24th March 2010, 23:14
| #16 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: thane
Posts: 284
Thanked: 17 Times
| the valley with a view without the clouds Quote:
if you take a look closely you can see the konkan rail tracks. and the river is vashishthi which drains the koyna hydroelectric project. | |
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24th March 2010, 23:25
| #17 |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: thane
Posts: 284
Thanked: 17 Times
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24th March 2010, 23:57
| #18 |
| Newbie Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 16
Thanked: 3 Times
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26th March 2010, 12:36
| #19 |
| BHPian | Day 4 and 5 : GOA Day 4 : Go Goa Had a leisurely breakfast and took the speedboat back to the Karwar mainland by around 10am. I was happy to find my car washed and gleaming at the office. Started back towards Goa and reached the hotel in Calangute by around 12.30pm. Had booked 2 nights at Villa Terra Paraiso, it’s a boutique hotel about 5 minutes from Calangute beach.and near the baga-calangute junction. Has a nice big pool with lovely villa style rooms arranged around the pool.  Our villa at the hotel  Pool Bar  Dumped the luggage and immediately went to Souza Lobo’s. One must try the traditional goan dishes, I had been there before and love the vindaloo, stuffed promfret and squid here. Then, we went out to the beach and lazed on the chairs provided by the shacks over a beer. Came back to the hotel changed and walked to Baga. Wifey went on a shopping spree buying all kinds of stuff, from trinkets to clothes to artifacts. We were on Baga that night and chilled out at Zanzibar over a hookah, some lovely cocktails and seafood!! Came back to the hotel and crashed for the night.. Day 5 : Still in Goa!! Next morning, after a heavy breakfast at the hotel, we hired a bike (best way to explore Goa) and went to Shanta Durga and Mangeshi temples. Had a quick darshan and then moved to Panjim to visit the church and the museum. (standard tourist spots).      Rode around old Goa, shopped for cashews and bought some IMFL!!...so that I could have my own stock for rest of the trip. We went to Viva Panjim for lunch. They make a mean pompfret rechaido and sorpotel.. All this “exertion” spaced us out…so we came back to the hotel and snoozed for the afternoon.   In the evening, we went down to Britto’s at Baga beach for pastries and got some custom made T-shirts embroidered with quotes of our own. For dinner, we went back to Britto’s for butter pepper squid, fried fish and goan curry.  Souza Lobo's   After dinner, we loafed around a bit on Baga and the came back to the hotel to conclude day 5…its off to Tarkarli tomorrow!! Last edited by nix1976in : 26th March 2010 at 12:43. |
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26th March 2010, 12:51
| #20 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
We stayed on the houseboat at Tarkarli. My guess is that April would be really hot in Kawar. | |
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26th March 2010, 16:15
| #21 |
| BHPian | Day 6 and 7 : Tarkarli Beach and Houseboat Day 6 : Tarkarli… Got out of bed at leisure and started back towards Konkan after breakfast. Reached Malvan city at around noon and as decided traced out “Chaitanya hotel” for lunch. This place is a seafood lovers delight…we had the best prawns, crabs, squid and pomfret here…we were stuffed with just the starters and quit before calling for the main course. Road to Malvan   Had booked ourselves at the Konkani Huts in MTDC, Tarkarli which is about 20 kms from Malvan town. The setting is very similar to Ganapatipule with cottages right on the beach. The beach is beautiful and all we did all day was prance around in the water and on the beach.   In the evening, we drove around the small village and went down to the jetty where the MTDC houseboats were docked. The backwaters looked lovely and I couldn’t wait to get onto the houseboat. Have it booked it for the next day! Came back to Tarkarli, watched the sunset. The dinner was set on the beach and was as always lovely.  Scuba diving boat  Kingfishrer at Tarkarli Jetty     Looking forward to the houseboat tomorrow!! Day 7 : Houseboat!!! After an early bed tea, we were decided to go and try our luck again at a dolphin safari. So went back to the backwaters, got into a small motorboat and went out to sea. The sunrise views were good but we were unlucky again, no dolphins but saw a huge herd of seagulls. It was amazing to see their coordinated flight. At the spot where the river empties out to the sea, it gets real choppy and is quite an experience. We also got off at “Tsunami Island”, a small patch of sand above the water level in the middle of the creek, seems it surfaced after the Indian ocean Tsunami. The boatmen gave us a fishing demo but they caught only small fry!!   This is the patch of land that they say surfaced after the Tsunami waters receded from this area!!   I would love to stay in a house like this!    Got back, had breakfast and went to Sindhudurg to try snorkeling. The snorkeling spot is just next to the fort ramparts in 30 feet deep water. I was very apprehensive and jumping into the ocean with just a tube support but the guide calmed us down and once I was comfortable as soon as got into the water. They assigned a guide each to me and my wife who dragged us around the place. It was the most amazing experience to see many herds of small fish, coral and underwater plants all over the place. One huge 4-5 feet long and fat fish kept encircling around us…made me quite nervous!! All in all it was worth every buck.   Now this looks like a royal houseboat...was in the shipyard at Sindhudurg jetty  wifey snorkelling!!  Came back to the MTDC resort, checked out and checked in on the houseboat. There are 2 houseboats, one deluxe and one normal. Both have a/c rooms and full board and the only difference is that the deluxe boat has a viewing deck on top. We had booked the deluxe boat which developed a snag and it took us an hour before we set sail.   They take us through the river for a couple of hours and dropped anchor before a bridge where lunch is served. Like I said, Konkan doesn’t go wrong with fried fish but here they served us jumbo pomfrets and prawns. I was on cloud 9! They anchored the boat here till around 5.30 and then we started back to the starting point to dock for the night. The sunset on the way back was one of the best I had ever seen…       Once we docked back at the jetty, we decided to go onshore for a small drive. Drove up to an ancient temple by the sea. Sat around for sometime and returned to the houseboat in time for dinner. Had some of the IMFL bought from Goa and watched TV before retiring for the night on the gently swaying waters!!  Off to Kohlapur tomorrow!! Last edited by nix1976in : 26th March 2010 at 16:18. |
