After being in India for all of four days Andy wanted to take me to the beach, about 200 kilometers to west. We set off early Saturday morning for a small town on the coast that was about 3.5 hours away, according to Google.We got lost immediately, still in Pune, and drove around in traffic for about an hour in almost 100 degree heat, which was not fun. But then we finally made it to the highway, where we could drive faster, catch the breeze, and enjoy the awesome scenery.
We spent about the first hour driving around a large lake that was at the bottom of a ring of mountains, then drove up into the mountains to cross over to the coast. This was apparently a very dangerous lake, because there were "No Swimming" signs about 20 meters. As it got later in the day, we kept checking the GPS on Andy's 
We finally got out of the mountains, and down to the coast, which was gorgeous, full of palm trees, mangroves, and wetlands. Tons of small villages, with people out and about. Lots of fishing. After a grand total of 8 hours we finally got to the town where we wanted to spend the night, looked around for a hotel for a bit, and got a really nice place for $40. This is actually pretty steep, but we were in the resort area near Mumbai, so prices are higher.
The next day we went to the check out the beach for a bit, there were tons of horses, some giving rides on little carts, and some just being ridden around. A few men were swimming in their clothes, but despite the heat not that many people were in the water.
We drove back down south about 10 ks to the fort Andy was dying to explore, Murud Janjera. It is one of the only forts in India to never have been conquered. It is out on an island in the ocean, and it has 2 freshwater springs, so I can see how it held out so well. Boats have to pull right up to the main gate to get people in.
We took a boat over to fort, full of tourists, and very low to the water. It was an old fashioned wooden fishing boat, with hand-sewn cloth sails. The crew took turns going around and telling jokes to everyone, which was very lively, although I have no idea what was being said.The whole place was in ruins but there was a lot still standing and recognizable, apparently people still lived there until Indian independence, in 1947. Apparently there was also a secret underground/underwater tunnel back to land, so people came and went fairly easily.
The fortress was amazing, and still had some cool inscriptions, lots of the original cannons, and of course, tons of litter. We paid $200 INR for a guide, until we realized the guide spoke only enough English to tell us the tour was in Hindi. Then we paid about $300INR for an English-speaking guide, who flew through the entire fort, up and down stairs, all around, about as fast as humanly possible. We saw a lot though, and got a lot of history. Definitely worth getting a guide.
It was so hot I even got Andy to wear my REI Womens sun hat. Which he looked great in, but didn't really like. After we got back to land we had to stop and get some coconut water, it was ridiculously hot, and we had just been right out in the blazing sun for hours. The goats seemed to enjoy the coconut leftovers.
We drove most of the way home that night, and in the late afternoon saw monkeys in the road up in the mountains, tons of water buffalos, and oxen. We had to stop for the night because we got a flat a tire, which slowed us down, and there is just no way to drive fast on those little country roads. Cost about $4 to get the tire fixed immediately, on the spot.We got home on Monday morning exhausted, very dirty, but we definitely had a great experience.
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