The Memoirs of Alibaug

A Train to Churchgate, a Cab to Gateway, a Boat to Mandwa, a Bus to Alibaug Bus Stand, and an Auto to the Hotel. That’s how you get there. Sounds convoluted enough to send jitters down your spine, but the place is awesome. Almost feel like repeating what the website tol’ me about Alibaug, here and I am certainly thinking of paying it another visit soon and why not!

This rustic town/village, located some nautical miles away from the Gateway of India, has a very similar laidback feel to it as Goa did. Most of the times, there would be no crowd, no waiting in queues in restaurants, Hotels every 2 minutes but no signs of inhabitation, and then suddenly there was a population explosion at the beaches, almost like one would find at the Juhu Beach. There were the customary Paani Puri Waalahs, the Gola waalahas and the Horse guys, but one look, and one would know that we were not at Juhu or Chowpatty.

Almost as if it is trying to get out of it’s laidback image, but is unable to do so. A Chocolate Boy Hero trying play the lead role of Rocky, but expectedly not able to. And Thankfully so!


Anyways, coming back to my trip, we reached at exactly 7.00 pm, my mind in a bit of a doubt about being able to reach there on time for the finals, but luckily, the rain got it postponed. A dismal final followed, with all the typical traits associated with this World Cup, like the goof-ups, and an Australian win! The room, well, cannot say much about this one, but, it was at least economical, 650 bucks for a day, minus the AC. The Hotel Name, a rather unfancy, Guruji!

The only other incident worth mentioning here was the walk on the moon lit beach, at 10.00 in the night, with million other people. Guess, it was that time of the year! Checking out the next morning, we got into another place, The Sun and Sea. I do not want to sound too critical or finicky, but, this was one place, where, it never happened, that at a given point, there was nothing that was not wrong. Sometimes, it was the AC, sometime, the gyser, on other occasions the water failed to turn up, while the room service was conspicuous by it’s absence. The TV had fewer channels than Sehwag’s scores in the last few innings, and in the end, we needed to go to the reception and call the guy up. Good Morning Sir, he says, at 2.30 in the afternoon! The highlight of the day was the food, no two ways about it. Reasonable, homely, and loads of it! At 60 bucks per head, the Punjabi dishes were washed down with a glass of lassi, and as expected, ended up sleeping more than I should have. Evening was spent on shopping (yeah, I don’t get too bored doing that!), and then at the ever so crowded beach!

On the third day, we moved out of this Hotel, and checked into our third hotel in as many days. (must mention about John Grisham Novels here, for all Grisham fans, this is so typical of his books, the hero/heroine keeps changing hotels to save themselves from getting killed. This almost seemed similar!) Forget it’s name right now, but this was the best of the lot. Everything in proper shape, well almost everything, but what stood out was the awesome view, it had. Sea Facing! The heart nearly skipped a beat when we saw it first. Surprisingly, it costed less than Sun and Sea. Words would not do enough justice to it, so I have put this photo that I got from the room window. The stay here was almost as good as the view, everything contrasted the previous place. Almost as if, we were given a lesson on “How not to run a Hotel” the previous day, and an exact opposite lesson the next! And at the expense of sounding repetitive, it had an awesome view!!! The picture below says it all...

This was also the day when we walked almost half way upto the Alibaug Fort. The route to the fort is through the Alibaug Beach Water, yeah, we need to walk through the water, during a low tide, and get to the Fort. And then, get outta the fort before the tide begins to get high again. And it is a good 30 minute walk through the sea! Imagine walking through the sea for half an hour, to get to the fort, and doing the same only when there is a low tide. Aint that dangerous as it sounds. Becoz my fellow resident sea/beach/water expert tol’ me that the tides occur in the cycle of six hours each, and so, if there is a low tide, it was to remain like that for 6 hours at least. So, no worries there! (We walked half way, because we soon got bored of walking in the water…ok, more specifically, I got bored of walking!)

A game of Scrabble and “Teen Patti” rounded off, what had been a tiring and a hectic day for us. Slept early, woke up early and got out of the Hotel to get back to Mumbai. Must mention the catamaran that we came back in. It was a 100 bucks voyage, which gave me the feeling of me sitting on a flight to Switzerland. Well, almost. Air conditioned, closed windows, and quiet cozy seats! Forty five minutes was all that we took to get to the Gateway.

One mess up in the whole affair was the fiasco with Alibaug’s milk products. Whether it was a cup of Tea, coffee or a Hot Chocolate, everything was laced with a generous helping “elaichi” in it. I wondered whether there were no anti-dumping laws for “elaichi” in Alibaug. The Hot Chocolate probably had half a dozen spoons of sugar to add to the ‘elaichi’…3 sips was all I could have! Think, there is a huge scope for a B-Plan Writing on opening one “Hot Beverage” Shop in Alibaug. Surely! A thoroughly enjoyable trip, and a memorable one at that. Back to business now, Summer Intership begins from day after, will need to wrap this trip in the back lanes of my mind for now!

P.S. The talking point of the trip was the new Cap I bought from Bandra. Here goes the conversation...
Me: I like that Cream Cap.
Cap-Seller: Yeah, it looks good. Try it. Here's the mirror
Me: How much for it?
CS: 220 bucks
Me: (Scoffs), too much
CS: How much you want it for?
Me: 220 is too much
CS: I will give it for 100.
Me: I will take it (knowing very well, that I could have bought it for 60 bucks, but had no stomach for another argument).
Finally own a cap. That I do not want to lose! Stay away from it!!!