3rd March 2025
As my last day in Mumbai, I decided to head about 50 minutes North to Vasai Fort. A fort built by the Portuguese in the mid 1500’s. The Treaty of Vasai was signed by Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat and the Kingdom of Portugal on 23 December 1534 . Portugal would help defend the Sultan’s territory and inreturn, the portuguese could build a fort.
In the mid 1600’s, they extended the fort to enclose the city. Lots more can be read here if you’d like to learn more.
My day tarted with the Google directions journey to the Vasai rd Train station, but on the train, a passenger convinced me to get off 2 stops earlier at Naigaon, then take an Auto (pronounced Oto) which I finally worked out was another term for Tuk-Tuk. Jumped off, went to one side of the station and, eerrr, Nothing. Headed the other side and I find this narrow one lane side road with about 7 million motorbikes and scooters parked both sides of the strip. No Tuk-Tuks, cars or zip. I thought ahh well, that was a Dud tip.
Around 4-5 minutes later a young couple came up to the same point. I asked them about getting a Tuk-Tuk up to Vasai Fort. They said they’d just booked an Auto and that I could come with them. In Indiglish, I asked if they were going there too and they weren’t but said to come anyway. Figuring there’d be a cross-road they’d turf me out at, I jumped in when their ride arrived. The ride was one to remember, some of the roads so narrow, anything much wider would just get stuck. More twists and turns than a cat tangled ball of yarn. Tuk-Tuk driver lost and the guy of the couple clearly squabbling with him. Luckily, my delicate ears couldn’t understand the words.
20-25 minutes in and a meter measuring 400 rupee, I’m thinking this IS NOT going to end well. If even the driver with area knowledge and GPS is lost WTF am I going to get sorted?
Give or take, another 10 minutes in, we round a couple of jungle road turns, without a single sign, marking or indication, I’m sailing straight past the fort. 3 more bends, 300m later, we pull up at the entry to a Girls college, their destination. I could not beleive I’d snagged a ride through that mazeway to literally, the doorstep of my target. The guy was determined to pay, me being a guest. We eventually met agreement and I walked beck the 300m to the entry of the fort.
There, opposite the entry to the fort was one of India’s tastiest treats
Watching this man crush the ice with the hand crank machine on his left, then shape the shavings around a stick, then add syrups and flavourings of your choosing was just incredible.
This was soo good, at the end of my Fort walks, I had to go back for another!
All this for the tidy sum of just 20 Rupee
The entry, together with zero signage or information provides very little promis as to what you’ll see if you explore.
The first building appeared to be an administrative/command building with conventional windows in the ground floor bat Battlement type openings in the above floors
Once entering through the entry boilding, you see a semi-concealed walk way to the rear that looks like an evacuation passage out into the fort interior area.
Opening up as soon as you exit the passage is a completely unanticipated massive expanse. When you read details online, you find out the current remains are that of a rebuilt fort which was built to surround the entire town. Very little remains of the town other than the well and a few interior buildings appearing to be built as part of the exterior walls
Head up the stairs to the Battlements yeilds a very different view
The final thing I discovered within the fort (due to lack of signage) was the fort’s Main Entry
Once you’ve seen the fort itself, there are a few support buildings worth seeing, then a complete surprise unfolded after that. There’s no signage detailin use of these buildings.
Then came a real surprise. Given no signage or directory, seeking is up to you. There was a narrow path, leading past the building in the second photo above, appearing to lead nowhere, but the foot cut path, whilst only 3-4 foot wide, had to lead somewhere. After probably 600m walking in jungle surroundings, I found a sole small 60-80 yo apartment building that was habitted. It had motor vehicles so there had to be a road somewhere.
Continued walking just a little more to find…………
Not having a clue what I’d found, I had to explore. someone was living or doing something just to the left of that doorway. Turning left and walking around a bend revealed an unexpected sight to behold, the St Franciscan convent of St Anthony
Walking just further down the road, was the St.Gonsalo Garcia church, where I made 2 very valuable finds
This church had a rear courtyard almost identical to the convent. I think Vinod and I spent 2-3 hours discussing our passions for travel and motorbikes and traded numers for a future catch up
After all that, there was just one milestone to complete before heading back to the dorm……………………
I wasn’t leaving here without another one of these!
This was my final adventure for Mumbai, for this leg of the trip but will be returning in about 5 months. Next page is Leaving Mumbai.