Planning road trips and/or weekend getaways are difficult,
even so when all your friends are in their early twenties – still in college or
in their first job, where getting leaves is always a problem. But my friend
Ronaldo does any exceptionally good job at it; I sometimes feel he should start
a travel agency. But he has other dreams (of getting into the army and serving
the nation), so let this rest here!
So getting back to the weekend trip… This was my third trip
with Ronaldo (and other friends). The first one was a roadtrip to South Goa and
the second one was the Nasik roadtrip. This trip was supposed to be a roadtrip;
and it was supposed to be a roadtrip to Mahabaleshwar. But it ended up being a
trip to Lonavala, because this trip was more feasible than Mahabaleshwar
(without a car). P.S. I don’t know how!
Why? Some of the peeps ditched us. But Ronaldo, being the
stubborn him, was very keen to do this trip, sans a car. So we decided to
backpack (travel like poor people, in his words) – take the train, cabs and
walk! We successfully completed the trip and absolutely enjoyed it – despite a
bit of confusion and arguments. I have a slight backache (from carrying the
heavy backpack. Someone please teach me to pack light) as I sit to write this!
We were already on Karjat station (that’s a story for
another time) waiting for a train to Lonavala. The Mumbai local’s route ends at
Karjat. So one needs to take an Indian railway long-distance train to reach
Lonavala; probably a train to somewhere in central or south India (I guess)! We
missed the first train, because it was too crowded! Having said that, I have
travelled in crowded trains, but we weren’t in a good state – physically and
mentally, to get on to that train. So we let it go. And waited for another
train.
It did come…an hour or so later! It sure was a struggle to
get in, and an even bigger struggle to secure a seat. But we all managed to get
one! We were tired af by the time we reached Lonavala. And Rucha has a change
of mind and suggested we go to Pune instead. I was game! Defo! Why not? Pune is
my second favourite city after Bombay. Remember the argument I mentioned in
paragraph 1? This was it. No, we didn’t go to Pune. We checked into a hotel and
stayed in Lonavala.
If you are still reading, worry not, all the good things are
yet to come. All the bitter memeories end here! The moment we checked into our
room, everything fell into place. We rested our aching backs, opened the window
panes to let the cool Lonavala breeze run through our hair and soaked in the
view in front of us. We checked-in to a budget hotel (I guess I mentioned we
all are students or in our first job), but it sure was fun!
Let me introduce ‘us’. So it was five of us on this trip.
Ronaldo – the planner! He works in a sports digital media firm. Then there’s me
– I’m a journalist with the Goa edition of a leading media house in India.
Vaishali and Rucha – who are roommates in their Bandra home and MBA students.
Nishchay – who is an engineer, but is in-between jobs, and lives in Pune! So it
was three Bombay people, one Goa girl and one Pune guy on this trip!
Getting back to our room in Lonavala – we asked for room
service – binged on cheesy sandwiches (with extra cheese) and fries, chilled
for a bit and then headed out. It was around sunset by the time we left our
room and the adventure begun right then! Finding an auto was a challenge. But
we braved everything and headed to Sunil’s wax museum. Oh well, it’s supposed
to be cool!
What I didn’t know was, Lonavala has lotsa wax museums
(four, I was told); and Sunil’s Celebrity Wax Museum is supposed to be the best
of it. All the wax statues are made by Sunil himself. He has met a lot of the
celebrities in person and measured them, before creating their statutes. I was
pretty impressed with some of the statues. I was pretty impressed by the
Rajnikant statues, it looked so real!
Post that, we headed to McDonald’s and binged on some more
fries and burger. Before you ask me why we didn’t try any local food, let me
tell you – a. We were hungry af. b. We had to find another auto to try and find
a restaurant, which was quite difficult at that time of the evening. c.
Lonavala doesn’t really have speciality food or Lonavala special-food
restaurants, so there wasn’t a point hunting for one.
We then headed to the busy market area and wandered around
for a bit – until we stepped into Super Chikki store. Did I just say Lonavala
didn’t have a special food – I am sorry! The fudges are to-die-for. I ain’t
kidding. The chikki and fudge stores in Lonavala have the yummiest confections.
