[heman_369]

Super travelogue Ajay. The kids really had a good time i believe. You must have driven at 'Amba Ghat'. It is simply the best ghat for driving. Lots of twisties with less traffic and superbly tarred road. My Native place in Konkan is near sakharpa just at the base of Amba ghat. From ganpatipule you shoud have headed to Pawas using the sea touching route via ganeshgule. This road is simply awesome and you feel like driving on californian coast roads.

[amitwlele]

@Ajay - Forgot to ask you in the earlier update. Can the contact details of the house owner be shared on the thread itself so that others can make use of it if required?

[padikpanther]

Hey Ajay,
Good, informative travelogue. Konkan is the place to be in winter. The house and the beach at Malgund was awesome. Thanks for the most important info about 'Amantran' @ Ratnagiri. Been to Ratnagiri a few times, but my in-laws never allowed me to venture out and savour anything other than 'ghas-fus'...

[ajay_satpute]

Yes Amit, for sure.

Name: Prakash Salvi
Number: 9422375791

I can't talk about the rates, since I may not know what he would charge depending on the season and all. You can directly talk to him for further details.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Ajay, what a lovely account of the trip!
The lil one looks very cute in all the snaps! Specially the one with you in the hammock .

Ganapatipule is an awesome destination and an anytime visit place. I adore the beach and the temple there. Such a serene feeling that place has. So, did you gorge on the famous "ukadiche modak" at the various khanawals in G'Pule?

Ajay, I was just about to ask the details, but Amit beat me to it. Thanls for the details. Also, would you mind sharing the cost for the Innova hire? Where did you book it from? What options were available?

P.S: I havent read the whole thing yet, but shall do so with leisure. Please do expect tons of questions .

EDIT: Why the route via Shirola? You could have taken the NH17 also. Much more scenic a route that is.

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by heman_369

Super travelogue Ajay. The kids really had a good time i believe. You must have driven at 'Amba Ghat'. It is simply the best ghat for driving. Lots of twisties with less traffic and superbly tarred road. My Native place in Konkan is near sakharpa just at the base of Amba ghat. From ganpatipule you shoud have headed to Pawas using the sea touching route via ganeshgule. This road is simply awesome and you feel like driving on californian coast roads.

Thanks Himanshu. Like I mentioned before, I have been to all places in Konkan at least twice before this trip. So for me and everyone else, except the kids, nothing was new. This trip was just for the kids so that they can spend some relaxed time at the beach. And frankly/honestly/truly/madly/deeply, whenever I set out on a nice & leisurely trip, I try to visit least(tending towards ZERO) number of temples and holy places. I am not an atheist, but don't like spending too much time in standing anaconda-length queues outside temples. Temples are everywhere, but beaches are not.

BTW, while going from G'Pule to Ratnagiri, we did take a new route called Are-Vare route. Superb route all along the coast and a pretty short route.

Originally Posted by padikpanther

Hey Ajay,
Good, informative travelogue. Konkan is the place to be in winter. The house and the beach at Malgund was awesome. Thanks for the most important info about 'Amantran' @ Ratnagiri. Been to Ratnagiri a few times, but my in-laws never allowed me to venture out and savour anything other than 'ghas-fus'...

Ha ha ha! Eating ghas-pus in Konkan is next to impossible for me. Please do try Amantran. They serve amazing fish.

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Ajay, what a lovely account of the trip!
The lil one looks very cute in all the snaps! Specially the one with you in the hammock .

Ganapatipule is an awesome destination and an anytime visit place. I adore the beach and the temple there. Such a serene feeling that place has. So, did you gorge on the famous "ukadiche modak" at the various khanawals in G'Pule?

Ajay, I was just about to ask the details, but Amit beat me to it. Thanls for the details. Also, would you mind sharing the cost for the Innova hire? Where did you book it from? What options were available?

P.S: I havent read the whole thing yet, but shall do so with leisure. Please do expect tons of questions .

EDIT: Why the route via Shirola? You could have taken the NH17 also. Much more scenic a route that is.

