Women’s Road Trip: Helpful locals

It is the People That Make The Place.

In June 2019, my mom and I went on a road trip to the Konkan region and were pleasantly surprised by the helpfulness of the locals.

Two Fishermen

On our first evening at Vengurla, my mom and I walked along the beach and reached the point where Mandavi river met Arabian sea.

The river seemed shallow and I had this urge to wade through it and cross to the other side – yep, just one of those crazy things that I wanted to do for no rhyme or reason.

Although the river seemed shallow, I could not gauge the depth on the other side. I was trying to figure it out when two fishermen who were about to get into the sea saw me and started walking towards me. Between their Marathi, my Hindi and some sign language we established communication and they seemed to understand my urge. They waded through the water, checked the level and then guided me towards the shallowest way to cross the river.

I merrily crossed. Balanced myself on the slippery rocks. Carefully side-stepped the crabs and snails. Climbed to the top and was rewarded with a stunning panoramic view from the vantage point.

I hope the fishermen had a good catch in exchange for their good deed of the day.

With all the river crossing antics and the photography sessions, we lost track of time and had to skip our lighthouse visit. Instead we sat on the beach and enjoyed an amazing lavender sunset.

The Tea-Stall lady

For dinner we decided to walk to the town for some fish curry. The sky looked clear when we started out, but it was getting darker. Ten minutes into our walk, it had gotten night enough to force us to use our mobile flashlights; making us both wonder if we were compromising on our safety. Allowing discretion to be a better part of valor, we decided to head back ‘home’ but no sooner had we done that I felt a drop of something on my face. Rain? I looked at my mum and she had that similar mildly worried look

because……we had forgotten to take our umbrellas!

Before we knew it, it started pouring. yep, the “cats and dogs” kind.

We saw a small tea stall and ran towards it for shelter.

The stall was owned by a lady who seemed amused to see us. I gave that knowing look – yep, two ladies, on their own yada yada.

However, it turns out that the reason for her amusement was that someone would actually head out of their house without an umbrella in the month of June! Face-palm moment.

I scanned her stall and saw a yellow glossy packet peeking from under the layers of biscuit packets. Yes, it was the ever-comforting Maggi. We picked up a few packets and then contemplated getting drenched. The lady read our mind.

She asked where we were staying and then offered two umbrellas saying she knew the owner of our hotel and would collect the umbrellas the next day.

It was a very sweet gesture and we graciously accepted.

Our Hotel Staff

Although our hotel did not have a restaurant facility due to it being off season, they offered to cook our Maggi – and did a very good job of it. Yes, there is a technique to cooking that perfect Maggi!

It is definitely the people that make the place.