“Konkan” has a unique allure in it that keeps you going back to it. When we were planning the trip we decided no Konkan this time as last year we visited Sawantwadi in Konkan…. But by the time we had to make a decision, we could not think of any other place that could be managed at a short notice over the long weekend. Finally, after a lot of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ discussion we got all the booking done like a day or two before the trip. Believe me sometimes the spur-of-the-moment decisions can make your trip wonderful. So we decided on another popular home stay by Culture Aangan called “Pitruchaya” – as soothing as the name sounds it had an aura and beauty of its own.
We boarded the bus on Thursday night and left for a place called “Kankavali”. We reached around 6.30 in the morning and were picked up by Sandeep (our Culture Aangan associate). We gathered our luggage and went into somewhat “technically modified and beautifully designed auto” I guess it looked more like a “baggi”; if you know what that means. It was a fun ride of around 40-50 mins. to a place called “Dhoptewadi” in Shirgaon, to our home stay. There was a sweet chillness in the air, rather strange but welcoming surroundings. Greenery everywhere, as if it had been painted all night to give it a fresh look for us. It was a long, lonely and a narrow road with wild yellow and pink flowers resting on both sides of the road. The look of it was amazing enough to make all the travelling worth it. Finally, we reached our home stay….. that stood in the middle of nowhere…… It was a beautiful. We were received by our hosts (Loke family) with great hospitality. I’m amazed to see maharastrian hospitality; they always make you feel at home……as if you are a part of their family and not an outsider. It was remarkable to see Mr. Loke’s mother (she must be around 100 or so) active, just reminded me of my grandmother. How blessed are people who have the blessing of the parents and grandparents! This place truly deserved the name – “Pitruchaya”…….
We decided to stay in the sunrise terrace cottage….which was just phenomenal and the view from the terrace was splendid. Staying in a place that doesn’t even have like one single house next to it is a pleasure in itself. There are no concrete walls instead they use some porous old stones that gave the home an ethnicity. The pillars in the house were painted with some traditional figures that went very well with the home decor. The beautifully done living with all bamboo furniture was just like the jewel in the crown. The centre table looked like a stack of bamboos kept on each other, the dining table had an interesting stack of 15 or more bamboo sticks held like a twisted bundle to hold the glass on top…believe me it was so remarkable done (that I was literally looking at the overall force balance of the whole structure). Once we were inside, we sat down with our hosts and outlined the plan for the days to come……….
So here I go with my narration ‘day-wise’ so that I don’t miss anything.
It is a long blog...enjoy reading :)
Day One: Let me start with breakfast. We had “konkani style poha” with freshly grated coconut and a some tea, for a fresh feeling so that we could sleep for a while :P Feeling extremely rejuvenated after a power nap we were all set for lunch…..I was so looking forward to it. All I wanted was to eat fish, fish and more fish. The lunch was served with such humility that it just made my day :). Fish “tambdha “as a starter, fish “surmai” cooked in malvani style and fish “bangdha” (stuffed and then fried) …yummy as it sounds….. Just writing about it makes me hungry again. It was surely lip-smacking and all I wanted was to keep on eating and not get up.
After lunch, as planned we went to a waterfall nearby like 6-7km from the home stay. The ride was so much fun…..The vehicle dropped us outside and we proceeded towards the waterfall with our host (Mr. Loke). It was about 10-15 mins. of crossing a relatively dense forest….with a very narrow path to walk on. We were kind of making our way through it…and finally there was the gigantic waterfall. The sight of the water fall was mesmerizing. It was a huge waterfall with that naturally wild look and the best part was that there were no people around thankfully to ruin its wildness. The water was gushing down with such a force that I can’t describe. The power is its stream was so commanding that you could just feel your pulse racing as soon as you see it. The sight was just phenomenal; an angry waterfall, with big giant rocks as the sentinels surrounding it….and finally a lush green layer of grass, plants and trees around it to give it an overall soothing look. This unique combination just made it astounding. We clicked pictures like crazy and captured high spirits in our hearts :)
After coming back from the waterfall, we had some tea to refresh ourselves…. Talked to our hosts at length and went to see the place around. They had a well in front of their house, a well so well made that I was so much engrossed to the idea of drawing water from it….and surely it was fun… We took one hour long walk on that lonely road in the evening with masti all the way: P We picked some flowers on the way, clicked some pictures, and a lot of crazy things…. I’m surely not doing justice to the kind of fun we had…… just have no words to describe it all.
Got back home and waited eagerly for dinner :P. Dinner was served……. a chicken starter – fried with an awesome malvani masala and malvani chicken curry…… it didn’t taste like chicken ;P………….
A long gratifying day was over and we retired to bed with a hope that there will be more to explore and have fun tomorrow :)
To be continued………………………………………………………….
