the date to me. There it was the booking was done for 25th Nov. to 27th Nov. and here we were standing at MTDC resort Ratnagiri on 25th Dec. 09 expecting that we would be welcomed. That moment was such a low blow for me that the others in my group were controlling their laughter and I had a look on my face that was a ‘Kodak moment’ to say the least. The resort guys tried their level best to see if we could get an accommodation but there wasn’t a single room that was empty. That was it. We all decided that now we would drive down to Hadpiwadi (my house) 23Kms before Malvan. But that was another 4 hours drive for us and it was already 1A.M. It was decided that Gautam and me would drive and hour each. But I felt sleepy on my way to Hadpiwadi and Gautam did the needful. We reached 25 Kms before Malvan and went on going straight and it was 4:30AM now. We took a wrong right turn and went on going through a Jungle were there was so much of darkness that minus the headlights it would had been next to impossible to see outside. After much running around in circles we found that we had reached 12 Kms before Malvan and that meant we were on the wrong track. Suddenly at a turn after going through small lanes we cam out on a road were people were out walking taking their morning stroll. We were all wondering that for the past 4 hours we did not find a single person and all of sudden 12-15 people were spotted out of nowhere. One of the guy told us the way to Hadpiwadi and we followed that road religiously and at 5:45 we were at ‘Yeshwat’ my place, my house in the belly of mesmerizing Konkan.
This was just the start of our Journey. More yet to come.
