Even two days before the annual road trip, we hadn't zeroed down on the place to visit! During a chance conversation with a colleague, she happened to mention this off-beat hill station by name "
Amboli" somewhere on the Karnataka - Maharashtra border. There was a small hitch though - imagine if in this day, all that google search can throw up about a tourist place is not more than 5 results then its definitely off the radar! But the tourist junkies we(me n hubbs! who else) are, we decided that this is where we are headed - maybe the lack of info added a "mystery" element for us!
A good 570 Kms to be covered and with hubs the sole driver, we set off early in the morning! Crossing Hubli, Belgaum we hit the Pune highway. Once we took the diversion towards Amboli, the roads seemed almost deserted except for an odd village on the way! It was almost dusk by the time we reached outskirts of Amboli - we were welcomed with stretches of sugarcane and they were indeed a sight to behold. Soon we reached the center of Amboli town - only to be welcomed by this weird sight of hardly any soul on the road and this was supposed to be our holiday destination (really!).The odd person we met was clueless about the resort we had booked and to add to our misery the mobile didn't have have any coverage. Off we went in search of a land line and once we spoke to the resort owner, reached the place without any more adventures!
The "
resort" was more of a extended B&B - but the nice guys there arranged some beer and food from a nearby hotel! The absolute silence in the resort and the yumm local food (Their buttermilk with kokum was a definite favourite) is all we city jaded souls needed.
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| The Malvan Thali! Don miss their pink - kokum buttermilk........ |
A trip around the town next day confirmed the fact that this is indeed an unexplored quaint small "hill station" with hardly any tourist footprints. The town had exactly 3 "Resorts" and a few shady looking shack that doubled up as "hotels"(A vegetarian "Kamat" hotel was the only exception). But when u can fill your stomach with delicious upma-sheera, vada-pav and the authentic
Malvan food, we weren't definitely complaining! Maybe it was this remoteness that added to the charm of this place - I will show u a glimpse of the place in this pic...
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| Verdant Green Valleys! |
The verdant beaches of
Vengurla and the town of
Sawnatwadi (they specialize in wooden toys) can all be done as day trips from here!
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| @Vengurla! | | |
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| Wooden Toys in all forms! |
We returned back refreshed after spending 3-4 day away from the maddening city - an entire day was spent lolling around on the hammocks in the hotel property with a book in hand! Absolute Bliss I tell u....
On the drive back to Bangalore we stopped over at Dandeli and spent 2 days there river rafting and on jungle safari! On the final leg of that journey, so dead tired were we that we took a nap in the middle of the night inside the car parked bang on the Tumkur - Bangalore highway until a patrolling officer came knocking on car window wondering if everything is ok ;)
This post is a part of Indibloggers
"The Perfect Road Trip"(sponsored by
Ambipur)- this was perfect simply cause we went with zero expectations n came back delighted :)
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