Malvan is a town and tahshil in Sindhudurg District, the southernmost district of Maharashtra State, well known for the historically important Sindhudurg Fort. In India there are a very few places where scuba diving can be done and Malvan is one of them. Due to its relatively clear sea waters, Malvan serves as a perfect spot for scuba diving and snorkeling. Near the outer walls of Sindhudurg fort live coral and colorful marine life under the sea are visible. Dashavtar (the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu), a drama-play based on mythological stories, is an important cultural element of the area.
As a kid, summer vacations are a lot of fun, I still want to take a big vacation every summer and go to my grandmother's house or go on a trip for at least a week. This year we decided to go to Devgad and Malvan, the main reason is Hapus Mango from Devgad, and I have no hesitation in saying this.
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| Sindhudurg Fort |
How to reach Malvan by Car?
Malvan is approximately 400km from Pune and it takes around 9 hours to reach.
There are couple of routes to reach Malvan but the nearest is the one we followed -
Pune – Kolhapur – Ganganbavda – Talere – Kankavli – Kasal – Malvan
As soon as Aaravya's vacation started, we immediately planned a trip of 4 days and decided to go to Kolhapur without going directly to Malvan and visited Ambabai temple.
Day 1 - 24th May 2019
We left Pune at 30 o'clock and reached Kolhapur directly at 8 o'clock. We saw a good budget hotel near the temple but due to heavy traffic we could not go further, so someone from the hotel came to pick up us. According to him, the car can be taken to the hotel only after 10 pm, but now we have to park the car and walk 300-400 meters, so we went to the hotel with as much luggage as we need. The room was fine, the temple area was visible through the window. We freshened up and went to the temple immediately. There was a lot of crowd so we took darshan from outside (mukhdarshan). The next day at 6 o'clock in the morning we decided to leave, so we immediately went to the room without spending much time in the temple.
Day 2 – 25th May 2019
We got up at 6.30 in the morning (6.30 is dawn for us) and got ready in an hour. We had to leave the temple premises before the traffic was heavy and reach Malvan by noon. I had already finalized the route and plan, decided to go via Gaganbavda.
Coming to Kolhapur and going without eating misal, isn't the same as insulting misal? In fact, my brother had told me that Bavda misal is very tasty but we left Kolhapur at 7.15 am so it was not possible to eat misal that time. So it was decided to have breakfast in any good hotel on the way, around 8.30am we were feeling hungry and started looking for a hotel. But very few hotels and restaurants were open that time and finally, we saw a nice restaurant and immediately took a car to the side. By Ordering 2 misals (akdam kadaksss) and a plate of upma (for Aaravya) we started reviewing how to navigate the road with the guidance of Google. After making a fuss over the misal, we marched towards Gaganbawda.
There are two ghats from Gaganbawda to Konkan; one is Bhuibawda and the other is Karul Ghat (or Gaganbawda Ghat). Bhuibawda Ghat descends to Kharepatan and Gaganbawda Ghat descends to Talere village in Sindhudurg district. Gaganbawda is situated at the mouth of Ghat. The area is lush with green hills, cool breezes from the west, and pleasant tranquillity. Gagangad fort is at the mouth of the ghat and Gagangiri Maharaj's monastery is on it.
The high hills on both sides of the road and the greenery on it and the beautiful houses perched on it in some places, it was all very beautiful; It seemed that such a road should never end and We were just saying, Wah!! How nice, look at this! Look that! The scene was like an imaginary picture of nature.
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| Sahyadri Mountains - Immovable and impenetrable (अचल आणि अभेद्य) |
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| Sahyadri Mountains from Gaganbawda Ghat |
Even in summer, the river was overflowing with water, and the scenery was still thriving. One can feel that God had bestowed the beauty of nature with his free hand to the place. We were refreshed by running our hands and feet in the cool river water.
We reached Karul Ghat around 9.30 am. In the morning, it was very pleasant to see the high green hills, the soft rays of the sun and the chirping of the birds. After seeing some beautiful spots, we took photos and without wasting much time, immediately started walking (by car). The road was fine but in some places, there were very big potholes and some of the walls seemed to be too low.
We reached Kankavali around 11 am. Aarvya was hungry so we started looking for a veg restaurant and decided to eat in a restaurant without spending much time in the search of a good hotel because the sun was growing very bright and we were not used to hot weather in Konkan. We saw Vignesh Pure Veg and Kiran immediately turned the car around.
