Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Weekend Trip to Malavan

June 4th 2016.

I have been to my native Belgavi. All family members decided to go for a trip. And after long discussion we came to conclusion that, we will visit to "Malvan Beach".

About Malvan –Malvan is a town in Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra. It is known for Sindhudurg Fort, Malvani cuisine (Fish curry and Solkadi), Alphonso – Mango and local food. Malvan is considered as heaven for the non-vegetarians especially sea food lovers.
Malvan beach have very beautiful long coastline with white powder sand, clear sea water. Tourists get attracted towards Malvan because of clean, beautiful beaches, Fort, lovely nature and very less crowd. People generally opt to go to Goa as it is hardly 100km away from Malvan. Now it is famous spot for Snorkeling and Scuba diving.
Our main intention to visit this place is Snorkeling and scuba diving.


Since Malavan is just 3.5 hrs journey from Belgavi. We left home early morning around 6:00 AM.

The route is as follows :
Belgavi - Amboli ghat - Savanthwadi - Kudal - Malvan.

Route from Belgavi
We were total 10 family members started our journey in two vehicles.
One i10 and Ertiga. Early morning it was awesome cool weather.
It is very risky travel as weather conditions were not normal.
We are not able to see the road because of heavy fog.
Amboli Ghat road

Road conditions were really good. But one should take control on the speed because of frequent curves and due to previous day rain road was very wet any vehicle can easily slip.

We stopped near Amboli Ghat for breakfast and the view was awesome.
You can find Monkey thieves in the area.
You should be very cautious.

Water fall @ Amboli



Monkeys :)
There are so many local stalls present near Amboli Ghat, where you get variety of food items for breakfast. Main specialty for monsoon are Kanda Baji, Poha, Vada Pav, Missal pav and sweet corn.

Poha and Tea
After completing the breakfast we started our journey towards savanthwadi. before reaching savanthwadi, you will see a mentioning Kudal and Savanthwadi. You need to take a diversion towards Kudal.

From Kudal it is just 30 min drive.

We reached around 11 AM to Malavan. As we already booked a home stay " Rose Marry ". After keeping all the luggage we directly went to beach.
@Rose Mary with Family
Rose Marry home stay

Malvan beach is known as private and clean beach. The nature and surroundings are clean. There are no water sports option in Malvan.
If you want to enjoy the water sports, you need to visit Tarkarli beach or other beaches around Malvan.


Malavan Beach

One of main attraction is early morning fishing done by localities. You can able to see different varieties of fish, sea snake and crabs.


After playing in water for around 2 hrs, we came back to

home stay and took hot water bath.


After getting ready we visited nearby famous restaurant "Athiti Bambo". If you are a non-vegetarian and sea food lover then this is the must place to visit.
Pomfret meal

Here solkadi is famous. Only problem is you need to wait for more than 30-min to get table.


After having lunch, we took a good nap.
After getting up we went to beach to see the sunset.

Sunset @ Malvan
We came back to home stay and enjoyed some time with playing in sand. And next day, we had local special breakfast "Amboli". And started journey back to Belgavi.


Amboli
 Expenditures:


  • Pompfret meal: INR 250/-
  • Prawns meal: INR 150/-
  • Veg meal: INR 60/- (without sweet)
  • Boat ride to Sindhudurg: INR 38/- per head (return ticket)
  • Guide charges: INR 100/-
  • Boat ride to Tsunami island: INR 300/- for boat
  • Bumper ride: INR 200/- per head
  • Jet skis ride: INR 250/- per head
  • Crab meal at Atithi Bamboo: INR 100/-


  • After long drive we reached back home around 5:00 PM.
    Overall it was good trip.
      

    Thursday, December 22, 2016

    Weekend Trip To Lonavla

    Monsoon Trip To Lonavla

    Date:  30th July 2016

    Since monsoon started me and my wife Supriya have planned to travel Lonavla. We started our journey around 7AM from Viman Nagar. Weather was awesome. It was drizzling with heavy fog. 

