Trip to Ahmedpur-Mandvi

I had spent almost 15 days planning for a trip to konkan. My parents and sister were to come to Pune and then we were planning to leave from Pune for Srivardhan-Harihareshwar. But somehow dad's health made me rethink over it. If we were to go to a place with beautiful beaches, why not somewhere in Gujarat. After all Gujarat does boasts of having the longest coastline. Somewhere there should be a beach resort which is beautiful. A quick Google search reminded me of Ahmedpur-Mandvi. I had heard of it while exploring Diu long back.

Ahmedpur-Mandvi is more of a resort than any place name. Situated on the outskirts of Diu, it marks the boundary between Gujarat and Diu. In case you are not aware Diu is a Union Teritory. One of the last places which was handed back to the Indian Government by the Portuguese rulers. It also is a heaven for hard drinkers who hail from Gujarat. Gujarat is a Dry state while Diu enjoys the freedom. Large numbers of people come over to Diu from Gujarat on New Year's Eve just for drinking purpose. Anyways coming back to the trip. I planned to stay at the only resort in Ahmedpur-Mandvi --> "Magico Do Mar" meaning "Magical Sea" in Portuguese. There is an interesting thing about the resort we stayed in or the beach that lay outside our cottage. Part of it is in Gujarat and part of it in Diu. Few steps away from our cottage and we are in Diu, out of gujarat. :-)

I started from Pune on 14th March, 2008 by Ajmer-Bangalore Express. The train was already late by half an hour. It maintained the time lapse till I reached Ahmedabad in the morning. Dad came to pick me up at the station. We reached home, I unpacked my Pune bags and packed up for Mandvi. We started from Ahmedabad in our Alto at around 9:30. I had decided on the route Ahmedabad - Amreli - Gir (Stay overnight at Gir Resort) - Una - Ahm. Mandvi, but Dad was unfamiliar with the entire route so he decided to take another one. Ahmedabad - Bhavnagar - Una - Ahm. Mandvi. On the way we had lots of knowledge sharing. Dad was so keen to show me the bridge (he always points it out) that broke the night I was born and he reached hospital after a round trip of Bhavnagar. Mom told us various stories and facts about different places. Her favourite this time was "Kodinar". It’s famous for its Jaggery (known as 'gud' in Hindi and 'gol' in Gujarati). Dad showed us the school in "Bhadrod" where my grandfather taught and the place where he stayed with him for quite some time. He showed us a well where my aunt had fallen and someone from the village had saved her. We crossed "Mahuva", my mom's birth place. She is very fond of the place and excitedly always tells us that the yester years actress 'Asha Parekh' was also born in the same town.

We passed the village 'Talaja'. My mom and dad both have stayed there during their teen years. Mom showed us the river bank where she used to go for a swim. That time the river was full with water. They used to take empty plastic tins with them during the swim to save them from drowning. By this time we were too hungry. I was starving from the long journey already. We decided to find some shade and have lunch. Mom had already bought roti-sabji from home. Dad stopped the car near a shady tree just outside a cotton field. It was soo cool, we all thought of catching a small nap under the cool shade. Had our lunch, roti-sabji and sukhdi (Its a sweet made out of Wheat flour and Jaggery). With little help from the local people, we reached Ahm-Mandvi at 4:00.

No trip is complete without some trouble shooting up from here and there. On reaching the resort we came to know that there was a group booking done for the other day and no cottages would be available on Sunday. But the Non-AC rooms were available for the other day. After some roaming around here and there we decided we would adjust. The resorts prime location attracted us so much that we were ready to adjust. We got the cottage for Saturday. I and Preeti couldn’t stop ourselves from getting into our bathing gears and just running down to the beach. The cottage was just too awesome. We already felt at home the moment we put our bags in the cottage. We ran down to the beach while mom and dad had their tea and dad relaxed after a looong drive. The beach was soo beautiful. Calm, peaceful, and crystal clear water. Wow!!! The waves were not so big but the sound of the waves was thunderous. We played in the water and made sand castles till late. Mom and Preeti had a small tortoise making competition. Although it was decided beforehand that Preeti will win, but in the end it seemed she deserved it, mom's tortoise didn’t look like it was one.

Once back to cottage we dressed up well, decided on the menu and placed the dinner order. We all chit-chated on the cottage porch. The sound of waves in the background and the calmness of the resort was soul-soothing. Once dinner was served we went to the dining area. It was beautifully lit with colorful lights, paper lanterns and paper stars. It seemed as if it was a Christmas celebration. I didn’t expect much out of the dinner, but it crossed my expectations like a zooming 400cc bike. Awesome, finger licking food. All 4 of us were so hungry and nothing better than great food. We didn’t talk for the first 15 minutes. All were busy licking fingers. Once back to the cottage we were dead tired. We decided that I and Preeti would sleep at the lower level, while mom-dad would take the upper level beds. Hey I missed telling you, it was a two storey cottage.

