[man_of_steel]

Love reading your travelogues KarthikK! Wishing both many more happy miles!

[chandrda]

Enjoyed reading your travelogue.

Though I have seen Villa Retreat a few times but never thought of staying there. It looks really cozy and beautiful, will plan to stay there next time.

Pictures of the food is excellent. You have set the menu as well

Regards

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by man_of_steel

Love reading your travelogues KarthikK! Wishing both many more happy miles!

Thank you so much for your kind words man_of_steel! Glad you liked reading them

Originally Posted by chandrda

Enjoyed reading your travelogue.

Though I have seen Villa Retreat a few times but never thought of staying there. It looks really cozy and beautiful, will plan to stay there next time.

Pictures of the food is excellent. You have set the menu as well

Regards

Thanks a lot chandrda!
Yeah the food at Villa retreat was a stand-out in whatever we tried. Even the eateries in Kodai town were quite nice!

[KarthikK]

Ride to Sawantwadi Palace, Konkan, Maharashtra (March 2024)

February and March are usually nice months for travel for us, with lovely deals on drool-worthy properties, fair weather, empty highways, sparsely occupied properties and in general more peaceful travel destinations due to exam season and summer heat mean that trips are more enjoyable and places are more peaceful to explore.

The better half, who is our end-to-end travel and itinerary planner nowadays, came up with a brilliant place suggestion to begin our riding account for March on the Ninja - a quaint little princely town called Sawantwadi in the southwest Konkan coastal part of Maharashtra. Her lovely discovery for this trip was to find this amazing heritage property. The royal family resident in the Sawantwadi palace have recently opened their doors to travellers to experience a slice of royalty in their Heritage Palace hotel in Sawantwadi, called the Sawantwadi Boutique Art Hotel. Over research during the pre-booking phase, we got to learn more about this palace hotel being managed directly by the princess Yuvrani Shraddha Sawant Bhonsle and her husband the crown prince Yuvraj Lakham Sawant Bhonsle, who both also happen to be ace chefs carrying extensive experience working with Michelin star restaurants around the world.

The royal family of Sawantwadi also happen to be proud guardians of the Ganjifa art (painting) form native to Sawantwadi region, and one can find elements of Ganjifa art everywhere in this property - the furniture, the restaurant, wall paintings, playing cards, etc. This hotel just had 6 rooms to ensure healthy interaction levels with guests and offer an immersive experience for the guests. Due to the chef aspect, we were quite certain that this trip was going to be one hell of a foodie experience too!

This was going to be a fantastic experience staying in a royal property with almost 400 years of history dating back to Shivaji's era of the Maratha empire, plus also the chance to interact with the royal family closely, learn about their lives, learn about the native Art forms and wooden handicrafts of the Sawantwadi region, and of course as guests, to enjoy the opulence and (royal) hospitality that Sawantwadi palace hotel had to offer to travellers. As always, we didn't restrict our travel only to the palace and history, and in conjunction with the palace staff's help the better half and I chalked out a lovely itinerary mixing some exploration activities around Sawantwadi town and even included visits to the untouched beaches of Konkan such as Shiroda and Vengurla. The trip would last for 4 days over an extended weekend, to ensure we did justice to the plans and the place thoroughly. Please pardon me for adding too many food pictures in this travelogue. The food experience at this property was out of the world and we truly enjoyed every single dish served over those 4 days, so apologies in advance for the food-coma spam, lol!

The route from Bangalore was straightforward - we had to take the Bangalore - Mumbai expressway for 500 km upto Belgaum (also called Belagavi), then divert from Belgaum towards Amboli and head towards the Konkan coast to hit Sawantwadi for another 100+km from Belgaum, thus taking the total distance to a little over 620 km. BHPian and good friend Dr.AD had covered the Konkan - Amboli - Belgaum stretch in one of his drives last month, so he had already told me the roads were in good shape for the most part.

The better half and I decided to do an early departure from Bangalore to get a head start on the rather long distance considering we wanted to reach Sawantwadi for lunch. We left at around 3.45AM from home, covering good pace during the wee hours with minimal traffic and zero interruptions from villagers and stray animals en route.