You best Swanand. Kids had terrific time, especially, my little one.

Re the Innova. We hired the Innova from Girikand Travels. The charge was 16/- per KM. Their logic is that how many ever days you hire the vehicle for, you gotto pay for 300 KMs per day flat out at the time of booking, whether or not you consume all those KMs. Also, I had told them that I will take care of tolls/parking charges, which are negligible on this route. They charge 1k for tolls and parking, and even if it turns out to be like 200 bucks, you lose the 800 bucks, since everything is non-refundable. So make sure you don't pay them for tolls/parking charges.

Secondly, it seems 16 Rs/Km is pretty high rate in the market. One of my team mates had got a quote of 10 Rs/KM from a local tour operator. But, frankly I am not sure how reliable these local guys could be, especially when you have senior citizens and small kids traveling with you. Better not take chances, just to save some bucks.

The other option was Xylo for 12 Rs/Km, but I thought Xylo would not be as comfortable as the Innova, considering the road conditions on this route.

[ajay_satpute]

I left out one piece of information. A huge patch between G'Pule and Jaigadh (must be 50+ acres at least) has been occupied (to be read as destroyed) by JSW Greenfield Port project run under the name of JSW Jaigarh Port Ltd. Here's the site JSW Infrastructure and Logistics | A JSW Initiative

All natives are complaining big time about JSW destroying millions of Mango and other native species of flora and fauna. This plant is about 3 KMs ahead of the Malgund beach and you immediately feel as if you left the beautiful and serene beach and nature way behind and landed in some bloody industrial area. I personally did not like the intrusion by the JSW plant. I just hope to God, they don't slowly crawl towards G'Pule and destroy another tourist destination.

[dot]

Ajay, some amazing pictures there. It was a visual feast. Sometimes it was difficult to believe that these were shot in our country. Must have been super, in person.

[kpbhatt]

Absolutely loved the travelog. This destination is on our minds for the last 3 years -- just that we being pure vegetarians are hesitant to visit the place on the coast due to possible lack of vegetarian food options . do you think that would be an issue?

kpbhatt

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by dot

Ajay, some amazing pictures there. It was a visual feast. Sometimes it was difficult to believe that these were shot in our country. Must have been super, in person.

Thank you Dot sir. The view from the Ratna Durga fort was SUPER as you said it. It was a fantastic break from the routine.

Originally Posted by kpbhatt

Absolutely loved the travelog. This destination is on our minds for the last 3 years -- just that we being pure vegetarians are hesitant to visit the place on the coast due to possible lack of vegetarian food options . do you think that would be an issue?

kpbhatt

Thanks kpbhatt.

On the contrary, in Ganapatipule, the ratio of Pure Veg restaurants to Non-veg is like 10:1. I was told by Mr. PS and few other locals that, many hotel owners converted their non-veg restaurants to veg, since pure veg has more crowd it seems.

[ajay_satpute]

Few more photos:

Crab




Sculptures outside Dervan Shiv Shrushti

[ASHISHPALLOD]

@ajay,

for viewers info here, can i post some pics taken by me at ganapatipule?

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

@ajay,

for viewers info here, can i post some pics taken by me at ganapatipule?

Ashish, please go ahead. Whatever we post on any thread, is for the viewers only, so shoot.

[ukderebail]

Ajay thanks for the wonderful travelogue on your konkan travel. It was as if i was travelling along with the pictures. Ratna Durg Fort is one of the fantastic locales along with the Ganapatipule beach and temple. I was not aware of the ferry facility from Ganpatipule to Guhagar. I have had food at Abhishek hotel which was famous and good those days particularly in the noon, maybe night times they serve left overs.

[pjbiju]

Nice travelogue Ajay. And good to learn about another place that we can stay if we go to Ganpatipule. When we stayed at the MTDC cottages a couple of years back, there were not many people on that side of the beach. There was a bigger crowd around the temple side.

Also did not know about the Amantran restaurant. Will surely try this place when we go that side the next time.

-Biju