Kashid, our last stop before coming home

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We were only coming back to India as our return flight home was from Mumbai. We had just 4 days there and still we decided to make the most out of it. What was obvious to us was that we didn't want to stay in Mumbai for a single extra minute that was necessary. First we were thinking about going to Goa but that was a little bit of crazy idea considering that we had just 4 days including the journey and flight tickets were extremely expensive. So then we absolutely fell for the idea of going to Kashid (thanks Indu for the tip!) which is called the Goa for a poor man. Perfect for us! 😊 It was supposed to be only 3 hour drive from Mumbai. And not touristy at all. But of course planning anything in India is always more easy than following the plan afterwards. We landed in Mumbai at 10 pm and it turned out all the safe prepaid taxi operate only within Mumbai and nobody was willing to take us to Kashid (well they even didn't know where Kashid was anyway). We were starting to be quite desperate, it was getting late and the threat of staying in Mumbai was more and more real by every minute. Luckily I was able to get back to the airport terminal, not having to bribe the security guys who insisted I have to pay to get back and I found a travel agency which got us a car with a driver for our journey to Kashid for a reasonable price. What followed, was the most scary few hours of my life! The driver was driving really dangerously and we were close to an accident a good few times, the lights didn't work so we were driving in dark, and it took much longer than 3 hours and he was obviously getting tired and annoyed, driving to Kashid for the first time, he was expecting it to be shorter journey as well. At some point I thought we should just stop and wait for the morning but we eventually made it to Kashid in the middle of the night. At night, Kashid looked scary, a tiny village, completely burried in the dark with a few barking dogs running around. Davy took our weak flashlight and was trying to knock on guesthouses doors but no one woke up and no one let us in. It looked like an absolute disaster and the last thing I wanted was to have to get back to Mumbai with the crazy driver. He was actually a nice guy and he didn't abandon us there and he helped us to get a room for that night at the end. It was awful dirty small room for outrageous price as the owner could see how desperate we were.

But it wouldn't be India, if we didn't have such a lovely surprised the following day. We went for a walk to explore the village. And it was a tiny quiet place with no white tourists. It was quite popular for Indians though who were coming here for weekends and they gathered at only one spot of the beach which was otherwise deserted. The beach actually looked like the ones in Goa or more precisely how Goa probably used to look like years and years ago before it was discovered by foreign tourists. There were no guesthouses or restaurants on the beach, just a long strand of white golden sand, huge waves of lovely warm ocean and just a few stalls with food. And some dogs which looked like they had divided the beach into separate territories. One of the dogs was following Davy for the full 4 days and crossing the territories of other dogs just to be able to make Davy his faithful company. As there was nothing else to do than spend the days on the beach, that is exactly what we did for the last few days of our holidays, jumping into the waves and trying to catch them, and trying to cool down a little as it was the hottest part of the year and the temperature was easily reaching 50 degrees at day time and 30 degrees at night. We also found a lovely guesthouse to stay that actually was one of the nicest of the whole travels. We felt like being part of the family and they cooked for us delicious meals but having no menu and speaking not much english, we usually nodded on whatever they were having for breakfast or dinner themselves. And to make it proper Indian experience, they didn't have any cutlery so even Davy was forced to eat with his hand. We saw an Indian wedding in the village and were invited for a theatre play which would have been great experience and way to enjoy a little but of culture together with the rest of the Kashid villagers if we could actually understand what was going on on the stage. Then we discovered that there was actually a golf course in the village and it sounded like a great way how to spend our last day in India but it turned out that the golf course was part of a 5 star hotel and one had to be a guest to be able to play. And the cheapest room they had was for 150 euro per night! After seeing all the poor people all over Asia and owing lots of money at this stage of our travels, it was our time to feel like the poor neighbors and we humbly left the place.

Kashid, although not rich in sightseeing spots, was a perfect place to escape the annoying Mumbai and to enjoy a bit of Indian sun before coming back home. It was obvious that the Indian people coming here for holidays are not the poor ones, as the accommodation was quite expensive (probably more than in real Goa) and they were obviously used to be seeing foreigners as they didn't stare at us although we were the only white people in the whole village. Although limited in any forms of amusements and pretty much lacking restaurants and shops, it was definitely worth of visiting. We got to see beautiful unspoiled part of India before it gets into the attention of tourists. And we got our tan back before coming back home 😊

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