Ganpatipule Oct - Nov 2014

Plan:
It was some time sound we have visited the Lakshmi Keshav. It's our kula Daivat. Suddenly we decided to visit as Nikita was 3 years already and we never took her there.. My sister was there just when Deepti and I decided to visit it on coming Friday. This was all on Thursday and we called her to confirm our booking at a lodge where she was staying. Now don't go by the word lodge. It's a decent place to stay and very much affordable too. Just that they don't have restaurant and hence the name.

Since my sister was there I checked with her the owner is and how the place is.
She said the place is good and you don't worry. I checked the owner name and it turned out to belong to Shendye family. I confirmed her to reserve it for us. We book 3 bedded room so that we can stay comfortable and sleep well.
It turned out that the lodge belong to very close family friend of my cousin's mother in law.

The plan was up. I went to check the tire pressure and fill some petrol on Thursday afternoon.
We planned to take a route from kumbharli ghat which is connecting both NH4 to Mumbai Goa highway. That way there are lot of options such as Mahabaleshwar, Tamhini, Bhor and last one Amba ghat by taking an exit way before Kolhapur after Karad.

Route we took:

We left the home at 6:40AM. Of course without bathing..  :P

The NH4 looked just fine before we hit the diversions. There are lot of diversions on the way and it kind of irritates the driver community. As soon as you get some speed you either get a diversion or a bad patch.
Linea concurred the road like a King. We reached the Umbraj exit in just 2 hours and 20 min. We continued our journey add we wanted to finish first part of the journey ASAP because Nikita was sleeping and it is a tiring journey for her sitting in car seat. After some bad patches we reached the Kumbharli top at 10.00 am. Again we decided to continue and stop at Chiplun. Nikita was up and she already had a big banana. She was enjoying the trip listening to songs giving get trade Mark expressions.

We reached Chiplun at around 10:40AM where Linea had breakfast lunch and dinner for 2000 bucks.. We  stopped at Samarthya hotel outside Chiplun at 10:55AM.

It was already 11 and we had pohe as there was no south Indian option. The toilets were clean. Actually we stopped by that hoarding which was saying clean toilets.
After a bad experience in Karnataka Kerala that was priority. We left the place @ around 11:20 AM thinking that we will have lunch in Ganpatipule.

Day 1: 31 Oct 2014 @ Ganpatipule

As expected we reacted Ganpatipule at 1PM, checked in the lodge and immediately stepped out for lunch. There are lots of places to eat in that lane.

We skipped Durvankur by the ambiance as we thought it would serve only Punjabi food. Later we came to know they also serve thali. That being said we ate at Annapurna hotel. We had thali but the vegetables were spicy. Nikita could not eat. She are the poli with dahi sakhar.

After a good sleep we headed for the Ganpati Temple and the beach. First was beach, Nikita as always started crying as the water touched her feet. So after that she did not get down. We had a Shahala (tender coconut water) at beach huts. We later visited temple where there was Aarti as well.

Some photos from the beach and temple (all Photos by Nexus 5, was not carrying SLR for the trip so excuse the noise)

Crowd at the beach

GanapatiPule Temple Collage

Security is the priority. After evening the guards were asking tourist, not to enter deep water.

Beautiful colors after sunset.

On the way back to room, we had some Sarbat at a roadside vendor.  After some rest at room, we headed for dinner. 

The Bhau Joshi Bhijanalaya is the best place to eat.

It is a well set diner. All food you get is by order, they dont serve Thali. So all Maharashtrian Veg dishes and Poli (Fulka). We took Batata dry bhaji which was tasty and not spicy/ hot. And we also tried Kothimbir Wadi. It was quite tasty. We also had some rice and daal (light). 

Later on the way we had Ice cream at parlor which is opposite of Durvankur.  All the hotels were full and we were happy that we had booked it in advance. We saw some people asking for room. Strange that they visited with Family but without booking and it being Friday that was bit risky.

