[udaydesai]

Hello again,

Friends I am writing after a very long time,was very busy off late, work pressure is the reason and me being very lazy.

This is the first travelogue of Saminder beach house on TBHP

Ambolgad comes in Ratnagiri and this Saminder Beach House made headline when one of the successful marathi movie was shot here ( Me shivaji raje bhosle boltay )

Well to begin with, I did this trip in the month of May-12, bit late, but thats me.

The route: Mumbai- Chiplum-Ratnagiri-Pawas-Ambolgad
Total distance covered: 896 KM

The verdict: Even though the location was good, it’s not worth the time and effort, and the most important, one way distance is 448 km from my place in Mumbai, and it took me 11 hours of driving to reach this place. Rooms were clean but lots of lizards ( Only one room had AC ), food quality was very poor, no local flavor or touch, as persons preparing the food were from outside state.

Summer time for average mumbaikar is hot and humid, also holiday time. Mangoes were just coming into Mumbai, I was just going through some documents in my office and came across this brochure of Saminder beach house in Ratnagiri.

This was in the month of April, a quick call to my wife and date was fixed in the month of May during the mango seasons so that we can pick mangoes while coming back. I booked two rooms for two days. ( 11th and 12th and back on 14th of May )

Looking at the distance that I need to cover, I started planning my drive well in advance, did Google search and arrived at exact distance to be covered. Till Ratnagiri I knew the roads, but from Rratnagiri I had some apprehension.

There are two ways to reach Ambolgad, first one goes through ratnagiri city and the other goes straight via NH17 till Rajapur and then to Ambolgad.

From Ratnagiri to Ambolgad it takes two hours to reach Ambolgad.

My first target was to reach ratnagiri and then decide which road to take to reach Ambolgad, following were the choice before me.

Hatkhamb Naka to Rajapur – 60 Km
Hatkhamb Naka to Ambolgad –70 Km
Rajapur to Ambolgad – 34 Km
Hatkhamb Naka to Ratnagiri – 14 Km
Ratnagiri to Ambolgad – 59 Km
All distance has been taken from Map My india.

As the D-day arrived, came back from office a bit late and was ready for long drive. Looking at the distance I decided to leave Mumbai very early in the morning, decided to leave at 3.30 am sharp but got very angry look from wife so decided to leave by 4 am. As usual got up late and by the time we were ready it was 5 am in the morning.

Previous evening I had checked all liquids in the car and told my building watchman to clean my car at night itself. My car was filled up to its brim as we had lots of luggage.
My two and half year old son was very surprised to wake up very early morning, we just bundled him in the car and put him to sleep, broke a coconut in front of my car for safe journey and slowly made out of my building, since it was already 5 am in the morning and I was behind schedule had to speed up to catch up with lost time.

I encountered lots of traffic on the way and it was pain to drive on NH17, my first halt was at nagothana at Kamats place for breakfast, a very beautiful place with lots of parking space and trees around good ambience, had a very great breakfast the service was very good and after 45 min break, was back on road, my family went to sleep and I was the only person awake and driving, roads were really good with no pot holes and my logan gobbled up the roads in no time. As the traffic eased off my speed increased, had to catch up for the lost time.
Lots of villages on the way made sure that I get delayed to some extent. We had very heavy breakfast so lunch was bit late.

We soon entered kashedi ghat and road improved to great extent. I always halt on Kashedi ghat , so made a 10 min halt to stretch my legs, clicked some pictures, by this time my son was awake and also took part in photography.

After a very brief stop we moved on, clock was ticking and what I will been we passed chiplum I knew that I will be late, did not speed up anyway, I decided to make a pit stop at sangameshware at Drive-In hotel for lunch. I would like to add here that quality of food has gone down at drive – in hotel, for past many years whenever I come to this part of Konkan I always stop at Drive-In hotel and the food quality was used to be great.

Time was already 1.00 pm in the afternoon, and after a very brief lunch we again hit the road. Very soon we passed ganpatipule phata and was in Ratnagiri, I decided to go via Pawas to Ambolgad, so went inside Ratnagiri town and then on the road to Pawas, One thing that I would like to point out that till now I did not find any bad section of roads. The roads were very smooth in general, the roads were very scene. Had to ask for direction as how to reach Ambolgad, and made it by 3.30 pm.

Now for the shock, our rooms were already given to some other persons, so had to wait for half an hour for them to clean the rooms. Rooms were great, big and very airy and each room had a big balcony. were very tired after 11 hours of driving, so hit the bed and slept away.

Got up at 6.00 pm and after not so great tea, we headed for the beach. Beach here was a sort of private beach, we had this beach to ourself.

[udaydesai]

and now some pictures

[TaureanBull]

That looks like a good beginning. What were the rates? Was the location pre-booked?

Looking for more pics!

[udaydesai]

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

That looks like a good beginning. What were the rates? Was the location pre-booked?

Looking for more pics!

The rooms were pre booked, wait, all the facts and cost will be shared,

The travelogue continues..........

[udaydesai]

The beach was a sort of private beach, the sand was black but the beach was clean, my son made the most of the evening, after a good outing on the beach we retire back to our rooms, in the evening we ordered crab, fish and squid for starters, price was on higher side and the quality of the food was not that great to write, there were two young boys who were from north state were preparing the meals, so no local flavour.

Rooms were quite big with big balcony and nice bath rooms, bath rooms had gas heaters which assured us hot water.

Since it was summer, the rooms were much cooler, but lots of insects were unwanted guest along with us. We did complain regarding this but it was of no use.
Since we had booked two rooms, I had to give one room which had AC to my parents and I and my wife along with my son were in non AC room.
As the night progressed the rooms were much cooler.

Next day we got up late and ordered some breakfast and tea, after that we again went to the beach for another round of swim.

Returned back to our rooms and got freshened up and decided to explore the village around the resort.

We came across Ganesh agro farm and they were selling mangoes, this farm was very big in terms of area.
Went and spoke to the house lady who was manning the business of mangoes.
Mangoes were of various varity, of course bigger ones were of higher priced.
I bought two boxes of mangoes along with cocoum and some other local food items.
We did a small tour of this farm and the lady did explain in detail about her farm.

We took her leave and were returing to the resort, we saw 'karvande' fruit Tree - cranberry fruit, immediately we were collecting the fruit and eating.
After a hour or so we headed back to our resort.

To be continued.....

[udaydesai]

now for some pictures....

[udaydesai]

some more snaps of the mango farm