There is a guy in every friend circle who watches TVF Tripling gets super excited like excitement level out of this planet and finally after bringing all the friends together giving n number senti reasons plans a ROADTRIP… Guess what I am that guy. So after a long tiring weekend, working in a bank this was our most awaited trip, the only fear was please Modi ji Friday night ye na bolna mere “praare desh vasiyon….”
So the bags were packed, it was officially a holiday and there we were, 4 bankers taking a break from our daily routine of handling long queues, counting old notes exchanging old notes, explaining that there are no notes left in the bank, sleeping late nights to going on a road trip to Alibaug and the best part it was a bike ride. My new Avenger 220 Cruise was shining bright alongside with my old Splendor NXG, yes you read it right Splendor NXG.
Two bikes 220cc and 100cc four crazy bankers an awesome plan and a wonderful destination. Saturday morning it was almost 9’0 clock 2 hours behind schedule that we started our trip, the first stop was decided as MANDWA. The sun was shining we were on our bikes cruising singing ye dosti hum nahi todenge and riding towards our destination. The roads were almost empty with one two cars and I couldn’t help stopping my urge to feel the road…80..90..100..110 clocked the speedometer indeed the name given to AVENGER suits it well FEEL LIKE GOD, I was about to touch 120
when my pillion shouted Bro you do remember our other friends are in Splendor. It was at that moment I laughed as hard as I can and stopped my bike in the shadow of the tree waiting for Splendor friends to join us. It was a straight road one could see the horizon. Far away very far away we saw a tiny dot moving and approaching towards us slowly steadily the dot was moving towards us, we could feel the sun the refraction on the road made us believe that there was water or petrol spilled over evaporating and there the dot became clear it was a bike was moving towards us five minutes later we finally recognized it’s none other than our guys. They stopped in the shade and said bhai 100 cc hai dheere chala :P.
We had our first official pits stop around 80 km from Mumbai to a restraint called On the way to Mandwa you will find Hotel Siddhant Palace
a decent restaurant we had our breakfast there. It’s a decent place with washroom available one can have a variety of items from MissalPav to Poha to EGG Bhurji to cold drinks. After a short break we resumed our journey to Mandwa. Mandwa is almost 110 Km from Powai and it took us full three hours to reach there. Mandwa has a few water sports and ferry service to go to CST. We didn’t find Mandwa that interesting although we found an adjoining beach approximately 2Km from Mandwa where we could take our bike and drive on the beach that was some fun to do. We took our bike to the shore touching the water along the beach, driving as if we were horse riding it was an amazing feeling watching the vast sea and moving towards it in full speed till the tyres touch the water and then ride your bike on the shores. Well we did get an opportunity to do the same at Varsoli Beach so my advice do not waste time going to Mandwa, straightaway head towards Alibaug.
Next stop Alibaug, the excitement was in our eyes we could hear the waves as we were parking our bikes at that moment luggage, room, tiredness nothing mattered all that mattered was beach sand and the fun which we were planning with all this excitement we ran towards the sea from parking with our bag packs on only to stop at the commencement of the beach and shout WTF!!! All we could see were horses on the beach, few people around, horse shit which was smelling and dirt bikes. Now, if you are the planner for a trip and you get to see this, your friends might kill you!!! It was like a pothole in Mumbai with heavy rains, though Alibaug beach had one good point I shall get back to that later. Next thing we enquired for rooms and it seemed Alibaug was too costly with prices touching the sky but facilities zero. So we enquired with the locals we came to know a few beaches around Alibaug one beach called Kashid beach, which was quite far and then we heard about Varsoli beach which was merely 3km away. So once again with hopes in our eyes excitement level down to 50% we moved towards Varsoli. Well I got to thank google maps because for the second time we took a wrong turn and instead of going to the beach we were again there on the shore with our bikes riding along with the sea that was some fun similar to Mandwa. The locals around said beach is just a few meters away so with hopes again this time excitement level full we moved towards the beach, riding our bikes on the shore. Riding a two wheeler on the sand can be pretty dangerous as the wheels skit. We moved along we saw some crows at some distance. Finally, we arrived now surprisingly this is a beach where one must visit, there was decent crowd we could see water sports going on. Now we needed a room it was afternoon and we had to drop our luggage and take a dip in the Arabian Sea. There are a few cottages available adjacent to the beach itself and depending on your negotiating skills one can negotiate the rate. We got one room with attached washroom for 24 hours at 2000 rupees a fair deal (started from 5000) Do not expect any lavish room experience, there were 4 of us and the room had four beds combined with blankets and mosquito repellant available, we just needed a place to keep our luggage and got one. Dropping the luggage, we ran towards the sea screaming in fun till our feet touched the water and finally we took that dip in the water, now my road trip was successful. The beach has water sports but if you been to Goa then the rides won’t amuse you. We did banana ride for Rs150 per person, this was fun I remember my first time with my college friends Abhimanyu, Shashank, Manish, Mahesh and Akhil. Manish while climbing back on the banana boat dropped us twice in the water and Mahesh was shit scared, that was some fun in Goa coming back I did the same and the crew was also friendly they saw our enthusiasm and joined us that banana boat ride lasted almost half an hour with us climbing and falling just enjoying.