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26th March 2010, 16:22
| #22 |
| Team-BHP Support   | |
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29th March 2010, 19:48
| #23 |
| BHPian | Day 8 : Kolhapur Day 8 : Kolhapur!! Woke up early and went up to sit on the houseboat deck. They started the boat out and took us to the same route we had taken for the dolphin safari yesterday. Another amazing sunrise awaited us…they took us upto the point where the river meets the sea and turned back. Dropped anchor again in front of the Tsunami Island for a couple of hours where we were served breakfast.   The 2nd houseboat deployed at Tarkarli  View of Tsunami Island from the docking point  This is the point where the creek meets the sea ( note the small waves)  Returning to the jetty, we checked out of the houseboat and started towards Kolhapur by around 10am. Its about 150 kms from Tarkarli via GaganBawda . Roads are great and lined with sugarcane farms. Reached Kolhapur by 1 pm and checked into Shalini Palace, the erstwhile maharaja’s residence. Its an imposing structure by the Rankala lake.    The inner courtyard  Shalini Palace Bar interiors  Shalini Palace Bar ceiling  Shalini Palace Lounge  Ceiling close up - this was amazing, the amount of work put into every minute detail. Was happy that such heritage is being restored and preserved in Maharashtra too.  Lounge ceiling detail  Had booked the Maharaja Suite which is an enormous room with an enormous king sized bed!  Thats the suite exterior with my car in front  Enormous Bed!!     Had decided to have typical kolhapuri lunch at Opal Hotel so went searching for it. It is a well known place and a short distance away from Rankala. Had “Tamda Rassa” and “Pandhra Rassa” which are traditional kolhapuri soups made of heavily spiced mutton stock. Also had Sukka Kolhapuri Mutton and bhakri and washed it down with lots of solkadi…extremely satiating. Lunch over, we went to Mahalaxmi temple, luckily it was not crowded and we finished the darshan quickly. From there, we decided to visit the Siddhagiri Math at Kaneri which is around 20-25 kms outside the city on the Belgaum highway. The place is tranquil and peaceful. Came back to the hotel by 6pm and freshened up. That evening a fashion show was scheduled in the palace grounds. We were told that the models were flown in from Mumbai by the current maharaja including Mugdha Godse and it was gonna be “hi-fi”!!. We watched from the palace balcony, the show was so-so but good to pass time!! Mugdha Godse from Mumbai---Hi-Fi!!!  Had a nice spicy kolhapuri dinner again at the in-house restaurant and crashed for the night. Homeward bound tomorrow. Day 9 : Home Sweet Home!! Had a leisurely breakfast and went to Mahalaxmi Temple again for a quick darshan before moving onto the “Shahu Muesuem”.  Mahalaxmi Temple  Shahu Muesuem has an amazing collection housed within a palace. The number of arms on display could suffice a small army. The stuffed animal section had atleast 20 lions and tigers with huge bison heads and other anilmals like deer, bears etc. The durbar hall is huge and decorated to the hilt, and some other rooms with period furniture are preserved too. This place is surely worth a visit.    Started towards Mumbai at around 12pm but stopped on the outskirts of Kolhapur for lunch before getting on to the highway. It was a small joint but the non-veg food was the best that we had in Kolhapur. Lunch done, we got on to the highway and flew to Mumbai. The entire stretch to Mumbai bypassing Satara and Pune is amazing and I covered the 333 kms to the end of the expressway in under 4 hrs but then took another 3 hrs to get from Panvel to our place in Kandivali. So was home by 8.00pm marking the end of a very relaxing lazy vacation! Bonus Pic....spotted this owl in the palace!  Last edited by nix1976in : 29th March 2010 at 19:55. |
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29th March 2010, 22:23
| #24 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands.
Posts: 2,877
Thanked: 231 Times
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30th March 2010, 16:55
| #25 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
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30th March 2010, 22:58
| #26 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: thane
Posts: 284
Thanked: 17 Times
| its a spotted owl Quote:
especially loved the way the eyes look like some tinted lenses. the species is spotted owl. look at the spots on the wings pg | |
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31st March 2010, 08:50
| #27 |
| BHPian | |
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31st March 2010, 22:48
| #28 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: thane
Posts: 284
Thanked: 17 Times
| owl cheek in in the jowl Quote:
i was recently in bharatpur keoladoe ghana bird sanctuary where you can spot them in the same position all day!!!!!!!! i loved your other pics too. beautiful houseboats.actually the creek/estuary tourism has yet to take off in konkan some creeks like the jaigad creek are marvellous to cruise on. rgrds pg | |
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2nd April 2010, 23:37
| #29 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: thane
Posts: 284
Thanked: 17 Times
| camera Quote:
wanted to know which camera did you use and any particular accessories/ i still have a amateur canon a610 powershot.if i have to get a professional camera which is the one to buy for a beginner going to a higehr level. pg | |
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4th April 2010, 22:38
| #30 |
| BHPian | |
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