Maratha Military Landscape

I visited Sindhudurg Fort when I was on vacation last month, mainly because I am really excited to hear that it has been sent to the World Heritage Sites team. Sindhudurg Fort is amazing, considering both the scenery and the architectural aspects. It was built around 360+ years ago and is in a proper state for a structure so old. The interesting fact about this fort is that it was built using no professional or electric equipment and majority of the work was done by bare hands. To top it off, it is built in WATER. So obviously, one has to go by boat in order to reach there.

The boat ride offered a lot of scenery and close look at how crystal clear the water looked. The architecture of the fort is jaw-dropping good. A curved entrance so that elephants (belonging to enemies) would find it hard to enter, the Queen's residence at a place which seems invisible, special holes at the top of the boundary walls to dump things on the enemies without disclosing the location of where those things fell from, and so on. It may seem crowded, but that simply proves how many people wish to come here. You can get an amazing view of the vast sea and a small portion of the Malvani Coast. If you want to know more information about the fort, people can guide you.

It was a really great experience on the whole. If you ever visit Goa, …

I could leave this to someone who saw more forts or maybe just let India pick the ones they want to inscribe first, then get it inscribed, and finally visit. Well, I figured since I'm already at Goa I may as well do a short detour to Sindudurg Fort and tick this off - only that Sindudurg Fort is CLOSED!! One is supposed to supposed to get a boat tour from Malvan 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM daily but, no, this wasn't possible. The official website still talks about it being open too. I thus think someone will visit the forts near Mumbai and tell you more about the actual forts. Officially you take a tour when it starts, it then gives you ~1h fort time to explore before taking you back.

This "must-visit destination" doesn't seem very must-visit either so I don't feel sad about missing out. When I got to the Malvan beach (which is brown and dirty by the way) you can also do parasailing or jetsking to get closer - neither I wanted to do. The pictures I saw online just make out large walls around the island which is otherwise rocks.

By the way I did NOT hire a driver from Goa and instead went to Kudal by train and took an auto-rickshaw from there which means you'll get to Malvan in less than an hour. It also saves you tons of money. You can also combine this with the Dutch factory fort …