After the weekend interviews at Pune and Mumbai, my colleagues left back to bangalore. I took 2 days off to roam around somewhere as usual. After breaking my head for half a day, I decided to spend a day and half at Dahanu. Dahanu lies in the border of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Its hardly 125 kms from Mumbai. Its a small town in the coast line facing the arabian sea.
I reached Dahanu by around 10.30 AM on monday. Immediately checked into this Pearline resort facing the beach. I got a decent AC room for 700 Rs. Had a quick breakfast and rushed into the beach.
Initially I was bit disappointed. The sand was bit dark, and the sea looked murkier. Not at all blue. I was wondering if there was an oil slick or something, and asked a localite. He said that the nature of beach in this area was like that. And it is clean :-) There were hardly any one on the beach. Best thing is, just close to the shore there are lot many trees. And they have put up cement slabs for people to sit and relax in the shade, facing the beach. Pretty good!
After a while, went into the swimming pool within the resort, and chilled out for an hour or so. Apart from me and some 3 people from Romania, there were hardly anyone in the resort. Looked like the entire place was deserted(not haunted).
As I had said in my earlier post, I spent the entire evening watching the sunset with hot samosa and tea. After that, roamed around the area for a while. Nothing much to see and it was pitch dark. So returned to the resort for dinner. They have this nice garden restaurant, where they play old hindi songs. Spent close to 2 hrs for dinner listening to these songs. Bliss!
Next day, I got hold of a local rickshaw guy and asked him to take me around Dahanu. He took me to an old fort which is a jail now, and then to a place called Charoati. There is a Mahalaxmi temple on top of the cone shaped hill, within a cave. But they open the cave temple only once in a year during some festival it seems. So went to the temple at the footsteps of the hill and returned back.
On the way back, went to a village called as Ganjad. A famous painter called as Mr Magashe resides here. He is very famous for these adivasi painting made using vegetable colors. Eco-friendly paintings. He has got various awards for his contribution to art. When I went to his house, he wasnt there. He had gone to delhi for some art symposium. Managed to buy few paintings. In case you visit Dahanu, do visit this place and have a look at the paintings. They are mindblowing!
By the time I reached the resort it was around 2 PM. Rushed to the station, got a train and reached Mumbai by evening.
In case you want to spend a peaceful day or two, in and around Mumbai Dahanu is a good choice. Its not far, its not costly. But the silence you get there is priceless :-)

Where is it?
125 kms from mumbai, on the way to ahmedabad

How to go?
You can take a bus/taxi. But best is take a train. Dahanu beach is just 2 kms from the railway station. The station name is Dahanu Road. It comes on the western line. Regular locals run between virar and dahanu road(1 hr from Virar). You can also catch a long distance train to gujarat as well. But please dont commit the mistake I did. I went by this Ferozpur Janta Express. I guess the engine driver is new to this route. Every 15 minutes the train stops. Maybe he was trying to ask the local people for route :P. This train takes 3 hrs for a distance of 120 kms :O

Where to stay?
I stayed at this Pearline resort(Link embedded in the 2nd or 3rd paragraph). It was good. Heard that there is a MTDC resort nearby as well. There are many resorts near the coastline. But do book in advance

What to see?
Apart from the beach, there is not much to see. But if you are a beach animal like me, you will surely enjoy the place!

P.S. Sorry for the photo alignments. No idea why its behaving strangely :(