Tour Trail Tales: At Lands End - Daman

At Lands End… Daman

Last year I and Shashank (a friend of mine) planned to go to Goa for the New Year but due to my IBA Saddle Sore attempt, was unable to go. Then in first week of Jan we planned to go to the Valley of Shadows, Nashik but that too got cancelled due to lack of interest from both of us. So finally we struck upon Daman for a 4 day plan.

On 25^th Jan Friday we both started at 5AM. I touched the old Mumbai highway a bit earlier and continued slowly while Shashank was on his way. He lives on the other side of the city and I stay quite near to the highway. Shashank caught up quite soon on hi CBZ.

We were cruising easily at 80-90 till Lonavala. Had breakfast near RamaKrishna Hotel (my regular spot for snacks at Lonavala), as it doesn’t open up in the wee hours on weekdays. A cutting chai and some vada pav ensured we were good to get going.

Reached Mumbai at around 9AM and got on the Daman road. However the traffic was starting to catch up with us. Filled up the tanks of our beast and again stopped for a break just outside Mumbai. The traffic mixed up with the heat was not bearable for both of us. So we had a break of around 2 hours on the roadside stall gulping down the cold beverages.

Around 11:30, the traffic seemed to have reduced in intensity so we started out again. The road was dustier than the last time I travelled through there. After crossing some 100 odd kms we saw a red CBR250 rider with free flow exhaust and tail bags also going towards the same route. Shashank tried road racing with that guy but it turned out he was a rookie and started riding dangerously. Asked Shashank to let him go ahead as we stopped for a short break on the road side.

We were now going slow, enjoying the beauty of the empty vast stretches of the smooth tarmac. Crossed a huge toll gate and soon there was the left turn to Daman. As the rail gate opened we headed to our weekend getaway: Daman. It was only a short distance from there. It seemed I was already high even before reaching. The funniest incident was that while we were heading towards Daman, there were few farmers selling vegetables on the roadside and what I saw from a corner of the eye seemed as some strange fruit in purple. Upon turning back off 500 meters from there, it made us both laugh. I had mistook a brinjal for some strange fruit. :D

It was evening around 5 till we reached Jampore beach, Moti Daman. We finally managed to get a room for 600Rs per day, very near to the beach. We parked our bikes, kept the luggage in our room and headed straight for the sea. It was receding. Disappointed we bought some ‘hard beverages’ and settled in our room. Upon inquiring, we found out that everything is closed here by 10PM and its not advised by police to spend the night out at the beach and its like an unsaid law here in these parts. Who knew we two were about to throw all the rule books into the sea. It was practically the last holiday and the last ride in a long time we both would be around these parts as Shashank was to shift back to Delhi, next month.

The first day was uneventful. It passed off all cool and boozy. The next morning we headed out for sight seeing around Daman. Starting with the first place nearby was the Jampore. We both in our 3/4ths walked till the both ends of the beach. Found out that there was the Boat Man’s Creek, the fishermen colony and yea the quicksand. Well I found the quicksand patch the hard way. I got stuck in it and had it not been for Shashank, I might had sunk deep into it. There was also a cemetery nearby.

We came back to the shacks of Jampore beach and guess what we start the day with….. well more of ‘hard beverages’ and the most insane ‘vadapow’ I had ever seen in my life. A plate of vadapow consisted of 4 eraser sized vadas and small sized bread. Washed those down our throats with more of hard beverages. We both were resting on the chairs and watching the sea come back. Well the timings of the sea is that it receeds to a great extent in the evenings and the early mornings and returns at noon time and at mid night.

Had all sorts of beach snacks. It was fun, lazing around. It was long long time since I experienced such calmness. I was at peace within self. However this peace dint last for long as the Gujjus were coming in huge bunches now and all they wanted is to quench their thirst. It seemed we were the only idiots with nothing to do but stare at them. We soon got bored of this and headed to the sea. I am no good swimmer but still it was enjoyable in the water. Well it was not clean. We were a bit tipsy and were having all the good time. After an hour or more it became crowded so we decided to return.

After a quick shower and finishing of the last bit left in yesterday’s bottle of hard beverage of local scotch (Boy! It was smooth as anything. Sadly I forgot its name L ) and breaking the glass we decided to go and explore around Choti Daman. So we soon went to a Graveyard of boats. All the wooden boats were left to decompose near the entrance as we made our way into the interior parts, the sizes of the boats grew massively and they were very old. We soon left after some photos.

The next destination was the nearby port of Daman. It was a fisherman’s port. Nets were lying all around. We tried to get a boat ride till Diu and we were turned down. Even after offering money to the fishermen they did not agree. Evening was setting in and we made our way to the fish market.

This fish market is one to watch out for and yea you need some bad ass luck to see the stuff sold here. Octopuses, Sharks, Eels, Sting Rays, edible jelly fish and I have just started. Entire Gujrat is vegetarian and here you will really have a hard time finding a single Pure Veg restaurant where its surrounded on all three sides by Gujrat an one side by the sea itself. The only one I managed to see was just opposite to the fish-market lane. Just corner to the fish-market lane there is a fish fry street shop. Bring him any fish and he will make you the very best fry of it. We had 2 plates of small sized eels and few more plates of some other fish fry. I wanted to have an octopus and some jelly fishes but I was really out of luck. The octopuses were huge in size and the someone bought all the stock of jelly fishes in front of me before I could buy it. We tried searching for them in other shops around but we were just out of luck. Suddenly my eyes fell on something. It was the spinal bone of some monstrous fish. Well, the size of it without its head lying in a corner was taller than me standing on my bike. It was really huge. I was at my wits end, because it dint seem to be of that size coz the tail part was not there.

