Lonavla Trip !!

As soon as I came back from this trip.. my Gmail status message was..

"From Feet itching to Feet aching.. and trust me ..feet aching is much better than feet itching..Finally a Lonavla trip"

That was the kind of desperation for going out under which I made this trip !! Ok.. now let me get to the details

We (Santhosh, Vadivelan and myself) started off from IITB at around 6 am.. It's not everyday that you get to wake up at 4 am rite !! The weather was pretty cold.. !! btw the trip was on 9th July 2006.

After having a Chai !! at Kanjurmarg.. we got to Dadar and met up with Chetan, MRP and Sumith. The train started off at 7 am. Getting into the train I broke my Chappal.. which I had feared all along. Anyways I didn't care much !! Chetan had brought some Puran Poli from his house and we also ate some biscuits and Omlette. The train journey was quite lovely after Karjat.

Got down at Lonavla at 9.00 am.

Go out and no prizes for guessing whom you meet first..The auto drivers.. ever ready to take you for a sight seeing trip for 400 bucks.. I remembered seeing Charukesi Ramadurai's blog and insisted on walking.. or finding a bus.. But sadly the next bus was only at 10.30 and we ended up taking 2 autos to the Bushy dam !!

Man !! Bushy dam was quite an experience !! The crowd was ecstatic.. the only problem was that you would run into a totally drunk person at nearly every step :(.. otherwise.. it was too good !! Next time you go there .. remember to go early. atleast not after 9.30.. Otherwise .. you ain't enjoying anything !! You'll lose your temper and joy in the crowd !!

We decided to drench ourselves fully.. (Tip: Next time you go there.. do not take anything along except your room Key chain or something..if you have an optic sensor at home.. even the better) The only problem was that atleast one guy had to stay back to guard our items !!

After getting fully drenched ..we dried ourselves up.. while looking at the dam in awe !!

Then we treated ourselves to the best drink available.. the great "Garam Chaaya".. and believe me.. we extracted every bit of it's first word from it..even from it's glass !!

Then we made our way up the waterfall.. MRP found it a little too much.. and stayed put down !! He really missed the fun part !!

The look of the waterfall was just amazing !!

Standing in the waterfall.. you felt as if a thousand pple are pelting heavy stones at you !!.. you really can't stand in that waterfall for more than 5 secs.. I spent most of the time inside the waterfall !!

Man.. I will not get such an experience anywhere in the near future !! Then we got down..It's only after you get down that you realise how high you've been !!

Then what..?? Grub..?? what else ?? So we went to the nearby hotel and hogged... I literally mean it.. after such a nice trekking session.. it was the perfect remedy..Though I would have preferred one more Chaaya.. it wasn't available in that hotel.. and we were preoccupied with our immediate plans after coming out !!

 Finally we decided to catch an auto back to the station and decide our next course of action from there !! But the crowd had picked up by then (it was around 2.00 when we came out of the hotel !!) The traffic was moving slow.. and we could pick up some shots in between.. esp the lake !!

Then.. came the news of Shiv Sena riots breaking out in Dadar.. all buses to the city were cancelled.. and the last train was at 19.00..Not deciding to take risks we booked the 16.40 Deccan Express to Bombay !! Then we had some Chikki and some Chai..again !!

There was about a hour and a half left for the train.. we spent a considerable time at the Chikki shop and then moved to the station to find that there was a long queue standing for the 1 general compartment bogey to be attached at Lonavla !! Hats off to Santhosh and Vadivelan for getting us all proper seats in that train.. !! and ya.. to the train driver for making that mistake of stopping the train 2 m just too ahead of the usual place !! That was enough for us to get seats..!!

As usual.. the view from the train was just too good !!

Now.. Vadivelan found out that our tickets had crumbled in his wet pocket.. We had a tough time reassembling them !!

We three of us got down at Thane and came back quietly to IITB.. without tickets !! So our Lonavla trip was finally over.. I was too tired to watch the Fifa World Cup final !! So I went and watched the last 2 sets of Federer-Nadal and went to sleep.. to realise the full meaning of my status message to be the next morning !!