Jawhar-Sajan-Kelwa trip: Part 1

So finally I had my trip. It was all thanks to irfan once again, who once again managed to get hold of his car, so that we could make a quick journey. One day before the trip, I went to two or three travel agents to ask their rent-a-car rates. I was discouraged by the exorbitantly high rates (We were going to make a 2 day trip and we hadnt booked a place to live. We were just going to go to some undecided place and book a resort on the spot. So there was no point in booking a car just like that.) It was finally Irfan's call in the evening that shook me from my deadened and discouraged state. He told me that he had his dad's car at his disposal for two days and that we could finally go to someplace. It was decided in the evening that we (three of us...Rohan, Irfan and me) go to Jawhar, a hill station in Thane district, a little off the Mumbai-Ahmedabad road. Next day we started at around 0945 hrs (after casting our votes for the Lok sabha candidates.).
We took the Bhiwandi route (like idiots). This is because we did not know how to go from the Mumbai - Ahmedabad route. So we took the route to bhiwandi via Shilphata and then mumbra. We went through what seemed to be like the most interior part of bhiwandi....before we finally came out and started cruising towards Shelar and then Waada. On the way we stopped in Waada for some wadas !!! The road was nice and curvy after that and Irfan was having a time of his life driving his Hyundai accent. Before Jawhar, there was a ghat. On reaching Jawhar....we started at once to look for places to stay. Jawhar is a hillstation and is quite good for its view and all. But we realised some time later that it hasnt got any places to stay in and not much to see at summertime and that we should come down here in the monsoons !!! We were disappointed. We even searched for places to eat, but there was hardly any decent place to eat, let alone to stay in !!! We decided to head to Sajan which is just some Kms away from Jawhar. We had read about Sajan having a nice nature trail resort. On reaching the resort, we found that it was fully booked and once again it was not a hotel, meaning that there was no food. Again it was disappointment for us. It was 2:00 pm, our stomachs were rumbling with hunger and we had not even found a place to stay. We decided now, to head to Palghar, which is a coastal town, and has the famous Kelwa beach. We were hoping that we get a good place to stay in Kelwa !! Thinking that we should probably eat the first place we see now, we stopped at a dhaba which was fairly decent looking. We had a filling lunch and started off again. Just minutes later, we reached the highway, and wondered how bad our luck had been. Minutes earlier we had stopped at a Dhaba thinking that there would be no better place to eat on the path ahead and now just a few miles down, the road connects to the highway, where there are plenty of hotels to eat !! In the way we kept asking Irfan whether he wanted to take a break from driving his car. But he was enjoying the drive and had no desire to break off his rhythm. We took a right turn and headed towards the Palghar turn / cutting and kept driving. After going on for almost 25 Kms and passing a toll booth, we realised that we had left the Palghar turn behind. We took a U-turn, paid the toll again and headed back again.
Now it is said that man learns from his mistakes. But apparently we did not, that is because after driving back 25 Kms we drove another 10 Kms in the opposite direction and still hadnt found the Palghar turn !!! We stopped to ask someone. We found a scrawny looking man and asked him "Where is the Palghar turn?".
"Where do you want to go?" he asked.
"Palghar" we said.
"Then why did you come here?" he asked.
(That was a STUPID question.
Because we knew that the Palghar turn was behind and came ahead just to see your face and ask you directions of some turn already knew, BOZO !!...thats what we thought )
Anyway, he gave us the right direction. We were about to take a U-turn. When the U-turn was about to be taken, Irfan asked us whether we want to go to Palghar or head back to Mumbai? (Till this time we had travelled a lot, were hungry again and had been to the wrong places, taken the wrong routes and we were finding a place, where we were not sure whether we would even find a place to stay, so the thoughtful question from Irfan !!) After some contemplation, rohan and me were all for finding Palghar. So we took the U-turn and finally after going to and fro on the same highway for around 50 Kms we found the correct turning for Palghar. Hurrah !!!
Later on Irfan commented that
Life is just like the journey we had that day......we come to right place after going through so many wrong turns, so many treacherous climbs and descends. So many people, give you directions, few of them are right and many others, wrong. Also there are times when you decide, whether to head back to the safety of your homes or go on bravely in hunt of unaccomplished challenges, inspite of all the disappointments on the way !!!
(To be con'td)