Planning a trip to the coastal areas? Don’t want to go too far off from Pune or Mumbai? Everytime you check your wallet you seem to find it empty? If you agree with the questions mentioned above, then this just might be the read for you. If not, reading it won’t be a waste of time either. Oh! And just a note, we did the entire trip in just 2000 rupees per head.
While I was waiting for my joining at an IT company recently, my two college friends and I decided to visit the beautiful, clean and quiet beach of Diveagar. Out of the many reasons, winter would be the best time to visit the beach. The weather was not as cold as Pune, but was pleasant enough to enjoy and fall peacefully in the lap of mother nature.
Diveagar, a small village in the district of Raigad, less than 200 kms from two major cities in the state of Maharashtra. It’s located on the coast of the Arabian sea about 167kms away from Pune. Yes, that’s right, I am a Punekar. A beautiful and serene place for people who want to getaway from the hustle bustle and the daily hectic schedule of everyday life.
Although I started planning the trip for which everybody was so enthused about, a major road block halted our plan to a standstill. Due to the recent decision taken by the Prime Minister of India, we were left with little or no money in our hands. Not that I am opposing the decision of the Prime Minister, but it was a tedious hurdle we had to overcome. Many might argue that the availability of electronic cards would counter this state of confusion, but it only helped us half way through, something I shall talk about in the later segment of the blog.
The beauty of this place is the perfect location it has from Pune. For people who wish to getaway but are also not in a position to take leaves, for college students who can’t afford to spend much on a trip to Goa, or a family who wants to be reunited once again, this would be the place for you. As it’s only 167 kms away from the bustling city of Pune, the maximum travel time in which one can reach the coast is 6 hours.
Travelling from Pune is very easy if you have your own personal vehicle. The only expense one has to check for is fuel expenses. Done and dusted. Simple, right? Well here’s the problem, we didn’t have a personal vehicle. Yes, we fell in the category of students.
From transportation to living expenses, we decided to cover it in a meager amount of 2000 rupees per head. So we started brainstorming and came up with a few solutions to meet our needs. The first option was hiring a car on rental basis. The total cost of renting a car for 2 days was around 3500 rupees. The plan was to leave early morning around 0600 hours, reach by 1100 hours. Spend the rest of the day exploring and leaving the next afternoon at 1200 hours, thus completing the trip at 1900 hours after safely reaching Pune. Not only was the plan feasible it was also foolproof on paper.
The second option was opting a state transport bus, which obviously wasn’t as fun as the former but was definitely the safer option. The only problem that one faces while travelling via bus is the absurd bus timings. There is only one bus per day that leaves for Diveagar at 1230 hours. If you think this is crazy, let me tell you, to come back home, the bus leaves Diveagar at 0500 hours at dawn. On the plus side, the ticket of one person comes out to be around 220 rupees, so it’s definitely cheaper than the former.
Looking at the options, it’s quit obvious what our decision was. Right? We chose the bus.
It might seem mind boggling, but it was the better decision we ever took. Although the bus sounds like a rough ride to the village, cause its an S.T, we enjoyed the company of the villagers for whom the journey was just another mundane task.
The reasons for opting the latter over the former, though few, were compelling enough to take that decision. Firstly, the reviews of the car rentals were shockingly poor, not to defame the companies, but the user reviews all over the Internet and also after asking around a lot weren’t in their favour. Secondly, students might agree that by travelling via bus, there was no certain sense of responsibility, which would’ve lingered in our heads if there was a rental car. A personal car was a different story altogether, but a rental car with poor reviews did put certain concerns in one’s head. And lastly, by traveling by bus, not only did we experience the shared moments with the villagers it was also the cheaper option. These were obviously our personal opinions, thus may or may not resonate with you.
Anyhow, we decided to go on a Monday for some peculiar reason, but as the trip was a two day trip, you could even leave on a Saturday afternoon, spend the entire Sunday there and leave on a Monday morning. Best for students who want a budget friendly getaway. For the rest, car would be the best way to commute.
We left the Swargate Bus Depot at 1230 hours, and reached Diveagar around 1830 hours. The route taken by the bus was, Swargate – Paud – Mulshi – Tamhini Ghat – Mangaon – Mahasal – Diveagar. We had booked a home stay prior to our departure to facilitate our stay at Diveagar. There were a wide range of hotels for people looking to stay there. To experience the best hotel stays, MTDC is renowned for it’s hotels. But if you are a wanderlust and want to experience the culture and environment of the place, home stay is the pick of the lot. On the plus side, it’s less expensive too.
As we reached quite late in the evening, there wasn’t much to do as the sun had gone down and the beach was inaccessible due to high tide and no lights around the beach. Hence, we decided to get accustomed with the surroundings and explore the village. The village just like any other is small, quiet and sparsely populated. It’s divided by 3 roads running parallel to each other. The extreme right road is alongside the beach while the extreme left connects you to one of the sights in the village, The Golden Ganesh Temple or famously known as the Suvarna (Gold) Ganpati Mandir. Though the idol was stolen from the temple and now the temple hosts an ordinary Ganpati idol, it still is a famous spot for beach enthusiasts and people looking for a relaxing weekend.
There you’ll find a lot of places for food that are adjoined to people’s homes. This is one of the fascinating things we came across during our stay at the village. The plain simplicity and welcoming nature of people was very heart warming and we felt at home. We had dinner at our home stay which was an experience to remember. The food served was made by the women staying there, which made the food ever so special and had their seaside touch to it.
The best time to visit the beach is around Sun rise and Sun set. The intensity of the sun isn’t too harsh, the waves aren’t fierce and the breeze is just right to have a pleasant time at the beach. So we went to the beach at 0630 hrs in the morning after a good much needed rest to recuperate from the previous day’s journey. We stayed at the beach till around 0900 hours, around that time the intensity of the sun was increasing. The rest of the day was spent roaming and seeing the places in a better light which were not so scenic in the pitch black dark night previously. The last only remaining thing was the sunset at the beach, which we hoped for a good one was hidden away by the foggy surroundings, but nevertheless the atmosphere was calm and appealing.
After a good dinner and a bonfire (completely made by us), we had to prepare ourselves for an early morning bus ride. We got ready and were stationed at the bus stop at 0445 hours in the morning. The environment around was absolutely mind boggling. The entire village was asleep, not a soul in sight, just my friends and I at the bus stop, we could hear the waves crashing in on the shore. The sound was finally drowned by the harsh rattling noise of the bus at 0500 hrs in the morning. It was still dark and quiet when we left the village, but we were soon woken up as if from a dream to the harsh, loud, bustling and fast paced life of the city at 1130 hrs when we reached the Swargate Bus Stop.
SAM'S TRAVEL DIARY 