Had heard a lot of Daman and its beaches since i have come to mumbai. also it being a UT, it has a special place in mind (thats bec as kids we were supposed to remember names of all UTs etc..). finally got a chance to visit Daman this 9th of Oct 2010 and that too fully paid. :)
But the place especially its beaches were a bit of disappointment. to begin with, the cab picked us up at 12:30 pm types and we left for a 3 hr ride to silvassa. the route was very nice with various shades of green coming up on either sides of the road...also it was a smooth ride with good roads, less traffic etc.. without any discomfort we reached the plant of my client. after spending about an hour doing the official job, we left for Daman. ZH and I were tooo eager to catch a glimpse of the sea even as the sun was setting and so after an hr or soat bout 6 pm we reached the Jambore beach in Daman. Although the beach was huge but the lack of cleanliness, clean sand and low tide disappointed me. however, we had a good time and soaked in the vastness of the sea.
we left for the day back to silvassa to catch some sleep on the comfy beds of our room but not before hogging on the tasty food at the hotel. next morning we were again full of enthu and after the nearby lake which was a disappointment, we again decided to fulfill our wishes of swimming in Daman sea and left for another hr long ride to Daman, this time to Devka beach. each passing km we were getting more and more impatient. finally when we hit the beachside we were so impatient that we changed inside our cars only and din even wait to catch a glimpse of the beach and see if it was 'swimmable' or not. after we entered the beach area paying Rs 5 as entry charges, we were taken aback!! the white sand beach which many websites describe it as was a waste land and more of a 'seaside' than a beach... the shore was all rocky and sand was black with water some 2 kms from the beach head. ZH and I looked amazingly at each other and wondered if ppl were thinking we were fools, standing there half dressed, ready to jump in the dirtiest beach i have ever seen!!! (as i said b4, beach din exist only, it was a sea side)..
we hurriedly left the place with the desire to swim still in our hearts. Finally we hit the highway and were on our way back to Mumbai. we were again pleased with the greenery engulfing the highway and that helped a lot...
Visiting a new place has always been an experience for me and is highly exciting always. this was the same too. it was a good 1.5 day trip full of new places to visit and catch the beauty of this planet :)