Day 2 - 1 Nov 2014 - Kolisare, Jaigad, Karhateshwar

We left early at 9AM for our family deity (kul daivat) Lakshmi Keshav at kolisare. It's around 20-21 km from interior road. The road was in good condition till we reached main road which leads to jaigad. We reached at kolisare at around 10.

This place one can find solitude. Surrounded by beautiful trees one can find peace. We asked the Guruji to perform Abhishek on ekadashi and sat on the temple for some time. Deepti also did the oti to the Lakshmi goddess.

Photos at Lakshmi Keshav:

Raghunath Mandir at Lakshmi Keshav has been renovated in 2010 odd.

After some time, we headed for Karhateshwar temple. It's situated on the opposite side of the Jaigad fort. I had visited long back. The place is kul daivat for the Jog family.

The road to it was bit confusing as Google map road is old, but once you find it, you will notice it is good as it was around the Jindal power plant and newly constructed. We reached in 30 mins. The natural beauty of the place is in danger as there is some work going on for new port. As you can see on the photo this was all natural sea but now it's been converted to port most probably for Jindal power plant.

Work for new Port

Karhateshwar Mandir

After taking some snaps and sitting in temple for some time we started our journey back.

On the way we visited the Mehendale dining Swad, at Malgund. The food was good and we left the place with some sweets. We had ordered amra khand and srikhand. They also provide modal, delicacy of Maharashtra ( Naivedya for Ganpati) but you have to inform 3-4 hours before so that they will make it. So its basically on order basis.

We reached room and took some rest. Total km were around 66, road was good to ok so not a problem for Linea.

We then visited prachin konkan, a museum built on the hill depicting historical konkan. The place is good place to understand how konkan was and the important castes and their role.

It's around 1.5 km from Durvankur. We walked instead of taking a car.
It will take an hour for complete tour. They provide guide and without guide you cannot roam around. Guide fee is included in ticket so you dont pay extra as such.
Inside we purchased some toys made of wood for Nikita.

There is a very good museum of sea shells (shimple/ Shankh). Excellent variety of the pieces are kept. You CANNOT take a photo inside. You can buy some authentic ones as you need.

We had dinner at Bhau Joshi bhojanalay, same place, where we had dinner on day 1. Ordered sweet, gulab jam which were tasty. Nikita enjoyed it.

We slept thereafter as we were to head back to Pune.

Day 3 - 2nd Nov 2014 - return journey to Pune.

At morning after tea we left for Pune. We took same route as we came. Initially we thought of taking a route via Amba Ghat but a fellow tourist informed that route is also not good. We started at 8:40. On the way back we saw lot of Indian Roller birds. We reached same Samarthya Hotel at 10 AM. After having Pohe we started our journey back at 10.35 AM, bought some Bananas for Nikita on the way. We decided to stop on Aaram hotel on NH4 just before Khamabatki tunnel. In between I had to fill petrol to be on safer side, filled 1500 worth of petrol. At 1:45 PM we stopped for lunch at Aaram hotel.
There was buffet and no other option was there so we had no option but to go for buffet. We ate and also had ice cream. Though it was 7 hrs of journey, Nikita was very cooperative during the full journey to and from Ganpatipule.

Chiplun to Aaram Hotel - 163 Km ( 3 hrs of drive with a bad road in between from Chipun through Kumbharli till we reached NH4)


We started the last league at 2:40 PM and reached home at 3:45 PM (62 Km in an hour because of better condition of  NH4 and less traffic.)

Linea Stats:

Total distance traveled: 736 km
Average kmpl : 15.5  (95 % AC on)
Average Speed: 58 kmph

I have eco drive installed, though there is some difference in ecodrive Software and Linea mid, that is marginal.

Eco Drive:
Total distance traveled: 717 km
Average kmpl : 15.1  (95 % AC on) Mpg reading is UK and not US.

All in all the road from Umbraj to Chiplun is not in great condition and you are bound to loose time in this part of the journey ( Nov 2014 condition).

