Like last year, this summer too, we decided to give Goan beaches a miss and instead visited a serene,
virgin beach at a not-well-known place called Chivla in our neighboring state.
Chivla beach is located in a tiny village at a walking distance from Malwan in
Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.
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| Set for a perfect evening... |
While the Goan beaches are
flooded with tourists from all over the world, over the years, my love for them
has reduced. It could be because of the overly crowdedness and
commercialization of these beaches. Somehow, I don’t find that same tranquility
which I witnessed here during my regular summer trips to these beaches, since my
childhood.
Goa no more has a tourist season
now! People flock to this place all throughout the year and some even don’t
return to their home land.
I was looking for something,
where I could be all by myself with the nature – just the roaring sea and me! And
Chivla Beach was a wise choice.
Malwan too is getting highly
commercialized and many tourists prefer it, mainly for two reasons – the place is
not as crowded as Goan beaches and most importantly it’s cheap compared to Goan
exorbitant Dining and Accommodation rates.
I had known of Chivla, since last
year, however we chose to visit Tarkarli last year and hence the obvious choice
for this year was Chivla beach.
Disclaimer
You may NOT continue reading
further, if you are looking for the following at a beach holiday:
·
Ogling at Semi-nude Hippies
·
And a similar avatar of Desis [semi-nude again,
but Males] holding beer cans
·
Indian newlyweds with hands full of traditional
bangles and Shorts – a little short for her.
·
A pampered resort style luxurious stay
·
A dubious massage
The beach – the location
This place is for someone looking
for a secluded, serene and 'almost your own' private beach, where one can relax on the
hammock outside your room, watching tiny boats taking on the sea, hard-working
fishermen busy sorting their daily catch and local kids immersed into a match
of cricket at the shore…
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| The Beach is all yours... |
If this is not enough, in the
evening you can be one with the nature, watching the sun set over the roaring
sea hitting the shore incessantly! A view worth capturing on a canvas!
And at what cost is this? The entire vacation for a 2-night’s stay for couple with child was less than half the cost of a beach aside resort (stay only) in Goa!
The Stay – Mayekar’s Holiday Home
Chivla offers many home-stays – a
more traditional, affordable and acceptable form of accommodation.
Having read good reviews, we
chose ‘Mayekar’s Holiday Home’ [MHH] for our 2 nights stay. The guesthouse is
at a splendid location, just few meters away from the sea shore. The
rooms are basic however offer a superb sea-view with plenty of breeze to keep
you company throughout the day. It’s a treat to watch the sun set, while you sip
tea alongwith hot Bhajiya lazing on the hammocks outside your room.
There are options for AC and Non AC rooms.
There are options for AC and Non AC rooms.
MHH is owned by a local Mr. Prasanna
Mayenkar. He lives with his wife, a 3 year old daughter – Swara and a maternal
uncle – who looks after your needs during your stay. Mr. Mayekar shares his
home with the air conditioned Blue rooms, while the Non AC Red rooms are
besides the house. Red rooms are much closer to the sea and bigger in size to
accommodate a family of 4. Blue Rooms are smaller suitable for a couple.
The place offers basic amenities: a double bed with bed-side tables, a table with 4 chairs in the verandah, hot water from 7:00AM, mosquito net/coil, a service bell in the room. The linens could have been better and should have provided soap or a hand-wash! It serves morning tea/coffee options with breakfast and evening tea/snacks on advance notice. If you don’t want to go too far for dinner, there is a home-food option behind the property of Mayekar’s.
Room cost: Non AC 1800 per night. AC: 2000 per night.
Breakfast options: Upma, Poha,
Shira, Bread-omelet, Tea/Milk/Coffee. Chilled Water bottle@Rs.20/-
Evening tea with snacks like Bhajia can be ordered. The preparation takes about 20-30 mins.
Lunch/Dinner: This guest house
does not offer Lunch/Dinner options. For this, you can visit any of the nearby
home-turned-restaurants.
Security/Safety: One could feel
kind of insecure when the place gets darkened with not many lights around and
not much security around the home-stay. However, Malwani people are known to be
softhearted and we felt at home during our long stroll on the empty road in
front of the guest house in the night.
The food: relish on Sea-food!
There is a place at the backyard
of MHH, which serves home cooked meals. One needs to place an order at least 2-3
hours in advance. For vegetarian there is a typical Maharashtrian meal with
Rice, Chapati, Bhaji, Papad, Pickle, Daal, Solkadhi. For others, there is
variety of Fish options to choose from.
The food quality was average
while the rates though apt for a beach location, were higher than what it would
cost you to have a Fish/Rice meal at a Goan city restaurant.
Malwan has many other restaurants
which are famous for serving fresh fish preparations. To name a few: Chaitanya,
Saiba, Atithi Bamboo, Ghar Mithbaunkaranche (they are also the caterers for
MTDC resorts at Tarkarli).
