Making the best out of your trip to Matheran
I made a trip to Matheran yesterday. My wife and I had never been there, hence we chose it for our weekend getaway this time.
Unfortunately, I am turning into this stickler who continues to find problems everywhere. But i couldnt really help it once again when I went to Matheran.
Its a heavenly place. Yes, it really is! But stands short of anything even close to heaven. If given a proper well-planned, well-executed facelift, it will blow the winds out of even Lavasa. Such is the potential of this place.
Alas, just like most other tourist places in the country, Matheran remains ignored by the Govt, the private hospitality industry and its very own native people.
The town is right on the top of a steep mountain. The plateau at the peak of the mountain forms the entire town. It has 38 points of attraction. Seeing all 38 is really not possible in a 2 day trip.
Since its a eco-sensitive place cars arent allowed up the hill. There is a base of the mountain where you need to park your car.
Problem #1 - The car park is so disorganized that you need to just shove your car at any place you can find. The cars are park in any rash manner, thereby sometimes blocking the road for oncoming vehicles. I would have thought it would be easy for the town tourist mgmt to carve out slots out of the parking place to properly park the cars.And to top that, we need to pay Rs 80 per night for the car park.
Problem #2 - As soon as you park and get out of the car, there are a thousand ghodewala's that chase the wits out of you. They try to convince you that the path atop the mountain is very arduous and its best to take a horse-ride. I am the kind of guy who really hates being chased around by people who are trying to extort money from me using the ignorance of a first-timer.
I'd advice, dont take it. There will be plenty of more opportunities to take a horse-ride when you reach the top.
Ask the people around for train tracks. Walk the train tracks straight to the top of the mountain right till the center of the town. Its a 20 min walk and passes through thickly wooded area making the walk very enjoyable. This saves you Rs 700 (for two) which you would have otherwise spent on the horse-ride.
Along the way you see plenty of wildlife, more importantly scores of monkeys that run behind passerby's who are in the mood to give them some food.
After reaching the top look for a hotel that matches your taste. We stayed in Sun-n-Shade which was decent and paid 3,500 for a 2 night package. Meals and breakfast included.
The 38 points of interest in Matheran are all very similar. Its about traveling to the edge of the hill to take a breathtaking look at the mountains and a deep deep ravine. Its absolutely fantastic. Matheran has a very thick forest cover. To visit some of the points you actually have to walk through a heavy forest, which makes the trip very very interesting.
While seeing the points you can take a horse-ride or walk down. This is the point where if you are excited about sitting on a horse, you should take one. The punters charge Rs 350 per hour for the point seeing trip. Tell them 4-5 points that you find interesting and fix a price with them. Don't spend more than Rs 1000 for two for the horse-ride.
If you are in for a walk, nothing like it. I and wife took that route and we really liked it. The only trouble with the walk is, due to a mountainous terrain the walks are really arduous and tire you easily. So choose just 3 points in a day if you are walking. The points are at a distance of 2-3 kms from the center of the town. So for making it to 3 points you would be walking at least 6 km. This is what tires us city dwellers down.
Here are the points we visited :
1. Khandala Point - Not so interesting. You can skip it.
2. Alexander point - Fantastic. Totally recommended.
3. Rambagh point - Fantastic. Totally recommended.
4. Charolette lake - Long way from the town center. Hardly any attempt made by the town mgmt to make it accessible. The lake is best visited in Winter or Rainy season. Anyways, I'd recommend go for it. Its an interesting place.
5. Lords point - Not so interesting. Skippable.
6. Hart's point - Recommended.
7. Monkey point - My wife wanted to go there, but I was too exhausted. So make your judgement for it.
Out of the 38, we made it to 6 points in one-and-half day.
How to get there:
Start on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, exit at khopoli and continue to ask directions for Karjat. From Karjat the way to Matheran is well indicated along the path. When we went there was a lot of road construction going on. Hopefully you will get a better road when you decide to get there.
Unfortunately, I am turning into this stickler who continues to find problems everywhere. But i couldnt really help it once again when I went to Matheran.
Its a heavenly place. Yes, it really is! But stands short of anything even close to heaven. If given a proper well-planned, well-executed facelift, it will blow the winds out of even Lavasa. Such is the potential of this place.
Alas, just like most other tourist places in the country, Matheran remains ignored by the Govt, the private hospitality industry and its very own native people.
The town is right on the top of a steep mountain. The plateau at the peak of the mountain forms the entire town. It has 38 points of attraction. Seeing all 38 is really not possible in a 2 day trip.
Since its a eco-sensitive place cars arent allowed up the hill. There is a base of the mountain where you need to park your car.
Problem #1 - The car park is so disorganized that you need to just shove your car at any place you can find. The cars are park in any rash manner, thereby sometimes blocking the road for oncoming vehicles. I would have thought it would be easy for the town tourist mgmt to carve out slots out of the parking place to properly park the cars.And to top that, we need to pay Rs 80 per night for the car park.
Problem #2 - As soon as you park and get out of the car, there are a thousand ghodewala's that chase the wits out of you. They try to convince you that the path atop the mountain is very arduous and its best to take a horse-ride. I am the kind of guy who really hates being chased around by people who are trying to extort money from me using the ignorance of a first-timer.
I'd advice, dont take it. There will be plenty of more opportunities to take a horse-ride when you reach the top.
Ask the people around for train tracks. Walk the train tracks straight to the top of the mountain right till the center of the town. Its a 20 min walk and passes through thickly wooded area making the walk very enjoyable. This saves you Rs 700 (for two) which you would have otherwise spent on the horse-ride.
Along the way you see plenty of wildlife, more importantly scores of monkeys that run behind passerby's who are in the mood to give them some food.
After reaching the top look for a hotel that matches your taste. We stayed in Sun-n-Shade which was decent and paid 3,500 for a 2 night package. Meals and breakfast included.
The 38 points of interest in Matheran are all very similar. Its about traveling to the edge of the hill to take a breathtaking look at the mountains and a deep deep ravine. Its absolutely fantastic. Matheran has a very thick forest cover. To visit some of the points you actually have to walk through a heavy forest, which makes the trip very very interesting.
While seeing the points you can take a horse-ride or walk down. This is the point where if you are excited about sitting on a horse, you should take one. The punters charge Rs 350 per hour for the point seeing trip. Tell them 4-5 points that you find interesting and fix a price with them. Don't spend more than Rs 1000 for two for the horse-ride.
If you are in for a walk, nothing like it. I and wife took that route and we really liked it. The only trouble with the walk is, due to a mountainous terrain the walks are really arduous and tire you easily. So choose just 3 points in a day if you are walking. The points are at a distance of 2-3 kms from the center of the town. So for making it to 3 points you would be walking at least 6 km. This is what tires us city dwellers down.
Here are the points we visited :
1. Khandala Point - Not so interesting. You can skip it.
2. Alexander point - Fantastic. Totally recommended.
3. Rambagh point - Fantastic. Totally recommended.
4. Charolette lake - Long way from the town center. Hardly any attempt made by the town mgmt to make it accessible. The lake is best visited in Winter or Rainy season. Anyways, I'd recommend go for it. Its an interesting place.
5. Lords point - Not so interesting. Skippable.
6. Hart's point - Recommended.
7. Monkey point - My wife wanted to go there, but I was too exhausted. So make your judgement for it.
Out of the 38, we made it to 6 points in one-and-half day.
How to get there:
Start on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, exit at khopoli and continue to ask directions for Karjat. From Karjat the way to Matheran is well indicated along the path. When we went there was a lot of road construction going on. Hopefully you will get a better road when you decide to get there.
No comments:
Post a Comment