Chiplun to Nivli Phata is in damn good condition, only its single lane so if there is no traffic you will love to drive on it.

Nivli phata to Ganpatipule is good, manageable, though from Chafa ( which is an exit for Ganpatipule), road to Jaigad is in bad shape. Road to Kolisare (Lakshmi Keshav) from main road is superb, though its only 3-4 kms, earlier it was in bad shape.

Thats all folks.

Hotel @ Ganpatipule
Gokul Lodge (Lodge only, No meals), Rooms are good, spacious and they provide room service for Tea and Pohe, Upama, Shira as breakfast or evening snack.

You can visit http://gokullodge.com/ and get the numbers to book or inquire the same.

Mysore Coorg Wayanad - Travelogue

helping you plan the visit!

Background:

Got a great offer on Spicejet, so we decided to book for return flight to Bangalore back in Jul 2014. The booking was made for festive season of Dussehra. To add some smile to  the faces, Dussehra was coupled with a holiday on 2nd Oct because of Janma Divas of India's great grandfather "Bapu". Advanced booked the tickets and also informed colleagues and boss that I will be vacationing during 27th to 4th Oct 2014. 

The planning: 

We were all very excited especially our daughter Nikita, who is 3 years old. She was very fascinated just by the thought that we are going to Bangalore, where her dad visits for office tours. And add to that we are flying in an airplane.. We decided to make a plan ourselves initially but took lot of time deciding hotels. But finally once after finalizing we found most of them are already sold out because of longg weekends (2,3,4,5,6 Oct being all on state/ national / bank holidays). So we consulted a friend who works at a travel company (Harshad from Simas Travels). He provided us some options of hotels but this time we wanted to something special as this was a vacation after long time...

We decided to alter the dates of Mysore from 3-4 Oct to 27-28 Sept as in Mysore during Dussehra, there is a huge crowd. Dussehra is celebrated like Diwali. We dropped Ooty and added Wayanad as ooty is way too much of a travel, for the last day from Ooty to Bangalore. 

Itinerary 

27 Sept  - Depart early morning to Bangalore from Pune by flight

27 Sept  - Reach Mysore and overnight stay @ Mysore

28 Sept  - Local sight seeing and overnight stay @ Mysore

29 Sept  - After Breakfast proceed to Coorg

29 Sept  - Check in to hotel @ Coorg - On the way visit Golden Temple (Budhhist Monestry) & Nisarg Dham (deer farm)

30 Sept  - Local sight seeing and overnight stay @ Coorg

01 Oct   - Visit Dubare Elephant Camp and overnight stay @ Coorg

02 Oct   - After Breakfast proceed to Wayanad - On the way visit Irpu falls, some sight seeing

03 Oct   - Sigh seeing @ Wayanad

04 Oct   - After breakfast proceed to Bangalore for an evening flight back to Pune.

Point to point Km

Start from Pune to Bangalore Airport 

Bangalore Airport to  Mysore - 186 km

Mysore to Coorg (Ambatty greens resort) - 105 km

Coorg (Ambatty greens resort) to Wayanad (Sunrise Valley Resort) -  125 km

Wayanad (Sunrise Valley Resort) to Bangalore Airport  - 322 km and then flight back to Pune

Last day was the big day for Nikita. 322 Km google shows 6 hours without traffic. 

The Journey:

Started journey with a cab at 5:15 AM the flight was at 7AM. Since I had already checked in online I thought we would zoom in but its spicejet, i still had to wait to get new boarding passes and checkin luggage tags for 20 mins.

Anyway, reached Bangalore on time, where the driver, Sampath was ready. We had to eat something up so we took rolls from Kati rolls eatout outside arrivals on the airport.

without wasting time we headed for the car and left airport for the good.

