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Published: August 31st 2016
The planning for the long awaited trip with school friends finally gathered momentum when Ajay (Aj) decided to visit India after completing his Masters in Germany. The final list of people stood at Ajay, Bharath, Maina, Safal, Shruti, Smaran, Umesh and Vrinda (including me of course). All the plans were completed and the bus tickets (KSRTC Airavat - Sleep like a baby) got booked when Maina and Vrinda had to withdraw from the trip. The rest of us still ready to take some time off, booked the hotels using the GoIbibo app and were all set for the trip.
Tip: Bharath made us book each day of the hotel (even if same hotel) separately with 3 of us booking on different accounts for better discounts :P Can't complain as it does help 😊
The first destination was Lonavala and the to journey was an overnight one. All of us met at the Majestic bus stand and after all the "how much you have changed", "how Telugu villainish Smaran looked", "how short Bharath had grown" and so on, we boarded the bus. Our trip started in an ominous fashion with us being treated to SRK's Dilwale in the
bus. Fortunately, the movie was cut short and we did not have to bear the torture of completing it. We kept chatting through the journey trying to fill in the missing pieces after we had parted post 2nd year Pre-University completion. The bus promptly reached our stop on time and Smaran, Umesh and Safal went to get our XUV (booked through Zoom cars) which would be our mode of transport for the next 3 days. While they booked an Uber and left, the rest of us roamed around trying to get to some place to have breakfast. Following Zomato's recommendations, we were on our way to some cafe when we saw a hotel Vishwa on our way which was also on Zomato but not recommended highly. We were hungry and decided to just order Poha there (Maharashtra is famous for it and how bad can it be ?). The restaurant care taker was incidentally a Kannadiga and thus, we happily placed our orders in Kannada. The breakfast was not bad and by the time we were done with our tea, our XUV arrived.
The others decided that we should start to Lonvala and they would have their
breakfast on the way. Smaran being the most experienced was our official driver though some of us had our concerns. He had wanted to try out Christ pose on a bike once when he was riding and I was the pillion rider. I had to literally pull him to ensure he did not try to stand (that will haunt you all the time you are mentioned in my blog Smaran :P). But he said that he had become more careful of late and we gave him the benefit of the doubt (Zoom cars had restrictions too which provided further encouragement). On the way we stopped along the highway so that others could have breakfast and also bought some supplies. Our stay for the first day was at Revenir Holidays, a hotel away from the main roads and at a pretty calm location. We reached there pretty early about 10 am when the check-in time was 12 pm. They told us that they could not accommodate us early and thus, we decided to visit Karla caves before checking into our hotel.
Karla caves as any other caves in India had a pathway leading to it whose both sides
were crammed with local shops. On our way up we ignored them and reached the caves after paying the entrance fees. The caves were well sculpted and had a number of pictures inscribed. They were Buddhist rock cut caves and one of them specifically had a beautiful shrine at the end of a passageway surrounded by sculpted columns. After a brief photo session there, we came out to see a goat tied outside for sacrifice. We felt bad for it but were powerless to do anything. Then outside, we decided to try out our rock climbing skills where I, Smaran and Ajay went up a rocky hill almost to the top. On the way back, Safal and Ajay even took blessings from Sage Shruti who was in deep meditation on a rock (The photo explains it all). With the sun blazing away, all of us were pretty thirsty and made a stop for a glass or two of chilled sugarcane juice. Also, waiting for us was Maganlal chikki shop (It is so common in Lonavala that if you stumble you would probably fall into a Maganlal store). Though we had 2 more days, the idea was that we could try
out a few options for chikki which we could then buy for home and office. Strawberry chikki proved surprisingly good and was a good way to regain our energy while we had to replace a flat tyre of our XUV. Though our own mech engineer, Ajay was expected to magically replace it with a swish of his hand (What was the point of being a mech engineer if you can't replace a tyre uh ? :P The std Indian household dialogue), the reality was that everyone of us (including Shruti who wanted to prove her prowess by being able to push the level repeatedly to release the healthy tyre) had to work instead of just eating chikki. With the XUV back in shape, we all decided it was time to head back and freshen up at our hotel.
It was a pretty hot afternoon and what better to offset the heat than a dip in the swimming pool ? Revenir holidays had a pretty good swimming pool (though not very clean still good enough) and we took our time there to make full use of the facility. I learnt a bit of floating from Umesh while others
raced along the length of the pool while trying to decide who is the fastest. Shruti who was initially very reluctant to get into the pool but once she got in, was all ready to train for the Olympics. After a time well spent in the pool, we retired to our rooms to freshen up. It was almost 4 pm by the time we left for our next sightseeing spot. Before that we wanted to finish our lunch but could not find any place which served lunch at that time of the day. So, we settled for snacks at Krishna All Suites Stay. The food was ok but was very expensive. But the place had a very beautiful garden and we made full use of that taking quite a few photos. From there it was onward to Lion's point. Here Google Maps led us to some random point and told us we were at Lion's point (it was near some empty site filled with plants). Thus, we had to rely on the pre-maps method of asking people around to reach our destination. We fortunately reached before sunset and I got busy clicking landscape shots with full enthusiasm. On seeing a
few kids blowing soap bubbles all of us decided to try it out too. Sunset is a great time to photograph stuff and thus, all of us tried out a lot of stuff. Starting with soap bubbles followed by all kinds of jumps and poses, we enjoyed our time there. As the sun set completely with the vanishing orange glow, it was time for us to head back and plan the rest of the night. Armed with some namkeen and Pepsi, we decided to have dinner at our hotel itself and spend time playing cards and other games. Initial part was spent on making fun of Bharath (what else could you possibly need for entertainment other than Bharath's prescence). Post a lot of laughs, bowing to Sage Shruti (multiple times in awe of her enlightened state) and dinner, all of us decided to call it quits for the day.