Taking a break at one of the first few toll plazas in the wee hours of Saturday



By the time the sun began to rise, we had already covered 200+km and stopped again at Chitradurga to take some quick pictures of the sunrise along the windmill-laden mountains in the backdrop of Chitradurga







70 km later say by around 7AM, we were ready to stop for a refuel break at an IOC XP95 bunk just outside Davanagere, followed by a breakfast break at Apoorva resort, Davanagere. They are famous for these delicious woodfired Davanagere Benne (Benne means butter in Kannada) Masala Dosas. Some piping hot Vada Sambar and filter coffee helped to wash it all down



Post this short breakfast stop, we proceeded along the boring, largely arrow-straight expressway for another 200km till we approached Belgaum. We just stopped for quick 2-minute breaks at toll plazas to rehydrate



The day was getting warm, so we stopped at a CCD outlet just outside Dharwad town for a quick rehydration break. Here is a mandatory photo at the outskirts of Belgaum, with the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha which is visible from the expressway



Since there were no bunks after Belgaum until we hit Konkan and returned, I topped up the fuel with XP95 to the brim at Belgaum and we then broke off from the expressway to enter Maharashtra through the Belgaum - Chandgad - Amboli highway around noon. The road conditions from Belgaum to Chandgad were a bit patchy in places, but nothing alarming. From Chandgad to Amboli, the road surface was being freshly tarred but almost 90% was already completed.

The lovely albeit narrow roads leading to Amboli ghat from Belgaum



Amboli ghat was a pleasure to ride through, and the clear views of the panoramic vistas enthralled us as we descended through the ghats towards Sawantwadi. The only sad thing was the ocean of brown as opposed to green, if we come here during monsoons .





Just some 5 km before we hit the turn towards Sawantwadi town, we hit a roadblock at a place where road work was going on for a fresh layer of tar. Unlike the usual practice of tarring half width of road at a time and allowing traffic to use the other half width, the jokers here blocked both sides of traffic and cordoned off the full width of the road to tar a 50-metre section. It was annoying to be stuck at standstill with full riding gear on for a good 30 minutes in the hot sun, with no shelter around!

After they eventually completed the work and allowed the built-up traffic to clear, we crawled out of the mess and proceeded to reach Sawantwadi palace by roughly 2PM. There were proper tarred roads all the way from the entrance of the main road till where our rooms were located!

Entering Sawantwadi Palace hotel in the searing afternoon heat



The entire Sawantwadi palace was nestled amidst coconut trees towering over the antique red stone structure



The palace campus was large and expansive, and it took us a while to figure out where the hotel part of it was.



The hotel portion of the palace was behind the original Palace building, right next to the private residence of the current royal family. This passage led us to that wing



The Ninja got prime parking space right outside the courtyard



The entrance to the hotel courtyard and rooms area



The central courtyard housing the entrance to the rooms on the upper and lower floors.



We completed the check-in formalities quickly and relished the unique Kokam and soda concoction welcome drink served to us at the reception desk after the 650 km ordeal in the summer afternoon heat. Thankfully we were the only guests in the entire property during those dates, so we enjoyed full attention and service from the staff on all four days. Perks of travelling in off-season, lol!

We had chosen a room on the ground floor. There were six rooms in total, named after different Avatars of Lord Vishnu. Our room was called Matsya, themed after the 'Fish' (Matsya) Avatar. There was a Ganjifa art painting on the walls inside each of these rooms, themed after what the specific Avatar represented. This was the living area of our room



The room was large and airy with a high ceiling, typical of antique centuries-old properties of yonder. Although this was a heritage property, the amenities were akin to what one would find in any star hotel and we didn't find anything lacking. There was a nice mix of antique elements with modern amenities



The bathroom was large and airy as well



Ganjifa art making its presence felt even in the bathroom mirror area, lol!



After freshening up, we headed to their restaurant located in the central open-air courtyard for lunch.



A fountain in the courtyard



For lunch we opted for the authentic Rajwadi Thali containing items native to the Malvani Konkan region where Sawantwadi is located. Here is a picture of the Thali and a bunch of traditional accompaniments for the Thali. The Thali contained raw banana fry, Usal, Potato Sabji, Masoor Dal, Rice pancakes called Ghavane, Strawberry Basundi and Solkadhi.



