Ganpatipule, Pre and In situ Day 1

This is going to be a huge post, probably divided into multiple parts, partly because of my pre-knowledge that I would write about it, partly because of the supporting photos and of course the non-viscous nature of my thoughts.

So mom says she is taking a "sick leave" from 30th May to 1st June. I pounced upon this opportunity and made her agree that we are going to Ganpatipule from 30th May to 2nd June. It was almost a month since I had first mentioned it always to be dismissed due to her non-availability. It took breakfast on 30th May to convince both mom and dad on a common plan. I was off to research. Reading online about Ganpatipule told me it is a 357km distance and should take 6 hours to reach there. I tried calling one of the resorts to book our stay there and the lady on the other side says, "No, you will not be able to reach here today. It will take you a minimum of 10 hours driving." It was 2 pm on 30th May when this happened  and my spirits were half dampened. Mom already started suggesting her best solution," No problem, we will start tomorrow morning." I do not know what gave me the stubbornness, but I was hell bent on leaving that very day, come what may. We finally agreed that we would take a halt midway for the night and continue the next day. So, off we were at 4pm, me in the driver's seat..after all..long drives have always been a passion...

A tea halt (unavoidable..:P) at Kamats hotel near Karnala and we were already seeing the wisdom of the lady whom I talked to. We were unable to go more than an avg. 35-40 km/hr (peaks of 90 max.) due to traffic conditions and night was going to be even scarier. So while we continued, we started finalising on a mid way halt location..deciding on Chiplun since it is pretty much a town in that area and it would be easy to get a place to stay. The night drive was very scary especially because it was NH-17 (also known as Bombay Goa highway..has just one lane per direction without a road divider ..one overconfident and misjudged overtake...and you will be history..only to be remembered as an idiot to have tried overtaking on NH-17). While adrenaline rushed as I sped my way, the responsibility of the safety of the whole "crew" kept me calm. Luckily I was aware of the perils of this route thanks to few experiences during our visit to Diveagar and Harihareshwar (haven't blogged about it) in Jan 2011 ( I was the lucky driver then too..:)..). As the clock ticked 9 pm, we were still far from Chiplun and had to take a stop. Dad suggested stopping at Mangaon which he knew was a place popular for the spiritual guru Tembe swami who used to be a resident of this place. So we stopped at a lodge called "Madhu Shanti lodge" in Mangaon. We would have been doomed had we not found this place. All other lodges in this area were "unfit" for any middle class "family". It turned out to be a costly affair, paying for the whole day while staying just for the night. But most hotels that we encountered had fixed check-in and check-out times. So if you reach at non standard times, you lose. 

                                         

   

                                                       

   

The next day starts with news of the Nation wide BANDH. I was ignorant about it while mom had forgotten (good for me) about it. We had planned on checking out at 7am from the hotel. While dad was a bit neutral (as always) and I was near successful in convincing him to start out, mom made it pretty clear that she will not move out until the bandh subsides while also convincing dad with her "what can happen" stories. Add to that the news channels beaming stories about bus windows being smashed in Pune, traffic services disturbed in Delhi and blah blah. Frankly she almost got me convinced for some time that we should not leave, my stubbornness getting me back to my senses. During our stay there, we tried to find out about a popular temple that is associated with Tembe swami only to find out that this was a different Mangaon. The Mangaon known for Vasudevanand Saraswati or Tembe swami was near Sawantwadi, a long way from there. But anyways, thanks to him, we landed in a safe place. :)...After three hours of debate, I got mom and dad convinced to adopt a "slow and steady" strategy. We were out again at 11 am (damn!!) heading towards Ganpatipule. There was not a sign of bandh anywhere on the road. Everything looked pretty smooth, but you cannot be sure. On the way, we found some cashew trees and mom collected a few cashew fruits from under them, desperately searching for more and more. We reached Ganpatipule safely at 2:30 pm, the trip distance from home to Ganpatipule measuring almost 360 km (pretty close..). 

We checked into the first lodge (Shri Morya Lodge) that we found inhabitable without any recce of the area. We were pretty tired thanks to the undying heat and the weak AC that Alto offers. Mom agreed that it was a good decision to start from Mangaon (one victory). She also agreed that had we waited for another day in Mumbai and tried to start on 31st May, we would have stayed home another day thinking about the bandh(second victory..:)..). "Shri Ganesh Krupa" is a good hotel just behind Morya lodge. Loved the food there, though it's only Pure Veg. We did not have the strength to frolick in the hot waters of the Arabian Sea at 4 o clock in the evening. So we thought we will do some sightseeing instead. So enter Prachin Konkan. It is a place where they have tried to put forth the image of a typical konkan village and its members including the khot (the village head), the kumbhar (potter), the nabhi (barber) etc., the tools, instruments they use, and how the village functions as a whole. It has also maintained a collection of fruit-bearing / flower-bearing  trees and spices popular in the Konkan region. Relished the first Kokam sarbat for the day there and enjoyed it thoroughly.The concept of Prachin Konkan is good, but the guide, especially the one that we got, was pathetic as she went on and on with her content without the full stops and the commas. You had to listen carefully to make sense out of it.  

                                              

Out from there, mom and dad suggested a rent-check of the nearby lodges. With a balance between quality, availability and pricing, we found that Durvankur lodge would be a better fit for us since it was cheaper than Morya and the place felt better with similar services. Happy to have found a good place, we returned home planning about the next day while also relishing another Kokam drink, this time, Kokam soda at Shivnandan hotel which is in the same premises (probably also owned by the same family) as Durvankur. The sour taste of Kokam mixed with an effervescent and cold soda is a nice and refreshing experience. Thus on a bubbly note ended a very eventful day one in Ganpatipule...