    Lonavla

    About Lonavla

    Lonavla is a popular town and a hill station in the Pune district of Maharashtra. This hill-station is located on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway and is about 60 kms from Pune. Lonavla is famous for a popular candy known as 'chikki' and is also a major tourist stop-over between Mumbai and Pune. The lush blanket of green surrounding this hill-station springs to life during the Monsoon season. Many popular Bollywood films have used the picturesque backdrop of Lonavla which is blessed with waterfalls, lakes and greenery. The name 'Lonavla' is derived from 'Len' and 'Avali' that roughly translates to 'the resting place of stones'. This scenic hill station was initially a part of the Yadava dynasty. Later, the Mughals used this beautiful hill-station as a strategic location against their rivals. In 1871, Lonavla and the sister hill-station, Khandala, were discovered by Lord Elphinstone. Nearby attractions are Lohgarh fort, Lion Point, Tiger Point and the Duke's Nose. With a population of 60,000 souls, Lonavla is must-visit hill station on the way between Mumbai and Pune.

    Trip Map

    We choose old Bombay highway road for our journey so that we can enjoy country side.

    There was not much of traffic due to rain.
    We took few pit stops to enjoy the nature. We planned to visit Mulsi Dam, Tiger point, Loin point, Tungarli Lake and Wax museum.
    Towards lonvla

    Places to see

    In Lonavla, there are a variety of places a tourist should visit. Apart from the breathtaking views of the lush-green trees and shrubs, the hills, the waterfalls and the Lonavla Chikki, there is a lot more to see at this mystifying hill station. Tourists can visit Khandala as well, which is a neighboring hill-station. The Karla, Bhaja and Bhedsa caves are a must-visit for those wanting to soak in medieval splendor. There are a few hill station points that offer a tremendous view, some of them being Rajmachi Point, Tiger Point, Lion Point, Duke's Nose and Shooting Point. The Wax Museum is located 3 km from the railway station is a fairly new attraction for tourists. The Tungarli Lake and dam are also worth visiting, especially, during the monsoon season. For those seeking history-based adventures, the Lohgarh Fort offers a palatial view of the battle-station of Chhatrapati Shivaji.

    We reached Lonavla around 8:30 AM. Since we did not had breakfast we stopped at Shivsagar Restaurant. After having breakfast we started journey towards Tiger point. On the way we came across beautiful waterfall near Baje Village.
    Baje waterfall
    Towards tiger point we came across heavy rain with thick fog. 
    We had no other choice other than stopping car nearby restaurant.
    With nice whether my wife Supriya suggested to have tea and pakoda.
    Surprisingly the Pakoda and Tea combination was tasted really good in that chilled weather.

    After sometime rain seems to be slow down and we left towards tiger point. Around 10:00 AM we reached Tiger Point. Weather was clear.
    Tiger point in thick fog
    We started taking some snaps of ours in that awesome weather. Usually the tiger point was bit crowded but due to bad weather it seems like clean hill station.

    Snacks near Tiger Point:-Corn Pakoda- 20 RS
    -Maggie- 25 RS
    -Tea- 15 RS
    -Sweetcorn(Roasted/boiled)- 15 RS

    There are some daba style restaurants where you can have lunch but they are not hygienic.

    We left from the tiger point after snap shooting. It was almost noon, as weather was clear we left tiger point to cover other places of Lonavala.

    Near mulsi dam we stopped for view. View was good.
     Lot people were stopping near the bridge. At some point it created a traffic jam.

    After spending some valuable time we planned to visit wax museum.

    Wax museum is located near lonavala exit point. We need to go below the bridge to reach wax museum.

    We did not find wax museum as good as we imagined. So after sometime we left the area headed back to NH4 for nice restaurant for our lunch.

    We stopped near hotel Vaishali and had some local food pitla bakari. 

    We reached pune around 3:30 PM.



    Total Expenses:
    Petrol : 500 RS

    Lunch Food : 300 RS
    Snacks: 200 RS
    Chikki: 100 RS

    I will be posting my next trip as soon as possible.

    Thank you readers,
    Happy Travelling



    Tuesday, May 31, 2016