Tarkali and Devbagh trip post diwali

 

Tarkarli and Devbagh





 

We decided to drive down to Tarkarli beach in pursuit of a destination we hadn't been to before. It was on the spur of the moment and we booked two rooms on the net on someone's recommendation. The Gaganbowra road is in a pitiful condition, broken up and non-existent in places and we made extremely bad time in the Beemer, taking three hours more than the estimated time of travel. Arriving in the evening and after having a look at the rooms we wandered around looking for some others; after a late lunch at Maratha Niwas. Kind lady but not our kind of rooms...  Luckily there had been two cancellations in Gajanan hotel in Tarkarli which had a distant sea view to boot. This place had air conditioned rooms and good food, plenty of soda and ice!  Devbagh which has the backwaters was bursting at the seams and there was no room to be had for love or money.

This was tourist season and every little homestay was up to its gills with people, 99% maharashtrian families enjoying the almost exclusively malvani cuisine. Inspite of large groups they are well behaved and circumspectly dressed, even in the sea. (I was the only person in a swimsuit. ) Even though there were throngs  of tourists the beach is long and clean and large enough to give you space of your own while you wade far out to get to waist high water! A very gentle slope ensures safety for children and the timid. The only other place, beside one cove in Dona paula that has the corkscrew shells on the beach is this one! And that too only along a certain part of it. We collected a lot of these, being careful to leave the ones occupied by a tiny pink multiple legged creature which dug itself point down into the sand when released or rolled along into deeper water! Very clever! the corkscrew lends itself to much better mobility in comparison to the clamshell shape or the crab shell which has to be carried about by its resident.

We had to move into a homestay the next day. In Tarkarli, A/c means a better quality of room,and its best to get one even if you don't need the a/c.. It will have an attached bathroom, maybe a w/c and hot water. this one had a tiny tv under the ceiling! PAndurang Guest house had a sandy back yard with a gazebo for dining and hammocks under coconut trees. Climbing up a steep sandy bank afforded a view of the sea from atop and a couple of benches and a table perched on the other side out of sight of the house, for noisy drunkards who wanted to have a good time! A wonderful place indeed on a moonlit night!

Arrriving in Tarkarli

Hire a house boat...

 take a back water ride.

you can do this

 .... or you can do this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely Maharashtra!

 

tourist season...

 

 

 

 

 

Its best to go in Feb or march and you could have the place to yourself. Definitely worth it. We went back via the Bombay Goa highway, joining up a little before Sawantwadi and to Amboli ghat. Made much better time even though it was much longer...so many places to just while away the hours... and not too many hours to do it in!!! Well worth visiting on the way back from Goa.

 





The NH7 Festival

The NH7 festival in Pune is a must do... three days of carnival spirit,  relaxation and good music. Also lots of camaraderie and friends, a bunch of well behaved and happy people! Very well organised as usual!

Annapurna circuit Part II

Annapurna circuit Part II
The evening before the weather had thrown as much drama at us as it could. A noisy thunderstorm with suitably impressive lightening and lashings of rain, made us scamper indoors to the café where everyone congregated. Then it cleared up to show us stunning views of a mountain called, rightfully so, Sundari with a glacier below it. We went for a walk through the village, and as it was New Year the next day, I needed a few supplies which I managed to get in the few shops that constituted the main street. The women, as everywhere in Nepal are not shy of speaking to tourists and we had a lively discussion about life in the village.

 

 

 

 

 We started our day trekking along the shady side of the valley, the kind of climb and ramble that I could have done for days. Suddenly there was a gateway, opening into the Manag valley. What a view! A flat river bed hemmed in by towering mountains, and numerous tall waterfalls.

The water was a light icy blue and the stones bleached white, the banks were green, lush meadow with flowering cherry trees! We stopped at a village called Tal and all of us concurred that it was the kind of place we would like to settle into for a week or so....a young man was sitting on the grass, shirtless, being given a fancy-ish haircut by another young man. The latter doubled as the shopkeeper and left the haircut halfway to attend to us. We bought chocolates and biscuits.. it would be one of the last places where we would get them at that price. The cost of things escalate along with the altitude.