There was something sitting on the window besides my bed and it kept on making squeaking noises like a rat. It was later on that we came to know that it was a local bird. I was unable to take its picture as it was lost amongst the coconut leaves. As night fell, the thunderous roar of the sea waves grew louder and louder. At night all we could hear was waves, just a few meters away from our cottage. Amazing feeling!!! At around 3:00 early morning the power supply went off. With all the windows closed, it was pitch dark. Initially I was confused as to whether my eyes were open or close. With no light to peep into the cottage (we had kept all the windows closed to avoid mosquitoes coming in) our eyes didn’t get adjusted even after a while and it remained pitch dark. It was funny but I remembered the last thriller movie I saw “Vacancy”. I am sure those who have watched it with me know well, how scary that feeling is. Luckily the power supply came back in about 45 minutes.

Sunday – 15^th March, 2008 – I woke up at 6:00, eager to see the sunrise from the sea. Although I got a bit disappointed as the sunrise didn’t happen from the sea, it did introduce nature’s spectacular color palette. The early morning coolness, the sea waves making there drums beat harder, it was a morning I’ll never forget. Me and Dad sat on the parapet of the cottage garden and just looked beyond the twilight zone. Life was passing by with no sound and yet making us feel happy to be together. Preeti got up a little while later and then as mom-dad went back to the cottage to get ready, we both went for a stroll on the beach. After so many years, did we get this chance to spend time with one another. Talking about marriage, career and several other things, we walked in water. We didn’t know exactly when we started collecting shells. One minute my sister was the big mature, soon to be doctor talking about general life and the other moment she was jumping with joy on finding perfect and beautiful shells shouting “jeevan safal ho gaya”. We walked for more than an hour and then went back to the cottage to get ready for another bumpy ride to Somnath. The breakfast at the resort was as expected – delicious and finger licking. Puri-Bhaji, Aloo Paratha and Butter Toast were simply out of the world.

Somnath, one of the twelve jyotirlings in India, is around 80 kms from Ahm Mandvi. The ride was half smooth and half bumpy like a camel ride. We went for the darshan. Mom was in tears when she was praying. She was so overwhelmed by the sight of the shiv-linga, she didn’t notice that she was chanting all the shlokas loudly. Good darshan and a panch-sankalp pooja made our day. Mom and Dad were filled with memories on how terrifying the sea is at Somnath. They still remember the day, as freshly as if it was yesterday, when they were near the temple wall and the sea suddenly pulled them in. Mom had held me tight while my dad and his other friends frantically tried to stop themselves from drowning. Its an entirely open sea, open as in there is no land between the Somnath temple and the South Pole (not making things up, check that up in the atlas). The sea is so unpredictable over here that it’s strictly advised not to go on the beach. We had lunch at a Gujarat Tourism restaurant and then started back towards Diu.

Diu has many places worth a visit, but we had decided on two things. Go to Diu Fort and from there if time permits go to the famous Sunset point. Surprisingly this time, I was the one sharing out memories of the Fort. I had been to Diu for a one day trip from school when I was in 11^th Standard. It was a fun trip with school friends. All the spots in the Diu Fort reminded me of that day. We had lots of time on hand before sunset so we took our own sweet time in reaching sunset point from the Fort. Roaming around Diu societies we reached the point. On the way we came across the huge Diu Church. It seemed magnificent on the outside. We were too involved in reaching Sunset point so the church interiors got ignored. Preeti saw a perfect yellow house in one of the societies and immediately captured it on camera. It was Sunday, so the Christian people living in the society were performing a strange custom (strange to me as I was unaware of it) they were washing the roads outside their homes and then covering the road with leaves and flowers. Mom’s interpretation – they are preparing the road for Jesus to visit their homes. We reached Sunset point way before the sun even reached near the horizon. Perched on the topmost bench the four of us did some masti and were shivering from the strong cold winds blowing over the ocean and coming upon us.

Some good snaps and shouts from mom marked the end of our tour to the point. We started back towards the resort. The best part of that evening was sitting on the moon-lit beach and just hearing the waves coming upon us. Later we sat on the hammocks for some time to decide our next days plan. We decided to check out from the resort the other day and make a night halt at Bhavnagar, my native place. The next day morning I and Preeti went for a last stroll along the beach. Today too like the day before we came across village women carrying wood to their homes. They were singing one of my favourite gujarati songs – “Pani gya ta re beni mari talavda re, pale thi lapsyo pag beda mara nandvana re”. This time I tried taking there snaps but they refused telling us that their husbands will beat them if they came to know about someone taking their snaps. I still took one from behind ;-). By the time we left the resort most of the resort staff was familiar with us and gave us a warm goodbye. That was the end of our small trip. Although we didn’t stay long there, whatever time it was, I’ll cherish them all my life. There are so many unwritten moments that I had which I would rather cherish in memory than jot them down. We changed our plans the other day (as usual) and stayed back at Bhavnagar for one more day.

Finally I end with a quote I read somewhere - "How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you - you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences - like rags and shreds of your very life." I left some of mine there on the beach of ahmedpur-mandvi.