Demon!. Review on Daman

My word of advice: ''Don't have Daman as a possible tourist destination.'' This is the verdict. If you wanna find out why please proceed further.

How to get there?

We started off from Mumbai. We booked a Shatabdi that starts @ 6.25am from Mumbai Central. To board that damn train, I got up @ 4am, took a shivering cold water bath, and reached Andheri station @ 5am. Somehow, managed a fast train by 5.22am and thank god it reached Central on time. The fare was huge 330 bucks for a short travel of just 2 1/2 hours. Of course, for that money, you get a good breakfast. I wish these superfast trains had a couple of 2nd class seaters so lesser mortals like me can board without hesitation. We reached Vapi(the nearest railway station to Daman) by 9 am. Now, we had a big question. What do we do in Daman? What are the places? We printed some material from some travel website that praised all the places in Daman. There are taxiwallahs that'll take you to Daman from Vapi for a meagre 15 bucks/head. They do good business. They'll leave you @ taxi stand and from then on its your duty to go wherever you want. I wished we had instead reached Daman in a car rather than train and I was proved true by the forthcoming events.

How about the place?

It was mid-august(just a week before!) and temperature hovered around 35 degrees celsius. Adding to the woes was high humidity. An autowallah took us to Devka beach for another 40 bucks. There was this park with thick vegetation and it hid the Devka beach. We paid 5 bucks/head and entered the park to reach the Devka beach. And what did we see there? Pure slush. The beach was pure slush. I'm used to seeing blue/bluish green seas in Chennai. This was unacceptable for me. The park was good enough to provide a toilet which was the only useful feature of the park.

Now, we were out of the park and didn't know what to do. Thank god, those tourist officials have put up a complete map of Daman and the attractions(??) at each place. You can find these maps @ each of the tourist destination. So, we headed to Mirasol water park. Shell out another 60 bucks for the autowallah. We were unfortunate to miss a ''Daman Darshan'' tourist bus. You can board this bus by 10am @ Devka beach. This would be the most economical way to go around in Daman. Just the previous day we were frolicking in Essel World-Water Kingdom; so Mirasol water park did not amuse us. We had a small boat ride(Very costly: 100 bucks for 20 minutes) and took some snaps. The environment is lush green and I'm sure anybody will love the greenery. Now, we wanted to visit Nani Daman and Moti Daman(two forts). The autowallah coolly asked 100 bucks. They charge around 8-10 bucks for every kilometre. We thought that would be sheer injustice to shell out 100 bucks and came back all the way to Devka beach walking. By now, the temperature was down and very good. The walk was refreshing.

We headed to Jampore(pronounced Jump-Boh-Ree) beach after many persuasion by the localites that it'll be the best one can see in Daman. Another 60 bucks for the auto. It started raining and I feared the autowallah would demand more. We were fortunate enough that he didn't. We finished our lunch @ Chinatown hotel(another good thing about Daman). Now, the beach. This is slush #2. I was shocked to see people wetting(or getting dirtier?) themselves in the beach. I stayed away. There was this guy who marketed his horse for a ride on the same. Just when I made my mind to take that on, the horse started behaving strangely. I think it wasn't feeded properly. It gave a hoarse look at its owner and shouted for food by raising its front two feets. This is enough of action for me to stay back!

The day went very bad and we were totally against staying any more moment in Daman. We thought we'll head to Silvassa. But when we reached Vapi and found no reservation in any of the trains, we started worrying how we'll go back to Mumbai. Somehow, a passenger train came to our rescue and took us to Mumbai in a leisurely 5 hours. I did not even get up from my seat once to download(!) for the fear that I'll lose my seat when the train would reach the next station. Yes, the train halted for more time than it travelled!

It was one hell of an experience and my word of advice to all those lesser mortals that still want to visit this Dam(a)n atleast once.

1. Don't go to Daman via Train. You'll end up shelling a lot of bucks for auto and taxi. Book a cab instead.

   
   




2. Go during January-March(time when there'll be no rainfall and the temperature pleasant)

   
   




3. Carry a raincoat with you always.

   
   




4. Don't stay overnight. There's nothing in Daman to spend 2 precious days of your life.

   
   




5. DO GO to DAMAN, if you love to dwell in liquor. Liquor is cheap(as I heard from the localites)

   
   

Happy journeying, anyways....