Just as we were finishing lunch, we met up with the prince and princess who run the place. The princess Shraddha is a seriously passionate chef who herself runs the entire kitchen operations as I had mentioned earlier. It was a very pleasant experience interacting with her and we chatted for a long while about travel, food, life as a chef and life as a royal. She helped to customize our itinerary for the next few days and fine tuned things a bit more, and also understood that the foodies in us wanted to try all the varieties she had on offer, so she spent some time understanding our food preferences and suggesting different dishes from different cuisines for different meals so that we have a totally memorable experience in the food department. Here is a picture of a board at the restaurant listing specials for the day. I jokingly told the princess that I would be interested in trying all of them one by one over the course of the next few days, the vegetarian versions that is, lol!



Post this we found a fantastic swimming pool outside the courtyard, nestled amidst coconut trees, apt to enjoy in the afternoon coastal summer heat. We spent some time enjoying the pool until evening.





After the heat started to recede and the sun started going down, the staff set up a High-tea picnic spread at another lovely lawn area facing Sawantwadi lake along the periphery of the palace gardens.



Enjoying some more evening Cappuccino in the courtyard



We passed some time until it was time for dinner by around 8PM. The chef and team had some lovely stuff on offer for us for dinner from a mix of different cuisines.



The team had put together some Vietnamese spring rolls, Garden tomato twisties (similar to Bruschetta but with Heirloom tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes) for appetizers. This was followed by Miso Butter Ricotta Gnocchi and for dessert they had a unique dish called 'Flavours of Sawantwadi' - a coconut cream and chocolate dessert with pineapple sorbet.



After this sumptuous dinner, we spent some time strolling around appreciating the night sights of the palace campus, before we called it a day and hit the sack.

[KarthikK]

Ride to Sawantwadi Palace, Konkan, Maharashtra (March 2024) continued ...

We woke up leisurely on day 2. I took the Ninja near the entrance arch to get a nice click in the early morning sunlight, for the memory books.



Later we passed time in the courtyard area waiting for breakfast, while the sun came up in full blast





We decided to go full continental for breakfast on this day - and the spread was just lip-smackingly scrumptious! Clockwise from top left corner - Tropical smoothie bowl with banana coconut smoothie, coconut granola, fruits and berries, Shakshouka, Croissants with assorted flavoured butter, Pain Au chocolate, Banana bread and fresh fruit, Waffles with banana caramel ice cream, honey and toffee caramel sauce.



Around noon, we took the hotel's help to arrange visits to a few places around Sawantwadi to get a flavour of the local region. We started with a visit to a local dam called Palanekond dam, which acts as a water supply source to rural Sawantwadi through the year. The road ran through some parched forests, which we were treading through in the hot summer afternoon heat.







Spending some time in the dam admiring the sights around





We saw this huge rat snake happily swimming away in the dam water



After this we spent time at the house of one local Sawantwadikar farmer who gladly invited us to his humble home for lunch. It was very nice to interact with the farmer's family and he proudly showed how they grow their own food from end to end, and were using renewable energy for so many of their needs. Here are some sights from the Konkani farm



Plants of millet and beans in the farm





We were privileged to have the simple yet delicious village food cooked by the farmer's family and served with love at their home. I realize this is specific to Maharashtra and Konkan but here goes - on a funny note it was a little strange for us south Indians to eat food in a banana leaf placed vertically like this in lieu of horizontally (in south India, the plate is always placed horizontally). My mind kept getting confused seeing a banana leaf spread in 'portrait mode' instead of 'landscape mode' . The lunch consisted of Bhakri made of local millets, simple dal and rice with some flavorful accompaniments, followed by Ash gourd Halwa.



After bidding goodbye to the farmer's family and thanking them for their generous hospitality, we continued towards our next stop for the day. Close to Sawantwadi on the north western side is a village called Pinguli, located near the town of Kudal. Pinguli is famous for a form of art called Chitrakathi art, and a century-old history of puppetry. There are nomadic tribes which make these wooden and leather puppets and then tour around villages, making a living by conducting puppetry plays and shows, with topics ranging from mythology to awareness of current affairs, etc. While this used to be famous in the erstwhile days prior to the invasion of technology and mobiles, we met up with one of the families who is still involved in this art form and trying to resurrect interest in this field in today's day and age.

