Travel Post: Top 5 Things To Do in Tarkarli

Goa has always been a favorite destination for beach lovers in Mumbai.
But due to the huge initiative by MTDC to promote tourism in Sindhudurg, Tarkarli is now definitely counted among the most popular beach destinations with people in Maharashtra.

Mom , Me and Sunset

Tarkarli is not as developed and commercialized like Goa and it lacks the night life factor. But if you are looking for unadulterated beaches, beautiful long coastlines and finger licking good food, Tarkarli is a place you must visit.

How to travel to Tarkarli?
You can take the Konkan railways to reach Tarkarli. It arrives way before Goa or you can simply drive there. No airports yet in Tarkarli, but let's hope it soon changes.

Where to stay?
The most popular hotel to stay in Tarkarli is definitely the MTDC Beach Resort which has a great location, as it is built on the beach. So every morning you can walk out from your room and reach the beach in less than two minutes. In Tarkarli, you will mostly find home-stay accommodations, which are comfortable, clean and light on the pockets. We stayed in a home-stay accommodation too, and it was much better than we expected.

I visited Tarkarli in January 2016, and below are the top 5 things to do in Tarkarli according to me.


Hit the Beach:
I was surprised to see that the Tarkarli beach, inspite of being so famous with beach lovers is well maintained and still not too crowded.
Apart from beach activities, the Takarli beach is perfect for long evening walks on the sand because of its long coastlines, while you feel the soft sand slip under your feet.
On our trip to Tarkarli, we walked to the beach every evening to watch the sunset and ordered chai from the MTDC restaurant which is located right on the beach.

Many of my friends have tried snorkeling and scuba diving in Tarkarli and they loved it. So trying that also might be a good option.

Camel Ride:

Camel rides on the Tarkarli beach surprised me and I had too much fun riding on the camel.
They charge around Rs. 50 per head for a 5 minute camel ride.
There were horse carriages too, but we didn't ride them.

Devbagh Sangam: 

On the left is the Karli river Backwaters and on the right, the Arabian Sea

Around 4 kms away from Tarkarli beach is Devbagh Sangam.
Devbagh means a Garden of the Gods and Sangam means confluence.
Devbagh Sangam is where the Arabian sea meets Karli river.
This too is a beautiful location to visit. On one end you see the calm and quite backwaters of Karli river and on the other, you see the gushing and raging waves of the Arabian sea. The sand is white and the beach unadulterated.

You can also enjoy boat rides on the backwaters of Karli river. Though we didn't do it, it would be a good idea because of the natural beauty surrounding this place.


Food:
The main cuisine in Tarkarli is Malvani food. And it is indeed a paradise for sea food lovers.
There are hardly any fancy restaurants and hotels in Tarkarli. Though we liked the food at the MTDC restaurant, we enjoyed the food more from local home-stay kitchens also know as 'Khanawal'.

Ghaavne Chutney

Make sure you sample the Ghaavne and coconut chutney for breakfast.
Ghaavne is a variation of the famous Neer Dosa. The difference being they are thicker in texture and since they are made from 'ukda chawal' or parboiled rice and roasted on iron girdles, it is slightly brown in color.
Every restaurant/khanawal that you eat at Tarkarli will serve you Solkadi/Kokamkadi. And if they don't, please ask them for it.
Solkadi is an appetizing drink and an inseparable part of Malvani cuisine. It is made from coconut milk and kokum juice with a mild flavoring of garlic, cumin and salt. It is pink in color and acts as a soothing agent when accompanied with the spicy and hot Malvani curries.

For dessert, ask for Ukdicha Modak, which are sweet dumplings stuffed with grated coconut and jaggery.
Since the home-stays here are not too big in scale, they only make food in limited quantities as per order. So make sure you give order for your breakfast/lunch/dinner a day or atleast a few hours in advance to avoid going hungry for the day.
And last but not the least, everyone who has visited Tarkarli will tell you about this restaurant called 'Atithi Bamboo".

It is by far the best restaurant in Tarkarli and its specialty is sea food. We did try this place, and it was soooooo good. I recommend you try it at least once when you visit Tarkarli.

Temples:
You might not be religious, but exploring nearby temples in Tarkarli in a rented car is a good idea.
The Kunkeshwar temple is a must visit, because it is built on the Kunkeshwar beach. The beach is beautiful and the temple is huge, artistic and gorgeous.


One more fun thing to try at Tarkarli would be cruising in House Boats. They are quite popular, but since I didn't experience them, they do not make it to my list of must do things in Tarkarli.
Hope you enjoyed reading the post, as I relived my Konkan holiday.

