Mar 2008 : Chiplun

Travel Title: Trip to Goa – Ratnagiri – Chiplun, India (2008)

When: March 2008

About The Trip:

Purpose: To check out India’s countryside along the way to Goa.

Days/Nights: 4 Days 3 Nights

Arrangements: ~~Travel Agent~~ / Self-guided Tour

Route: Navi Mumbai INDIA – Goa INDIA (2 nights) – Ratnagiri INDIA – Chiplun INDIA (1 night) – Navi Mumbai INDIA

Traveling Method & Time:

Navi Mumbai – Goa = by car (≈ 12 hours)

Goa – Ratnagiri = by car (≈ 4 hours)

Ratnagiri – Chiplun = by car (≈ 4 hours)

Chiplun – Navi Mumbai = by car (≈ 4 hours)

Details:

Chiplun – After spending only 40 minutes at the town of Ratnagiri, we decided to continue our journey to Chiplun (another 150km ahead) and might just as well find a hotel there and stay for a night. Chiplun region is hilly and the city is situated in a valley suitable for a retreat. Subir, hubby’s subordinate, had suggested a hotel called Quality Resort – The Riverview, in Chiplun, which had a magnificent view of a smooth flowing river.

We arrived Chiplun at about 7pm and until 8pm, we still could not find the said hotel! Where the hell was it? We drove a little bit further, went up on a ghat until we reached the top. And that bloody hotel was… UP THERE! Right at the very peak. What more frustrating to us, the hotel was fully booked. You have got to be kidding me! But the hotel seemed so perfect! Ahhh… so depressing!

Hubby and I walked slowly toward the car, pondering what we should do – should we just go ahead straight to Mumbai or look further for a hotel? Hubby said we ought to just drive straight home cause the frustration had taken its toll on him and all he could think of was our home-sweet-Mumbai home. It’s scary just to think of driving on the dark lonely highway, but he’s right! I had no mood either to stay anywhere else but our home!

So off we went, singing and talking to break the silence of the night. Hubby kept making jokes to cheer me up and make me forget the nervousness and apprehension. An hour later, we arrived at a small industrial town 30km away from Chiplun, and saw one nice hotel called The Pagoda. We stopped by to ask and what a relief, they had a few rooms still available. Without a second thought, we booked a room for the night! Phewww… And we were quite happy to see that it was quite a fine hotel. Not bad at all!

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