My Thoughts on Alibag
During the time that I was living in Pune for my
studies, I was doing an English class. My university planned a trip to Alibag.
New to India, I was having some doubts about travelling with classmates but I decided
to go after all and it was not a bad Idea.
Alibag is located is a coastal town and a municipal council in Raigad
District of Maharashtra. It is the headquarters of the Raigad district. It is
located about 100km from Mumbai.
Alibag was founded approximately 300 years old ago;
it was capital of Shivaji’s admiral Kanoji Angre, founder also of the city, and
home to a Jewish Synagogue and cemetery. It is the only place in the konkan to
have a Portuguese and a Maratha sea fort on opposite banks of the same inland
waterway. It is also famous for the Kolaba
fort in the sea. It is said that a rich
Muslim named Ali Owned many plantations, which gave the town the name Alibag.
The name Kolaba was due to a Sea Fort Kolaba built by Shivaji the great, in
1680 to fight the mighty naval prowess of the Siddis' (Abyssenians) of Janjira
and the British of Mumbai. Kolaba fort is famous for many battles, between
Siddis and Kanhoji Angre, the British and the Portuguese.
 |
| courtesy to HolidayIQ |
The Kolaba Fort is accessible only at low ebb
through a 1 km long land strip that is covered during high tide. The fort has
sweet water well in the middle, temples, fortifications and guns facing the
sea.
The beach was quite
beautiful, the city was old but beautiful in his own way. There is a restaurant not really
far from the harbor, where we stop to eat some great sea foods and then took a
small boat for the fort. I have to admit that was one of the best experiences
that I had here in India, visiting the architecture which reminded a sort of
Prince of Persia i.e the game not that really horrid movie with Jake Gyllenhal.
I will definitely advise you to go visit there and visit the fort, that need to
be seen at least once.
We went to the city by bus, and arrived to the
beach it took us 3-4 hours and it took us 6 hours to go back in Pune, we left Pune around 6 am and arrived at night around midnight because we had to drop everyone. Please note that as far as I know most of the buses here in India don't have a toilet in the bus, the driver can stop at different location for people to go use the toilet most of the times at some restaurants/stations which have a toilet that people can use without paying anything. So, when we arrived at the beach, you can do any activities that you want by paying for it such as driving Jet ski with assistance, riding horses or quad biking. Some friends and I tried the jet ski, and rode horses.