Different lives beyond the windows, trip in Lalpari (Travelogue)

Out of the blue, we decided, “let’s go to a beach for new year’s”. Since it was last minute, we started surfing for hotel rooms, mostly were full, at first, we thought of dapoli (was far from pune) then thought of Alibagh, but since it is not clean and hotel were almost full, we went for kashid beach which was 1 hour distance from alibagh and comparatively is less crowdy and cleaner beach.

Since we were only two of us, we thought, let’s add to the adventure and instead of cab, lets opt for the bus, we landed up booking from Red bus, it was a surprise that MSRTC lalpari were available for the place just we wanted.

So, we booked our seats online (online prices are inflated than it is in person) but getting a reservation on the spot would be difficult so we booked it in advance (Thank god). We were surprised to have buses available of MSRTC in Red bus in so much frequency to-and fro alibagh.

We took auto till the bus stand, our bus was at 6.50am, we reached around 6.30am, without breakfast. Bus was getting late and we were there with empty stomach, so to quest for some time, I walked around to see if there’s any nasta, but couldn’t find as it was early morning. Finally, an old man I asked for, showed be a small telha which was serving hot bajji pav. Finally had that to kick start our journey of another 5 hours. We had our bag-with chips, biscuits, apples, banana, water bottle(must)and ofcourse cash.

As soon as we reached the Vallabh nagar(pcmc), there was active Enquiry desk; Bus was late, we had booked for Kashid, so we were looking for that, we found a bus taking to Murud , glad after asking bus driver and conductor, we showed them our reservation, that was our bus. Since it was pre booked, we were glad, we didn’t miss the bus and had seats for ourselves. It was cold, we had our jackets,mufflers socks on.

We had a halt at lonavla,where conductor has said would be only 10min break, so there was long queue for coupons to get breakfast, where we had tasty Idli-chutney after a long haul.

Pimpri-chinchwad-nigdi-dehu rd-khopoli-pen-alibagh-kashid

We went through picturesque western ghats, pen-an industrial town (giving rozghar, to and fro commuting buses are available) Always wondered how was small stations like pen’s life and how its working might be.

Each house we see through the stained glass of the window, each house had lot to say, lots of stories, etc. Each of them was speaking different stories of different lives. An old woman was carrying probably her grandkids to school, hawkers waiting for people to buy their stuff, some of them are heading to their work.

There was rush once we entered alibagh, as it was almost weekend, and as roads were narrow, cars were pouring in.

We were dropped off at kashid beach by the bus, but our hotel was some 2-2.5 kms away from there. As per booking, hotel was 700metres from beach, so we had thought it might be walking distance, but not.

We quenched our thirst first with sugarcane juice as it was almost 1.30pm, sun was very bright. We tried fetching auto, an auto was already there, but he was reluctant to take us as he was already booked for a ride for a long distance. We waited for 40-45 mins for an auto to come. Finally we got a tum-tum (longer auto), we opened our google map, as we didn’t knew the landmark, so accordingly we halted the auto where it was walking distance from the main road.

After this all I wanted to was unload the bag and hit the bed. Finally, we reached our hotel, Coral Bay Villa, after finally finding the caretaker, we got our rooms, hotel was clean, bed was clean.

We were hungry as it has already past the lunch time-3.15pm. We freshened up, and straight went to nearest restaurant which we had found while having a walk from main road. We were afraid, lunch was finished as it was late, but to our delight, we got our prawns thali (it is called kolambi there) and chicken thali.

Prawns’ thali was amazing, the prawns cooked with burnt garlic gave it a good flavour. The rice was nice and dry, the solkadi was tasty too, the curry was made with coconut base and was flavourful. We had it to our stomach full, dragged ourselves to main road and started walking for kashid main beach, much to our disappointment of not getting an auto (no cab btw, cab ki aadat!) turned delightful as we found there was cut road and beach was there (that’s why hotel had said its 700m from room). It was like we found gold, as it was not at all crowdy, it was peaceful and clean. We sat there for a while, took few pictures, soaked our legs in the sea, waves were of lesser intensity here. Just before the sunset we were again hungry, we started to walk towards main kashid beach-which had all the water sports and refreshments. We decided to and started walking along the beach in water, didn’t felt it was 2.5kms long.

We went for one of the refreshment stalls, which also had hammocks tied to the supports of their tents, swang for a bit, and then had hot maggie while sun was setting,

I had my entire maggie watching the sun set. Kashid beach does have an amazing sun set. The ships, boats in the foreground, forming silhouettes, people and the rush in the beach slowly going, water sports activity being withdrawn while the sun set, amazing settings…

We sat there till the last minute. My sister wanted to stay more there, but somehow I felt, we wont get an auto while we have to return to our hotel room, fortunately at 7pm dot-(beach which was full of activity and people sometime ago was empty and just had vendors and few families who already had their vehicle/private booked autos there) we got an auto, I had waved to calling”auto” of my loudest voice(coz I knew getting auto is so difficult here). Auto Driver asked for landmark again, we told them about the hotel we had food, he was still confused, going through a small village which had a temple, bank and an ATM as well, it was good to see development in small villages. Near our hotel was a small primary school as well-whose setup looked exactly like we see in films.

