The Time of my Life @ NYC

My apologies to Swatz - as she had once said what I say, many a times it happens.
While leaving Mumbai one of the things I so desired from my heart was the rains. Looks like the rains have followed me everywhere. It has rained everywhere - in Fairfax, Washington and NYC and they have given Mumbai a miss.

Lost in New York.
Started off to NYC on Saturday morning from Washington DC. Reached NYC about 15.30. Although we carried lots of maps (w/o which navigating isn't possible), we never carried a map for our hotel's location. So after an hour we gave up, headed straight for a cybercafe and googled for it.
We were in the Hotel in 10 mins.
The Hotel was a good deal - a Holiday Inn in the heart of NYC - Manhattan; close to everything you have to visit.

NYC Metro

The Times ².
You have to be here to feel it. The Times Square is a large part of what was once a 10 lane road. That entire 1 km stretch of road is closed to vehicles. It has lots of chairs and a stage so that people can lay around. It is somewhat like South Mumbai (infact the entire Manhattan is like that), but on a much larger scale. The crowd, the dazzle, the vocals and the skyscrapers create a unique environment.

Just out of the subway station

Still looking at Nasdaq:

Bechara bhola baccha is bheed mein ghum gaya:

You won't find them in Mumbai, but they are here

Now you know why they are called Skyscrapers
Literally, amny of them touched the sky. Since it was raining, the clouds or low - low enough that they covers the few top floors of many skycrapers.

Infact thanks to it, we could not go to the top of Rockfeller Centre to get a glimpse of the city. There was zero visiblity bcoz of the cloud cover.

A word about women here
Extremely fashionable - thats what I feel. And yeah, I saw them for 1 main reason. There are lots of girls who wear shades of Lavender and all, really all shades were extremely good, not one bad shade.

The Liberty Mata.
For this, have to take a ferry to Libert island.

Lower Manhattan from the ferry:

Jersey City from ferry:

She's green, I expected a bright white colour. Anyways we couldn't go to the top since tickets are booked much earlier for it.

Jersey City of Left and New York on right:

Wall Street
The Financial Centre but with a reduced sheen.

Raging bull:

Even the church here has been made to suit these buildings

WTC site:

Kashid saved the day

You can call it a day - When almost everything went wrong. We had a four day long weekend and I had suggested we goto Murud. The original plan was to visit Murud fort and beach in a 1 day trip. But all planning went haywire.
As per plan:
06.45: Vashi
10.15: Murud (11.00 at the worst case)
Had we been on track, things would have been fine.


Chronology of Travel
07.30: Vashi ( Full 45 mins delay)



08.00: Beyond Panvel. Stopped for breakfast


08:40: Restarted journey. This long break was going to cost dearly.
09.30: Reached Pen. Even with the A.C., the heat was becoming unbearable.
10.15: Reached Alibaug. By this time everyone in the backseat was thoroughly "basking" in the sun.

Rev Danda: The fortified town: remains of the walls

Sea near Rev Danda:

Sea near Chaul village with Chaul fort of the hill

10.50: Stopped at Petrol Pump. Took 20 mins. break here.




12.15: Finally at Rajpuri village, near Murud fort. (Nearly 2 hours behind schedule.)
14.00: Back to Murud for lunch.
15.00: On Murud beach.
15.15: Off from Murud.
15.45: At Kashid beach.
18.30: Off from Kashid.
21.30: Dining at Belapur.
22.00: Reached Vashi.

Doordarshan of Murud fort


The Murud fort rests in the Arabian sea; hence you require a ferry from Rajpur village to reach the same. On Fridays, the ferry service is closed between 12.00 - 14.00 due to prayers. Effectively it means you can only see the fort if you come before 11.00 or after 15.00.
There are no facilities for eating; the lone hotel out there is extremely poor in service. We wasted 1 hour for food; but the huge surge in visitors coupled with shortage of manpower ensured that we stayed hungry.
So, we dropped the plan for fort and returned back to Murud for food. Whatever we saw of the fort was from the Rajpur wharf and jetty.


Rajpur beach:


Rajpur village:


Food, Food, Food....
The 3 hour break in ferry service matched by the spate of tourists ensured that all luncheon options in Murud were packed way beyond capacity.
This guaranteed that we would not get to eat food for atleast 1 hour. The hunger would surely become unbearable by then. The only option - roadside fastfood.
Zankhana, Swati and me were contended with Omlette-Pav. Others with Vada Pav, Juices, Milkshakes and Baraf-golas.

Tanmay in deep thought:

Short stint at Murud beach

Thanks to the hordes of tourists, oil exploration by Reliance and zero maintainence by municipality, the beach is going the Alibaug way. The sand has mostly turned blackish with traces of oil. This has also led to change in the sea water colour. And all this when Reliance is only "exploring" - searching for oil. If they really start extracting, I doubt any beaches in Konkan will survive.
Abbas of beach with the Kasa fort to his right:

Deciding on going to Kashid:

Designs in the sand:

Dead Octopus, I think


Kashid beach - the day saviour
By now, most were turned off by the events of the day. No fort no beach.....hence decided on Kashid.




We reached Kashid @ 15.45. By 16.00, me and Swati were already in the sea. The rest (except Zank), trickled one by one. Zank didn't have spare clothing like Amit; so she didn't venture out. Amit came out anyways.
Kashid beach has mostly white sand; which shows it is largely made up of a crushed powder of sea shells. The sand grains are thick; thus the beach is somewhat young.
The unique thing that I experienced at this beach was the pull that the receding waves exerted; trying to drag you in the sea. The source of the pull is largely the 35 degrees inclination of the beach towards the sea.



We enjoyed a lot in the sea with Husain and me dragging everyone else inside. I think it was only we too, who submerged many a times entirely in the water primarily due to laying in the water.
Swati, Gayatri, Pritisha and Abbas did not venture out too ahead. Amit and Tanmay where somewhat ahead inside.
Zank was lazing on the beach bed all alone. I think the travel, the heat and the food had turned her off the most. Had to bring her to the sea. Although she barely came inside the water, she was the only one who clicked. Thanks to her we had photographs of Kashid.

Engravings in the sand:


Before departing from Kashid.....jst didn't feel like returning