My trip to Amboli Ghat...

Today I’m going to write about my short weekend trip to Amboli. For people who haven’t heard about this place, it’s a small hill station on the Goa Maharashtra border and a perfect place for weekend outing. I and Sriman had long been waiting for this weekend to come since it meant 3 days off (15th Aug – Friday, 16th Saturday and 17th being a Sunday) . Though we had thought of planning this trip well in advance, as usual the lazy bones in us got the better of us. We finally decided to embark on our trip after a lot of speculation and hesitation.

Since we had not planned in advance, it became difficult for us to book hotels in Amboli itself. We booked a room for us at a 3 star resort called “Konkan Crown” at Sawantwadi, a place 30 Km away from Amboli. We were informed that there are frequent busses from Goa to Sawantwadi, so we decided to take the bus (Kadamba) itself. We started from office on the 14th (Thursday) at about 5.00 pm. We missed the 5.45 bus thanks to our office location. We then could find our only last resort to be the bus at 6.30 pm from Panjim. We reached just in the nick of time to find the bus jam packed. I remember I almost stood on 1 leg for the entire journey from Goa to sawantwadi which got advanced by an hour due to the incessant rains. Finally we landed at Sawantwadi bus stand. Out designated hotel was about 7 km from the stand. So it meant another 15 min of journey by the Auto rickshaw. We reached the hotel finally at about 9.00 pm. Time for some nice soup. I freshened my self and slept while Sriman ordered the food. I had some real nice soup… soothing effect to my almost crackling bones. With excitement about the trip on the next day I slept…

The next morning was a lazy one. All the exhausted feelings about the previous day had vanquished thanks to the whole nights sleep. I got ready with the Camera and Handy cam to shoot some very exciting moments. We boarded a bus to main Sawantwadi bus stand from where we were supposed to take a bus to Amboli a journey of about half an hour. We reached Amboli amidst thick fog. The journey up into the Ghats was enchanting. So many small streams gushing down the mountains and greenery all around was the only sight we could see. We had been informed by the hotel staff that we could either hire an auto or a trax at Amboli and we thought it better to hire an auto since we were the only 2 people. The autowala said that he will show us 5 points of the total 10.

Point 1:
Beautiful gushing water interspersed with drizzling rains was what we saw when we landed at this lush green location, though I don’t remember the location name anymore. Some snaps and some video shooting followed by a meal of freshly roasted and marinated corn. Wow this place was wonderful. It was made more wonderful by the drizzling rain.

Point 2: Kavdeshad
This was the second place that we visited. This place too was characterized by gushing water everywhere and thick Fog and far off waterfalls. Fog rising against the mountain and water droplets sprinkling above due to the water going down the mountain made this place look like heaven. It looked like the places shown in mythological TV serials where Gods reside. Tourists, especially gangs of boys seemed to be too elated to be here. We could make out their excitement due to their jumping into the water streams and also due to their shouting…

Intermediate spot: Self evolved (swayambhu) Siddhivinayaka Temple.
The autowala told us about this self evolved or “Swayambhu” Siddhivinayaka temple and we could not resist from visiting it. Half submerged in water, we could see the Ganesh structure protruding from the rock. The temple in its virgin surroundings looked elegant.

Point 3: Hiranyakeshi temple
This point consists of a small temple amidst the forestry. The God idols are half submerged in water. It is said to be a man made stream with water coming from a rivulet in the mountain. The pond created in front of the temple has become a place for the tourists to have fun. The guys use it as a swimming pool or a pool to have dips in the water. Besides the temple is another big rock through which seems to be present a cave. We tried entering the cave, but it appeared too narrow and we dropped the plan since I couldn’t find any person who had actually seen the inside. It was too dark.

Point 4: Amboli waterfall
This was the best ever place I visited at Amboli. A big waterfall with so many tourists enjoying there. This spot is adjacent to the road connecting sawantwadi and Amboli and results in lots of traffic congestion due to the tourists. Steps are constructed leading to midway of the waterfall, so climbing becomes convenient, though the force of the water flow does make this convenience a bit cumbersome. You become fully drenched by the time you reach back to the bottom of the fall.

We could not visit the sunset point because of the persisting fog even at 6.00 pm. So we decided to return back to our cozy hotel and relax. We boarded a bus back to Sawantwadi and again another back to our hotel. We reached back at about 7.30 and then freshened up and slept after a nice warm but light meal. The next day I could find no reason to venture out of my cozy bed till 9.30 when we had breakfast. Time to sleep again. I finally got up at about 12.00 noon to explore the hotel and its pool. We then had food, roamed around the hotel and finally checked out at about 4.00. we had a train “Diva Madgaon Passenger express” scheduled at 5.00. The hotel was about half a km from the railway station. Our train got delayed by 2 hours. We spent these 2 hours just chatting at the railway station. It took us just about an hour to reach back home.

This trip was a long pending one for us. We enjoyed each and every moment here. The lessons I learnt from this trip was… Always use the train to go to Amboli, it is convenient and fast. Considering the bus journey which was tiring and long, the train journey was very pleasant but short. Also, book your hotels appropriately, lest you have to select a place far away from the main location of your picnic. Also, its always convenient to have your own modes of travel, either a private taxi or auto or car… and last but not the least, always equip your trip with a Camera and handy cam and burn a CD of your photos/videos so that you can capture those beautiful moments and watch them later…

This trip was really enjoyable to both of us… I would like to thank Sriman for making this possible and memorable. Hope to have more such trips soon. Well, I have already decided upon the place, now I need to make a plan and gather some real adventurous gang to go to “Netravali” my next destination…