4. Ratnagiri - a beach bums' paradise.

Throughout my stay of over a decade in Maharashtra all I have been led to associate with Ratnagiri is Hapus – the overpriced and over-rated mango – Alphonso. Till ie. our friend Rita planned a trip to Ratnagiri from Mumbai. We took an overnight roadways bus – so not my cuppa tea! – and landed bleary eyed and nauseas in Ratnagiri. A sight of where we were staying, however, put a spring in our feet and before long we were off seeing the place.

The resort alongside a beach where we stayed

A log cabin

The resort office

The forest adjoining Pawas beach

A good place to catch forty winks

These days I am reading Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Glass Palace’ and the loneliness and pain of King Thebaw, the exiled King of Burma, has become all the more poignant for me post my visit to the Thebaw Palace. 

Thebaw Palace

This is the house where he spent the last days of his life, looking through a pair of binoculars out at the sea, keeping a lonely vigil from the terrace you can see at the top of the house. It was said that not a boat could enter the harbour without Thebaw seeing it first and he was also the first to know when the sea claimed a life.

The Sea! – the sea is definitely the highpoint of Ratnagiri.  The beautiful blues and greens of the water fascinated my sister (an artist) enough to furiously paint canvas after canvas.  Ratnagiri not ranking too high on the tourist map has its plus points – the beaches are clean and not crowded.

 Of course there are some other places to visit if you are not a beach bum.

Shiv Samartha Garh

Ancient Shiva Temple

Ratnadurg Fort

Lokmanya Tilak's birthplace

Jaigad Fort

 But I cannot leave you other than with the sea.

A painting my sister made of me and the Ratnagiri sea

On the same trip we made a offbeat detour to Jawhar about 166 km from Mumbai, known as the Mahabaleshwar of Thane district. It was the capital of the tribal king Jayaba Mukne but what attracted us there was Warli, a tribal art form. The whole village is into this art, made with natural dyes.
The drive up the ghat was truly scenic.

A passing scene from a moving car

A grey Francolin we stopped to click on the way.

Warli motifs

  
We were really fascinated by the beautiful things made in the village and ended up buying a lot of items. Here are some of the things we still have after gifting to all our friends and relatives.

Links:

1) Coins Commemorating Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak; The Father of the Indian National Movement Also called “The founder of militant Nationalism in India”

2) Currency/coinage of Myanmar (Burma) including the coinage of King Thibaw.