Kiran and I were not very hungry as we had a heavy breakfast of misal in the morning but didn't want to spend any more time for lunch and ordered Idli Chutney and Masala Dosa for Aaravya and then Cold Coffee for all :). The cold coffee made the kid feel a little calmer and fresh and we immediately started the next journey.
At 1pm we reached Malvan. We had booked Coconut Cottage at Malvan Beach due to a connection from a friend. Looking at the photos on Google, I loved that cottage. The room and cottage are quiet but the location disappointed a bit. The cottage is on the beach, so you can see the Sindhudurg fort by just sitting in the garden of the cottage. But the beach is not very clean, very close to the shores of Malvan, so the boats are coming or going, so the water always looks muddy. Probably fishermen are coming from there so you can't do anything on the beach other than just looking.
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| Coconut cottage resort |
Omkar Palav (owner of the cottage) came to pick us near the bus stand, he was on a motorcycle and we were following him by car. After 10 minutes we reached Kalbadevi temple, Medha, Omkar told us to park the car at the door of the house next to the temple and then we started walking behind him with our bags. Leaving 2-3 houses from the premises of Kalbadevi Temple, his cottage was built. Parking is not available in the cottage premise, one has to walk for 2 minutes to reach the room once you park your vehicle near the temple. As soon as we got into the room we quickly put the bags on, turned on the full AC and sat on the bed, hushhhh!! It was very tiring to carry the bags and that too in the afternoon when you are Konkan as it was too hot there. There were still 2 bags (1 food and 1 RV toy) in the car. After that, we freshened up and slept soundly for 2 hours. Thank God, that was AC room.
We freshened up at 5am and headed to Rock Garden and Chivla Beach. On the way there is Jai Ganesh temple which is very beautiful, clean and scenic, that temple was built by the famous astrologer Jayant Salgaonkar (Kalnirnaya) and family. The main sanctum is decorated with the gold plated idol of Lord Ganesh accompanied by the statues of Riddhi Siddhi. Carving sculptures on temple enchanting the viewer. As per the locals, one should visit the temple on the holy occasion of Makar Sankranti as this is when one can see the direct sunlight falling on the foot of the idol. We were walking but there is plenty of parking available in the temple premises.
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| Jai Ganesh temple, Malvan |
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| Jai Ganesh |
In 10-15 minutes, we went to Rock Garden, didn't want to miss the sunset there. There is a rock garden 10 minutes’ walk from Jay Ganesh temple. From the Rock Garden you can sit back and watch the waves and experience the sunset, the sunset looks so beautiful from there which gives a scenic place to spend good time. There is a small artificial lake where children can play hand boat and there are some other similar activities for small children. You can have a great evening here, it was not very crowded when we went so it was very quiet and very relaxing.
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| View from Rock Garden |
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| Hold my hand |
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| Sunset from Rock Garden, Malvan |
After sunset we went to Chivla Beach and came to the room at 8 pm soaking wet.
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| Chivla Beach |
We enjoyed a dinner at the cottage, the meal was very tasty, veg thali included potato veg, poli, papad, amti-bhat and wal birad. After dinner we took a walk on the beach and came to room 11pm. Every time we plan a trip, we decide where to go; what to see but this time nothing was decided except the day of departure and arrival. So the next day we didn't decide anything, we were going to do something like Sindhudurg fort or Tarkarli.
Day 3 – 26th May 2019
After waking up late in the morning and having tea, we took a tour again and came to the cottage for breakfast. While having breakfast, we learned about the surrounding area from Palav Kaka and then decided to go to Devbag. Uncle said that Devbag has a problem with parking and parking is mostly crowded so we decided to take a cab or rickshaw from Malvan. Even though Devbag is only 5 km from Malvan, rickshaw pullers charge Rs. 400-450.
Finally we prepared a rickshaw for 300 and went to Devbag Sangam beach. When we got there, we took a short walk around and saw the area. It is a very beautiful place, where the river Carly meets the Arabian Sea. Anyone can sit on this beach for hours. There is a tsunami island in front; you can enjoy water sports there. We chatted for a while and then took a detour to Bhogave Beach, went to Tsunami Island and enjoyed some water sports, and came back to Devbag Beach by the same boat.