After some lemon ginger tea we set off along the trail for a bit then crossed over the river  to the other side. There were gushing waterfalls, tumbling over the rocks from high up, one of them was a veil of misty showers through ferns and moss, another light green frothy water corkscrewing its way down in to the river. Slowly we climbed towards Dharapani village which had a spectacular waterfall forming a deep green pool, then falling out of it into another pool jade green in colour. We passed by the entire village, every muscle complaining by now,  and finally reached our small hotel, all wooden, with rooms on the second floor, toilet on the first, down steep wooden ladders, and the bathroom opposite the street near the dining room and kitchen. The kitchen was abuzz with muleteers and porters around the blazing fire. The shower had a gas heater which was a godsend in most places, a bath for Rs100 was worth it. After settling in we ordered a large flask of tea in the wonderful Chinese flasks which keep liquids piping hot till the next day! Ashok taught us a card game called judgement and after a few hands of that and Monopoly Deal we wolfed down "dal bhaat" and rolled up into our sleeping bags. It was cool , not yet cold with the first of the conifers appearing, being at around 6,000 ft.
Leaving Dharapani after a huge breakfast of fried potatoes and omelette,we alternated between uphill and down for a while, till we climbled up a steep rocky mountain path, onto a dusty road made pleasant with many waterfalls. We stopped at Telang for hot lemon tea. It was a hot walk but not tough, pleasant with much chitchat. Then suddenly, we looked up to see the most gigantic peaks, we had ever seen, covered with snow. The Annapurna range!! Awesome is finally a word used in its rightful sense.... breathtaking, jawdroppingly magnificent! At that time we were gobsmacked! We had never seen such huge mountains, these were the big guys!

 

 

Soon clouds hid these heavenly peaks from us and we came to the village of Chame where we were to stop for the night. It was a prosperous village with a mainstreet full of shops where I got a decent day pack for Rs1600, Nepalese rupees. The village is bustling with many women chatting in groups and numerous fat, red cheeked healthy babies.  After a wander we settled in to play cards and eat dinner by candlelight. It had got a little cold being at 9,000ft.
The next village called Chamje was another thousand feet up and the heavens opened as we reached it and poured buckets down on us! The dining room was a Tibetan delight with half of the large room reserved for diners and the other half with an altar and a low mud stove, shining pots and pans on the mantel, a bed with a fat little baby wrapped up and asleep and a large Tibetan matriarch chanting prayers while swinging an incese burner with juniper powder spreading its fragrance around the room. The rom was full of people from around the world and a very garrulous guide telling mythological stories with a wide berth given to the original!

The next morning was cloudy when we set off and we were out of breath almost as soon as we started climbing. The altitude began to show up my lungs!! We were climbing to almost 10,000ft. It was threatening to rain. I started off donw the road trying to avoid a steep short cut up a hill but had to turn back at a waterfall, rushing across the road and that had resulted in a land slide. The road was blocked. Some Isreali trekkers had set up a little camp near the pool and were making tea on the grass beside it and taking a bath. They seemed well settled for the day. I went back, a needless half kilometre and took the steep climb up. It started drizzling a bit and we put on our raincoats and huffed through a forest. Slowly it started with small drops of rain and then they slowly turned into tiny flakes of snow and then big flakes silently twirled through the sky. It was magical!!! the rhododendron forest looked dark and enchanted. It was eerily quiet and the snow swirled down onto our faces and eyelashes and tongues...one of those memories that last  for years to come. We slogged onwards towards Pisang and high on the hillside we saw a monastery, blending into the rock.

The landscape had turned lunar and the gray of the stone village merged into it, the front of the houses having a burnt desolate look. It later turned out that those are the open kitchens with the ceilings and walls blackened with years of smoke from the cooking fires. The only colours are from the flags fluttering in the cold winds. The arched gateway welcomed us up the steep slope approaching the village which seemed kilomteres away from it.

After wandering about past a lake  we found Hari beckoning us to a shortcut. It seemed we had missed the turning and wandered outside the village!!

The Hotel Maya had a balcony to the rooms and we sat and rested and drank in the views. Kaeed found out there wasn't any hot water for a bath so we took turns at the cold tap to wash up and then go to the dining room for our tea. There was a bukhari  or wood burning stove to keep us warm in the centre, a welcome addition to most tea houses. Hot lemon tea and a home grown pizza, lots of vegs on a chapatti, really much nicer to taste than it sounds, took away most of our tiredness and we could go for a little walk along the main streets to take in the sights. There were a couple of amazing bakeries offering apple pie and chocolate cakes along with croissants and breads.

 

 

We had reached quite a height and walking had become difficult and slow and the weather was very cold. Another hard day of walking and we would have a much longed for day of rest at Manang.