Water scooter ride is for Rs200; we did that it’s a short ride of 5 minutes or so. Para sailing was not available because of their parachute problem. Now remember after the rides, do not submit your life jacket wear them we gave the person extra 100 bucks for 4 life jackets and sea was what we were waiting for. We just lay afloat and let the waves took us deep inside the water it feels amazing no words can describe how I felt at that moment, leaving away all the worries in your life you just float and let go. Everyone wants a vacation but if you are a banker specially in this demonetarization time you will understand the calmness, the silence with no customer yelling at you, no queue to attend just the sea and you floating. With the help of life jacket we went far away in the water and it was fun (Do obey the coast guard or the local’s instruction and don’t go beyond the marked point, like they say maza saza nai banni chaiye) Oh I almost forgot do carry a football or volleyball it is fun to play in water. After almost 4 to 5 hours in water playing just sitting there peacefully we knew it was time to head home, it was almost sunset the sky looked beautiful, the horizon where the sky meets earth no pic can describe the happYness we felt at that moment. So it was time to leave the sea reluctantly we said adieu and moved on. At our cottage we took bath and moved to eat something. For food one has to go to Alibaug and do keep in mind the restaurant opens after 7, it was 6:30 pm that we reached to have food but got disappointed to add fuel to fire it was a dry day and all the booze shops were closed. (If you like boozing, please carry it with you as you won’t get scotch just Blenders Pride and Signature, this fact is after enquiring). So we went to this fancy place to have dinner (sorry I forgot the name but it’s a bar and restaurant and a good looking one). Must try for non-vegetarians Chicken Lapeta and solecurry also try kulche with lots of butter. After dinner we saw the city, it’s a small town and of course if you have lived in Mumbai no city is good enough we found a famous Alibaug market where one can get good stuffs for decorating or purses, gift items basically a small fair if you are in shopping mood do visit. Moving on we came to know it’s a dry day but do not worry my friend Varsoli beach has it all.
A few meters from our cottage towards the beach there is a beer shop and Eureka (Fun fact the shop keeper will tell you that the shop opens till 10:30 PM do not listen to him, SOB closed the shop before 10 and we ran out of booze, get adequate stock). That night was wonderful we made a bon fire sung songs with strangers, danced boozed and slept. Next morning we had our breakfast in the cottage itself, Missalpav and egg bhurji , these two items were delicious, although there are varieties of food available. As we had to head back we didn’t take a dip in the sea just went to the beach and saw the crowd, it had doubled since yesterday. We had seen a fort at Alibaug beach called Kolaba Fort and all of a sudden we decided to go there. It was around 11am and the scene was different than yesterday, there was water at the beach and also water sports had started at Alibaug beach, we just stood there and laughed. Kolaba fort can be visited by walking on the water, the water is not too deep but what’s the fun in it, there are boat services to take you there which costs Rs70 per person one way. It’s Portuguese fort, again one will be reminded of GOA, similar to it, it had rusty canons rocks in short do visit it now the fun part was ours was a one-way ticket and the boats had stopped because the water level had gone back now we sat on the tanga and moved towards the beach, the horses ran on the water at one point you will find yourself surrounded with water in all the directions and tanga wala saying chal Dhanno.
It was an amazing trip which came to an end with us reaching Mumbai by the night. My advice is to have fun remember “Life is like an Ice cream, enjoy it before it melts”.
Total Distance from Powai to Alibaug and back – 314Km
Signing Off this is Saket (lifehappened1703) for Yatripandit.
About the author
A engineer turned banker who feels like God when rides his avenger. He writes about his life experiences on lifehappened1703.blogspot.in
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