This weekend we made our first journey out of Mumbai to escape the noise and bustle of the city. As our plan to go away was fairly last minute, we decided to pick somewhere to which we could drive. The sheer size of India and general poor quality of the roads makes this easier said than done. After reading up on the various options, we started our exploration of India by making a 160km journey south down the coast to a seaside town called Murud.
Outside monsoon season, it's possible to get a boat from the southern tip of Mumbai to Alibaug; a seaside town 30km north of Murud and to travel down from there. As the boat stops running in the monsoon season we made the whole journey by car. This was fun in that we got to see lots of the countryside and villages on the way, but is not for the sickly traveller. The traffic and potholes (closer to ravines on occasion) made the journey slow going, taking almost six hours overall. The highlight of the journey for Philip was the large troop of monkeys that we saw on the side of the road on the way.
Murud is a popular weekend break destination for Mumbaikers owing to its relative accessibility from the city. It has lots of small Indian style resorts, and our little hotel was clean and basic and a good base to explore the town. It looked like a bit of a building site from the outside and was a little lacking on the hot water front, but did the job once we got inside. Murud lies on the Konkan coast, the area stretching from Mumbai to Goa, and it said to have much of Goa's beauty and charm, but without the high numbers of tourists seen further south.
Murud feels a world away from Mumbai in its pace of life and with the air and space with comes with the wide expanses of sand at its (relatively) clean beaches. That's not to say that it looks like a traditional tropical paradise. In India, where there are people this seems to come with lots of litter, and Murud is most definitely a lived-in town, but it has a beauty of its own which we appreciated.
We travelled with our driver, Sagar, who stayed in the driver accommodation at the hotel and seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself. An all expenses paid trip to the seaside is good fun for a young driver, and having him with us was also a great help when speaking with locals in the villages during our trip.
We took Friday off work and arrived mid-afternoon, setting out to explore the town after some grub at the hotel. The most striking aspect of this experience for us was the locals' (especially children) fascination with white people. Children would run after us repeating three stock phrases (hello, how are you, what is you name) though didn't seem to require a response, this was exciting enough! We saw no other non-Indians on our trip, showing that we were indeed off the beaten tourist track.
On Saturday, we headed 4km south to visit the famous Janjira fort which was built in the 12th century just off the shore of a small village to the south of Murud. We hoped to get a boat over to the fort to explore inside, but there were unfortunately no boats running owing to the poor weather (and it was pretty poor). Although we knew that boats do not run as standard in the monsoon, we'd hoped to commission one if the weather held, but it was not to be.
Fort trip abandoned, we set off to find and explore some other local sights, including some local tombs, a picturesque waterfall and another notable fort which came up as an attraction on our sat nav. There is no shortage of forts on the Konkan Coast.
The fun in this trip was as much in the driving around between little villages as it was in seeing the sights. We saw all manner of livestock; oxen, cows, buffalo and goats most often; all of which happily ambled along in the middle of the road and appeared entirely unperturbed by our driver honking at them. We saw plenty of children swimming in gats, women with large pots on their heads, oxen pulling carts and even a long funeral procession.
After a few close(ish) calls, we enquired regarding the penalty for running into a cow and got the full low down from Sagar. Apparently, the compensation rate starts at 2000-3000 rupees for a calf, followed by up to 10,000 rupees for a small cow, and potentially 30,000 to 40,000 for a milking cow. Best to steer clear of those just in case!
An exciting and bizarre experience was our attempt to find the sat nav fort mentioned above. The sat nav said we had arrived when we entered a village (as an aside, this was covered in banners proclaiming its allegiance to Gandhi) but there was no fort to be seen. It transpired that this fort was at the top of a hill just behind the village, covered in foliage, but apparently "very close". After tramping up a steep mud slope (in sandles) for several minutes, a local (and very nimble) woman took pity on us and guided us up to the top, by which time we were all soaked through. After a glimpse of a fort at the top, we made it safely down and settled in a local hut for a very welcome cup of hot, sweet chai (5 rupees a pop) which went down extremely nicely.
After drying off, we headed out for some local food that evening in the form of a konkan style veg thali, which comes complete with bread and rice for a princely 70 rupees (75p approx). This was delicious and came with a particularly unusual bright pink konkan syrup (ingredients unknown) which you are supposed to use to offset the spice of other dishes. After another masala chai to round off the meal, our day was complete.
