Kashid Outing - The experience we won’t forget

 Kashid Outing - The experience we won’t forget

After meetings, discussions, and rescheduling a plan multiple times, that day came when we ‘aatrangi’ people stepped out for an office outing.

Regardless of several options and different opinions, almost everyone comes on the same page when the venue is somewhere on the beach. Who wouldn't like to have fun on it? We unanimously decided to go to Kashid, a place not too far away from Pune.

Preparation

Booking a hotel/resort at such a beautiful location in December is not that easy. But thanks to Sumit and Swapnil who left no stone unturned and we got an amazing deal at an amazing price. The name of the resort was ‘Coco's Inn’ with beautiful sea-facing rooms and a beautiful garden in the vicinity. With this, our outing plan was officially finalized. I and Purva were a little dicey till the last moment but we finally canceled all our respective plans and decided to go for the outing.

Day 1

We started our journey to Kashid early in the morning around 6:00 AM. Thanks to Swapnil and Rajesh who made their cars (Audi Q3 and Ertiga) available for traveling. Both cars' boots were packed with luggage, volleyball, cricket bat-ball, speakers, food packets, and whatnot. 

While listening to beautiful songs, taking wrong turns, and experiencing roller coaster rides at some places, we didn't realize this when we arrived at the resort in Kashid.

We were very happy to see the resort building as it had sea-facing rooms with a beautiful garden in the vicinity. The Resort staff gave us a warm welcome and arranged breakfast for all of us. 

After having a glass of mocktail and breakfast, we decided to play Uno.

I was playing the game after quite a long time but thanks to Shreya who helped me to learn the ropes. I won the first game but unfortunately lost two times consecutively, and per the rules we had set for the game, I agreed to give an ice cream party next week in the office. 

It was 1:30 PM, time for lunch. We all went to the dining area where a nice arrangement had been made for us just near the mango tree. No need to say all non-vegetarian people ordered seafood and those vegetarians ordered veg thali. I still remember the taste of that sol kadi. How palatable it was! With some lite jokes and a lot of discussions on different topics, we finished our lunch. Right after lunch while Rajesh went for a power nap, Shreya and Purva preferred to enjoy the swing and the rest of us started playing cricket on the lawn.

Around 4:00 PM, we decided to go to Kashid beach which was 2-3 km away from our resort.

I can not describe the fun we had on the beach in words. Since it was Saturday, the beach was crowded with tourists. As soon as we arrived on the beach, we could not control ourselves from taking a banana ride. After wearing life jackets, the guy asked us to board the banana boat and took us to the deep sea approx 1 km away from the seashore. While returning, everyone on the banana was tense as they generally turn the banana boat in such a way that everyone falls into the sea. The moment came, they turned the boat and we all were in the sea. We really rejoiced at the moment. After this, we played volleyball, dumb charades, and a few more games and moved on to build a sandcastle. We don’t know what we built but we really enjoyed the activity.

With this and creating a lot of permanent memories, we returned to the resort.

Now it was time to relish dinner, the most awaited part of the day. This time too, we ordered seafood with some non-veg and veg starters. No need to mention I ate vegetarian thali. The staff also arranged a bonfire next to our table to make our dining experience even better. Since it was Poornima (full moon) on Saturday, we enjoyed our dinner with moonlight, the cool breeze, and the silent sound of sea waves. With lots of fun, dance, music, and maja-masti, our dinner extended till 2:00 AM. We spent some more time listening to sea waves while making light jokes. Now it was time to go to bed but we decided to have one round of uno. We finally went to sleep at around 4:00 AM.

Day 2

Our second day started quite early in the morning. As we had earlier planned, we all went to the beach which was just in front of our resort. No need to say we had a lot of fun there. Since it was golden time with ample light, we did not miss capturing as many photos as we could.

Sumit captured wonderful time-lapse videos on his iPhone. After spending a good amount of time, we returned to the resort. Now it was time for breakfast. We partook bread omelet, poha, sandwich, misal, and a few other items and finished our breakfast with orange juice, tea/coffee, and finally went for a bath.

It was noon, time to say goodbye to the resort. We packed our bags and after having lemon juice, we went to Kashid beach one more time for photography. Since it was noon, we could not capture that great photos, but we managed to click a few. After having some tea at the nearby ‘tapri’ we departed for the famous Birla Temple in Alibag. The temple is built up of white marble and is very clean and beautiful. I can't describe in words the peace we experienced at the temple premises.

We decided to stop for lunch somewhere en route to Pune. We finalized one restaurant since it was looking good from the outside. We went inside, ordered food (again seafood along with vegetarian thali for me for the final time before leaving Alibag), and spent some spare time playing uno. But unfortunately, we all got disappointed since the food was not that tasty and it was in small quantity. By registering this only bad experience in our memories, we finally left Alibag.

After traveling for 2 continuous hours and having a second round of roller coaster rides, we again met at a food mall to have some refreshments. This was going to be our last stop on the entire trip. We ordered a variety of food and enjoyed it. I really liked McDonald's McAloo Tikki burger. How tasty it was! 

Finally, the moment came to say goodbye to everyone. We traveled together, stayed together, ate together, and had a lot of fun throughout the trip. It was our first outing and everyone enjoyed it. We enjoyed every moment, learned a lot from each other, and talked about our personal lives.

Honestly, this outing made our bond even stronger. This trip has become a memorable part of everyone’s life, which will be cherished forever. 

Now I realize that the decision of canceling my plans and joining these people for the office outing was the right choice. Lastly, I would like to give a piece of advice to my teammates, whenever we plan our next outing please join us. Who knows, your perception towards life may change a bit.

Written by - Abhishek Kulkarni