We reached the hotel-villa after a short walk from the main road, freshen up and ordered for a homely vegetarian meal made by caretaker’s wife. I put on some old film songs in tv and digged in the yummy dinner.

After the dinner, we went for a walk nearby our hotel room, as it was soon after chritmas, all the resorts were lit with Christmas lights, already felt like new years eve. We could hear live singing and guitar session in one of the villas, amazing atmosphere with chilly night.

We wanted to get up early to explore other side of our villa, but we wanted to try water sports, so once we got up, ordered for some poha and coffee, though it got late to arrive, we enjoyed the breakfast with a good greenery view from our private balcony.

We straight headed to kashid main beach, we were just casually asking for water sports activity for me as my sister had already ridden those, we got a good deal for all the activity. Jet skii, banana ride and a flat tube ride was awesome, we had told them not to put us in water, but he did, rides were worth it!!!the adrenaline rush! After all the rides, completely soaked in sea water and sea sand, we tried drying seating in one of the benches, there was no wind to dry it out faster, we decided to let it and I had a nap on one of the hammocks with bright sun drying up my clothes.

We were tired with the water sports and of course hungry, we straight headed towards our villa- got a tum-tum again, freshen up and headed to other side of the villa to explore eating option and to have a look around the place, there was primary school, small bus stop, fields and also one more cut-road and another way to reach beach (we thought to explore that the next day early morning). We were searching for “Shubham” restaurant as per google maps, but couldn’t find it, as we were very hungry, we walked a bit and went to sea villa restaurant, my sister ordered for surmai, I again opted for prawn’s thali, taste was okayish, the prawn coating was not that great and tasty, the prawns were not fresh it felt, the curry gravy was okayish too as it was coursed-coconut so flavour went blah!

After the lunch, we had a little resting time in our villa, I kept on the tv and just stayed for a bit, then again, we got ready to head to the beach near our villa, soaked in the sun-sand and just stared the beach soaking the beauty of the nature, soaked my legs in the water, this time little bit more, as I knew next day we had to leave.

We again headed to the main beach to watch the water sports activities, some were with family, some were couple, some had friends’ trip, some had school picnic there. Water sports was fun to watch though, the parasailing balloon just before the sun and creating amazing silhouettes. Soon sun set, and it was again time to head to our villa, this time it was already past 7pm, so there were hardly any auto or bus, finally we called the rickshaw driver who had dropped us the last time, but he was in alibagh so he couldn’t come, so we started to walk-though it was safe, it felt unsafe as it was less crowded, vehicle movement was less (kashid area past 7pm sleeps I guess). Finally, a rickshaw which was going in opposite direction, stopped for us as the driver felt we wouldn’t get any rickshaw at this hour, he was a kind gentleman and dropped us to our location. He was like “where you going to walk such a long distance!”

We reached safely to our villa, we freshen up and ordered for a veg thali again-bhindi was tasty! Had our walk nearby our villa till it was getting cold. I switched on the TV, and watched 3 idiots hallway there till “All is well”, slept half way the movie-as I was tired with all the adventure.

We got up early the next morning, as we had to explore the other side beach, we packed our bag, as we wanted to have early check-out so that we can reach back home earlier before the night.

Other side beach was also nice and aloof, there were refreshment stalls as well but was quieter and calmer- what are the beaches meant for. We were like how many jobs have the beach given-horse riders; ATVs were getting ready to take on the tourists. The parasailing was also about to start their morning sessions/activities.

After that we headed to the villa, took our bags, and checked the room properly if we had left anything, talked with caretaker and paid the balance amount and food expenses, he said to tip helpers as well.

We went to main road, that was the bus stop. We took bus till Alibagh first (as we knew we would get many buses to pune from there,as shown in Red bus app). Bus for alibagh was crowdy, finally I got a seat the last seats. (glad I got a seat). Upon reaching alibagh, we had sugarcane juice, and we looked for a good hotel to eat (food comes first, also food allows brain to work in such tiring situations), went to “Hotel Tulsi just near Alibagh Bus stand, had pav bhaji and IDLI-Chutney. Then we went to enquiry desk, the bus we had booked was of 2.30pm (that would reach us to pune late night), and it was 12.30pm now. We asked for earliest bus taking to Pune, finally we got bus which was going to satara. We checked for cabs as well in case we didn’t get seats, cabs were available alibagh to pune.

Finally with lot of juggles, we got the seats, it was finally bye to alibagh/kashid. Msrtc has half ticket for womens to encourage women traveling. The tickets we had booked were 360/- something per head (red bus commission), tickets we bought on the spot was 190/- for two women(image)(Again we were lucky to get reserved tickets) This time we got some rush in expressway, as it was evening and weekend, Lonavala was still scenic!

Finally, we reached Vallabh nagar (chinchwad bus depo), booked our cab to home. An adventure to remember by, want to go back! Good kickstart to New year, I guess.

PS: Advance booking helped us get the seats in lalpari in rush hours, other time it was luck to have gotten seats. So plan accordingly.

-Saumya M