There is a small domestic hotel right on the beach and you can sit on the benches and benches in its courtyard and chat over the view of Tsunami Island and Karly River Bay and spend that relaxing time. We did the same. Sitting there, we tasted amboli-chutney and usal-pav. It was 1pm and we felt very tired so we decided to go back to Malvan without going to Tarkarli. After waiting for a long time, we could not get a rickshaw or a cab, so we took a shared 6-seater rickshaw to Malvan till Medha Jakat Naka and then took a rickshaw to reach the cottage.
We were very exhausted due to hot weather so took some rest. On our way, we were looking around to see if there was a good veg restaurant nearby, but we found out that there was a small hotel called Jai Ganesh behind the Jai Ganesh Temple. We decided to go and eat there, but it was a little far from our cottage, about 1 km. It was good we went there at 2.30pm because it was closing at 3pm; soon after reaching, I ordered 3 veg thali and the meal arrived in 5 minutes. Thali included 2 poli, 1 dry vegetable, 1 vati usal, dal rice, papad and pickle. The meal was very tasty, especially Usal; but quantity was limited. We loved the meal and ate there for the next 3 days of our stay there. If you are a vegetarian and go to Malvan, you must eat at Jai Ganesh Hotel, you will definitely like it. In the evening we played a lot on Chivla Beach and on the way back we went to the cottage saying we would be a little late for dinner at Jay Ganesh Hotel. We went to dinner at 9.30pm and went to bed as soon as we got back to the cottage.
Day 4 – 27th May 2019
We decided to go to Kunkeshwar and then to Devgad to get mangoes. Around 7.30 in the morning we left for Kunkeshwar and reached there within an hour. Kunkeshwar town is situated on the bank of Arabian Sea. The temple is also known as Konkan Kashi and Mahashivaratri is the main festival there.
According to locals there is a history behind the temple, a sailor traveling in the sea for trade came near the beach of Kunkeshwar. Suddenly a havoc appeared in sea. The sailor was a Muslim. The ship seemed to sink in the sea. He saw a lamp on that beach. He prayed to that lamp "I don't know who you are. But if you will help me and stop the havoc I will build a temple for you". And his ship came to the seashore of Kunkeshwar without any problem. He built the temple as promised. The lingam was already there. As the Sailor was a non-Hindu, he thought that his religion will not accept him. Therefore, he committed suicide from the top of temple. But according to the research such stories are spread to protect the temple from Mughal sultans.
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| Kunkeshwar Temple |
After having Poha, Wada pav and tea in a small shack near the temple we left for Devgad. One of our friend had given us the connect for delicious Devgad Alphonso, by calling him we confirmed the availability of mangoes and headed towards his farm. It took us half an hour to reach their farm and we picked up 2 boxes of mangoes. At their house, they offered a few mango slices for taste there and give us a few more mangoes along with those 2 boxes.
On the way back to Malvan, we went to Rameshwar temple at Achara. That is one of the best temple I have ever visited till date, very devotional place and pleasant environment which gave a very positive vibe. Architecture of the temple is grand and spectacular. The sculptures of dwarpalas at the entrance enchant the tourist. ‘Ramnavami’ is a famous festival celebrated in this temple.
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| Rameshwar Temple, Achara |
After leaving the Achara, we decided to visit Kandalgaon to see the Rameshwar Temple there as I read about that on Facebook as it had some strong history associated with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. This land was sanctified by the inauguration of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Rameshwar of Kandalgaon is the village deity. Every three years, Rameshwar visits Sindhudurg fort with his panchayat. This ceremony is unique and unforgettable.
While the Sindhudurg fort was being built, the stones of the ramparts were being washed away by the tidal waters of the sea. The stones were falling while the fort was taking shape. Construction was constantly disrupted. Maharaj was distressed. At the same time, they felt that the village deity of Malvan, Shri Rameshwar, came in his dream. "My pindi is to the north of Malvan. It is open and first built my temple and then start building the fort." According to the vision given by Rameshwar, the Chhatrapati invaded the north in search of Shivapindi. Maharaj found a pindi in rye with a forested, low-lying area, Kandalvan, water and muddy swamps. After this, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj built a dome on Shivpindi in one night as per the instructions of Rameshwar. In front of that dome, a banyan tree was planted as a memento. That Vada tree is now known as 'Shivaji cha Vad'. ('शिवाजीचा वड') After the construction of the dome, there was no hindrance in the construction of the fort and the construction of Sindhudurg fort was completed. This festival strengthens the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Kandalgaon. Shri Dev Rameshwar goes to Sindhudurg fort in Joshi's boat with his entourage. Upon entering the fort, 21 coconuts are smashed.
