Overnight Outing @Mahabaleshwar: Part One

"When something good happens, travel to celebrate.

If something bad happens, travel to forget it.

If nothing happens, travel to make something happen." 

The reason for me to travel was the last one. After Lonavala trip in March this year, my thirst for trips and traveling increased to such an extent that I kept bugging Yojana Sawant every month for next adventurous overnight outing. Finally! An instant plan was made for four days trip to Mahabaleshwar. Hotel bookings were taken care of by Yojana and bus bookings by Kiran Chile. The trouble for me was fighting for just two days leave and fighting with cold and fever just two days prior to the trip. 

Day One: 18.11.2017

I woke up at 03:45am, got ready and left home to catch 04:45am Churchgate Fast train. The train left Virar at exact time and was running at full speed, cutting through the cold breezes and darkness and honking horns. I got down at Dahisar station, took a rick to Smita Lad's home and then we drove all the way to our pick up point. We were going to travel by Neeta Volvo and our pick up point was Axis Bank, National Park. The two of us were standing on the lonely road with just vehicles moving to and fro. What's a journey if there are no surprises! Our destined bus was waiting at Malad somewhere and we were informed by the bus coordinator that we would be traveling till there by another Neeta Volvo (which for destined for Shirdi). Getting into an unknown bus was risky but we did so. After an hour through the early morning traffic due to metro construction, we finally got into our actual bus. Boarding passengers at each pick up point, the bus drove through the Western Express Highway. The second lot of our group (Yojana, Kiran, Janki, Rishika and Shubhangi) got in at Sion and the last ones (Mohini and Priya) got in at Kalamboli McD. The bus drove all the way to Mahabaleshwar via Pune route with a small breakfast break at Neeta Inn and lunch break at some place. Finally we reached our destination at 3pm. The nine hours travel, sleeping for half the time, munching snacks, chitchatting, watching the greenery, was done now. Each of us had to pay some amount as an entry to Mahabaleshwar. We took a taxi to Hotel Mayfair. 

It was a nice place, though the room was small. The space doesn't matter since we were going to be wandering out for most of the time. The water was cold; hot water would be available only between 07:30am to 10am. This reminded me of hostel days, doing things within time frame. We were already tired due to the nine hours travel, so decided to visit the market and do some shopping and eat something. The market was  just 10 minutes walk-able distance from our hotel. Captured this sunset on the way down the lane:

The market had a variety of shops: wooden articles, antiques, dress materials, bags and hats, sandals, etc. There were food stalls selling maize pattice, maize franky and various dishes of maize. There were stalls of Maggi and Chai with Kanda bhaji as well. The place specialties were anything and everything of strawberries: ice-creams, jelly chocolates, crush, falooda, etc. There were game hubs as well. I didn't missed the opportunity to eat hot maggi (made on stove, first making a liquid solution of masala and then putting the noodle bar into it). We had dinner at Snowdrop Hotel, really awesome food. On the way back, we took ice-creams of different flavors. We walked by mistake into another lane, realized the same and got back to the correct one. The road was lonely with vehicles parked at this right edge. We walked briskly to our hotel. The environment was not as cold as described by my friends. We had booked two cabs for the sightseeing for next two days. Visiting an hill station is in itself very peaceful, with clear air and cold climate. 

Read  next: Overnight Outing @Mahabaleshwar:Part Two