We were privileged to meet up with Padma Shri awardee Parshuram Gangavne, a stalwart in this field who has done extensive work over the last few decades to encourage this native puppetry art and uplift artisans and artists involved in this local Pinguli culture. He now runs this TAKA museum housing artifacts of puppetry history of Pinguli



Examples of Chitrakathi art, preserved through generations



Hand-controlled puppets used for village 'road-shows', displayed in the museum



Mr. Gangavane's son demonstrates an ancient form of shadow puppetry, which uses light and shadows behind a screen to create different illusions while narrating scripts and performing puppet shows.



Some more artifacts of local art forms and culture, preserved over the decades







Sawantwadi is also famous for wooden handicrafts and this industry employs many local artisans in this old art form native to this region. We stopped by at a local wooden handicraft factory that we happened to stumble upon by chance



After this stop at Pinguli village, we moved towards the unspoilt and untouched (by tourism) pristine beaches of the coastal Konkan towns of Shiroda and Vengurla, to pass time there till the sun went down over the Arabian sea horizon.

Vengurla's fishing boat Jetty





The backwaters of Konkan between Shiroda and Vengurla



Shiroda beach was quite empty and we enjoyed the pristine white sand beach here until sunset







A fluke silhouette of yours truly at Shiroda beach



After the sun went down, we returned to Sawantwadi palace after a tiring day, full of rich experiences and new things learnt and memories to cherish for a lifetime.

Back at the hotel, the enthusiastic princess chef was setting us up for a fantastic 7-course dinner that she called her 'Tasting menu'. Pan-Asian cuisine was apparently one of her specialties, so she had a lovely assortment lined up for us.

Clockwise from top left corner - a mocktail made of Alphanso mangoes (native to this region), Togarashi spiced rice cracker made of marinated watermelon, cream cheese, sesame seeds and scallion, cold peanut noodles with peanut sauce and soy dipping sauce, Sawantwadi Po' Boy (a fusion take of the famous Po' Boy sandwich with local flavours), followed by Korean fried stuffed mushrooms. Then there was pineapple Sorbet which acted as a palette cleanser, followed by main course which was a dish called Kimchi XO Fried rice with Japanese Soy Tofu. For dessert they served different items for each of us - pineapple cheesecake and Hazelnut caramel Mousse.



Post this fantastic and experiential dinner menu, we retired to the room to draw the curtains on the second day at Sawantwadi.

[KarthikK]

Ride to Sawantwadi Palace, Konkan, Maharashtra (March 2024) continued ...

We woke up early on the third day, because the staff team wanted us to experience a picnic breakfast set up next to the summer palace ruins (owned by the same royal family) in the hills of Amboli. The erstwhile palace is in shambles now, but the same ruins add a different feel to the place





The picnic breakfast setup overlooking Amboli summer palace ruins, set up by the hotel team to give an experiential breakfast memory



The spread consisted of (clockwise from top left): Egg mayo Croissant sandwiches, assorted fruits, butter Croissants, Poha to throw some local Maharashtrian flavours into the mix, and Focaccia Parmesan Tomato sandwiches, with hot chocolate to finish the meal.





Exploring some trails in the woods beside the Amboli palace ruins



Post breakfast, we were taken back to the hotel, where there were other activities we could indulge in during the day to keep us occupied. We started exploring areas of the old palace building with the help of one of the staff there to explain anything we didn't understand or wanted information on.

This was inside the erstwhile Durbar hall of the Sawantwadi kings of yonder, with the king's throne still kept for display



One of the old chandeliers from the early 1900s era



A painting of one of the earliest kings of the Sawantwadi Bhonsle dynasty, dating back to Shivaji's era almost 400 years ago!



Sawantwadi is one of the last few places which still practice Ganjifa art of painting, as I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, and the royal family plays a huge role in protecting and preserving this part of their art heritage. There are artists employed in the palace who are full time into developing intricate Ganjifa art works. Ganjifa is an age old cards game dating back to the Persians and Mughals of the 16th century India. The cards are painted with intricate details, and depict different characters which are used in different variations of this game. Sawantwadi has its own variation of Ganjifa cards and paintings, mostly depicting the ten Avatars of Vishnu and related topics of Hindu mythology. We were told Orissa has something similar to Ganjifa but they have their own variation.

