Trip to Kashid-Murud #2

Kashid:

The entire konkan stretch of western coastal Maharashtra is full of natural beauty. Its a thick green stretch, with number of untouched clean beaches. Kashid has a 3 km stretch of beach with the clean sand and groves that make just the perfect setting for a beach holiday.

The only low point of the trip was looking for accommodation in Kashid. We got down at the beginning where the beach starts and were more than casual about finding a place to stay. After all why would people come and stay here and not go to the more famous Murud. But we were all caught on the wrong foot. So we found most of the resorts either full or expensive. Well one of the reasons for losing out on good accos was that they did not have TV sets in the rooms. This was one of the parameter specified by Dipu which was to be the top most reason for taking a room in a resort. We walked for miles before we finally go hold of a place. It was quite a good bargain with 1500 bucks for 2 rooms for a night. We unloaded our back packs, changed into shorts and decided to hit the beach at once. Dipu was a hungriest of the lot and so was pressing us onto go to some restaurant before we took a dive into the ocean.

We walked for some time trying to find a restaurant but were amazed to find that this place did not have even a single one. So we decided to walk along the beach and go to the shacks that we had seen in the beginning of Kashid.

Now let me tell you the most unique thing about that place::::

“The Cell phones DO NOT WORK!!!”

So we were literally cut out from the rest of the world. We had no network coverage and had a really tough time initially. Finally it was in late evening that we found out local coin phones which could be used to make STD calls.

So while on our way to the shacks we were seduced to the sea and so spent the next hour or so in the sea swimming away to glory. The water was as clear as it could be and blue. The only flaw was that it was damn salty!!

After an hour we decided to call it off for the time being. So we put on our dry clothes and walked to the shacks. It was an ideal walk. The walk was with the sun behind us and the water with sand hitting our toes. The beaches were pretty empty making the place prettier.

One of my fantasies of a good vacation is

“Walking with the sun on my back and sand between my toes!”

And Kashid walk in the afternoon was all about it.

When we finally made it to the shacks all of us were totally famished and each one of us was capable of devouring a mountain each. So we ate till we dropped from a menu comprising of omelets, bhurgi, vada with pakore both onion and poato! We drank the whole thing down with some pepsi’s to go with it.

We took an auto back to our motel and took quick baths and finally went back to the ocean. Since it was evening we rushed back to the beach. Only this time we were there to take a dip as well as witness the famed sunsets that oceans are famous for. The ocean was clean but the water levels were slightly down. We did the same things again and again. We saw against the sea, then with the sea, waited for the waves to hit us, swam against the waves and were pelted back, sprayed water at each other, and best probably worst smeared eachother with sand and dirt!! The beach was excellent; I bet you can never get a beach of this kind with almost no crowd. The water is quite vibrant here as compared to other beaches.

We finally came back to the shore after being dead tired and headed straight to the Vada-Pao shop we had located that was pretty close to our room. We entirely demolished the reserves of VadaPao and headed back to our rooms very satisfied with our day. Since we had found out that there were practically no restaurants in the vicinity, we ordered food from the kitchen of the restaurant itself.

We again took quick baths and then almost immediately began our marathon card playing session of 29. It was me and Aman paired against Suhail and Dipu! We were pretty good and despite the fact that Aman did not entirely know the game, we were playing well. We played on till about 9:30pm when our stomachs started complaining about the lack of food coming their way! So we went out in the open where they laid food. Since fish was the only available option in non vegetarian, we decided to have a complete vegetarian menu. The food was very tasty and by the end of 45min of non stop eating almost all the food has disappeared from the plates. It was probably one of those times when there was literally no left-over.


Post dinner we decided to go for a walk like the times we used to do on campus. The roads were sans any street lights which made walking a little tough. Nevertheless we walked and cracked jokes. We bitched about most of the professors back on campus and joked about Bansal, his “Why don’t YOU tell me phrases, about Ruchi teaching Rachit and Rachit getting more marks than him.

Finally after a good hour walk we came back to our rooms and promptly resume our card game. This time Suhail and Dipu changed places and hope for a change of luck. And did the luck go their way?? Yes it sure went!! Within no time they were far far ahead of us! Though we were leading in the beginning, but lost our way completely in the middle and by the end of it all lost by the worst possible score. But it was enjoying all the more and the way me and Aman played and tried to delay the inevitable for as long as possible was even more thrilling. I think that by the end of it all we were losing and enjoying the most. Dipu was particularly getting a little frustrated and Suhail had a tough time controlling Dipu and urging him to exercise control!! Aman gallantly fought “Sleep” and kept on playing, though Ruchi succumbed to fatigue and dozed off. We finally slept off at 1 am and vowed to get up early and move on with the second leg of the trip.