Feb 23, 2009 09:54 PM
4928 Views
When my third anniversary in the first week of February came up, wifey and me started looking for options close by. Finally decided to do something about this pal ticking me off, for not exploring the beautiful Konkan coastline, instead of stretching myself to other states and foreign locales.
By the way we like to have a lazy peaceful comfortable relaxing stay and are not the adventure, trekking, roughing it out, staying in tents kinds. .
Followed up on advert in Mirror for a 3N, 4D package to Kohinoor Beach Resort, Bhatye Beach Ratnagiri. All inclusive with AC train travel ( Jan Shatabdi AC chair cars ) , sightseeing, station pickup and drop, all meals seemed attractive, at 13k for a couple.
Felt a little blue telling folks, I was doing a Ratnagiri trip ..sounded very unhappening ! But here’s the twist – first time around, I saw the website and the brochures do not do justice to an absolutely wonderful property ! I’ve experienced con jobs – with perspective photos of a h0le in the ground with some water being passed off an Olympics sized swimming pool and a patch of green grass with a bigger h0le than the former as an 18 h0le golf course.
Not so here ! - A magnificent large property with wonderful nooks and corners. It’ll be great in the monsoon and when they’ve completed the landscaping of the whole place. The completed bits are quite impressive ! The titanic deck – a viewing balcony.
Offers a wonderful view and an ideal place to sit out late evening and take in a starry night ! A clean and well maintained swimming pool and Jacuzzi ( my first time in one – very relaxing – do not pass up just because you didn’t get your swimming costume – buy one from the city) , games room and a decent resto. Lets get the bad news out of the way …shall we ? The Kokane’s Kohinoor Beach Resort is not a beach resort cause its not on the beach ! – its on a sawed off hilltop overlooking the Bhatye beach.
But that makes it even more special – it has a sunset point and a rather rocky stair-way going down to the beach which is almost a virgin private beach – no hawkers, no plastic bags and waters clear enough to otherwise see your feet 4 feet deep – jut that it carries a lot of beach sand.
You may want to have your dip in the sea at Ganpatiphule if having a sea dip in sandy waters is not your thing – mine isi’nt. They have 2 building blocks, 5 mins walk from each other, within the estate boundaries - one houses the deluxe rooms and the resto with t swimming pool in close vicinity. The other has the suites and bungalows and the Titanic deck but a considerable walk to the resto and pool. I wonder how they manage room service delivery there.
You may not get your kebabs hot as they make their way from the kitchen to your suite or maybe during the day, it may, if the bearer does not cover it and let the hot sun sear it up… hehe. No such problems in the deluxe rooms.
The resort organized touring is a 3 hour tour to Ganpatiphule one morning ( an hour’s drive away - one way ), hang there for one hour and , a boat cruise that evening – nice 45 mins run, next day a 3 hour trip to Pawas – we didn’t care to take and a city tour 2-3 hours to Lokmanya Tilak’s birthplace and some temples and the Thiba palace and Thiba sunset point. Sorry me not remember details. Not much of a history buff. The food was kinda okay- typical buffet food - Veg and Non Veg.
Even the deluxe rooms have a refrigerator so you could stock up on the beer and guzzle away happily. Catch is – have the beer at the resto and you could have the snacks/ starters that come with the buffet. No extra costs for chakna ! Order starters in the room – a la Carte ( 10% service charge for room service ) and they blow away your beer saving- sounding cheap to you ? - well… its recession times guys ! learn to cut as many corners and do as much chindigiri as possible.
Back to the food - I never though I would stop someone from serving me hot masala pan fired Surmai slices ( for the uninitiated - delicious Kingfish – a seafish with only a central bone ) with my beer but I just could’nt have any more ! Okay now the upsides of going offseason also has downsides – we had buffet spread for only 6 meals and then 2 meals we ordered a la carte or off a limited menu. But nevertherless it was still good and they don’t make a fuss about much.
Like wifey decided she wanted to have icecream and not have the buffet sweet offered - gulab jamun, dal mithai etc and they didn’t ask us to pay for it and then even when we asked for seconds, they still waved it off. Another upside of offseason is that you may be them only folks on the tours and hence can make the itinerary as per your liking.
Albiet they try too hard to please – bending backwards and I don’t think they need to do that. They offer 5 star facilities and need not provide allowance to nagging patrons who want the sun, moon and universe without paying an extra dime outside of the package and will not be satisfied no matter what is offered to them. I will be back guys – you can count on it but only if you give me the corner Room A 115 as it has 2 large French windows with amazing views. Nostalgia is a virtue I cherish. Many many thanks for the great experience.
