Ratnagiri Twice Over

So there was this random thought of going to Ganapatipule. Another whim/ pipe dream. The night before I wasn't even sure if the tickets would be confirmed and we will actually make this journey. Within a month, I was there twice. Games destiny plays.

We had WL 150 odd in the Jan shatabdi but got the tickets confirmed through jugaad.Actually the tickets were unavailable for booking either online or through a ticketing window. But again, jugaad helped.

A few days after we went their, Konkan railway has made some changes in the schedule of Jan Shatabdi and incresed its time by 3-4 hours. I am not sure why , but they should have some reason for that. I guess it is called Konkan railways's monsoon schedule.

We reached ratnagiri in the afternoon, Had lunch near the main market and headed off to Ganapatipule.A better , though expensive way to go to GP is in an auto, through the newly cut road.The distance is reduced by some 15-20 km and the road is pretty scenic.

The next day we visited the Ratnagiri fort. After spending the evening at the GP beach the day before. The fort is set up at a mountain on a shoreline, which makes the view quite amazing. You have waves of water hitting the black rocks, when you look down below and a never ending sea view towards the horizon. Something comparable was what we saw when we first went to Goa and were driving back from one of the beaches in South Goa. We just stopped randomly on the road, and casually looked back and their was this view of sea almost 3 quarters of a circle.

While coming back I asked the auto wallah what more can be of interest here. Theeba palace, he said. Some Thai King's bungalow converted into a museum. And then the penny dropped, The Glass Palace.

Each time Amitava Ghosh had described the palace and boats coming to Ratnagiri , I had mapped a particular imagination with it. Like the place where the queen would sit every day and wait. The first time she would see the mast head of an approaching boat etc.But I did not know how good was my imagination. And here was a chance to test it out, right out of the blue. Well, I could not go there as democracy prevailed, and my other two friends had no interest in either Thailand or an old museum. And I did not have the patience to communicate my thoughts on imagination.

So it remained a dream. Next time, I said to myself. The next time surprisingly came within two weeks.