Sunset at Jampore Beach

At the graveyard of boats

Cemetery Road, Jampore

The Boatman's Creek

Fishermen Colony

Couple at the Port of Daman

The Amazing Fish Market

Sting Ray ... Anyone?

The evening was just starting and we bought some hard beverages from the shop run by our hotel owner and headed to the beach. The waters were receding fast into the ocean bed when we both decided to take a stroll to see where the water went. And so with the chappals in out hand and the bottle in other we started walking into the sea through the sea bed. Even after walking straight into the dark sea for an hour almost the water level dint increase above our ankles. After some more distance, I stepped on a real sharp stone or glass maybe resulting a cut in my foot. We still continued straight into the sea. Wasn’t bleeding but was having a tingling sensation. After around half an hour more the ground became a bit of sinky mud. After 10 minutes of struggling walk through that, we had reached the land’s end.

Standing at the lands end, both of us, staring into the face of the deep sea now. The lights of Daman was as tiny as stars and even the light house of Choti Daman was tiny to look at. There was no solid ground just a tiny step ahead. It was deep sea. Well this edge was rocky and it was sharp as sword. The other foot got a cut while trying to figure out if there was a bit more land where we could walk ahead. We were surrounded by darkness all around us and confronted by the sea in front. We felt there was something huge white in the waters to our left in the deep sea part. Fearing a shark or worse we fled towards land. Its said that we have only discovered a tiny 1% of the life in our oceans. The unknown 99% is scary. All the tipsiness was off and we fled as fast as we could. Running on the sea bed isn’t possible. We walked as fast as we could.

By the time we reached the safety of land we were totally out of breath. While resting on the mushroom seats at the beach we were approached by some of the guys staying at the same hotel. They had seen us arriving on the shiny black Pulsar 200NS and had taken a special liking towards it. They even told us that they had clicked many photos on my bike. Well, I don’t blame them. Without the rear tire hugger and those fat semi slick Revz-C from MRF, even it becomes tough for me to resist a glance at it even after owning it.

Those kids were from Second and Third year engineering students. Who could resist a beach side party now. I have a card to get us much more than mere permission from police to party on that beach. I said I would take care of the law and so we all agreed to party. The 10 of us fetched more of the hard beverages, ordered special fish preparation to be served admidst the beach in the middle of the night and yes…. More people. It was a party we never had expected. Songs were on the phone playing at top of the speaker’s wattage, beverages were flowing like rivers, smoke filled the air. There was no stopping now. We were the kings of the beach now. The dish of fish was served hot well after mid night. The party continued till we literally dropped on the sand. We somehow dragged ourselves to our rooms.

We woke up late and again the hangover drink was more of hard beverage. After a peaceful shower, we went ahead to roam around the Daman Fort post lunch. The visit to Church or Bom Jesus, a 400 year old church, was soothingly peaceful. My both foot was now paining, took a tetanus before things complicated any more. The buildings of Daman were Portugal styled and each and everyone of them were a designer. The govt. buildings were even better with the lighting in the evenings.

We returned to the hotel for a peaceful meal of Desi-chicken (not the poultry one). We got the chicken and the cook of the hotel cooked it amazingly well. After having to our fill we retired for the night with more ‘beverages’.

The next day was peaceful. We visited the Choti Daman areas of the fermenting factories and the surrounding beaches. We found the Choti Daman waters to be more dirty. We visited the Portuguese fort with the watch tower and light house, adjacent to the modern light house. Spent the entire afternoon atop the tower just to get the perfect shot of the sunset.

Today was 28^th and the last day of this holiday probably unless we decide to head to Silvasa. A good night’s rest was both in our minds. Post dinner at 8PM we walked towards the right side of Jampore towards the light house through the tall coconut trees. There was a drinking table and we made it ours today. We sat and had our beverages right till we got a call from our hotel for their closing time. Well for the past few days, they were not even locking the doors being weekend, but today was a different story altogether.

The morning of 29^th we packed up ready to leave. Last night we had caught a kid of a deep water serpent. I was bringing it back with me for it was my new pet. The hotel owner was very helpful in providing a makeshift aquarium for it for the transportation. We filled up just before we crossed out of Daman. These central ruled Union Territories enjoy a cheap petrol price. We happened to see a VMax at the fuelling station.

We were to go via Nashik now. We were aware of the bad conditions but never expected it to be that bad. It was completely off-road nearly till Nashik but the view of serene surroundings were helpful in taking off our mind from cursing the roads. We went past a jungle. Had to make a few rest stops before touching Nashik. It was around 2PM and it has taken us 4hours to reach the village before Nashik.

After crossing Nashik, the highway till Pune was a simple 2 lane way without dividers. The people seemed to jaywalk on the highway as if it was their backyard garden. We both had a few near misses, thanks to the idiots driving there. Finally we reached Pune at Nashik phata where we both bade adieus. Thus came a great weekend to an end. We both would be cherishing the memories of this trip for a long time, I am pretty sure of this.