While on Travel....

At the time of sunrise Fresh clean air, small busy town, and most interestingly just a stone's throw away from Mumbai. Hard to believe eh? That Saturday, 16 Dec 2006, was quite a warm day in Mumbai, and we had an appointment to keep with the small beach town by the coast - Alibaug . Unfortunately although we were supposed to be 8 of us; busy city schedules and unplanned activities made it possible for just the 3 of us to keep that appointment. Although at first we were a little disappointed that the others dropped out, the place and our host, R made the holiday worthwhile. We met at the docks, and embarked on to the 5.30 pm launch to Mandwa. No ferries go upto Alibaug since the waters on the coast are shallow. The weather changed gradually in the next 45 mins as we drifted away from Mumbai towards Mandwa. We caught the lovely sunset. Ship at sea The sea was dotted with a few cruise liners, one particularly good looking Luxury Liner, many launches, some catamarans (the only differ

Achoo! I went, achoo! again. Oh God! I hope I make it this time to Ganapatipule, a beach that has been on my check list for long. And thank God, we managed to take that weekend ( 1st weekend of Dec, 2006 ) off to G'pule. There are 3 ways to get there. Either one drives down or opts for a bus or train. The journey being 8 hrs long, we thought train would be a better idea. The closest station to G'pule is Ratnagiri which is connected to the mainland by the Konkan Railway - all credits to the Konkan rail go to Mr.Sridharan, bless him for it and for the wonderful metro-rail network that he is putting in place in Delhi and Mumbai. I sure wish there are many more like him. The Matsyagandha train beginning at Tilaknagar terminus, Mumbai and terminating at Goa, left the station at 2.00 pm and got us off at the Ratnagiri station at 9.00 pm the same night. The road journey to Ganapatipule from Ratnagiri was a pleasant one hour drive, complemented by good roads. By the time