Friday, March 4, 2011

Alibaug - Mumbaikar's Favorite

Josh and I almost always travel alone almost always..so the last weekend we thought we will take a couple of our friends along, as they say more should be merrier shouldn't it?!

We decided to go to Alibaug, considering that we had been to Dapoli Ganpatipule and the other beaches in southern Maharashtra over a dozen times in the last one year it was surprising that we never even once go to Alibaug! The thought was the lone impetus that we needed to decide on going to Alibaug.

Alibaug is again a group of beaches right from Kashid to Murud, so we had to zero in on a beach from all of these beaches to spend a weekend in. We also had decide how to travel whether to ride down or use public transport. We decided not to decide on any destination (typical of us!!) and to take public transport. So we booked tickets in a train that got us to Mumbai by early morning. Never before has Mumbai been so pleasant. It was a beautiful morning and the Colaba area with its marvelous buildings looked much better with a dry forehead!!

Took a ferry from Gate way which got us to Mandwa in about 1.25 hours. There are three/four operators and there are ferries almost every hour. There even is a A/c one at 110Rs / head. The ferry people have arrangements to drop the passengers from Mandwa to Alibaug. We instead stooped at a tea stall and started talking to the villagers in an effort to decide on a place. After a few minutes of deliberation we decided on Kihim and took a six seater auto to Kihim.

About half an hours ride later we were in Kihim. Now we had to find a place to stay in. Since it was a Friday there were many hotels which were available however they had booking for the weekend and we had to stay till Sunday. After searching for about 10 minutes we found a nice place - Aahar about five minutes away from the beach.

Kihim Beach is rocky and flat. If you walk towards the southern part then you will find the sandy parts of the beach. Weather was fine and surprisingly pleasant and food was alright. The hospitality of the people here is worth a special mention, almost all the people that we met were very helpful and cordial.

After two whole days of sun, sand surf, coconuts, "tadgola", panipuri and Chinese chai we returned on Sunday by the same ferry that we had used to go to Mandwa.

Traveling Expense
Pune to Mumbai Train - 120 Rs
Mumbai to Mandwa - 65 Rs
Mandwa to Kihim Auto - 250 Rs there is a bus run by ferry operators which is free of cost

Boat Ajanta PNP Maldar  
022 22026364 22885220 22829695 Mumbai
022 22023585 22885221 22823841 Mumbai
02141 237550 237087 237464 Mandwa
02141 224437 225403 223746 Alibaug
  Gateway Mandwa Alibaug Co.
1 06.15 a.m. 07.30 a.m. 06.45 a.m. Ajanta
2 07.15 a.m. 08.30 a.m. 07.45 a.m. Ajanta
3 07.45 a.m. 08.45 a.m. 08.00 a.m. Ajanta A/c
4 08.10 a.m. 09.00 a.m 08.10 a.m. PNP
5 08.30 a.m. 09.30 a.m. 08.45 a.m. Maldar
6 09.15 a.m. 10.30 a.m. 09.45 a.m. Ajanta
7 10.10 a.m. 11.00 a.m. 10.10 a.m. PNP
8 10.00 a.m. 11.15 a.m. 10.30 a.m. Ajanta
9 11.00 a.m. 12.15 p.m. 11.30 a.m. Ajanta
10 11.30 a.m. 12.30 p.m. 11.45 a.m. Maldar
11 12.10 p.m. 01.00 p.m. 12.10 p.m. PNP
12 12.30 a.m. 01.45 p.m. 01.00 p.m. Ajanta
13 01.15 p.m. 02.15 p.m. 01.50 p.m. Ajanta A/c
14 01.30 p.m. 02.30 p.m. 01.45 p.m. Maldar
15 02.00 p.m. 03.15 p.m. 02.30 p.m. Ajanta
16 03.00 p.m. 04.15 p.m. 03.35 p.m. Ajanta
17 03.30 p.m. 04.30 p.m. 03.45 p.m. Maldar
18 03.10 p.m. 05.00 p.m. 04.10 p.m. PNP
19 04.00 p.m. 05.15 p.m. 04.30 p.m. Ajanta
20 05.00 p.m. 06.15 p.m. 05.30 p.m. Ajanta
21 05.30 p.m. 06.45 p.m. 06.00 p.m. Ajanta
22 05.45 p.m. 06.45 p.m. 06.00 p.m. Maldar
23 06.00 p.m. 07.00 p.m. 06.15 p.m. Ajanta A/c
24 06.30 p.m. 07.30 p.m. 06.30 p.m. PNP

2 comments:

  1. The beaches a really very nice and clean but some lodges like safina guest house is very badly maintained,people say that it is a good place, but actually its a low class village ,but the launch trips a good especially the ajanta travells have a nice travell by bus then soon later by boat, the food from some hotels like sukh sagar is really nice, and muglai and fried rice is very tasty,leaving the food and travelling the full trip was useless

    NOTE:if the rickshaw drivers may know your a tourist the will charge you more so better is walking

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