Interested folks can always look up more on this topic on the net. I won't delve into more boring intricate details here . Here is the 78-year old stalwart artist of Ganjifa art, by name Mr. Kulkarni who still turns up to create paintings even at this age, seen here practicing his water color strokes before he starts his next painting.



A set of Ganjifa playing cards on display in their indoor games section



While Ganjifa is mostly related to the playing cards, Sawantwadi palace has adapted it in many other forms such as furniture elements, such as this door knob



And wall art with painted mirrors such as these



They also had other forms of Ganjifa art on coasters, chess boards, Tic Tac Toe, and other such indoor board games. We just had a look for curiosity in their art display hall





Other art forms displayed in their gallery



Moving on to their old palace area, this is the old entrance arch of the original palace



Exploring the 200 year old palace





View of Sawantwadi lake from one of the palace corridor windows



The better half being the artistic one among the two of us, she was keen to learn Ganjifa art painting. One of the artists was kind enough to teach her the entire process of painting a Ganjifa painted card from scratch. This was the better half at work, under the guidance of one of the artists.



While the better half was busy with the painting, I mostly passed time at the courtyard, chatting with the crown prince and the princess and learning a lot about their lives as the royal family, and their roles in preserving Sawantwadi's art scene. It was fantastic to see the passion they have for preserving their native art and culture.

Chilling in the Sawantwadi palace courtyard area





Soon it was time for lunch. We tried some amazing roasted tomato soup, then went vocal for local by shifting to MH's native Misal Pav Thali which I absolutely love everytime I visit Maharashtra. Dessert we opted for simple cookies with salted caramel and chocolate ice creams



Post lunch, we rested for some time. By around 4PM or so, we decided to don the riding gear and took the Ninja out to hit the lovely twisties leading to the Konkan coastline - the road from Sawantwadi to Vengurla, Vengurla to Shiroda and Shiroda to Sawantwadi form a lovely triangle circuit filled with some sweet twisties, very enjoyable on a sportbike like the ever-ready Ninja missile





The Ninja with Vengurla's fishing boats' jetty in the background



Getting the heavyweight bike down to the sticky sand of one of the empty beaches between Shiroda and Vengurla



The backwaters of south western Konkan



The Ninja enjoying the twisties and coastal roads of south western Maharashtra along a setting sun



The bike on one of the bridges overlooking some backwater scenes near Shiroda and Redi. These towns are hardly 8-10km short of North Goa's inter-state border with MH. Although just a stone's throw away, this part of the west coast is thankfully not infested with the level of tourism that north Goa faces thanks to its 'Goa' tag.



We weren't very far from Sawantwadi anyway. After enjoying this short little spirited evening ride circuit and enjoying the sunset on the coastal roads, we soon returned to the hotel by the time the sun had fully set.

[KarthikK]

Ride to Sawantwadi Palace, Konkan, Maharashtra (March 2024) continued ...

After reaching the hotel, we freshened up and took a stroll inside Sawantwadi town, just across the lake outside the hotel. Here is a view of the palace entrance arch at night



Sawantwadi is famous for wooden toys and handicrafts. We ran into many such shops in the main town streets



Taking a stroll along the periphery of Sawantwadi's Moti Talav Lake



We stopped at a famous and old juice shop in this town, called Balakrishna. This shop is famous for a Mango ice cream + fruit milkshake that they call as 'Mango Cocktail'. We also tried their Kokam juice, which is a common refresher beverage in all of Konkan region.



We came back to the hotel after this short city walk and spent some time in the courtyard area, trying to learn how to play Ganjifa cards from some of the staff there.



There were different types and sets of Ganjifa cards, which I was checking out to understand the differences in terms of game play.



We had requested for a slightly late dinner due to us having that mango ice cream in the city. They set up a nice candle-lit table for us by the pool for a simple dinner





We had requested to try the chef's signature Ramen with some woodfire Pizza for the third day's dinner, and skipped desserts and soups for this meal. Once again, the food was outstanding.



