It was hazy in Kolhapur on the morning of the 24th as I left on a 10:30 bus heading to Ratnagiri on the coast, about 85 miles away. The bus traveled northwest, then west, through the Western Ghats, the mountains that parallel India's west coast. From Kolhapur at about 2000 feet elevation, we didn't rise much, maybe to about 2500 feet, but about halfway to the coast we descended rapidly on a very curvy road that plunged about 1500 feet in a very few miles. There were good, but hazy, views on the way down over the forested hills below. Once we reached the coastal strip, the landscape was still hilly. It was greener, but the grass was still brown. We reached Ratnagiri about 2 and I got a hotel near the bus station before taking an auto rickshaw to King Thibaw's Palace. Thibaw was the last king of Burma, deposed in 1885 when the British conquered his country and exiled to Ratnagiri from 1886 until his death in 1916. The palace was built in 1906-1910 and is now dilapidated in places and restored in others. I walked around inside and out, going up some massive wooden staircases. Workers seemed to be preparing for some sort of event and there was a sign welcoming the President of Burma (officially Myanmar now) about a month earlier. There is a view of the ocean, or rather the Arabian Sea, from the heights upon which the palace sits. From those heights I walked down steps through the trees on the slope to a very nice, almost rural, neighborhood. I walked a bit more before catching an auto rickshaw back to my hotel. I began a walk to the port, but gave it up. It is rarely pleasant to walk in Indian cities, with all the chaotic traffic.
It got light about 7 the next morning (Ratnagiri is the furthest west I will get in India this year) and I left at 8 on a bus heading south to Malwan, something over 100 miles to the south. This part of the coast, the Konkan Coast, is hilly with many rivers forming estuaries, so the road does not go along the coast. There are too many wide estuaries to be bridged. We headed inland and then south through hilly countryside, though probably never over 500 feet in elevation. The hills were forested, but there was some agriculture (sugar cane, rice, mango trees and other crops) and several little towns and villages. The bus was very slow, stopping everywhere, but never too crowded. I was comfortable enough and enjoyed the trip. Along the way I saw, as I'd seen in Kolhapur and Ratnagiri, memorial posters depicting Bal Thackeray, dressed in orange with big black sunglasses, the recently deceased (November, just before I arrived in India) leader of Shiv Sena, a violent Hindu and Marathi nationalist Maharashtrian political party.
Arriving in Malwan, a small town on the coast, about 2, I encountered two Ukrainian tourists, Marina and Maxim, while looking for a hotel. They led me to a very nice small one, and then we had lunch and walked around the town and the surrounding area. We walked along roads and lanes lined by palm trees to a rocky point sticking into the sea. It was low tide and I watched a woman using a sharp tool to break open mollusks attached to the rocks, extracting the very small bodies, and then dropping them into a small vase. It was going to hundreds, in fact thousands of them, to fill that vase. We retraced our steps in part and ended up at Malwan's dirty town beach, with scores of fishing boats anchored in the bay and a view of Sindhudurg fort, built by Shivaji on a low lying island a thousand feet or more offshore. I watch several men use oiled, roundish pieces of wood to roll a large outrigger from the beach into the sea.
About 5:30 Maxim and I took one of the crowded (50 or so passengers) boats from the jetty to the fort, about a ten or fifteen minute journey. We were given an hour to look around before out boat returned. There is isn't much inside other than a few temples that look modern, two watchtowers, and a few village houses, plus hundreds of Indian tourists on that late afternoon. The walls, however, are fantastic, making a sinuous circuit of the island. I didn't really appreciate the fort's size and shape until I saw an aerial photograph of it. We made our way to the far west side and walked along a portion of the walls, with great views of the sea and the walls themselves and the setting sun beyond, before climbing down steep steps and making our way back to the fort's sole, east facing gate for our boat back to town. We got back after sunset, with a full or nearly full moon rising above the palm trees. This fort is larger than the the one at Janjira, further north on the Konkan coast, which I visited last March.