Lombard Street in Go-Cars

Lombard Street or Crooked Street is an east-west street in San Francisco, California that is famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns. Driving on this crisscross street is a different experience all together and it was too much fun.

The Crooked Street

A cute tree on the side of the Crooked street

After the cruise, we rented out Go-Cars and toured the city in the funnest way possible.
GoCars look like small toy cars, but are the first-ever GPS-guided Storytelling cars. They are battery operated and around 200 points of interest are loaded into the GoCar’s friendly GPS system.
You need a driving license to drive these cars, helmets are mandatory and a one hour tour costs around $58. But we found great deals on groupon and we rented it for much cheaper rates.

We once again drove on the crooked street in our Go-cars and had the best time of our life.

Go-Cars are definitely the coolest way to explore San Francisco or for that matter any new city you visit and you should definitely try them on your next visit.

Bridge to Bridge Cruise in SFO

After a long walk and photo shoot at the wonderland called Muir Woods, we moved on to our next excursion.
We did the Bridge to Bridge Cruise on the Red&White Fleet and it was the most surreal experience ever. On this 90 minutes cruise you see the entire San Francisco skyline while you sail under the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge, get prime views of Alcatraz Island apart from the breathtaking views of the SF skyline. It offers an audio tour (in 16 languages) that tell you about the city’s rich cultural history as you cruise past the area’s most famous landmarks.
We were here in the month of February, so carrying our winter jackets and gloves was a good idea.
Scroll down to see pictures.

In this post, I also wanted to give credit to our fabulous friends Jaya and Manoj for capturing these gorgeous pictures for my blog and my memories on this entire SFO Trip.

5 Places You Must Visit Before You Die!

Post my entry into the 30's club, life has been much sorted out than I had imagined. I am calmer, organized, health conscious, and matured than I have ever been. However, it has also brought in a little bit of anxiousness.
I feel like I am almost half way to 60 and there’s still so much more I would like to do and achieve.
One such thing that bothers me is that what if I do not get to travel to the places in my bucket list before I die? God forbid, but my spirit will definitely haunt those exotic locations after I die. (LOL)

So today I am sharing my list of top 5 destinations which I want to visit before I die, and rather everyone should, before they die. (Die…??? I promise this is not a sad post.)

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

If you thought the Grand Canyon was grand, wait until you see the Antelope Canyons. The older generation of Native Americans believed that they felt an uplifting spiritual feeling whenever they visited this place and I am not surprised to hear that. This place is one of nature’s beautiful mystery and looks so unreal. It gets its English name because long time ago, herds of pronghorn antelopes grazed and roamed freely in this place.

Banaue Rice Terraces, Philipines 

The Banaue Rice Terraces also referred to as the eighth wonder of the world are 2,000-year-old terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by ancestors of the indigenous people with minimal equipment; they used hands. To me they look like a stairway to heaven, don’t you think so?

Mount Nemrut, Turkey

This place brings history and belief to life. This place has remains of stone statues of God Nemrut Dagi, which are now rotten and broken. But what remains is still an impressive sight. One can imagine how huge and gigantic these statues actually were from the remains here. The mountain where these remains stand was built by King Anthiochus and is a tomb-sanctuary.

Glass beach, California

One can discover the Glass Bleach while cruising along Fort Bragg in California. The glass beach has a stunning shoreline that sparkles and shimmers with tiny pieces of colorful sea glass. A popular myth says that the glass pieces are mermaid tears. Every time a sailor got lost in the sea, mermaids would shed a tear which would wash ashore and form the sea glass.

But in reality, since 1906 the residents of Fort Bragg had established this place as an official dump site. Many glass items like pots, crockery, etc were dumped here, which over a period of time was broken into small, smooth and round pieces by the pounding waves and formed the Glass Beach.

And last but not the least…

Pangong Lake, Ladakh

The very moment I saw the final scene of the movie “Three Idiots” where Kareena Kapoor rides a scooter to confront Aamir Khan, I had resolved that I want to visit this exact location where the scene was shot. Not because I am a Bollywood buff, but because the place looked serene and magical beyond words. When I went home and googled about it, I was surprised to find out that this place was in Ladakh, India. Booking a Ladakh tour seemed like the most sensible decision that time, but only.. if wishes were horses..! (sigh)
The Pangong Lake is a beautiful water reservoir which is about 134 km long and falls majorly under China. The clear blue water of the lake reflects the towering mountains all around and appears so unreal to the tourist here. This is definitely a major highlight of Ladakh tourism and has been on my bucket list for the longest time.

So, what do you think, guys? Which places are on your bucket list? Let me know.

P.S. I do not own images used in this post.