Thread by @gauravsabnis

Wow, literally the first and only time I went was in 2008 at age 28. So I guess the next trip won't be for a while. 🤣🤣🤣

https://twitter.com/kshipra_sharma/status/1460486996476903424

(I have been to konkan a lot tho, so no stranger to Arabian Sea vacations. Just that where I grew up, it was always, "Goa kiti mahaag padta aani kashala? Pori baghaayla gaccha gardeet? Tyapeksha aapla Diveagar-Dapoli barey! Masta maasey, rikaame swacchha beach, ah!")

Translation - "Goa is nice but so expensive! And for what? Staring at hot women on overcrowded beaches? Nah! Let's do Diveagar or Dapoli instead. Much cheaper. Empty clean beaches. Fresh awesome fish."

Why growing up in Pune, never made it to Goa.

Also, getting from Pune to Goa was a real pain back in the day.

Somehow I can never really enjoy alcohol on a beach. Maybe because I can barely swim. So the whole booze-beaches connection never really worked for me. Even in the Caribbean, I'm more about the food at beaches. Drinks, when a safe distance from ocean!

https://twitter.com/howbza/status/1460938904333209600?t=FLuEXEAliQQ9cKiK3gehRA&s=19

Put me in the mountains or the forest though and I'll match you drink for drink. 😁

Those Konkan vacations were such a logistical feat, looking back! There were no websites or anything. You'd have to ask around, know anyone who rents rooms by the beach in a quiet Konkan village and also provides meals? Cos even MTDC places were a bit pricey for us.

And then we'd hear of some friend's mom's morning walk group friend's brother's nephew's family that had built a few rooms to rent. Right by the beach, in the backyard of the main house. Very reasonably priced. Here's the phone number.

It was proto-AirBnB!

Or then some neighbor or family friend who had been to this amazing trip "such clean calm beaches, such clean rooms and beds and bathrooms, and just ₹200 a night!" (We're talking late 90s early 00s when such prices did not seem fictional).

And we'd ask them for the number.

But getting to konkan is also not super easy. At least wasn't in those days. Safer nicer private buses only went to Bombay, Nashik, Goa, kolhapur etc. Not to random tiny coastal villages in Konkan. So we'd have to find a car and driver. Also without any internet.

The road from Pune to Konkan, even now, isn't the easiest of drives. Back then, it was extra dangerous. Not just the terrain, with accidents frequent, but also reports of robbers attacking cars. So we needed a "trusted" driver always. That took social capital!