Last Saturday, I woke up at 4am. I wanted to sleep till late but found myself waking up at the wee hours even without an alarm. Once I wake up, I find it very difficult to fall asleep again, even staying in bed becomes difficult. Therefore, I left the bed and started reading a book.
While reading, I suddenly realized that it has been quite some time that we went anywhere as a family. Both of us are traveling but together we have not traveled in a long time and looking at our schedule (including the little ones who has the busiest schedule amongst three of us) we don’t see a trip in near future. The better half has been cribbing about this, since long.
I felt that it was a perfect opportunity to make the best use of waking up early. I woke up the man and asked if he would be interested to take us for a long drive. The driving enthusiast in him couldn’t say NO to this and within half an hour we were on the road. The son was still sleepy and we let him sleep on the rear seat.
As usual, we had no destination in mind. I wanted to travel towards Lonavala while the man wanted to drive towards Vasai. We had a brief argument and as an ‘obedient wife’, I accepted his opinion.
We had heard about Vasai Fort and even seen the road sign while traveling on WE Highway a zillion times, however, we had never visited it. We took a left exit from WE Highway and within 20 minutes reached Vasai Fort or Bassein Fort.
Contrary to our expectation, we found the Fort in a well-maintained condition. A clean premise with manicured lawn and date trees arranged in perfect symmetry. Thankfully, even though it was a Saturday there were very few tourists. Apart from us and a group of Archaeology students, there were none.
The main entrance to the Fort has a muddy road and during monsoon, it is difficult to reach in a car or by foot. However, there is another entrance on the road and one can enter through that but they have to come all the way around to reach the main stairs to climb the fort.
These stairs take lead to the top of the boundary wall and the entire area looks beautiful from above.
Adjacent to the main Fort area there are also smaller structures. The most interesting was the Portuguese Basilica. It almost reminded me of the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa. This place was also used in the Coldplay video for the song “hymn for the weekend“. I particularly loved the spiral staircase but I felt claustrophobic to enter and thus couldn’t click a photo.
The small door from which a child is coming out is the spiral staircase. Isn’t it claustrophobic? This area also used to have 64 bells. Now they have been removed and shifted to various museums all over.
These relics are outside the main campus, nevertheless, I found them equally interesting. Adjacent to the fort there is a memorial of Chimaji Appa and it was also an interesting place to explore.
Our perfect Saturday long drive concluded with a beautiful breakfast at Misal Darbar where we had three different types of Misal. While I had the Malwani Misal, the man had Darbar Misal and the son had Cheese Misal. Yummyyy!!!
Trina Looks Back 
Omg Balaka…this fort is just 10 mins away for me. Next time call me. It is a beautiful fort indeed.
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Is it so?? Wow.. didn’t know that..we loved this fort and next if we visit again will surely call you..
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That’s the first thing I thought of telling Balaka.
Next time I’m in Mumbai, we should plan an outing together.
I made Misal this morning. I use the Rajawadi garam masala. Not sure what type it would be. It’s my own recipe!!
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Yes yes yes…we should go..my husband and son love misal.. I am not that fond of though.
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This post has inspired me to visit with my grandchildren. If I do manag to come Lata, I’ll get in touch with you.
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It is a nice place to visit. Just don’t go during monsoon. It is muddy. Winter would be a good time to visit.
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Ok thanks for the warning . Was planning on next week actually
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Well..in Mumbai monsoon has not yet started..and looking at the clear sky I don’t expect it anytime soon.. so you can go next week .
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Ok thanks once again for the thumbs up 👍🏽
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A point you made here struck me… How it was well maintained contrary to expectations… Msot of the forts I’ve been to in recent years have been less than well maintained and that is something that really needs more of a focus on. Good to see at least some are still done well.
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True Roshan.. most forts including the famous ones are in such pathetic condition that we were literally surprised to see this was neat and clean.
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I have never heard of this fort before. It looks like it has a lot of European influenced architecture. Any information on that?
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It is Portuguese design..am afraid that is the only information I had.. need to do more research on the topic.
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Such lovely photographs! I’m guessing it wouldn’t be too far from Pune either. Maybe next time I’m home, I can drive down to the fort with my parents.
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Kamal ke log ho. Subah neend jaldi khul gayi to socha chalo kahin ghoom ke aate hain. I hope your son didn’t feel like getting abducted in sleep 😛
Nice photos of the place. Next time, do make it to Lonavala and also click pictures along the way. I have heard a lot about the beauty of it.
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The impromptu trips are the best ones!!
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True. Thanks for reading.
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