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| Rameshwar Temple, Kandalvan |
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| Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj |
The structure of the temple is ancient and the decoration work done inside the temple is new. Adjacent to this temple is the Ram temple. Both the temples are crowded with devotees. There is a small lake in front of the temple which adds to the beauty of the temple.
After talking with locals we came to know that Anganewadi is very close to Kandalgaon and would need only 10 minutes (6km) so we went there as we heard so much about the Anganewadi Jatra that happens every year and a lot is spoken about it. The highlight of Anganewadi is an annual fair which is held in February/March, the date is declared after getting approval from the goddess herself. The Bharadi devi is famous for her wish-fulfilling (Navas) power. Her devotees express their wishes to her and once the wish is fulfilled they come again to visit to express their gratitude. Anganewadi is known as the Pandharpur of Konkan. The temple seemed to have just been renovated, we were inside the temple for 15 minutes but decided to leave immediately as it was very hot at 2 pm.
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| Bharadi devi Temple, Anganewadi |
We drank sugarcane juice there and returned to Jai Ganesh Hotel in Malvan within 45 minutes. After lunch we went to the cottage and got some rest which was essential.
Rather than going out in the evening, we preferred to be at the premise of the cottage where we enjoyed a sip of tea and chatted with Palav uncle. We got to hear new things about Sindhudurg fort from him. We did not even go for dinner and enjoyed kadhi khichadi at the cottage.
Boats to Sindhudurg fort are closed from 20th May, so we decided not to go there and rest on that day because we were going to return to Pune the next day.
Day 5 – 28th May 2020
We woke up a little late because had no plans today. When we got to the lawn for tea and found out that the boats were on and could go to the fort. Kiran and I didn't want to go because it was already 9 am and the climate was starting to hot. But then Aaravya wanted to go and he started to insist, so we got ready and Uncle Palav also boosted us to go.
We went to Malvan harbor (धक्का) from where there were boats to reach the fort. After waiting in line for 30 minutes we got the tickets of Rs.50 per person for the Indian tourists, boarded the boat and reached the fort in 15 minutes.
Sindhudurg fort, located at a small islet surrounded by the Arabian sea, was the main Maratha headquarters to prepare for wars, battles and also to provide security to Maratha people. The fort built on the orders of Shivaji took three years to complete with almost 100 architects from Portugal and a manpower of 3000. The fort is spread over an area of 48 acres with fortified walls, 12 ft thick and 29 ft high, stretch for 2 miles. Special thing of the fort is the concealed main entrance which is not easily visible from the outside. After entering the fort we went to Shree Shivrajeshwar Temple which is probably the only temple of Chhatrapati Shri Shivaji Maharaj in the country. Chhatrapati Shivaji’s younger son Chhatrapati Rajaram in his remembrance built this temple. Chhatrapati Shivaji’s idol stands in a boatman’s attire inside the temple.
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| Shree Shivrajeshwar, Sindhudurg Fort |
While exploring the fort, we were started feeling very drained due to the hot summer day and decided to go back and immediately returned to the cottage by the boat.
As it was our wedding anniversary, in the lunch we enjoyed delicious Modak at Jay Ganesh Hotel.
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| Modak!! |
In the evening we had a lot of fun at Chivla beach and were back to the room around 9pm our day ended with a wonderful meal at Jay Ganesh hotel.
Day 6 – 29th May 2019
We got ready for our return journey and left Malvan at 8am and came back the same route. We enjoyed the lunch at Hotel Nisarg near Satara, food was good, and our order included mataki masala, pithal, bhakri and buttermilk. We reached Pune around 6pm because had a lot of traffic in some places.
It was a little hectic but the great trip as we could manage to explore many places from our list.
Contacts –
1. Coconut Cottage Resort, Malvan –
Omkar Palav - 9421925911 / 7738740627 / 9405880637
2. Hotel Jay Ganesh, Malvan – 9423281433
3. Vignesh Pure Veg, Kankavli - 8007165804
