"You can't eat the scenery"

....is what my travel partner said on the second day of our trip to the
beautiful coastline of Maharashtra. If you overlook the acco and the food I
would say the trip was good. The journey was a walk in the clouds...
literally. Winding roads, large water bodies, lush green mountains, clouds
floating by your side, numerous waterfalls - small and big, the rough and
tough terrain of the Sahyadri's, the adventure of the Ghat roads - what more
does one need to feel like being in heaven?! It was a beautiful drive.

Our accomodation was far from that. Listen to this.
Going by the "new improved" look of the tourism corporation of Maharashtra
and on recommendations from a few friends who have stayed in MTDC
resorts earlier, I did the blunder, well, a mistake to be honest, of booking a
room in a MTDC resort. The charges looked like that of a good hotel in town
and I dreamt of a beautiful sea-facing room with rich carpets and plush
sofas. (Too dreamy after my trips in Europe.. ah even the cheapest hotels
were so good and the staff so cordial. The breakfasts were lavish and kept
you going for hours.Aaah.) Alas, the govt never lets us forget the problems
faced by a developing nation. It was a basic room with bare minimum
amount of hygiene maintained ( I still doubt it). The bed was a concrete slab
covered with marble - yes, don't faint - as a reminder perhaps to increase
the tourism to the state of UP. The matresses, well let's just say the marble
bed would have been softer. The curtains looked like they had been washed
when the leftover marble was brought from Agra. The lights were hardly
there to make the setting more natural (eerie?!) The toileteries - I gave
myself a pat on the back for taking my own set with me. And this saga
continues into the kitchen. The restaurant on site serves you with any dish
on the planet - as long as you stick to their 10 item menu :) And what does it
take to make sandwiches btw? Well, not much if you have bread. (Imagine
me crying hoarse for not getting fish on a trip to the coast... I can't either..
but here I am.. dreaming about fish after a 2 day beach trip :( ) All this
excellent service and food comes at a cost and it was well worth the
stupidity I had displayed while booking this place. So, though the location
of the resort was good everything else left much much much more to
improvisation. We kinda renamed MTDC as "More Torture from Devil's
Corporation". I think this one suits.

What was surprising was though the "no meat, no drinks, no evil (, no living
;))" period was over and we could officially start eating meat - we just
couldn't find fish anywhere on the coast. Not in Harihareshwar, not in
Shrivardhan and neither in Dive agar. Nope. It was highly disappointing.
Dil ke armaan.... samandar me beh gaye. (So I dug into the first fish item I
saw after returning to base. May be the fish were touring too.)
Anyway, so thats the tragic story of my fishing trip.

But like I said earlier, the drive more than compensated for the food fiasco.
The drive from Harihareshwar to Shrivardhan and further on to Dive agar
was along the coast and it was amazing to drive with the hills on one side
and the sea on the other. The beaches as expected were dirty due to
monsoon and not worth setting foot on. Visited a couple of historic temples
around and it was time to head back.

Will post pictures soon.