You’ll pretty much find three or four chikki and fudge store on every lane. And
you are really confused wondering which one to enter. Worry not! Trust my
recommendation.
We went to Super Chikki – which is located in the busy area (that
seems like a market) along the old Mumbai-Pune highway, and also very close to
the railway station. They can be spotted easily once you reach the market and
they are open from 10 am to pm. Or you can just call them 09772566601. Just
FYI, they also give free home delivery in Lonavala. It’s owned by the
Rajpurohit’s, originally from Rajasthan and have been into existence since
1963.
Getting to their food – they have over 25 varieties of
chikkis, ten varieties of fudges, jellies and farsan. Knowing me, I tasted
almost everything I could get my hands on and ended up buying a few kgs of food
from here. They do give you a taster before you buy. Please try the chocolate
hazelnut fudge, and thank me later! Though my friends here insist on the
chocolate fudge, I suggest the chocolate hazelnut one; umm… because this is my
blog (I am getting beaten up for this hahaa) Nevertheless, you can pick from
among the varieties they have. So worry not.
We did pick up some food and beer and chilled in our room
before we retired for the night; because we had an early morning next day. Did
I say Ronaldo was more like our tour planner? So he managed to book a cab for
the next day (which wasn’t exorbitantly priced like the other cabs in the city)
and off we were, driving around Lonavala.
We first headed to Bushi Dam after driving past the scenic
Lonavala lake. It was misty and we could see the hills in a distance. The
weather was pleasant and the view before us was spectacular. Bushi Dam was a
lot more crowded than expected at 8 am, perhaps because it was a Sunday. The
crowd did ease a bit in a few minutes and it got more pleasant. The vast
stretch of water with a hills in the distance is definitely a view you wish to
wake up to every single day!
A short hike from Bushi Dam takes you to two spectacular
waterfalls. Though its a few minutes trek to reach the waterfalls, it’s
advisable to just soak in the view and relax at the base of the hill where the
water meets the dam. And that’s exactly what we did. The pink and yellow
flowers, the gushing water and the beautiful view in front of us was everything
we needed to rejuvenate us for the week ahead!
After a while, we stopped at a local chai stall for corn
pakoras. And were they yumm! I definitely love gorging on some hot onion or
potato fritters when I am in the hills. You know that if you have seen my
Amboli Ghat roadtrip post. So stopping by for some pakoras was mandatory, and
discovering corn pakoras (through another blogger friend) was the best thing!
We packed our pakoras and headed to the hills.
There are several viewpoints in Lonavala and the most
accessible ones are the Lion’s Point and Tiger Point (I don’t know why they are
called that). Lonavala also boasts of several forts – Rajmachi and Lohgad being
the more popular ones and other heritage sites like Karla caves, which did
catch my fancy, but weren’t really accessible. Also, most of them include a
trek, which none of us were up for.
So our Lonavala trip was more of a
chill-in-the-hills-before-you-get-back-to-work-on-Monday types!
The view from the cliff (at Tiger Point) was bombdiggity!
Words fall short to describe the beyond-beautiful scenic valley, lofty cliffs,
waterfall and lake in the distance. The sun playing hide-and-seek through the
clouds, the cliff reflecting the light to form a bright hue of green and the
waterfalls gushing down in the distance and the spectacular view of the
Lonavala lake beyond that, combined with pleasant weather – perfect!
The view is definitely something I won’t get over anytime
soon. Probably that’s what we miss in the cities and that’s precisely why we
need a vacation of this sort. It sure clears your mind of the clutter and gives
you a sense of peace! I could get used to this… but this pretty much was the
end to our awesome trip to Lonavala – the land of the hills, the land of
chikkis… We were lucky enough to get a good deal on the cab to Mumbai. The
drive back to Mumbai, via the winding roads in the Khandala ghats; crossing
tunnels, mini-waterfalls and a misty horizon was the perfect way to soak in and
enjoy the beautiful weekend gone by!
Related post: Monsoon drive to Chorla Ghat
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