Bordi - A Bashful Beach Resort
|| Where To Stay || How To Get There || Exploring Bordi  ||  Bordi's History ||

Plans to escape from the city for the weekend leave the planner exhausted from the exercise making the getaway truly necessary or truly daunting. This is a result of all the decisions to be made regarding mode of travel, arrangements for stay and other such nitty gritties.Well if you are a resident of Mumbai and were to plan a weekend getaway, Bordi would be the ideal location. Peace, greenery in abundance, friendly people and lots of beach (unspoilt) make this little village a perfect holiday destination.You can reach Gholvad, the nearest railway station on the western railway, by trains leaving Mumbai which halt there on their way to Gujarat. Also approachable by road, the 135 km journey from Mumbai takes about three and a half hours.Famous for its chickoo orchards, we decide to go there and spend the weekend.Where To StayArriving at Bordi by the morning train from Mumbai, we headed towards Tapovan Retreat which is an old world bungalow converted to accommodate guests by invitation. Getting to the place was very easy.
But wait !! It was Saturday and an uncommon sight greeted our eyes.
Here is the contact no. of Tapovan Retreat in Mumbai -
(O) 266 5322/ 287 1058/ 367 4998

A truly rural experience which many city dwellers may not have seen or experienced! The weekly market was assembled right outside the Tapovan Retreat premises and what a gathering it was . !Tribals and traders, housewives with home made snacks and knicknaks, cloth vendors with yards of colourful cloth, ribbons fluttering from the long pole, fisherwomen with fresh catch as also some salted and dried fish which the tribals particularly savour, orchard workers with saplings and fruit and flower bulbs, earthen ware and …. All these and more together make for a truly enchanting experience.Having checked into our spacious rooms with wallpaper and large enclosed cupboards (only the door is flush with the wall surface, the cupboard being within the wall thickness !!) and spanking clean spacious bathrooms which inspire you to take a walk and then shower, we popped out into the porch which had been whitewashed and gave one the impression of being in Greece or the many villages on the Meditteranean.Exploring Bordi

After a hearty breakfast, we went about exploring the village along the stretch of road which runs along the sea shore. We found to our surprise that Bordi has a long unpopulated beach and seafront with camping grounds and a cricket field right on the beach front. Some effort yielded a pair of bats, and make-shift stumps and a jolly game of limited overs cricket commenced in right earnest as we wanted to work off the heavy breakfast which we had partaken of some time earlier.

Having done justice to the game and breakfast, we went back to the retreat to change into swimming gear. An empty beach, swaying casuarina trees and a long unbroken coastline makes Bordi a safe beach to swim in. Well, we did just that for the next hour and a half till we realised that we had to get back for lunch.

This was a very different lunch indeed. Served on plantain leaves which one cleans before the meal by sprinkling water, we were served with some of the tastiest vegetable and non-vegetarian coastal fare on offer anywhere along the west coast. All the vegetables had been plucked from the kitchen garden and it makes a world of a difference to the taste compared to having two day old vegetables in the bazaars of Mumbai. The meal ended with a dish of fruits from the surrounding orchards.Having slept off the lunch on the verandah of the bungalow, we awakened to the beating of drums and pipes. It being the wedding season, a procession of villagers were making their way to the bride's house. A local custom ensured that all the male members of the procession had their full of Toddy, the brew made from the sap of the toddy tree, giving their gait an unnatural touch.Bordi's History

Soon, we were back on the sprawling grounds and decided to compete with the local school team. One must mention here that Bordi has traditionally been an educational centre with a number of schools lining the road on the sea front.

This and the predominance of Zoroastrian farmers and horticulturists has ensured that Bordi maintains itself in the same tranquil manner in which it found itself 50 years ago and not a single thing is out of place or has been touched by the nasty urban efffect. A truly peaceful and rustic setting.

A little entrepreneurship has nevertheless found its roots in the form of a local resident who serves the most delectable Bhel Puri and Sev Puri and serves it outside his home-cum-shop with comfortable chairs spaced out in front.

The evening was spent in watching the setting sun, forming a perfect back drop for the local fishing craft silhouetted against an orange backdrop, the fishermen seen as tiny dots gradually appearing larger and larger as they approached the shore on foot with baskets containing the local catch.       

If one is a little adventurous, then with the prior permission of the owner of the retreat, some fresh fish can be purchased and given over to the cook who will make a good fry or curry as per one's liking.

The night soon descended and brought with it a canopy of stars so bright that the urbanite in me wished to reach out for them. The truth is that in Mumbai, the pace of life and the strong urban glare of street lights makes it impossible to enjoy even this basic tapestry of a star spangled sky.

I would suggest that those truly in romance with nature would do well to take a walk along the beach as the subtle murmuring of the waves, the breeze and the solitude will surely find and touch that soft corner in your hearts and the worries of the modern world would simply melt away.

How to Get there

By Road
One takes the Western Express Highway from Mumbai, and at Charoti Naka which is about 100 Kms from Borivli, takes a left turn to proceed till one reaches Dahanu. From Dahanu, the road along the coast goes straight to Bordi via the villages of Chikhli and Gholvad, the drive being about 12 -13 Kms.

By Rail
There are a number of local and a few express trains which halt at Gholvad Railway Station. The traveller can then either take the S.T transport bus or hire a cab, both of which will get you to Bordi in about 5-10 mins.