Alibaug

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 difference between these and the launches are that they move on 2 hulls, making them more sophisticated and stable -with fewer jerks...I am talking about the physical ones and not the human jerks ;) While we sailed past, the birds were returning back to their homes, and the seagulls tried to grab their last bite in the vast oceans.
At 6.20 pm sharp we disembarked at Mandwa. Had we been 8 as planned earlier, we would have to take a bus to Alibaug, but then R was sweet enough to play the gracious host and came specially to pick us up in his vehicle. The car looked brand new and we were surprised to know that he had already done 1,00,000 kms in it!!! I guess these are the benefits of living in Alibaug - even the car shows it :)

The ride to Alibaug was ~25 mins by road. The winds were chilly, and the air fresh n clean. An hour fm Mumbai, and here was a different world. Dotted with wadis - small independent houses with their own little orchards/ back + frontyards. Some modernised, while some still retained the old world charm.

We first went to grab some food since we are forever hungry souls. We had some "ragda pattice" at a popular corner and moved on to Versoli beach, just 3 kms from Alibaug. This is where we would stay until the end of tomorrow. After depositing our bags there we moved on to the beach. The time was well past 8.00 pm. The sun had set without a trace. We walked on the sands under the dark night sky. It was closer to new moon, so we had a panoramic view of the night sky, with very little moonlight. We were lucky to see a shooting star too. It looked so beautiful when it shot right past the skies across zillions of galaxies. I hummed to myself ...

"Starlight, starbright,

The first star I see tonite.
I wish I may, I wish I might.
I wish my dreams come true tonite"

Interestingly, we four were not the only souls that night at the beach. There were other beach bums, some merely drinking, some enjoying the sea breeze and some others contemplating at a distance from the shores whether it was safe to take that nice walk along the sea. Luckily we had R with us, who is a local and so we felt safe just by his presence.
While we strolled, B suddenly remembered some ghastly tales. She said they were true tales about ghosts which she had watched on the channel Travel n Living. She went on to relate the ghastly tales about a haunted home. The channel name she dropped did lend the whole tale credibility.

Then suddenly a thought crossed my mind. The conversation that transpired....
Me : R do you believe in Ghosts?
R : No
Me : is it because you believe in God and so you dont believe in Ghosts?
R : No I dont believe in God either
Me (surprised) : and whyever not?
R : It would be hypocritical to believe in the positive or the negative alone. Where there is good there is evil too. So I would rather not believe in either :)
M (thoughtful): Hmmm... that's interesting

The night sky was a delight. The walk got us all hungry and I was keen for my plate of fish. R took us to a nearby joint which served some delicious varieties of fish and local fare.
We then split, promising to meet at sunrise. Just before that R reminded us that the guesthouse we were put up at belonged to an Exorcist :). Thank God! for that.

Palms lining the beach

The next day, passed by rather quickly. A quick walk to Versoli beach, which was just a few minutes from our guesthouse, to watch the sunrise.

The first sunrays

R joined us by then, in time for our breakfast. Had a long chat, about travels and plans, over a hot cuppa. Spent a few more minutes at the guesthouse and then got going. B noticed some gooseberry and supari trees in the guesthouse frontyard. So she had them plucked...anxious to check out the taste :)

The Supari palm

On the itinerary next was a fort right in the middle of the sea. Called the Kolaba fort, the only way to access it is on foot or by a buggy. However care needs to be taken to make sure that whichever route you take you need to be back before high tide. At the time we decided to go there, the low tide had just about set in, so the waters were not very shallow; and we decided to take the buggy ride. Not easy! Dink, donk, clunk....those were my bones bumping into each other while the horse waded through the Alibaug waters.

The (in)famous buggy ride

It took about 30 mins to look around the fort - 2 old Brit Canons, the Someshwar temple and the magnificient view of the seas from the top.

From a distance (the Kolaba fort)Old Brit Canons

From the fort

Sorry R! I dont remember any historic details, thanks to that shaky ride on the buggy. My grey cells got completely jammed! ;) Also the heavy breakfast I had grabbed just before the buggy ride only made matters worst :p

Once back, we went quickly for our lunch, some desserts and then R dropped us off at Mandwa. We took a catamaran back home. This time since we had learnt from the trip the previous day, we asked specially for tickets to the top deck. The view was blissful. There were some funny humans with us who fed the seagulls(chips, biscuits, and God alone knows what else) almost the entire way back, so through the journey we had an entire flock of seagulls on our trail :). In case you haven't figured out, you would by now why species get endangered and then extinct. Whoever said Seagulls love Fritolays!

As we approached the shore, we could smell Mumbai....
Such a striking contrast, an hour away fm Mumbai lies a blissfully peaceful beachtown, which offers so much solace to the aching ears and tired minds. However, just like any small town, it faces shortage of infrastructure - power cuts for ~4-6 hours daily.

In this small town, our friend R, the enterprising guy that he is, runs a communications centre (the only communications centre). His challenge is to ensure that he is able to provide internet facility through the day, even when the power is cut. He runs on generators and invertors and makes sure that his business does not stop, and customers never disappointed. We need more like him don't we :)

As for Alibaug....would definitely be there more often :)

Special thanks to R for the lovely holiday and B for the great pics! :)

Before memories fade....

Alibagh