December 2014. My parents first time took long leaves and came to visit me and their son-in-law in Pune. One morning while chatting; Dad expressed his desire to go to Andamans as he wanted to try scuba diving, To which Ateek (the afore mentioned son-in-law) said that why does he need to go so far when there is a place in Maharashtra that offers scuba experience. Dad was surprised and excited at the same time and we all jumped to plan an impromptu trip to Malvan. After a few calls, we realized that the impromptu thing was a bad idea during Christmas/New year holiday. We kept the idea on to-do list for when Mom Dad would next visit us. And it happened after exactly one year.
December 2015. We asked Mom and Dad to plan year end holidays with us and we got the Malvan bookings done. This was so much more important for me and Ateek as we had not had a single holiday this year. For Ateek especially it had been a super busy year - work wise.
Although I set to find an accommodation a month in advance, yet it was a hard task. After making at least 25-30 calls, we found one Motel which would have rooms available for two day. We planned our travel dates according to the dates in which the rooms were available. Surely there is a scarcity of hotels/motels/resorts in Malvan. We wanted to make it a 3 day holiday, had applied for leaves in office accordingly but could only stay there for 2 days because of the room availability.
The Motel we stayed at is called Sonchafa and it was a very pleasant experience at a very affordable rate. The Motel owner was a very nice man and he not only spoke to us about the area and the nearby places to see, the discussions went with him around other beaches and the cleanliness issue these tourist spots face. In curiosity, we asked what is the meaning of Sonchafa and we learnt that it is a kind of a flower.Owner was gracious enough to pluck a Sonchafa flower from his garden and present us the next morning. Here is a snap of it.
December 2015. We asked Mom and Dad to plan year end holidays with us and we got the Malvan bookings done. This was so much more important for me and Ateek as we had not had a single holiday this year. For Ateek especially it had been a super busy year - work wise.
Although I set to find an accommodation a month in advance, yet it was a hard task. After making at least 25-30 calls, we found one Motel which would have rooms available for two day. We planned our travel dates according to the dates in which the rooms were available. Surely there is a scarcity of hotels/motels/resorts in Malvan. We wanted to make it a 3 day holiday, had applied for leaves in office accordingly but could only stay there for 2 days because of the room availability.
The Motel we stayed at is called Sonchafa and it was a very pleasant experience at a very affordable rate. The Motel owner was a very nice man and he not only spoke to us about the area and the nearby places to see, the discussions went with him around other beaches and the cleanliness issue these tourist spots face. In curiosity, we asked what is the meaning of Sonchafa and we learnt that it is a kind of a flower.Owner was gracious enough to pluck a Sonchafa flower from his garden and present us the next morning. Here is a snap of it.
Malvan is a beautiful coastal area with the most clean beaches imaginable. We were lucky to get an accommodation which was in between two places of interest and were at walk-able distance at either directions from the motel. On one side was the malvan Jetty point where the 'Jettys' took tourists for Scuba diving/Snorkelling experience and from the same place the jetty would ferry tourists to the famous Sindhudurg fort. The other side was the beautiful, clean and serene Chivala beach.
We has reached Malvan from Pune in 8 hours and by the time we freshened sun had lready set. Dinner was all we could. For this we thought to check out beach side restaurants.
We walked to Chivala beach, sat by the shore for some time, soaking in the vastness of the ocean that could be felt even in such dark. We later ate at a restaurant on the beach; there we had different variations of Malvani Thali (Veg/Chicken/Prawn/Fish). The food was average in comparison to what we were to experience in the next 2 days.
The next morning first on the list was scuba diving. The early morning sea water is calmer and hence better suited for the scuba experience. We had breakfast at a small eatery joint on the Jetty point. We had the famous Ras-Omlette. The taste forced us to come for the same next morning.
Then we went for the scuba. We all had an experience of our life time. Clean water and so many fishes and types of corals. It was such a dashing experience.
By the time we were back it was lunch time. We dried ourselves in the sun and had lunch at the same eatery joint where we had enoyed our ras-omlettes's in the morning. Lunch offered us authentic malvani cuisine. Prawns, in particular were exquisite.
The rest of the eveing and next morning we relaxed and enjoyed the Chivala Beach. The most clean beach I have seen so far. Only for this I can come again and again.
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