Dapoli a serene village on coastal Maharashtra

Dapoli Fact Sheet: By Road from Mumbai via NH-17 : 220Kms
                             By Road From Pune its 185 kms
                             By Rail one can take Konakan Railway till Khed from Khed its about 40 kms one can take bus or auto till Dapoli.

Dapoli is situated on a hill and has access to more than 6-8 beaches. I was introduced to this beautiful coastal town by a cousin, since then i have visited this place about 4 times.

Dapoli is also famous for mango orchards, beetle nut plantation and coconut gardens.
There I found a very unusual coconut tree which had three trunks of the tree coming from the same coconut I call this The Triplets tree.

Talking of beaches the best beach is the murud harne beach (not the murud janjira) It is safe, flat and has a long beach with a lot of shade just before the beach.

There are many resorts one can stay, plus there are homestays where one could experience the warm hospitality of konkani family. I stayed in a new resort 'Pears beach resort' that was right on the ladghar beach. They had nice individual cottages for couples and bigger cottages for families.

Apart from great location, comfortable rooms they had the best fried fish and alphanso aamras ( fresh mango pulp)  I had ever tasted. The fish was fresh, the aamras was tasty, the food was great overall.
One can laze on these beaches or can go dolphin spotting arranged by the local fishermen. Ideally the best time to spot these friendly mammals is early morning. The boast services start by 6.15am and the earlier you book the better chances you have to spot dolphins in huge numbers. The boat ride is safe and lasts for about an hour. we saw many dolphins coming on to the surface and jumping out of water. they were so swift that it was very difficult to catch them on camera.

Once you visit Dapoli it becomes like a addiction its a place to relax rejuvenate and re energize oneself. Dapoli truly deserves a visit. It is one of the many underrated destination on the coastal  Maharashtra.

Mode of Travel Part II

The other vehicle I have is the Tata Indica Vista Quadrajet. I bought it in September 2009. Now I am sure many would frown like What!! An Indica… taxi… that obnoxious tourist gaadi… Mind you this is different… a lot different.

For starters Tata developed this car from grounds up…  they made this new generation Indica, bigger, taller and stronger (sounds like that  boost ad… na ) yes! This was a complete transformation of a car a true facelift on an existing model unlike some other companies that do just superficial work like new headlights, new seat covers with some body graphics and voila launch them as upgrades or limited edition pricing them higher and fleecing the poor customer.

Tata changed the Indica from its basics and introduced a new heart, the engine a world renowned CRDI engine from Fiat (this same engine is in many cars in the country today eg. The fiat Punto and the Linea, Maruti Swift & the Dezire and of course Tata Manza and the Indica), they all share the same engine.

Very few people knew about this fact and many did not believe it. Well it’s an engine which was developed by three international giants Fiat, Suzuki and General Motors. The latter left the collaboration due to some differences in agreement but the two former companies carried forward and Fiat took the major share in developing this gem and because Tata Fiat jointly sell their cars in India Tata too got to use this engine for their cars.

The Indica vista is a big hatch back. It can easily seat 3 adults in the back seat with ample leg and head room. The driving position is perfect and the top model has safety features like ABS and airbags. The steering is height adjustable and so is the driver’s seat. The engine is a powerful diesel mill 1345cc with 75bhp on the tap. The average fuel economy I have got in the past two years is 16kmpl with the air conditioner always on.  The average goes up if I drive on the highways and decent speeds and I have experienced up to 20kmpl on few trips. Plus one gets the economy of diesel which thankfully the government has not touched as yet.

Enjoy the pictures for now

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