Poor mans Goa!!. Review on Kihim

I read a few MS reviews before embarking on this trip to Kihim on New years eve. I must say people on Ms can come up with some of the most imaginative text, perhaps second to only incometax returns. ok ok ..I am exaggerating a bit, it wasn’t so imaginative. But not upto mark either.

Ferry from Ferry wharf (Bhaucha dhakka) Rs.20/- per head to Mandwa (rewas) Jetty. I took the 4:30 pm ferry and we reached at about 6:15pm. That’s about an hour and 45 min, which is not a bad trip unless you are one of those unfortunate souls who has motion sickness. The sea was quite tranquil and the view was fantastics as we passed some large tugs and barges and watched the Bombay skyline disappear slowly.. very slowly! There are a lot of sea gulls which flock the Launch as you progress towards Rewas, mainly for the tit bits that people throw at them.. dont do it, its giving them a bad habit. Its a pleasant trip especially at this time of the year as it is simply wonderful weather, almost chilly. Once you reach Rewas, there were buses that would take you to Chondi for Rs. 7/- per head or you could take the Sitara which is basically a three wheeler on steroids, and seats 6 ppl or more.

Chondi is a small town 3 kms from the Kihim beach and you could buy all your supplies here (booze duh!! not toothpaste!) . We Reached Chondi at about 6:55 pm and it was dark so didnt really get to see the place too much. Had a cup of tea and bought some ''supplies'' before taking a rickshaw to Kihim which works out to 20 bucks.

Kihim Beach- Maybe I read too much into all those reviews or maybe I reached at night or maybe I was expecting something grand for I was disappointed on reaching it. There are a lot of small food stalls at the entrance to the beach which is where you will find most of the eating happening. There are ofcourse other restaurants run by locals but they are quite expensive (Rs. 100 for a thali). On the beach you can eat at Sea King which will serve you only 2 dishes, prawns sukka and chicken curry (subjected to change without prior notice). Both of these are very yummy and you can eat it with either a bhakri (maharastrian style) or rice. The prices were reasonable (Rs.40 for a plate of prawns) considering it was new years eve.

The beach itself is quite Virgin, in the sense it hasnt been raped by the filth you see on Juhu or Chowpatty. The sand was supposed to be white sand.. either I lost my sense of colour or the sand was well.. sand coloured. But the water was clear and on the whole the beach experience gets a thumbs up. It was incredibly windy and freezing cold. We parked ourselves in one secluded spot ..now that I come to think of it...the whole beach was secluded. There isnt much in terms of lights etc., so most of the beach is dark and we enjoyed the privacy it lent us. The Police here are quite active. They make a round check of the beach every 30 min and I think that’s good, since they do it everyday and not on just newyears eve. What they are looking for? is anybodys guess.. trouble in the waters? trouble makers in the water? water in trouble from people.. what ever it is they seemed to be doing a good job of it since even though there were quite a few drunken groups fooling around (this developed later on) there wasn’t any trouble of any sort.

Rooms for an overnight stay are available at cheap rates. We got a room for 4 (4 beds too ) for 500 bucks a day., which is quite amazing since the room was clean (only one cockroach) and appeared well sanitised and the loos were clean too. Nice. No attach loo though.. it’s a common one but kept clean. If you could spend a couple of days then walking around the small village that is Kihim can be a very cleansing activity. It reminds me of the villages in the south. Lots of trees, narrow roads, no vehicles, large plots, crops and friendly stray dogs. It’s a nice place to wind down. really! A trip back would simply mean back tracking to Rewas via Chondi and take a ferry to Bombay. We spent the next day visiting Alibaug (12kms).

There is a fort called the Colaba Fort . One gets to visit it during low tide since we have to walk along the sea bed to reach it. Great experience. The fort itself isnt great, smallish actually but it has its exciting moments… we did find a small “hidden” entrance down which we descended with great hope for adventure. We had to abandon it cause it was so dark beyond a point that light from the lit matchsticks failed to penetrate it even an iota. Next time I am going in with a big powerful flash light.

All in all the trip is worth it. Its cheap to begin with and though you don’t get a Goa, it’s a nice clean beach which has great scope for fun. Ideal for a weekend visit.