Ratnagiri Express

Life has been quite fulfilling now a days. This weekend added one more feather in my journey of life. I never knew I am so close to heaven. Such statements are generally known as global gas and I call them philosophical nonsense.

In plain words this weekend was chill. we visited ganpatipule. Though I wont mind writing a travelogue, but will skip certain parts and keep only the un”adult”Rated parts.

As usual, by the end of Friday night, I was in “seventh hell”. In the end ,I switched off my phone and reached home early by 8 :30 PM. I was so happy that security guard didn't ask me to sign in the visitors register.

I and abhi were determined not to waste the most awaited first weekend of rains . Yet we dared and wasted 2 precious hours in watching TV. By 11, we decided to go for a ride and ended up at ccd chandni chowk. By 1 AM after trying so hard, we could not sit at CCD. It sucks bigtime. Abhi was not in a mood to sleep. He wanted to go for trekking in Nashik . But we found out that it is still not raining enough in Nashik for insane people to trek. Now what next, Abhi called up “Goa” Raju. He along with “foodie” sohal and “Sarkar” Mhatre came to my place from a late night show of Sarkar Raj. We somehow arranged for all the drinks by 2 and had some good timepass at Goa's place.By 3:30 AM we were deciding for a place. “Goa” Raju was advocating for Goa and Kashid, me for “ratnagiri” and Mahabaleshwar, abhi for mahabaleshwar and kashid, Sarkar for lonavala breakfast. Now foodie's decision was crucial.

At last after endless discussion, we decided on Ratnagiri ( Ganpatipule). Next 15 minutes we wasted in deciding on car “ Ikon” vs “ Santro”. After a deadlock we tossed a coin and decided on Santro. Santro had a good music system and that's what is more important than space of Ikon. In 10 mins we put very few clothes and By 4:15 AM, we left pune. As we touched highway, it was pelting water. On one end, Raju was driving full throttle at 130-140, on the other sarkar and foodie were in deep sleep. In the background, we had some good beats keeping us energetic. It was beautiful outside. We saw some amazing early morning sceneries in the hills of Satara. We passed one wind farm on the way. One scenery was very similar to downtown US atleast with the kind of music, people and surprisingly roads too. The life was treating us good and that could be the reason that it was drizzling all the way. We stopped at many places to see flavors of nature. At one ghat, we were driving through the clouds, at a landscape we out”wet”ed rains, had breakfast in a shack with gentle breeze kissing hairs. We reached Ganpatipule by 11 AM.

It took us around an hour to find a place there and then what next!! We all were dead for 3 hours. Didn't sleep yaar last night. By 4PM Saturday, we got up, and by now all of us were terribly hungry. We went to MTDC restaurant and had 10 rounds of snacks coming. Once filled till head, we went to beach. It is a nice beach, though bit dirty because of rain effect. We walked on and on the sand. Camel ride was fun, as the trajectory you take while camel stands up is better than many of the rides of essel-world. We lied down on beach and our talented foodie crafted a female body using sand. It was so real that we couldn't resist the temptation of having her clicked with all of us . We crashed on beach and had some nariyal pani and left the place by 7.

We rested for a while at our resort and went to krisha place for dinner. It hosts only bar in Ganpatipule. We had dinner and “Goa” drove us to a hill overlooking sea. It was one of the high points of the trip. Some soul wrenching music along with sound of the waves in the deep darkness to night. That moment is frozen in my mind. It was indeed a special night . It was all silence out there expect the waves and Sarkar who was busy explaining his G.F. That night had so much of life into it that one could only spoil it by writing about it.

We all were very tired and went dead till next morning 8:30. Next morning, It rained like anything. The first thing we saw from window, was class apart. We all were charged up to get wet. Alas we were not carrying enough clothes. But who cares, somehow we managed. We had a good bath at beach while rain betrayed us and didn't shower us . After sometime we got freshen us at room and checked out. By that time we were out of cash and need to withdraw. Bank of India ATM was not functioning. Me and Sarkar left for another ATM which was in temple premises. Although we didn't plan but me and sarkar wanted to go to famous ganpati temple. What more than this opportunity, we visited the temple, had a darshan of Ganpati and also withdrew the money.

After our breakfast at 12, we left the place. We also did some small shopping and all . We took chiplun route while coming back. It is another very scenic ghats that we pass though Chiplun. It reminds me of my visit to chiplun and marleshwar 2 years back. We came through few cool sites with so much of nature. One of the city moment of success ( too much of IPL na) was awaiting us on the ghats of Karad. It was 2:30 and we all were damm hungry. There was no hope of getting anything in ghats till we got a stand alone “valley view” restaurant, overlooking a valley perfect for paragliding. Chilled air waves were openings every pour of the body and putting mind into wallpaper mode. We asked the guy to serve us in open next to valley and convinced him to do so. That place was some place yaar.

We started by 4:30 to karad. By the time we reached Satara, we were out of cash and need to put long hand into our pockets to get some chiller for tea. You must be wondering why I am writing so much about food and eating. It's all because of our own “foodie” Sohal whole examples are even foodie “Car got sandwiched”

By the Way, “Goa” Raju's dream is still unfulfilled. To cheer for Portugal( EURO cup) in Goa. He has bought a Portugal T-shirt for it. We couldn't convince “Sarkar” Mhatre that Rajeev Masad is a good critic and Sarkar Raj is a flop . Foodie wanted to kill us for keeping him hungry for most part of the trip. Abhi is still in earlier Goa trip hangover and not ready to listen anything other than Trance. Me, as usual.....

Life treats so well on weekend that it takes away all the hardships one does on weekdays. Weekday!!!! what. Oh no!! we are back and tomorrow is a working day.