The road to Mysore passes via some part of Bangalore. Near Yeshwanthpur railway crossings it took around 30 mins to pass 200-300 meters. Akk mismanaged diversions. I believe there is some work of flyover going on and everyone has to go through the crossings where there is no road. I could not see any tar road. The road to Mysore is not a great highway but condition otherwise is good.

We decided to take lunch but Sampath suggested we take it in Mysore as we are close. Finally at the restaurant, we ordered south meal and one north meal. The hotel does not allow drivers to seat in AC, what a shame. I had to get a token for Sampath and then he headed for drivers area. 

We both, me and wife, dint like the food much and we decided that we will decide where we want to stop than Sampath suggesting us. May be if we would have gone a la carte, that would have been better.  Post lunch we checked in the hotel before 3 PM. We decided to take a nap as Nikita was tired and so was Deepti. Nikita and Deepti were both coughing badly and I was worried if we should continue the tour or not.. At 4:30PM, we all got ready and headed to Brindavan Garden. We planned to see the musical light fountain at night so this was what we could do that evening as Brindavan garden is far from city.

We enjoyed dancing fountain and light show and later headed to dinner.

Brindavan Garden:

We asked Sampath to tell us where we can get light dinner like Dosa Utappa etc. and not north indian food as afternoon food was heavy. He showed us an eatery lane (Khau Galli). 

There is no hotel which serves idli, utappa, dosa as dinner or lunch. 

The eatery lane is a raodside eatery but its family place he said and we could see the crowd. We decided to try it out. Nikita did enjoy it. We had Idli, Palak Dosa and rice roti.

After a god sleep we got ready and headed to see the Zoo. The Mysore Zoo is established by  Maharaja Sri Chamaraja Wodeyar in 1890s which is the oldest zoo in India. The zoo was opened to the public in 1902. The zoo is a must see for people of all ages. 

The opening animal is Giraffe. First we thought its a replica and suddenly it moved. whoaaaa...

The Macaws are magnificant. The coloured pheasants, saras crane and hornbill are also beautiful.. In Carnivores there are leopards, tigers, lions, cheetahs and in good numbers. Needless to say deers, elephants, bison, neel guy, rhinos and many more. The snake park is also good. The birds cage is very good where you are in the cage with birds such as Painted stork, night heron, pelican, spoonbills. Rest you only enjoy when you plan a visit. The zoo is maintained nicely. For such a small fee (140 Rs includes 2 Adults and still camera fee), its too good and also very much covered in shade by trees, lavs and drinking water available. There is a good fountain inside as well.

We headed for a lunch at some other restaurant, the food was ok there and we did go a la carte. After a sleep in the afternoon we had planned to visit palace but to our surprise, suddenly it started raining heavily. We visited the handicraft shop but then returned to hotel. We took dinner at hotel. Next day we visited Mysore Palace. Its magnificent the way its built and the expanse is too much.. We skipped the museum as it would have been boring for Nikita to see the clothes of Maharaja and his chair etc for her age. 

The Palace:

We then started our journey to Coorg. We Visited Golden temple, the largest Buddhist settlement in South India. It is situated at Bylakuppe. The monastery is called as Namdroling Monastery and is the largest teaching center of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in the world. 

Some Snaps of the monastery: More at fb.me/niranjandandekarphotography

After visiting this Monastery we had a lunch at a hotel on the highway. Not sure about the name of it but was good in terms of food taste and probably only available to be called hotel/ restaurant.

Our next stop was at Nisarg dham. The Nisarg dham is a deer and elephant farm. You need to cross a hanging bridge and then you arrive at a nature camp sort of place. Kids can enjoy the park (if it could have been maintained properly, which is not actually).

The most interesting part is feeding deers with cucumber. you can buy cucumber and call the deers. There is a fence in between but the kids love to feed the deers. There is an elephant as well but it was in Mysore for Dussehra festival procession.

