• Adventure - Beaches - Places

    Why Go to Gili Trawangan?

    Gili Trawangan is the largest of the three islands off the north-west coast of Lombok. One can reach Trawangan crossing the blue, alluring sea in small or big boats like these.. Trawangan is a melting pot of all kinds of people (though mostly backpackers) from all parts of the world. And inviting them is a bunch of hotels, motels and homestays. Some offering yoga, meditation and a pool – even if it is 5ft by 5ft. while many others are full.. Motor vehicles are banned in Trawangan. Cycles and horse carts provide the best alternative.. to roam around the street…

  • Places

    The Rubber Waste Yard at Harihareshwar

    A rubber factory is an unlikely place to be written about in a travel blog. And certainly not a rubber factory in Harihareshwar, a quite village known for its temple and pristine beaches. Harihareshwar for sure did not have a rubber factory. But we did find something closer to that. More like a factory’s waste yard. A little away from the beach, on the rocky coast, we saw loads of abandoned, worn-out, damaged pieces of footwear. Laced with a few plastic bottles as well. Plastic bottles are no surprise, since they already form part of our natural environment, nurtured carefully…

  • Places

    In Chikoo County

    If you can’t travel or drive too much and all you need is a quite weekend getaway from Mumbai, then you can try option no #85, Bordi. That’s what precisely we did.  When a family friend wanted a weekend break to introduce their one-year old son to outdoors, we scoured our maps, books and internet to pick a place. Bordi has a 17-km long beach. Chikoo and vegetable farms dot the quiet village. Hills towards the east and a small dam. More importantly, we haven’t been there. And, MTDC has a resort in Bordi. A perfect combination. At about 180…

  • Places

    Hug the Clouds & Kiss the Beaches

    Every trip of ours in Maharashtra reinforces MTDC’s marketing byline ‘Maharashtra Unlimited’. Be it treks, road trips or backpack trips. Numerous options that emerge from the combination of the long coastline and the Sahyadris running parallel to it, in fact gives one an unparalleled experience. Not to mention about the options in Central Maharashtra, which we are yet to touch. Last Christmas, we did a road trip that featured kissing the beaches, then climbing the hills, and hugging the clouds. A 4-day road trip with spur-of-the-moment detours, searches for a place to stay, warm hosts at homestays and much more……

  • Places

    Cottages by the Sea. Seeing Is Disbelieving!

    We reached Malvan on the third day of a Konkan trip. Being a popular tourist destination, we didn’t bother to book accommodation. Armed with a list of ‘home-stays’ and their telephone numbers, given to us by our home-stay owner at Kunkeshwar, we started calling up these places soon after we reached Malvan at noon. We were all damn hungry, but decided that it would be safer to find a place to stay before anything else. This later proved right. AD, the only person conversant in Marathi in our team, called up the first number. The person attended the call asked…