We had a day meal at Chaitanya –
our repeat visit. However, felt the taste had degraded since our last trip to
Tarkarli. You would find plenty of good reviews of it and the place is usually
over-crowded. When I say I did not like the preparation much: it could be
because of my liking for Goan way of cooking sea food and the same may not be true
for people traveling from various other parts of the country as at the table
next to us, we were hearing a Mumbai party going all praises for the food!
Again, there are plenty of fish &
sea-food options with prices same as what I mentioned earlier. To give you an
idea of prices, we had a Surmayee [King-Fish] Thali for 250/- (medium size rawa
fried piece of Kingfish, Kingfish Curry with Chapati and Rice], a ‘Kalwa Thali’
at 280/- (One portion of Kalwa Masala, one small rawa fried Crab, Kalwa Curry
with Chapati and Rice].
You can try Fruitkhand – srikhand
with fruits or ‘Aamrakhand’ for desserts.
The cost of the meal was 700/-.
(Our return journey cost of a much tastier lunch at Spice Goa, Karaswada, Mapusa-Goa
was just under 500/- for two Modso Thalis and a beer!)
One can also try Prawns Malwani,
Kombadi Vade etc.
Downside
Downside
Crowded!! and obviously this is the
reason for other problems like delay in taking orders and eventually in
serving. The place is on a busy congested lane of Malwan market and hence
taking your car and parking is a big pain. I would recommend parking the vehicle
in an open space, just when you take a right turn to go to Tarkarli. From here,
the restaurant is just about 5 mins walk.
Quality: as I mentioned above was
a big letdown. We had to add extra salt in almost every item in our meal.
The attraction
Besides Malwan, which has
multiple options, Tsunami Island at Devbag is one of the major attractions to
enjoy some watersports. Devbag is about 4 KMs from Tarkarli, which is about 7
KMs from Malwan. You will need to hire a motor boat, which will take you to an amazing place - a small island in the middle of nowhere, close to ‘Sangam’ of Karli river and Malwan sea.
The boat is costly affair if you have a small family as it charges 1000/- for a return trip. Best is to bargain and look for sharing options. We shared the boat trip with another family of 4 at total cost of 800/-.
One can enjoy variety of water
sports like Jet Ski Ride, Speed Boat, Banana Ride, Bumper Boat, Water Scooter,
Kayak Ride and so on.
There are various food stalls
right in the middle of the water serving mouth-watering local snacks like
‘Chutney and Pola’. It’s an amazing experience to have food at these stalls while your seats almost submerged in the water.
Malwan has various other
attractions (we had visited these during our last trip to Tarkarli). The
activity that has caught on highly with tourists here is Snorkelling and Scuba
diving!
While at Malwan a visit to Rock
Garden, Sindhudurg fort and Jai Ganesh Temple is a must. One also has option of
visiting few other near-by beaches: (I would suggest stay put up just at one
beach)
·
Tarkarli Beach
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Tondavali Beach
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Kolamb Beach
·
Vengurla Malvan Beach
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| Ganesh idol made in Gold at Jai Ganesh Temple |
From Kudal one can take either take a polished longer route via Chauke or an internal shorter road. Don’t expect too many signages on the way or while driving in Malwan. It’s best to ask locals.
Panaji to Chivla is about 110 kms.
You will find a lot of local vendors’ enroute which are good option for buying some local green vegetables and Devgad Hapus mangoes!
Itinerary
Day-1
- Started at Panaji-Goa at 10:00 AM, reach Chivla at 1:30 PM
- Lunch: Packed food for lunch from home
- Evening Tea: Onion Pakoda and Tea MHH
- Evening spent in around MHH on hammock enjoying the breeze and later playing at the beach
- Dinner: Vegetarian meal at the property at the
backyard of MHH. Rs. 70/- per Thali. Regular home cooked meal with Chapati,
Rice,Daal, salad, Tamdi Bhaji, Solkadhi. No Sweet dish.
Day-2
- Alarm at 7:00AM. I did my Suryanamaskars on the beach when the Sun had just started shining
- Breakfast: at MHH. Tea, Upma and Bread Omelet
- Left for Tsunami Island at 10. [11 kms from Chivla]
- Lunch: Returned from Tsunami Island for lunch at Chaitanya in Malwan
- Evening: Spent at MHH on hammock and playing at the beach
- Dinner: again at the property behind MHH. Fried prawns medium size Rs. 150/- plate with about 15 pieces
Day-3
- Alarm at 7:00AM and hit the beach for light jogging
- Breakfast at MHH: Shira, Bread omelet and black tea
- Left Chivla at 10:00AM
- Visit Jai Ganesh Temple on return journey
- Lunch at Spice Goa, Karaswada, Mapusa Goa
- Dinner back at home
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| Ended the trip with a scrumptious meal at Spice Goa |