Post this dinner, we hit the sack. On Day 4, we woke up early and strolled around the palace, clicking random pics of morning sights in the palace garden









Reminiscing all the good times we spent at Sawantwadi palace over the past 4 days.



Passing time in the courtyard sit-out until breakfast





The staff had set up a lovely breakfast table with a lake and mountain backdrop, amidst the coconut trees in the palace garden





For the final day, we had some delectable fruit Croissant sandwiches, amazing pancakes and Sabudana Khichdi to wind up breakfast



The Ninja was ready for the return journey ride



A picture of the Ninja with the property, for the memory books





Another picture for the memory books, with prince Lakham Sawant Bhonsle and his wife Yuvrani Shraddha Sawant Bhonsle, with their adorable golden retriever Sushi.




Soon it was time to draw the curtains on this mesmerizing and memorable trip. A mandatory departing picture of us in front of Sawantwadi palace





After thanking the royal family and the wonderful staff for their gracious hospitality, it was time to bid goodbye and make our way homewards. We left from Sawantwadi roughly around 11AM, making our way through Amboli forest in the pre-noon heat



Stopping at Amboli sunset view point for a quick picture with optical fibre cables



Once we hit Belgaum and rejoined the Mumbai - Bangalore expressway after a refuel stop, it was a boring ride through a sunny afternoon along Belgaum - Dharwad - Hubli - Davanagere. We didn't stop anywhere barring one quick rehydration break at CCD Dharwad.

We reached Davanagere when the sun started showing signs of going down. The Ninja needed one last refuel stop for XP95, which could take us all the way home



Rarely do we do late night returns but this time was an exception because we overshot our departure time from Sawantwadi and had to cover ~650km. We stopped for a light and quick dinner at Paakashala restaurant, Sira, roughly at ~8PM and ~120km from Bangalore. Post-dinner was a nice, easy and relaxed ride into Bangalore city with minimal traffic on the highway. The bike's powerful stock headlights help a lot during night rides or early morning rides, negating the need for any aux lights during travels on this bike, and were very handy during the night return. We reached home by around 10PM, thus bringing this lovely trip to an end. The tripmeter clocked a modest ~1300km for this weekend trip to Sawantwadi palace, opening the account for March month.



March is a bonus month for Ninja rides, with two more rides lined up for the next two consecutive weekends. Until my next trip report, thanks for reading!

[surjaonwheelz]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Ride to Sawantwadi Palace, Konkan, Maharashtra (March 2024)

The better half, who is our end-to-end travel and itinerary planner nowadays, came up with a brilliant place suggestion to begin our riding account for March on the Ninja - a quaint little princely town called Sawantwadi in the southwest Konkan coastal part of Maharashtra. Her lovely discovery for this trip was to find this amazing heritage property. The royal family resident in the Sawantwadi palace have recently opened their doors to travellers to experience a slice of royalty in their Heritage Palace hotel in Sawantwadi, called the Sawantwadi Boutique Art Hotel. Over research during the pre-booking phase, we got to learn more about this palace hotel being managed directly by the princess Yuvrani Shraddha Sawant Bhonsle and her husband the crown prince Yuvraj Lakham Sawant Bhonsle, who both also happen to be ace chefs carrying extensive experience working with Michelin star restaurants around the world.
...
The food experience at this property was out of the world and we truly enjoyed every single dish served over those 4 days, so apologies in advance for the food-coma spam, lol!

Originally Posted by KarthikK

March is a bonus month for Ninja rides, with two more rides lined up for the next two consecutive weekends. Until my next trip report, thanks for reading!

This is an excellent find! We should give Mrs. KarthikK a "Pirelli Star" for this discovery! Absolutely delicious, I hope they serve non-veg also.

This place is around 400kms from Pune and I never knew about it. In Vengurla, you missed visiting this bridge which is trending these days on social media!


Something for next time!

Happy tripping,
surjaonwheelz

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by surjaonwheelz

This is an excellent find! We should give Mrs. KarthikK a "Pirelli Star" for this discovery!

Haha I'll tell her this

Absolutely delicious, I hope they serve non-veg also.

Yes, being in Konkan, 60-70% of their menu had non-veg and sea food dishes. They made the veg variations of their popular non-veg dishes for vegetarians.