Nisarg Dham:

We then checked in to Ambatty Greens resort after a heavy rain on the way. The Resort is little bit off the main Madikeri town but is at beautiful location. The cottages / twin bungalow design is very nice. Every room has a balcony and the bathroom is nicely designed. The view of Golf course from the swimming pool is beautiful. There are lots of flowers in the resort and you can try some photography skills. Since we came late, we chose to take rest and get ready for next day sight seeing of Madikeri. We took dinner at Resort which had limited Veg options. The food is good but it would be good to add few more Veg subji options. One more thing about this resort is that the road to resort last 2 kms is not very good and very narrow. The hotel has taken a note of this already and designed way in and way out as different routes but local people may not follow it as we experienced. Because of the location and road, it becomes  difficult if you opt to take dinner out. Also the hotel does not have buffet, at least all 3 days we stayed never had buffet. That limits your options. 

Well that being said, we had not so good experience with Pineapple raita one night. It was salty and no pineapple.. I was shocked to find it and asked him to taste it. The restaurant manager took it inside and we got another raita, where they added pineapple on top of base salty raita. I was shocked to find this out and I immediately asked to take it back as this is not acceptable. Its supposed to be sweet and not salty at all. Little bit of salt for taste I can understand but there was no Sugar and all salt. They didnt charge for the raita after this fiasco. I asked him to add it to bill as I had to finish it, but Nikita could not eat as Subji was bit spicy. To my surprise, next day dinner we again got a pineapple raita without ordering and I was happy to see the way they took care of customers. They dint charge for that as well and it was as expected Sweet Pineapple raita. 

Breakfast @ Ambatty was very good, the spread had bread butter, idli, utappa, pan cake, poori bhaji, juice (2), veg tikki/patty, chocos/ corn flakes, Tea coffee so pretty much of variety compared to a la carte dinner.

Ambatty Greens Resort:

Sight seeing at Coorg:

There are three places to visit, Abbe Falls, Madikeri fort (absolutely Boring) and Omkareshwar temple ( which is closed from 12-5PM, awww? 12-5 thats too much)

Apart from that there is Raja Seat point and shopping >> Home made chocolates and spices.

Abbe falls is wonderful but I wished they could allow to go below the hanging bridge with some safety for photographers. The bridge is not still as its hanging and it moves so its a challenge for slow shutter photos. 
Check out the photos at my facebook page >  fb.me/niranjandandekarphotography.

Abbe Falls:

Medikeri fort is boring , nothing much to see. There is a Museum inside, which is in dire need of maintenance. The names etc are just print outs that too in bad shape. It says its under Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The one point I want to pinpoint is @ Abbe falls and in the Madikeri, there is pay and use latrines / toilets. They charge 5 Rs but they are useless. Its height of cheating as for ladies its in worst condition and they dont have any option but to use them. People are paying but it needs to be maintained properly and they are charging 5Rs which is a good amount for one time use. At both places, we found it in very very bad state, not maintained at all. So ladies be careful and choose a good restaurant where you can use washrooms.

One day we went to Dubare elephant camp where there are lots of different options available. Bathing elephants, riding elephants, feeding elephants. Of course everything comes with a charge but its a unique experience more importantly if you are with kids.

Entry fee is 20 per adult, 30 Rs for Boat transfer. 100 each for bathing, feeding and a 50m ride. Ride could have been more at least 100m. After this, we headed for lunch and there is a food court outside Nisarg Dham. We took lunch there. Its a good place to have lunch, and we could get Dosa, utappa and Ghee roast, idli for lunch. So Niki was happy too.

Dubare Elephant camp:

Evening I was busy taking some Macro shots of flowers at Ambatty resort.

Next day post breakfast, we decided to visit Irpu falls on the way to Wayanad. The road to irpu is narrow and very confusing as there are two roads. The fall is situated in Bramhagiri National park and the authorities have taken care of banning plastic by checking and charging for every bottle of water. Upon returning the bottle, they hand over the charged amount. To see Irpu fall one has to walk, climb stairs actually. Its not a huge distance you need to cover but its not short too so if you are old aged or carrying an infant/ kids, be prepared to carry them.