Early the next morning I walked through the quiet and cool town to the beach and soon after 8 took the first boat to the fort. This time I walked along the walls starting at the entry gate and heading south and then west before returning to the gate and going in the opposite direction. It was nice there in the early morning, with few tourists (although there were 50 or so on my boat). By the time I left on the boat back to town, there were hundreds of tourists in the fort, and we passed two or three boatloads headed to the fort on our way back. This was a holiday weekend, for Republic Day, commemorating the day in 1950 that the Indian constitution came into effect, and there were hordes of Indian tourists in Malwan. I went back to my hotel room and watched the televised parade in New Delhi, which I had watched for the first time last year in Ahmedabad. The King of Bhutan, dressed in white and yellow robes, was the guest of honor, seated next to India's new President, Pranab Mukherjee. The spectacularly beautiful new Queen of Bhutan sat next to the President's wife. I think the cameras focused on her more than any other dignitary. The commentary was in both English and Hindi and, as last year, I enjoyed the spectacle.
The parade ended about noon and I had lunch and then retreated to my room to escape the midday heat and, more importantly, the Indian tourists in SUVs and motorcycles all over town. It is a interesting to see how many people Indians can stuff into a vehicle, with their luggage tied on top. About 4:30 I did venture out and eventually reached a secluded spot on a rocky point facing the fort. The cool breeze off the ocean felt good. Nearby, and fortunately downwind, was a dumping ground for piles of small fish, later raked flat by women. Hundreds of egrets were eating them when not disturbed by people. From the point I watched about a dozen fishing boats come into the harbor past the fort before sunset. The sun disappeared into the clouds or haze on the horizon just before 6:30 as a full moon was rising in the east. I met Marina and Maxim for dinner. Including them, I don't think I saw more than a half dozen western tourists in Malwan.
Malwan is just north of Goa, and I could have been in Goa in a couple of hours, but the next morning I headed to Belgaum in the interior instead of going directly to Goa. One of my guidebooks stated that the train journey from Belgaum to Goa, passing the Dudsagar Falls, India's second highest, was spectacular. I left at 9 on a bus headed inland just 15 or 20 miles to the small town of Kudal, where I picked up another bus for another 12 miles to Sawantwadi. From there I left on a bus before noon heading east over the Western Ghats to Belgaum, 50 miles away. The bus made a very slow climb up the steep western slopes of the Ghats through beautiful forest, including a section of bamboo, with great, wide views of the hills and forest below. Finally, we reached the crest and the small town of Amboli, at about 2300 feet elevation. From Amboli we continued east through rolling hills, with some sugar cane and other crops. We crossed the Maharashtra-Karnataka state border (I noticed the alphabet change) and arrived in Belgaum, at a little less than 2500 feet elevation, about 3, passing the walls of a fort in the town. I got a hotel across from the bus stand and checked the train for Goa. The only train to Goa these days leaves at midnight, a rather inopportune time to enjoy the views on the way.
It got light about 7 the next morning (Ratnagiri is the furthest west I will get in India this year) and I left at 8 on a bus heading south to Malwan, something over 100 miles to the south. This part of the coast, the Konkan Coast, is hilly with many rivers forming estuaries, so the road does not go along the coast. There are too many wide estuaries to be bridged. We headed inland and then south through hilly countryside, though probably never over 500 feet in elevation. The hills were forested, but there was some agriculture (sugar cane, rice, mango trees and other crops) and several little towns and villages. The bus was very slow, stopping everywhere, but never too crowded. I was comfortable enough and enjoyed the trip. Along the way I saw, as I'd seen in Kolhapur and Ratnagiri, memorial posters depicting Bal Thackeray, dressed in orange with big black sunglasses, the recently deceased (November, just before I arrived in India) leader of Shiv Sena, a violent Hindu and Marathi nationalist Maharashtrian political party.
Arriving in Malwan, a small town on the coast, about 2, I encountered two Ukrainian tourists, Marina and Maxim, while looking for a hotel. They led me to a very nice small one, and then we had lunch and walked around the town and the surrounding area. We walked along roads and lanes lined by palm trees to a rocky point sticking into the sea. It was low tide and I watched a woman using a sharp tool to break open mollusks attached to the rocks, extracting the very small bodies, and then dropping them into a small vase. It was going to hundreds, in fact thousands of them, to fill that vase. We retraced our steps in part and ended up at Malwan's dirty town beach, with scores of fishing boats anchored in the bay and a view of Sindhudurg fort, built by Shivaji on a low lying island a thousand feet or more offshore. I watch several men use oiled, roundish pieces of wood to roll a large outrigger from the beach into the sea.