Early to bed, early to rise ..... We had to rise early but not going early to bed left us groggy in the morning while on the way to Matheran. It was going to be a long day as there are no vehicles allowed for travel at Matheran.
One has to either walk to take horse carts to roam around the place. That rule has gone a long way in keeping the place pollution free and maintaining the forest in its original state. We had our breakfast at one of the Dhabas at the start where the food was pretty decent. Then we started to check off all the view points found at Matheran. The view points offer stunning views of the hills and cities of Maharashtra. First up was Khandala view point which was empty waiting for someone to visit it. Only a lone caretaker was present who had put up a few games for kids to play. From him we realized that Louisa view point (one of the very famous ones) was almost right opposite to us on the other side. Still fresh in the morning we thought, "Oh what the hell, we can cover that easily" and moved on. The place also was full of birds as expected of a forest-like area. On the way to our next view point, I found a few including a Red-Whiskered Bulbul and Veriditer Flycatcher. On reaching the point, I spotted a huge bee like insect and got busy
trying to get a clear shot of it. Once I was satisfied with the bee-shot, I turned and saw one of the most beautiful panoramic view I've ever seen. Near us, a hill stretched in a step like fashion with a blue expanse behind it comprising of the clouds and the other hills which were half immersed in a white stream of clouds. The image was so stunning that we just stood there for a while and marveled at it. As we continued on our walk, we clearly realized that we had come here at the wrong time. It was scorching hot and one can imagine how it would be at a place where you need to walk for the whole day. But undeterred all of us took our time helped along with the dense forest cover. We covered few other view points one by one including the echo point (as the name suggests you can shout and hear your echo shout back at you), one tree hill (one tree was prominent at the view point) and Charlotte lake. We even ate a few ice golas at one of the view points which tasted awesome in the heat. Finally after
a lot of walking here and there we reached our highly anticipated Louisa Point which did not disappoint. It basically has a large boulder formation which is narrowly connected to the main hill and thus, provides a very picturesque view from the top. All of us took our share of our photos there which included SRK, Karate Kid and other random poses. While returning we caught a glimpse of the toy train at the railway station. It was then back to the entrance checkpost as we had to get out before sunset (the place is fully dark and very difficult to navigate through in the dark). I badly wanted to have ice golas again before going back and kept irritating the others asking them to find a shop selling it. Finally just as we were about to reach the checkpost, we found one shop where I had my fill of golas. We bid farewell to the beautiful Matheran and then returned to Lonavala.
Shree Narayani Dham Temple is a pretty popular temple in Lonavala and it was located very close to Revenir Holidays. Thus, we went there at night and found it to be very well built
and maintained. The place was very clean and the idols were very beautifully crafted. The inner ceilings were stunningly designed to take away one's breath. The puja was very professionally done with style and with that we sought blessings and came out. On the way back we also purchased all the chikkis we needed on our return again at a Maganlal's shop. We got a huge variety from chocolate to dry fruit and a few even got Bhakarwadi (a popular eatable) packs.
Next morning, all of us had breakfast at Revenir itself (first day we had to miss as we had to leave early). We consciously tried not eating a lot (though delicious) as our plan for the day was Adlabs Imagica, a theme park popular for roller coasters. Only Bharath had his fill as he was skipping the last day to make use of his credit card points (He had booked a flight back as he had accumulated a lot of points). It was 11 or so by the time we reached Imagica. Initially our thinking was that "how long would a queue be" (we had gone there on a National Holiday) and thus, we bought
normal tickets assuming we will have time to finish all the rides. Oh boy were we in for a shocker. The first 2 hours resulted in just 1-2 rides post which we immediately course-corrected and upgraded our tickets to express ones which helped us arrogantly jump to the front of every queue. As for the rides, some of them were just amazing. All of us have been to WonderLa in Bangalore which is one of the largest amusement parks in India. But that lacks in good roller coasters (has only a partly ant-hill coaster which even kids would find boring) and Imagica makes up for it big time. Nitro and Deep Space deserve a special mention as they blew our minds. Deep Space was a sudden shocker as none of us expected it to be so good. It was completely in the dark and while we expected a simple ride, we were treated for a super high-thrill ride. There were a few other shows with special effects such as Mr. India and Cinema 360 which were pretty unique and enjoyable experiences. By the time we were out, none of us had any regrets for taking the express tickets. We had
thoroughly enjoyed the whole day (Safal more than others but that's better kept private).
I had been waiting for an opportunity to go to Lonavala and Matheran from quite some time now. Though the place would be even more beautiful during monsoon season, it is stunning even during the off-season. One just has to be ready to bear the heat and plan the travel well. Lonavala has become pretty crowded with more and more tourists while Matheran has been able to maintain a pollution free forest like environment. I can't wait to check em out during monsoon 😊 Till date I had heard mixed reviews of Adlabs Imagica and am very surprised about it. It is slightly expensive no doubt but is a kickass place with unique rides and shows.
In the end, a fun re-union and a great weekend 😊
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mumtaj
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Nice blog. All images is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing this blog.