 

 

 

Annapurna Circuit, Nepal Part I

Trekking in Nepal
Part I

Predictably beautiful, unexpectedly lungbusting! Nothing prepares you for Nepal; neither the numerous blogs, the photos, nor the eulogies by those who have been there before.  After coming back home, one wants to go back immediately. That longing, serves as a fitting testimonial to the place, the people, the breathtaking vistas, the crick-in-the-neck height of the mountains, the lush green fields and the delicious food.
  It takes me a while, as an Indian, to get used to the idea that I am in a foreign country. Landing in Kathmandu, the airport has interiors of wood, a distinct Tibetan feel to the architecture. Going through immigration is a breeze, show your passport or your voter's card and that's enough. The city is an untidy Jammu look-alike, roads left unfinished, with rubble along the sides, stagnant water, full of rubbish and wiring strung haphazardly across the streets. On the other hand, a lovely green golf course, an impressive mainstreet leading off the palace, and the imposing Pashupatinath Temple complex offers another view.
After going through several very narrow streets with speeding SUVs sqeezing past each other,  we come to Thamel, the  backpackers and trekkers district. Its distinctly different to the rest of the city. There is enough here to keep you occupied for days, especially if you trek, or read, or eat, or love music or shopping for clothes, antiques, knick knacks,.. take your pick!  Its all there in a maze of entrancing little lanes. You want swiss chocolates? French bread? Danish? Yak cheese? Pringles? Gelato? Baileys? The Supermarket has it all. I nearly forget what I've come for... trekking the Annpurna circuit, remember? But what about chilling a little, enjoying the peace and quiet  with a large slice of blonde lemon cheesecake and a bar or two of theblues,hmm? Its New Orleans cafe!

                                                                           Thamel

The next day we spend  in sightseeing, driving to the Swayambhu (short form for Shambhu? As in Shiv?) Stupa, a happy mix of Hindu and Bhuddist, with an old monastery tucked away in a corner and an obligingly garrulous monk. Onwards for my favourite avatar's blessing, and no he isn't blue all over, only around his neck. In this case the god of all beings, especially animals like us , is a domed black stone with large white eyes with big black pupils housed in an impressive four sided temple, with elaborately wrought silver doors and walls all around and gold leaf on the top. Its age shows  in the Bhairav temple with the fearsome fanged idol in a dim smoky wooden temple, with hundreds of worshippers squeezing in and out all day, the nepalese being extremely devout hindus. With His special blessing: a shower of water from the priest all over my head much to the chagrin of a pushy old woman who missed every drop, I wriggle my way around to look up at the gigantic brass Nandi, presiding over the main door. The Pashupatinath temple is a complex of temples, lingas and little chhatris, each very much alive and buzzing with worshippers and priests, and even though the brass statues of the royal family sit faithfully worshipping , I was carried back to a time when acolytes and priests must have learnt and taught; young hostelers in the rooms surrounding the main temples and twenty four hour yagnas, a canal from the river running swiftly around the back for last rites to be performed and ashes to be submerged.
The other main stupa in the middle of the town has what are called Buddha's eyes painted on it and I remembered them from the huge statue of Buddha, the One to come, in Thikse monastery in Ladhak with the same eyes.

                                                Buddha's eyes and Swayambhunath Temple

Traditional Nepalese couple

Long walk to town

 

                                                    Nandi outside Pashupatinath temple
We start off on day three in an SUV to base where we will  start trekking. It is'nt very high up, starting only at about 1200 feet. the vegetation is lush, almost subtropical and it is hot and sunny. That nightwe stay at a tea house, the first in a long line of these cosy wooden guest houses with smoky rafters and well ventilated walls and windows!

Bulbule, first stop,,

the first of "Where is Kaeed?" places in the series...

                                                           And they're off!
The first day of walking was an interesting though warm, 15 km, through villages along a motorable road with occasional traffic, along terraced green fields and lush vegetation. Even the terai hills in Nepal are high. We had started off on tummies stocked with an enormous breakfast chosen from a vastly varied and unbelievable menu! We found out to our delight that it was all true with shades of grey, along the way! There are apple pancakes, Swiss rosti with melty yak cheese, oatmeal with fruits, eggs any which way, rice pudding, lemon tea, ginger tea, milky nepalese tea, coffee, drinking chocolate! Mindbogglingly  all this is served us even at the height of 16,000ft! And my personal favourite, thatho pani, hot water! At the end of this long day we scampered up a wicked slope to our next place of rest, on a ridge, a pass between two high points, Bahundandi. the name meant the ridge of Brahmin's! A few pics of the place...

 

Enjoying the weather, outside our rooms. Bahundandi.

 

 That's day four of our trek.