Sunday started fairly eventfully with Phil going out for an early morning run along the beach. Apparently this was all going well until a pack of wild dogs (six of them, ferocious beasts according to Phil) started to chase him and circling to attack. It all sounded quite scary but thankfully some locals came to throw a few stones and scare them off. We know now that wild dogs tend to go for people who are running and alone; so best to keep that in mind in future! Phil also delighted in telling me about the long line of men squatting down at the far end of the beach doing a little more than enjoying the view. There are good reasons for restricting swimming to chlorinated pools in India.
Anyway, we decided to take a detour to Lonvala, a hill station set amongst the majestic Maharashtan hills, on the way home. Sadly, only 5kms from the hill station, we somehow ended up taken a wrong turn (street signs are lacking here) on the Mumbai-Pune express highway which is basically a motorway which you can't get off once on until you are back in Mumbai! The hill station had to be abandoned for another day, but we saw some of the scenery at least. We've learnt that Lonvala is an easy day trip, so we'll be returning with the intention of visiting nearby historic caves too at the next opportunity.
Much of the six hour journey home was spent on our teach yourself Hindi i-pad app. My plan is to learn as much useful vocabulary as possible then learn the grammar to stick it all together. Yesterday, we focused on numbers, days of the week and related words, useful adjectives and a few other basics. Hindi is generally fairly intuitive, with lots of English phrases creeping in, though we did learn that the word for "tomorrow" is the same as the word for "yesterday"...I'm not convinced about the wisdom behind that one.
I will also admit that I had my first McDonalds for many years yesterday as we stopped for lunch with our driver on the way home. Indian McDonalds is rather good and my aloo patty + fries + diet coke meal came in at approx 70 rupees, still less that half the price of the Happy Meals I remember having as a child. Whilst this wouldn't be my first choice in the UK, McDonalds is actually a very safe bet in India. You can't buy a Big Mac for love nor money in India though:-)
After our safe return and a bit of local shopping, we headed out to the great ELCO veg restaurant to share a 290 rupee dosa for a light dinner. This turned out to be a metre long dosa which could have kept a whole family going for some time
After a light game of snooker to work this off (hmm) we headed home for the evening for Skype and eventually bed, after a busy but enjoyable weekend away.
Outside monsoon season, it's possible to get a boat from the southern tip of Mumbai to Alibaug; a seaside town 30km north of Murud and to travel down from there. As the boat stops running in the monsoon season we made the whole journey by car. This was fun in that we got to see lots of the countryside and villages on the way, but is not for the sickly traveller. The traffic and potholes (closer to ravines on occasion) made the journey slow going, taking almost six hours overall. The highlight of the journey for Philip was the large troop of monkeys that we saw on the side of the road on the way.
Monkeys outside Karnala Bird Sanctuary
Particularly scary evil looking monkey, though it did keep doing a good handbell pose
Large pothole ahead
Murud is a popular weekend break destination for Mumbaikers owing to its relative accessibility from the city. It has lots of small Indian style resorts, and our little hotel was clean and basic and a good base to explore the town. It looked like a bit of a building site from the outside and was a little lacking on the hot water front, but did the job once we got inside. Murud lies on the Konkan coast, the area stretching from Mumbai to Goa, and it said to have much of Goa's beauty and charm, but without the high numbers of tourists seen further south.
Hotel - our room was thankfully on the right as you look at the picture
Murud feels a world away from Mumbai in its pace of life and with the air and space with comes with the wide expanses of sand at its (relatively) clean beaches. That's not to say that it looks like a traditional tropical paradise. In India, where there are people this seems to come with lots of litter, and Murud is most definitely a lived-in town, but it has a beauty of its own which we appreciated.
There were lots of horses and traps on the beach, but not enough tourists to fill them at this time of year
More Murud beach
And more
We travelled with our driver, Sagar, who stayed in the driver accommodation at the hotel and seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself. An all expenses paid trip to the seaside is good fun for a young driver, and having him with us was also a great help when speaking with locals in the villages during our trip.
We took Friday off work and arrived mid-afternoon, setting out to explore the town after some grub at the hotel. The most striking aspect of this experience for us was the locals' (especially children) fascination with white people. Children would run after us repeating three stock phrases (hello, how are you, what is you name) though didn't seem to require a response, this was exciting enough! We saw no other non-Indians on our trip, showing that we were indeed off the beaten tourist track.
Impressive pot balancing is a common sight
Typical street
On Saturday, we headed 4km south to visit the famous Janjira fort which was built in the 12th century just off the shore of a small village to the south of Murud. We hoped to get a boat over to the fort to explore inside, but there were unfortunately no boats running owing to the poor weather (and it was pretty poor). Although we knew that boats do not run as standard in the monsoon, we'd hoped to commission one if the weather held, but it was not to be.
