Solo Malvan Trip and Scuba diving

Hi guys, the objective of writing the blog is to provide genuine information regarding transportation and staying options which, I have visited. Because when I generally search for the traveling options, I do not get all the information at one place and wanted to share honest reviews about places I visited. 

So fortunately, I get a yearend break this year (this is one of the benefits for working with big4 audit firms) and I was searching for new experiences and Tarkarli scuba diving suddenly came in my mind. It was always at the back of mind. However, when you are planning for the trip, you tend to forget such places.  It came late else I would have planned the traveling better. Anyway, I started for searching and all the better transportation and staying options were already booked. So, I decided to travel with private bus (even state transportation (ST) was fully booked (nowadays ST and Rail travel has improved a lot, and you can consider it as an option) 

Fortunately, private bus options were available at the last moment as well and their rates were competitive. It costed me around 2000 bucks for return travel which is almost comparable with ST and Railway ticket.  

Other big question was where to stay. MTDC was not available (this is the price you have to pay if you do not plan) again here also I luckily saw a property which I ultimately chose for staying fortunately came up on my screen and rates were reasonable too. I had no idea that time that property and the host would meet more than I expected for. There were very basic properties available on Booking. Com, MMT, Agoda, GO Ibibio however rates were too high and frankly looked very basic to me on the sites. So, I went ahead with this property ‘Achrekar Home stay’. I always love the home stays as some hosts are worthy in terms of their hospitality, food and this one marked all the checkboxes. 

So comes D Day. I took evening bus. I used Redbus app to book my tickets. This app I really liked as you can check all the reviews of the passengers. You get complete information on boarding point, dropping point. Plus, you can track live location of the bus. There were lot of options available for Malvan I chose the operator named Sai Pooja. One thing I liked about Sai Pooja is they have both the options available in bus (Seating as well as sleeper berth) bus starts from Borivali and my boarding point was Chembur. Another good thing about booking through the Redbus is you get a call from the bus operator 10 to 15 minutes before the bus is about to reach your boarding point, the boarding time was 8.40 bus reached by 9pm. 

And the journey started. I like the bus travel the most as compared to Rail and Air. Bus travel gives you the feel of road trip. It has all the benefits of road trip like you get to see nature And National highway 66 is natures paradise (not in terms of quality of the roads, the NH66 is improving but at snail's pace). Up to Panvel the bus took some 5 to 6 more stops for picking the passengers. It took a long stop around ‘Pen’ (in Raigad district) of about 40 to 45 minutes.  But once it started around 11.30 PM the bus and really took good rhythm. I generally start enjoying the bus travel once the lights are switched off. I kept the windows open. The cool breeze coming from window was like icing on the cake and was making my Overall travel a mesmerizing one. I made attempt to read the book, but the outside scenery and overall ambience defeated that attempt.  

In between I slept for some time. The bus took a halt at around 4pm near Ratnagiri. It was a small halt of around 10 minutes. The road conditions are better after Ratnagiri.  Bus covered remaining distance at a good pace, I reached Malvan by 8.30. The bus drops me near Malvan bus stand. I called up my host (Mr. Shankar Achrekar) sometime before I was about to reach Malvan, fortunately he allowed me to check in before my scheduled time. 

I took up Auto from my drop point till Achrekar Home stay. Another good thing about Kokan region is people are generally helpful here and guide you. Auto took 70 bucks. 

Mr. Achrekar received me at the gate of his house. The property is near Dandi beach in Malvan 

The property is spacious and well maintained. It’s ground plus 1 structure. Which looked like a bungalow, having a small garden in front of house, a well (Vihir) with good amount of water. The owner/host lives at the ground floor and they have built 2 rooms on 1st floor. Rooms are decent and clean. I had a good breakfast they offered one breakfast as complimentary.  

After breakfast they had arranged for scuba diving, the owner also provides the water sport activities. 

I opted for scuba deep diving (deep diving is generally done up to 25 feet deep in the sea) I would recommend doing deep dive if you really want to get feel of scuba diving. There are multiple places around the Malvan region (Malvan, Tarkarli) where scuba diving is done. I did my scuba diving at Malvan. In Malvan the scuba diving is done near Sindhudurga Fort.  

The small boat carried me till the bigger boat from where the scuba diving is conducted. Before doing the actual scuba they provide some basic training inside water near the boat ,you can take help of boat’s ladder , they teach you how to breath, here you need to ensure that you breath from your mouth (breathing from nose is absolutely not allowed) I faced some difficulties in the beginning to learn this technique, at one point I thought of giving up however the scuba diver helping me insisted to carry on, the staff were helpful and they guided me without losing their patience. After 5 to 6 attempts I finally learned to breath from mouth, (You can squeeze your nose through your hands if you can't stop breathing from nose). Once I learned technique the suba diver took me deep in to the sea. I can tell you this was one of the best experiences I have ever had to see the marine life. They also took short videos of me. 

Deep scuba diving costed me Rs.1600, it was totally worth, you can spend around 15 to 20 minutes deep inside the sea. I felt discomfort after 5-10 minutes else they would have carried on for more. 

Normally they provide packages for sport activities which includes Para sailing, banana ride, Scuba diving etc. At around Rs.1500, however in this package deep diving is not included they cover shallow deep dive, which I personally do not feel worth doing, So I would recommend doing only scuba diving (if you have already done other activities before) because then you will get actual feel of scuba diving. 

After scuba diving, I had a good lunch at home stay, it was delicious. The homely food is one thing which you can get only when you opt for homestay. The owner’s wife herself prepares the food. After the meal I took a good rest. 

In the evening the owner arranged for a 2-wheeler. I visited Rock Garden, Malvan beach. The garden is beautiful, and is built exactly in from of sea, you can get good of view of sun set from the beach, there are food stalls near rock garden serving delicious food which you typically found near beaches. There is a place called ‘Rajkot’ near rock garden which is also worth visiting. 

After visiting Rock Garden, I visited Ganapti temple built by Salgaonkar family (Owner of ‘Kalnirnay Calender) The temple is beautiful and worth visiting. 

At dinner the host served us Veg Pulao which tested delicious. 

Next morning, I visited Kunakehswar temple (Which is around 45 km from Malvan). The owner arranged for a vehicle to visit the Kunkeshwar temple. 

You can also plan Devbaug beach, Tarkarli beach, Tsunami Islands, Sindhudurg fort. I could not cover due to time constraints and my primary objective was to cover scuba diving only. 

While returning I again took Sai Pooja travels, I had a bit bad experience while returning, Bus took lot of halts till Ratnagiri, after Ratnagiri travel was smooth, I reached Mumbai at 6 in the morning. 

Here is the cost breakup of the trip. 

Cost Head	Amount (In Rs.)
Bus travel (Return Travel)	2,000
Home stay (Room Tariff)	1,900
Scuba Diving	1,600
Lunch, Breakfast, Dinner	835
2-Wheeler rent	200
Total	6,535

 

Homestay Contact Details: 

Achrekar Home stay 

Owner Name: Shankar Achrekar 

Contact Details: 7875154538 

02365-295339 

Dandi Beach, Malvan 

 

Thanks for reading my blog. 

 Amit Gokhale

You can reach me on 9167180122

 

 

Me Doing Scuba 

 

 

 

Sindhudurg Fort 

 

 

 

Rock Garden- Malvan 

 

Ganapati Mandir (Salgaonkar) 

 

 

 

Achrekar Home stay