One thing I dint like much is you can pollute water by sitting in it.

Irpu falls:

After visiting Irpu falls, we headed via jungle to Wayanad. The fall itself is on border of Karnataka-Kerala. After the checkpost while in Kerala, we stopped for lunch. In Kerala you can get Dosa, idli and utappa etc for lunch. This is the place we both cant forget as this was only descent place we found on the way nearby. Plain Dosa for Nikita was for 10 Rs. which was a shocker. I mean what do you get in 10 Rs?.

We had Ghee Roast and some fried rice. 

 

We headed to Wayanad resort and Sampath suggested we visit Pookot lake on the way before checking in to resort. Resort is again little bit off side so that would save some time next day. Edakkal caves and this pookot lake are not nearby. It was a huge disappointment for Pookot lake. Its a lake and a kids play park. This is boring considering there is nothing to see. there is a trail of around 3-4 km around lake which we skipped because of huge rush and nothing much to see.

We visited viewpoint on the same road from where you can see some roads down the valley, and be careful of monkeys there.

Then we saw chain tree which was a disappointment again. There is nothing to see.

We headed for resort which is on other way, as we were tired. Finally got the exit on the highway to reach resort. The road to resort is extremely narrow and in between those 3-4 kms you will think several times if we are driving in correct direction.  The resort is located in serene location. Its almost in Jungle. The cottages are nicely designed but it got compared to Ambatty which is class apart. The washroom could be better designed, as for the cottage it was good. Each one has a private balcony and a view to valley with Minmutty falls. The cottage view is amazing and you can hear birds chirping almost all time. Had Tea / coffee at room and relaxed and took bath. for dinner again there is no option but only Buffet at restaurant. The buffet food was tasty and not much to complain. for 400 a piece the buffet had a soup, 2 veg subji, 1 fish, 1 chicken curry with plain rice, pulao and freshly prepared paratha. There were 2-3 sweets and also curd, salad to sum up. 

The swimming pool is also there besides restaurant. Emu is kept near restaurant, which is good for kids. The resort also has a waterfall running thru the property and also some ducks. Ducks are very noisy when you get close to them so be careful if you are watching birds, once duck starts making noises the birds will fly away.

The most loved part of the resort was surroundings, the jungle. I was able to spot lots of birds though could not capture all. 

Some of the birds I could capture are: (like the facebook page to get regular updates)

1. Purple rumped sunbirds

2. Golden backed woodpecker

3. Yellow browed bulbul

4. Small green barbet  / White cheeked barbet

5. Greater racket tailed drongo

6. Drongo (not sure exactly type, bronze or black , white bellied, was too far)

Post by Niranjan Dandekar Photography.

The best time to saw these beauties is between 7-9 AM just after sunrise they start chirping and as time sets right, you will enjoy the tones and the flying show. The Drongo however is noisiest at dawn. And it actually will irritate you at 5- 5:30 AM. But once you are up, it actually is pleasing song bird.

Racket tailed drongo sings:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6mq4xqaefg5fwbe/Racket.mp3?dl=0

Last day at resort, we visited Soojipara falls. The road to the fall is extremely bad at the end and we had to walk close to 3 km. The parking is way too up but the road is not in good condition, if you have an SUV, then there is no problem.

The road above is well laid and steep stairs in the end. while you have to go down to see the falls, its a challenge to come up as its very humid. If you are carrying kids/ infants, be careful and prepared to climb up carrying them. Also for old people its very difficult, as while going down you dont feel much but when you come back, its all steep climb on a laid road. 

Painted Grasshopper on the way:

The Soojipara Fall:

On the way:

The fall - tilt shift effect > 

We skipped Edakkal caves as some people at resort suggested it could be a challenge to take Nikita and climb and get down the last patch of 0.5 km. and as such there is not much to see if you cant make it to top. So we took an informed decision to skip it and took rest at resort. 