About 5:30 Maxim and I took one of the crowded (50 or so passengers) boats from the jetty to the fort, about a ten or fifteen minute journey. We were given an hour to look around before out boat returned. There is isn't much inside other than a few temples that look modern, two watchtowers, and a few village houses, plus hundreds of Indian tourists on that late afternoon. The walls, however, are fantastic, making a sinuous circuit of the island. I didn't really appreciate the fort's size and shape until I saw an aerial photograph of it. We made our way to the far west side and walked along a portion of the walls, with great views of the sea and the walls themselves and the setting sun beyond, before climbing down steep steps and making our way back to the fort's sole, east facing gate for our boat back to town. We got back after sunset, with a full or nearly full moon rising above the palm trees. This fort is larger than the the one at Janjira, further north on the Konkan coast, which I visited last March.
Early the next morning I walked through the quiet and cool town to the beach and soon after 8 took the first boat to the fort. This time I walked along the walls starting at the entry gate and heading south and then west before returning to the gate and going in the opposite direction. It was nice there in the early morning, with few tourists (although there were 50 or so on my boat). By the time I left on the boat back to town, there were hundreds of tourists in the fort, and we passed two or three boatloads headed to the fort on our way back. This was a holiday weekend, for Republic Day, commemorating the day in 1950 that the Indian constitution came into effect, and there were hordes of Indian tourists in Malwan. I went back to my hotel room and watched the televised parade in New Delhi, which I had watched for the first time last year in Ahmedabad. The King of Bhutan, dressed in white and yellow robes, was the guest of honor, seated next to India's new President, Pranab Mukherjee. The spectacularly beautiful new Queen of Bhutan sat next to the President's wife. I think the cameras focused on her more than any other dignitary. The commentary was in both English and Hindi and, as last year, I enjoyed the spectacle.
The parade ended about noon and I had lunch and then retreated to my room to escape the midday heat and, more importantly, the Indian tourists in SUVs and motorcycles all over town. It is a interesting to see how many people Indians can stuff into a vehicle, with their luggage tied on top. About 4:30 I did venture out and eventually reached a secluded spot on a rocky point facing the fort. The cool breeze off the ocean felt good. Nearby, and fortunately downwind, was a dumping ground for piles of small fish, later raked flat by women. Hundreds of egrets were eating them when not disturbed by people. From the point I watched about a dozen fishing boats come into the harbor past the fort before sunset. The sun disappeared into the clouds or haze on the horizon just before 6:30 as a full moon was rising in the east. I met Marina and Maxim for dinner. Including them, I don't think I saw more than a half dozen western tourists in Malwan.
Malwan is just north of Goa, and I could have been in Goa in a couple of hours, but the next morning I headed to Belgaum in the interior instead of going directly to Goa. One of my guidebooks stated that the train journey from Belgaum to Goa, passing the Dudsagar Falls, India's second highest, was spectacular. I left at 9 on a bus headed inland just 15 or 20 miles to the small town of Kudal, where I picked up another bus for another 12 miles to Sawantwadi. From there I left on a bus before noon heading east over the Western Ghats to Belgaum, 50 miles away. The bus made a very slow climb up the steep western slopes of the Ghats through beautiful forest, including a section of bamboo, with great, wide views of the hills and forest below. Finally, we reached the crest and the small town of Amboli, at about 2300 feet elevation. From Amboli we continued east through rolling hills, with some sugar cane and other crops. We crossed the Maharashtra-Karnataka state border (I noticed the alphabet change) and arrived in Belgaum, at a little less than 2500 feet elevation, about 3, passing the walls of a fort in the town. I got a hotel across from the bus stand and checked the train for Goa. The only train to Goa these days leaves at midnight, a rather inopportune time to enjoy the views on the way.
Well Done. Keep it up
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