In Vengurla, you missed visiting this bridge which is trending these days on social media!

Something for next time!

We saw this bridge just next to the Vengurla Bandar (Jetty) on the same road and passed by it. It involved parking the bike on a rather crowded touristy street full of food vendors with local tourists, and having to walk across this bridge with full riding gear and helmets in tow, so we decided to skip it this time.

This image looks beautiful though, and on second thoughts we should have walked across for the view on the other side. I'll definitely cross over during the next time. Thanks for sharing this trivia .

P.S - Is this image a drone shot? Because the road there is at the same level as the white bridge surface and does not get this high vantage point view of the bridge with that curved backwater river merging into the sea.

[Turbosailor]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Ride to Sawantwadi Palace, Konkan, Maharashtra (March 2024)

I was waiting for your Feb travelogue but due to super busy work schedule couldn't get chance in Feb. But when I stumbled upon your Kodaikanal ride and followed my SOP for your threads i.e forwarding it to betterhalf, then only I noticed your Konkan ride, it was like getting an unexpected bonus. Both travelogues are well written and document as usual. I really enjoyed the Kodaikanal one. And on a lighter note, how you guys are remembering name of all those delicious dishes. Here I am struggling to tell my wife whenever she ask me, what did I had.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Turbosailor

I was waiting for your Feb travelogue but due to super busy work schedule couldn't get chance in Feb. But when I stumbled upon your Kodaikanal ride and followed my SOP for your threads i.e forwarding it to betterhalf, then only I noticed your Konkan ride, it was like getting an unexpected bonus. Both travelogues are well written and document as usual. I really enjoyed the Kodaikanal one.

Thank you very much for your kind words Turbosailor! Glad to know you liked reading through them!

And on a lighter note, how you guys are remembering name of all those delicious dishes. Here I am struggling to tell my wife whenever she ask me, what did I had.

When we had completed the booking, they had sent us a pdf file of the full restaurant menu on WhatsApp so that we could preorder anything while we were there, that is how I had a reference of those elaborate dish names when I was writing these posts . Otherwise there is no way I could have remembered all the names of so many dishes after returning, haha!

[surjaonwheelz]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

This image looks beautiful though, and on second thoughts we should have walked across for the view on the other side. I'll definitely cross over during the next time. Thanks for sharing this trivia .

P.S - Is this image a drone shot? Because the road there is at the same level as the white bridge surface and does not get this high vantage point view of the bridge with that curved backwater river merging into the sea.

Yes, of-course. You can check the Instagram handle from the watermark on the photo. And as for most social media posts, it's exaggerated! I had shared this with sukiwa before our Goa ride casually and he took it seriously. Though we didn't take a detour just for this unfinished bridge.

Happy exploring,
surjaonwheelz

[DasAuto1985]

No offence to the Ninja, its a beautiful machine no doubt, but I look forward to these travelogues only for the hotels/resorts you stay in! and what food !!

[AKSO]

That was a super travelogue. Thanks for the update on road conditions at Amboli. I am also heading to Vengurla for an overnight ride on my N1K over the Easter weekend and after reading your post it is making me look even more forward to it.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by DasAuto1985

No offence to the Ninja, it’s a beautiful machine no doubt, but I look forward to these travelogues only for the hotels/resorts you stay in! and what food !!

Thanks for the kind words DasAuto1985! Happy to know you like them

Originally Posted by AKSO

That was a super travelogue. Thanks for the update on road conditions at Amboli. I am also heading to Vengurla for an overnight ride on my N1K over the Easter weekend and after reading your post it is making me look even more forward to it.

Thanks a lot AKSO sir! Have a great ride to the Konkan region .
Belgaum - Chandgad - Amboli - Sawantwadi - Vengurla is almost 90% fixed. But I guess you will be coming from Pune and will still have to endure the pain point of the zillion annoying deviations on the NH between Pune and Kolhapur?
Luckily we escaped those because for us KA folks, the NH deviations begin after Belgaum and before Kolhapur, and the Amboli road turns off before that mess. The direct road from Kolhapur to Amboli (which is probably what you will use) was also being tarred by the way, we saw that when visiting Amboli.