Last day, we had packed breakfast as we left at 8:15 AM because it was 300+ km and road will be blocked near Mysore because of traffic. It was Dussehra crowd though it was one day after Dussehra.

We left with a good feeling of combining all of relaxation with sightseeing with some trekking and lastly enjoying the nature in its lap. While coming back we experienced something surprisingly unique. We were crossing Muthanga wildlife national park. The distance is around 20-30 Km of well laid road in the jungle. 
We came across a bison, a wild bison at a distance of 20 feet. we in Etios and the bison staring at us. There were couple of more vehicles as well. We moved on as we had lot of distance to cover. Next to our surprise, we saw a wild elephant at a distance of around 200 ft. we moved on and saw some Deers and Langoor.
What came next is just amazing while we were about to come out of jungle (around 3km), an elephant with tusks crossed our Etios, wow.. he was fast and was almost running. I tried to capture video but before I could start my mobile camera, he disappeared. I could get a bison video and a noisy elephant who crossed (no video of elephant only noise).
We reached well in time to make the flight. Flight was at 7:25 PM we reached at 5PM.
Still for 316 odd km, it took us 9 hours with 1:15hr break. Thats only because of single lane road, two wheelers and we were lucky as it was Saturday, non working day in bangalore.

Take away:

Mysore Zoo is worth visit for nature loving person of any age.
Coorg is wonderful. You can enjoy even if you spend 3 days there.
Ambatty greens is a wonderful resort a nice gateway from crowded city but outside so be careful when you choose that, you need a vehicle at disposal if you are in interstate tour.
Even if the distances are short, they take more time than your average calculations.
There is nothing much to see in Wayanad except waterfalls and dam but wildlife / nature can compensate that.
Try Sunrise valley resort or Pugmarks jungle lodge both tend to be in jungle

If you are with Kids, make sure you know that you can carry them to and from Irpu, soojipara falls and Edakkal caves.

Suggestions on Hotels:

Coorg: Serene Woods (we dint get this booking), Ambatty Greens is a great relaxing place.

Wayanad : Pugmarks Jungle lodge (again we dint get it as response from hotel was very slow), Sunrise Valley resort is good place to relax in the lap of the nature.

Mysore: you have many options to suite your style and budget.

I did the booking from a friend of mine, Harshad, who works with Simas Holidays in Pune. They also arrange Lakshadweep trips (for government as well, as they are authorized agents).

http://simasholidays.com/

alternately you can call on 020-2446 6955 and ask for Harshad

Monsoon weekend in Mahabaleshwar...

4rth July, American Independence day. All IT folks do celebrate it as its holiday in US, and when its a holiday in America, its holiday in IT in India.. Some unlucky get off on Indian holidays, like Diwali and Good friday and some on Gudi Padva... The rest of us get off as per US holidays.. Anyway, had planned to visit for 2 days but since our CEO was planning a trip to Offshore had a meeting on calendar.. So after my wife's this and that, finally booked Dreamland hotel in Mahabaleshwar for saturday 5th July and check out on 6th...

We heard a lot about this hotel from my sister and we were looking forward to some good time in Mahabaleshwar. Some shopping, some points and clouds.. Its Monsoon season you know, though in Pune, rather India Monsoon has not yet picked up even at the start of July, we were hopeful we will get to see some rain.

Started at around 9AM on Saturday from Sinhgad road, the traffic was normal, some unlucky people who still do 6 days a week.. What to do, papi pet ka sawal hai.. Topped up Linea at Kondhe- Deshmukh Petrol pump for around 25 liters.. Reached Toll in a flash.. the road was looking good. Forget rain, there were even hardly clouds but I was optimistic as a cousin told a day before she was travelling and experienced rain in Wai.

We were cruising nicely in Linea and a sudden roadblock.. Just out of no where there is a traffic Jam. Got stuck up in the traffic for about 30 mins. .Luckily it was not an accident involving any injuries, a truck had some mechanical failure right in the middle of the road.. Finally got out of the mess.. Passed the beautiful ghat section of Khambataki with an ease and reached the exit.

