Drive through two Union Territories to find the #RoadNotTravelled, India

It is the 26th of July, 2015, almost a month to the trip I made to Cambodia and Vietnam. The weather in Bombay has been absolutely stunning. It has been raining quite a bit even though not necessarily heavy most of the time. Let’s put it this way, it has been raining enough for the sun to stay in its closet for a few days.

It is just 730 in the morning and I am already past Dadar! Well done ME!!! I have taken the slow train, shopping my way with a bindi strip (I am actually quite obsessed with this colourful thing) and a nice black hair-band which I always wanted to buy but somehow neither had the time nor had the patience to stop at those crowded hawkers bargaining. Oh! The old woman selling this has already told me off for wearing shorts!! I am almost tempted to purchase the colourful rubber-bands but no this time I am going to stop myself from splurging away!!!!!

Well, the plan is to go to Silwasa and the plan was to leave at 8am but since I don’t see myself reaching by 8, I am not sure if Silwasa is still on the cards or not..

So!!! Me reached and journey starts to Silwasa.. the roads were wet, the trees were fresh and the spirit was high!!! You couldn’t have asked for more, could you? 🙂 luckily the sun was not out, and the desire to have it shinning loudly was neither there too..  conversations battled around family  friends, what’s new and what’s old, politics, the new project that I got myself involved into, suggestions were given and actually welcomed for I hadn’t even thought about it.. and before we knew, Sai Dant was there for some fresh vada pav, kanda poha and misal pav.. for some reasons it was insanely crowded seeming that everyone is actually fed up of the city rat life of Bombay.. I don’t blame!

Breakfast stuffed and the road was hit again. Gujarat-Maharashtra highway never fail to impress me with the smoothness it offers. Be it rain, hail, storm, or scorching heat, it is always a smooth ride!!! Don’t even think that you will be lucky to deliver if you went on this road 😉

The breeze was fresh just like the conversation and before we knew, Silwasa was out there.. first time I learn that Silwasa is actually a Union Territory of India!!! Excited to see the “welcome to the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli” signpost. Enter and it started to pour like it is never going to stop. What to do here was the next question. We kept going straight to reach a massive school and then to realize that this is actually not going to go anywhere.. took a u-turn, stopped, googled “what to do in Silwasa”, found a Portuguese church to go too which we had already passed by (so tiny that there was no need to get off to walk in) and a tribal museum which I think is tinier than my tiny shack of Bombay, and then caught Lion Safari our attention.. well, not that we are going to see any lions or deers in the rains but we had to do something..

We started to drive to reach the town center and thought maybe the safari is towards Dadra, and we started to drive down.. it was only 7 kms after all. Ok lets do it!!! Funnily we reached Dadra and no safari seen (laughing out loud already).. now what? Well I read on the highway that Daman was 22km while Silwasa was just 16km, so the difference is not much. Should we touch Daman and get some late lunch? Sure why not?

And we take the Vapi-Daman road to Daman. The rains get stronger and for once we come across potholes and wondering “OMG! ISN’T THIS MODI LAND? AREN’T WE SUPPOSE TO BE IN HEAVEN OF INDIA AKA POTHOLE-FREE ROAD?” Well apparently it is not always as rosy as we think, after all!! Anyhow, determined that it showed 22kms away and just 45 mins, I guess we raced through the rain to our destination saying a goodbye to Dadra and Nagar Haveli and hello to “welcome to the Union Territory of Daman and Diu”.. the roads get better and we touch Daman but where is the beach??????

GOOGLE HELP!!! type in beach which got us to Devika beach which was just two minutes away.. nice!!! Hoping to get some tandoori chicken and a hot cup of coffee and we were welcomed by buses of travellers crowding the beach that getting down was not even considered as an option.. but hey! We do have to get down to breathe the sea breeze of Daman!!!! So we drive in a km to find a tiny spot where there are fewer people.  Get off, and walk in the low tide beach and wow! It was nice! Refreshed from the 6 hour drive to Daman and it felt all worth it at this hour.. and just before we thought that we could stay for another 5 minutes, it started to hail!!! Run run run! Sit in the car and lets go back. Hungry? Yes! Want to stop in the crowded Daman? NO! let’s drive and we are sure to find something more interesting on the way back and we googled our way out and it took us to one of the most beautiful #RoadLessTravelled.. two way lane, dense jungle on both the sides, and actually there were sign post just before a bump!!! IMPRESSED!!!!

And then our imagination runs to revisiting the road with the bike!!! Finally we found the purpose of the trip!!! Finally we find the #RoadLessTravelled in this part of the region.. we touch NH8 and start out drive back to Bombay. And then the Parsi Dairy Farmland is spotted. I remember my father saying that it is actually really good and so the car was immediately stopped. We wanted to sit outside but it was crowded (it is India) so tables were cleared for us and we start savouring the menu. GOSH! WANT EVERYTHING!!! GREEDY!!

Landed up eating mix Persian meat platter with tandoori!!! Yum yum yum! Haven’t had such mutton anywhere yet anywhere in this world!!! I ate the entire platter even though I am worried that my sensitive stomach might give up on me AGAIN!!! fingers licked, bill paid and lets hit the road again!!!

Just when we were talking about being lucky to find no traffic, there is the damn traffic! There goes 45 mins breathing through the “fresh wind” blown by the trucks!!! Who says we have air pollution? 😉

Ok! We won’t get another traffic and hey! Another 30 mins gone by!!! Damn damn damn! Never ever are we going to talk about no-traffic roads!!!! Jinxed it you see!!

And we touch Powai Cafe Coffee Day, order the coffee, sip it with the rains heavy and call for an Ola for me to get to my heaven !!! Ma! I will have dinner at home and should be home soon!

What a day! A drive through two Union Territories to find the #RoadNotTravelled or the #RoadLessTravelled!!!!

Nighty night!!!! x