Some of my friends always envy me for only one reason- my lot of outings with friends. The last trip we had to Raigad was a nice experience altogether. But since then, everybody was quite busy with one or other things, and we couldn't go for any outing. While celebrating the new year, somebody took a chance of arranging a trip to some beach. By now we have covered many of beaches in konkan. So this time it required to be something different. And then, Destination Daman was calling us. We decided to grab the coming Saturday Sunday for this plan. First we had planned commutation by train. But it would have been much hectic and costing as much money as we would have spent if we hired a car/jeep. So we obviously chose the second option of hiring a tavera!
The movie seen on late Friday night caused all of us getting up late and making our departure even later. We had decided to take the route of pune-thane-ghodbunder-vapi-daman! We were supposed to pick up one of our friend from Mumbai. Everybody among us was starving which made us take a halt at food mall for breakfast. This was not the first time we were halting there, but the one thing which was different was we went to a snacks centre named 'Gurudatt snacks centre'. We had a variety of breakfast items there like misal, pohe, thalipeeth, khichdi, kothimbir wadi, tea etc. Our stomachs as well as hearts were full. We continued the journey then. I appreciate the pune-mumbai expressway, for it has drastically reduced the travel time to reach Mumbai/Pune. After leaving Pune at around 8.45 and having a nice breakfast in the food mall we managed to reach Mumbai around 12.30. After picking up the friend from kashimeera, we headed straight to daman.
The Dahisar-Ahmedabad highway is quite a simple and wide road. There were some constructions going on in the middle of the road, which didn’t bother much, as they had provided enough alterations on the diversion part of the highway. Though the breakfast in morning was heavy, at around 2.00 o clock, we started feeling hungry. It was time for lunch. We took a halt at a hotel and ordered some Punjabi food. When the plates full of food were placed in front of us, we started eating as if we were hungry since last few years. Again we filled up our stomachs and headed to Vapi. One of us had a laptop with speakers which made our journey musical. We even exercised our throats in antakshari.
We entered vapi and from there the road heads straight to daman. You can see sudden change in things, when you travel from one state to another. The people, the infrastructure, the speaking language and tone of people, etc. Entering into Daman/Gujarat state wasn't an exception too. After entering into daman, first task was to find some accommodation. Three things that made us suffer a bit were: No advance booking, weekend and high tariff rates. We tried talking with receptionist of every hotel, lodge, bungalows, but no success. Time was passing fast, and even after 1 hr we were roaming with failure. Hence we decided to split our group and search in two different directions. After parting ways, we four were busy in having tea and photo sessions and roaming in car to find a place, whereas the other group was walking on streets and struggling to find a place to stay. Of course, they were the one who finally found a decent accommodation in very low tariff rate. We dumped our luggage in the rooms. The 8 hrs journey wasn't much tiring, but the search for accommodation made us tired, so we first got fresh and then headed towards the boating club couple of kms ahead.
By the look of it, we could guess that the club was not only famous in daman just for boating, but also it had got a really nice environment and various games as well as food options. There was a small toy train to take tour of the club. The artificial lake was structured in a way, so that the restaurant is in the center of the lake and two big bridges join the center with the peripherals of the lake. We entered the club and a group of white ducks attracted us to the lake side. We tried to take snaps of them, but all in vain. There neck and wings’ movements were so sharp and fast, that none of the snap was having a stable and nice pose of the ducks. With a bit of disappointment but still smile on our faces, we turned to the boating part. We hired two different pedaling boats. The fountain in the lake had colorful lights and was offering a nice view. We didn’t miss the opportunity of capturing it in the camera. Our boats even raced for a while and then people gave up as it was tiring to pedal for a long time. It’s true what they say, we all are becoming unhealthy day by day, yes of course because of lack of physical exercise!
After exiting from the boat club and having tea, we passed time and had dinner in one of the big resorts inDaman . A musical group was performing some Hindi songs live in the resort. Some heavily drunk guys were dancing in front of the stage, even in the break between two songs. Seeing that, we were not able to control our laughter. Enjoying the ‘navratri band’ songs, we moved out of the resort.
After exiting from the boat club and having tea, we passed time and had dinner in one of the big resorts in
Beach, friends and nighttime implies an obvious thing to do, and that’s drinking! We returned to our rooms and had a nice session of talks with sips of green apple mixed with vodka and some snacks. Eyes were trying to close and mind still not ready to sleep. It was past midnight and high tide was making the sound of waves more clearer and nearer. The peace mixed with wave talks and my friends' talks was offering immense pleasure. The background music was at its best. Perfect moments to store and lock the memory for lifetime. The playing cards in the bag were waiting for their chance. So we played cards till 4 in the morning. With the sweet memories of whole day, we closed our eyes and went flat on bed, hoping for even better fun next day!
The next morning the supposed-to-get-up-time changed from 7 to 9, which eventually changed the whole day's program. The root cause wasn’t the hangover, but playing cards. Though the guest house had a beach at the back side, it was full of rocks and kind of unclean. Hence we decided to go and play in sea water at Jampore beach in moti daman which is few kms away from nani daman, but alas! It was a low tide in sea and we were able to see the water at the horizon only. The beach was dry, just like our mood. Yeah we had a big disappointment. Well to say, the series of disappointments started from there.
Not much people were around, only few vendors selling few food items and toys were there. We changed the plan on the spot and had full fledged breakfast on the beach. It was a different experience to spend a bright shining Sunday morning on beach eating till your stomach and heart are full. We spent around couple of hours there, clicking photos in various funny and innovative poses. I never knew people would be so excited even for clicking the all famous titanic pose! Not to mention, the snap looks like taken after the law 377 was made in India Daman . There were all government offices in there, that too closed because of Sunday. So there was no point in roaming out there. Chucking off the second one, we wished to visit the church, which is built inside the fort area. Yeah you guessed it right, we were disappointed the third time! The church was closed from 12 in noon till 4 in evening! With long faces we started returning back to the rooms. Meanwhile, just to give it a try, we got down at nani daman to have a look at the beach, if the low tide was over, and if the water is within reach. There we go! Let alone looking at the beach, we concentrated on drinking coconut water and passing 1 hour there too! Finally, after so many hesitations and warnings people got up and went straight to the rooms and had bath.
Playing cards was the thing everybody was eager to do! So, some of us played cards while the others were getting ready as we had to leave the place by 4. Opeth’s damnation was being played on the laptop. Before leaving we could see the low tide was over. And we hopped off the house and went on the beach. We spent some time there and started the return journey. The setting sun was bidding adieu to us. We were hungry as we hadn’t have our lunch till then, we rushed to the food stalls on nani daman beach road and ate as much variety of food items as we could. We reached Pune after midnight with pale eyes.
Deep inside me there is a fear for water. Still the sea attracts me. I surely feel that the waves of the sea have much more to tell us. In the night time, their sounds become sharper trying to reach our ears without any disturbance. I was trying to understand their talks that night. The deep water of sea, swallowing garbage and still offering us cheerful sounds to listen and amazing views to watch, makes a big sacrifice and yet smiles everyday. We look at the sun setting off at the horizon with amaze, keeping our feet in the water. The water still smiles unselfishly!
The one lesson that we learned in this trip was unplanned things give you more pleasure than the planned ones. Our whole planning of two days schedule went in vain, but still we had the best start of the New Year! The small small things enjoyed with friends gave us moments for lifetime!
No comments:
Post a Comment