Mahabaleshwar

Last week I went to have my first trip to Mahabaleshwar during my eleven year stay at Pune. Due to heavy rain and cold weather the whole trip turned out to be a pleasant experience.

Route: We took the route shown here while starting from our home at 9 AM. On the route, we had planned to stop at Mapro Garden where we reached at around 12:30 PM. There were several things to do at the Mapro Garden including

• Lunch - We ordered multiple items
• Grill Sandwich
• Italian Delight Pizza
• French Fries

The Grilled Sandwich already had some fries. We could have taken an ice cream instead of fries if we had the knowledge.

• There was one jumping trampoline available for kids to enjoy which was free to use


• There is one shopping mall too where Mapro items are available at 10% below MRP. We bought some raisins and almonds coated with dark/milk chocolates:
  

We left the place at around 2 PM and reached Rajesh Hotel at 3 PM. The room was not as per our expectation but since we had already paid advance, we decided to stay. We than took an hour of sleep and then took off for site seeing.

The first place we decided to visit was Venna Lake where we reached at around 4:30 PM. There was heavy wind when we took a ride in lake in a manual row boat. The ride was for a short time of around 20 mins but it was worth it. There was heavy fog and the weather was really chilly but we had carried jackets and sweaters with us which served their purpose. You need to shell out INR 20 for parking and INR 300 for boat ride. The boat can accommodate up to 6 persons but even with three, we had to pay the same for the whole boat.


We spent around half an hour more and decided to leave for our next point which is Lingmala Waterfall and reached at around 5:30 PM. There is an entry fee of INR 15. The waterfall closes  at 6 PM so you better reach early. You have to climb down and up around 500 stairs before you finally reach the waterfall view but the whole walk has many scenic views.

My wife was carrying some food items and one monkey came near her to grab them from her purse so both my wife and daughter panicked and decided to run back towards the entry point. We couldn't spend enough time at the place due to this but still managed to stay till 6:15 PM. We reached hotel at around 7 PM and then decided to call it quits for the day as all of us were very tired from the journey.
We then went for dinner at Rajesh Hotel itself which served a buffet with following items:

• Salad
• Veg Manchow Soup
• Paneer
• Veg Kofta
• Mungdal Halwa
• Corn Pakoda
• Jeera Rice
• Dal Fry
• Papad
• Chhaas
• Puri/Roti

The next day we had our breakfast at the hotel which included following items:

• Idli - Sambhar
• Aaloo Paratha - Dahi - Pickle - Ketchup
• Bread - Butter - Jam
• Milk - Cornflakes
• Tea
• Coffee
• Watermelon

We completed our breakfast by 10:15 AM and proceeded for Pratapgarh Fort. The fort is located around 20 KM from our hotel and we reached there around 11:45 AM. The fort provided many scenic views and we really enjoyed there and spent almost an hour or more.


We left the fort at around 12:45 PM and started going back to Mahabaleshwar for lunch. There were many scenic places and many waterfalls along the way where we saw many people enjoying their time but we had to go to Tapola so didn't wait.

We reached Mahabaleshwar at around 2 PM and decided to take lunch at Shreyas Hotel. They were offering fixed thali and we ordered two such for three of us which we thought would serve the purpose. It took the guys 20 mins to bring the food so you can see the duo waiting in the images below. The thali had following items:

• Tindli Bhaji
• Chana Bhaji
• Aaloo
• Paneer BabyCorn Mushroom Mutter
• Puri
• Dal
• Rice
• Kadhi
• Gulab Jamun
• Batata Wada

We started for Tapola at around 3 PM and reached there at around 4:15 PM. It is situated 22KM south. There you have a big lake which offers boating but the prices are exorbitantly high. The only better attraction than Venna Lake is Water Scooter ride.


We completed Tapola visit at around 5:30 PM and started our way back for Mahabaleshwar. We reached our hotel at 7 PM and then decided to go for visiting market. There are many shops in the market and my wife bought some chappals and umbrella. The weather was so cold that when you exhale air, it was forming steam fog in the air. Finally we completed our shopping at around 9 PM and decided to go for dinner at The Sizzler Place. We ordered two sizzlers

• Oriental Sizzler
• Vegetable Sizzler 

The food was really great and cheaper than the same available in Pune. We liked both the meals that we took at Shreyas Hotel and even the prices were cheaper than that of Rajesh Hotel.

The next day we again had breakfast at Rajesh Hotel with Idli replaced by Vada Sambhar, Aaloo Paratha replaced by Upma and Watermelon replaced by Melon. The rest of the items were same.

We checked-out of hotel at 9:30 AM and started our journey back home. We first decided to complete Kates Point which is around 8 KM from our hotel. We started from hotel at 10 AM and reached at around 10:30 AM. From Kates point, you can see a big rock which looks like an Elephant Head. There is also waterfall and the complete view of river flowing. Due to greenery and fog with clouds, the view was very good.


We departed from Kates Point at around 10:45 AM and started for Arthur's Seat. The route for Arthur's Seat passes via old Mahabaleshwar and due to heavy rush, there was lot of traffic so we turned around and decided not to visit the place. We almost wasted an hour and came back to where we started from but then continued to Mapro Garden where we decided to have a short break with a Fresh Strawberry with Cream.



We left the Mapro garden at around 1 PM and departed for Parsi Point. There are vendors showing several points with telescopes such as:

• New Era School where Taare Zameen Par was shot
• Raja Hindustani shooting at Table Land
• etc...

There were people offering different games such as Balloon Shooting, Game of Luck with balls, Throwing Rings etc... for INR 30 each. My daughter did play some of them but didn't win. We then departed at 1:45 PM for Table Land where we reached at around 2 PM. This is Asia's second largest Mountain Plateau. We were offered horse ride but we decided not to take any.


We finally started from Table Land at 3 PM and reached my home at 5:30 PM. The whole trip was quite refreshing. The beauty of Mahabaleshwar can easily be compared with that of Munnar from Kerala. I really felt why I didn't visit the place earlier. Hope you do not make the same mistake!

Sinhagad Fort - Khadakwasla Dam

A month back I went to visit Sinhagad Fort for the first time since I have arrived in Pune. On the route I also stopped at Khadakwasla Dam for a while. The whole route was very scenic and also the fort was worth visiting.

Route: I took the route shown here while starting at around 8:15 AM. It took us around one and a half hour to reach Sinhagad Fort and we arrived at 9:40 AM. On most weekends there is heavy rush and you don't get parking at Sinhagad Fort and has to park very far from fort but on 16 July when I visited, there was less rush since there was landslide in previous week and people got stuck for 3-4 hours on the fort itself. There was heavy fog at the hill so the surroundings were not at all visible but we did try to cover the whole fort.


Food: The fort has many eateries and most of them offer the same items which is as below:

• Zunka - Bhakri
• Baingan Ka Bhartha
• Kanda Bhaji
• Curd
• Tea

All the items were quite good. While climbing down we stopped at some points to have view of greenery and water reservoirs and also stopped at Khadakwasla. The dam was completely filled with heavy rains in the catchment area of the river.

We came back at around 2 PM. All in all, it was worth visiting the fort once.