At Mahabaleshwar exit we had Pohe and tea, Nikita as usual did not eat much, she had biscuits in the car later.. The break was from 10:30- 10:50 AM. Now comes the fun ride, Pasarani ghat.. Not like Khambataki, this ghat section is not a one way. And many of the yo drivers drive rash, overtaking on blinds. Linea was good enough and we reached Panchagani and without a stop headed for mahabaleshwar..

As we crossed Venna lake, bliss... Clouds all across but as soon as we reached top, the red hot SUN was awaiting to welcome us which we never wanted..
Anyway, checked in at Dreamland hotel @ 12:10 PM besides ST stand. First impression , awesome property.. Very spacious and pretty clean..

Our booking was at executive room so parked Linea at the dedicated parking spot.. Complete Hotel was sold out. We freshened up quickly and it was almost 1PM. Nikita was hungry, we decided to head out for lunch which was near reception...

Shocker of the day: Vegetables at buffet were: 1. Karla (karela) 2. Double bee (dont knw what it is called in hindi or english) and luckily 3. Batata Rus bhaji (Potato subji). Sweet was Aam rus (canned mango). Apart from that, it was Kadhi and rice and small kachoris. Puri and Phulaka was available in breads section.

After good Aam rus poli/ Puri we roamed around without any hope of rain near swimming pool and then I was sleepy so we went ahead to the room. Niki and I slept at around 2:15-2:30PM and suddenly at 3:30 i got up, it was raining, CATS & DOGS...

But the Aam rus was too much on my eyes, could not wake up, I slept. Got a high tea at room at 5, batate wada and tea / coffee.
After having that, we went ahead to visit Market with umbrella and jacket. Nikita is very afraid of rain. She just does not like to get wet in rain.

Had some fun in market, some corn some shopping.. came back just in time and it started raining again.. Then there after it was all cloudy dreamland..

Dinner:
again a huge disappointment for the veggies: Wanga, Gawar and then luckily Palak Paneer (Paneer word was on the white paper) in the veggie it was not meant to be found.
But frankly Im just pulling leg, I got a whole 2 pieces in 2 portions each piece was around an inch by inch.. Breads section had Jawar rotla and parotha, which was a problem if you have kids, they dont eat that..
The other items were good, Masala Rice, plain rice, Kadhi (again) and pasta and Pani puri. Sweet was Ice cream, would have been better to have Gulab Jam + Vanilla. Anyway..

Entrance, Porch...

Property is impressive, they need to serve better in terms of food. Rooms are spacious and Hot water is available between 7AM to 7PM ONLY.. 

We checked out next day morning at 9:30 odd. Put all luggage in the car and headed for breakfast. Breakfast was best, Pineapple Sheera, Idli, Corn cheese sandwiches and normal stuff such as corn flakes, bread butter, jam, and Pulpi orange / tea coffee/ Bournvita. 

After checkout we went ahead to see some spots, like Marjorie and savitri. never had a plan to visit Arthur seat as its too much to walk with Nikita. We visited Temple, had some shopping for Nikita and then returned.

Shot from Savitri Point: 7D @10mm

Only some places we got clear sky, could take only this shot.

We had decided not to stop at Mapro Garden, it being too crowded and also the sandwiches they serve has too much of capsicum.. So we stopped at Mala's but to our surprise and disbelief there was no food.only Pizza. We then had to take a U turn and got a Manama cafe garden just on 200 meters. Ate there Strawberry with cream and sandwiches and garlic cheese toasts and Nikita had Mango Ice cream. We started back after shopping a bit at Mala's.

Reached at home at around 4PM.

Dashboard Stats: 
KM: 249.5 km
Avg: 15.7 KMPL
Avg Speed: 44 kmph
Total Time: 5:41 hours


Fiat Eco Drive stats: 
Seems Eco Drive missed a trip or two.. But anyway its pretty close.