Fort and cow
The Janjira Fort
Fort trip abandoned, we set off to find and explore some other local sights, including some local tombs, a picturesque waterfall and another notable fort which came up as an attraction on our sat nav. There is no shortage of forts on the Konkan Coast.
The fun in this trip was as much in the driving around between little villages as it was in seeing the sights. We saw all manner of livestock; oxen, cows, buffalo and goats most often; all of which happily ambled along in the middle of the road and appeared entirely unperturbed by our driver honking at them. We saw plenty of children swimming in gats, women with large pots on their heads, oxen pulling carts and even a long funeral procession.
Old tomb locked up by the central government so we couldn't look inside
Locals enjoying a Saturday afternoon at the waterfall
Rolling green Konkan hills
Particularly pointy hill
After a few close(ish) calls, we enquired regarding the penalty for running into a cow and got the full low down from Sagar. Apparently, the compensation rate starts at 2000-3000 rupees for a calf, followed by up to 10,000 rupees for a small cow, and potentially 30,000 to 40,000 for a milking cow. Best to steer clear of those just in case!
Farming the traditional way
An exciting and bizarre experience was our attempt to find the sat nav fort mentioned above. The sat nav said we had arrived when we entered a village (as an aside, this was covered in banners proclaiming its allegiance to Gandhi) but there was no fort to be seen. It transpired that this fort was at the top of a hill just behind the village, covered in foliage, but apparently "very close". After tramping up a steep mud slope (in sandles) for several minutes, a local (and very nimble) woman took pity on us and guided us up to the top, by which time we were all soaked through. After a glimpse of a fort at the top, we made it safely down and settled in a local hut for a very welcome cup of hot, sweet chai (5 rupees a pop) which went down extremely nicely.
Some grumpiness ensued following the trek up a muddy hill in inappropriate footwear and pouring rain
Happy chai
After drying off, we headed out for some local food that evening in the form of a konkan style veg thali, which comes complete with bread and rice for a princely 70 rupees (75p approx). This was delicious and came with a particularly unusual bright pink konkan syrup (ingredients unknown) which you are supposed to use to offset the spice of other dishes. After another masala chai to round off the meal, our day was complete.
Veg thali
Sunday started fairly eventfully with Phil going out for an early morning run along the beach. Apparently this was all going well until a pack of wild dogs (six of them, ferocious beasts according to Phil) started to chase him and circling to attack. It all sounded quite scary but thankfully some locals came to throw a few stones and scare them off. We know now that wild dogs tend to go for people who are running and alone; so best to keep that in mind in future! Phil also delighted in telling me about the long line of men squatting down at the far end of the beach doing a little more than enjoying the view. There are good reasons for restricting swimming to chlorinated pools in India.
Anyway, we decided to take a detour to Lonvala, a hill station set amongst the majestic Maharashtan hills, on the way home. Sadly, only 5kms from the hill station, we somehow ended up taken a wrong turn (street signs are lacking here) on the Mumbai-Pune express highway which is basically a motorway which you can't get off once on until you are back in Mumbai! The hill station had to be abandoned for another day, but we saw some of the scenery at least. We've learnt that Lonvala is an easy day trip, so we'll be returning with the intention of visiting nearby historic caves too at the next opportunity.
Hill focus. What we could have won.
Much of the six hour journey home was spent on our teach yourself Hindi i-pad app. My plan is to learn as much useful vocabulary as possible then learn the grammar to stick it all together. Yesterday, we focused on numbers, days of the week and related words, useful adjectives and a few other basics. Hindi is generally fairly intuitive, with lots of English phrases creeping in, though we did learn that the word for "tomorrow" is the same as the word for "yesterday"...I'm not convinced about the wisdom behind that one.
I will also admit that I had my first McDonalds for many years yesterday as we stopped for lunch with our driver on the way home. Indian McDonalds is rather good and my aloo patty + fries + diet coke meal came in at approx 70 rupees, still less that half the price of the Happy Meals I remember having as a child. Whilst this wouldn't be my first choice in the UK, McDonalds is actually a very safe bet in India. You can't buy a Big Mac for love nor money in India though:-)
After our safe return and a bit of local shopping, we headed out to the great ELCO veg restaurant to share a 290 rupee dosa for a light dinner. This turned out to be a metre long dosa which could have kept a whole family going for some time
Light supper. Sigh.
After a light game of snooker to work this off (hmm) we headed home for the evening for Skype and eventually bed, after a busy but enjoyable weekend away.
Cheerful moment prior to muddy hill climbing incident
