Our Ratnagiri Trip !

    When one reads Ratnagiri, he/she is immediately filled with thoughts of enjoying on the beaches with friends, amazing weather, and Konkani food. Well, our trip was filled with activities even more interesting than the ones mentioned here. Since we had been to Lonavala the day before, I was sceptical about travelling another 350 kms for a family trip. Right then my dad popped in and said in his usual positive tone "The train to Ratnagiri has been changed recently and the seats now are nothing less than those in Airplane seats". I immediately checked our train Jan Shatabdi Express and yeah !it was absolutely heaven with Huge seats, TV and an appearance just like the Eurail in which I had travelled many years back. Without hesitation my sister and I were on our feet and packed our bags for the train at 5am the next day. The train looked somewhat like this :

If you ask me which was the most enjoyable place of the trip, I would certainly say our Hotel. With the pool facing rooms and some never before tasted pomfret for dinner, our stay at Greenleaf Hotel was certainly memorable. 

Day 1 : We started off by worshipping the great Ganpatipule temple along the coast. The aura of the temple was filled with positive energy and the architecture was one of the best we had witnessed. We were lucky to have reached the temple just before 7 since the Aarti was to begin at that time. We were given Khichdi as a prasad along with curd. We had our dinner in the Konkan Leaf restaurant and chatted for a few hours before going to bed early.

Day 2 : The moment we started this trip I had something on my bucket list and that was to taste the local food of Konkan and dig deeper into their local life. This thing was ticked off my list when my dad decided to take us to his friends house in Ratnagiri. With all the thatched roofs and flooring made of mud it was as I had expected. We had some Konkani chaha (Tea) and the fresh juicy Mangoes from their huge mango farm, the taste of which I remember even now whilst writing this ! To taste the famous fish thali we were told to go to Sameer- a local eatery serving one of the best home-made Thaalis of all time.

We headed to our hotel thereafter and relaxed for some time since I had to finish some of my work and Vedashri-my sister was tired too. To our surprise it drizzled in the afternoon and we sighed a breath of relief. 

Day 3 : The day started with me complaining " Aapan lavkar ghari jauya", meaning let us go home early, we are getting bored here. The reason being, I had slept so well last night that I woke up with a headache and had no intention of doing anything that required walking or even travelling. Just then I heard some kids saying that they were going to the pool, and as usual I was filled with a burst of ideas and activities to be done that day. First Gym then the pool. I carried out the activities as planned and by the end of the day was so tired that my sister and I ordered our dinner in the room itself. Though not a usual day of sightseeing, this day was different and rejuvenating. Oh wait !!I forgot the beach..yes we did go to the beach..it was amazing !!

Day 4 : We decided that since this was the last day we would cover as many sightseeing places as possible. We all agreed upon a common plan and set out for the journey. Prachin Konkan was first on our list.

It displayed certain ancient artifacts and explained the way people lived in Konkan in the early days, its history and the significance of few temples in Ratnagiri. We even got to taste the famous "ukdiche modak" (an indian sweet made of rice/wheat flour) when we were leaving for our second sightseeing place of the day which was the Samadhi of Swami swaroopanand at Pawas-a place 40kms from Ratnagiri. We read a board named 'Konkan Aquarium' enroute Pawas and decided to take a halt. The aquarium had some fishes which I had never seen before and in particular two huge Turtles..I had never seen such huge turtles before but it was sad that they were kept in such a small place just for the pleasure of the people.

 We left for the temple a few moments later. It was a very spiritual place and was well known as the place where Swamiji took his last breath. He was a very religious person and was a freedom fighter who participated in the famous 'Quit India Movement'. We were lucky to have visited this place !. We headed for lunch thereafter in a nearby home-made food restaurant for having local food and then we were on our way to the Saraswati temple which was 20kms from the place. This temple had statues of all the holy deities including mahalakshmi, mahasaraswati and Mahakali. The weather was humid throughout but having visited such wonderful places we did not have any regrets whatsoever. W

We reached the train station well before time, only to know that the train was 50 mins late. That meant that I had more time to experiment with my photography skills !! I took several good slow-mo videos and some photos too..The train reached Dadar station at 11pm and we headed home tired.

After reaching home I realised that one of the best matches of this years FIFA was being telecasted -Portugal Vs Spain. I immediately refreshed myself and sat for the match until 1.30 am in the night. 

It was an experience that I certainly won't forget .

See ya!