Aug 27, 2006 07:06 PM
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This summer vacation I decided to head for Mahabaleshwar, and as usual it has to be in the month of May as the kids are on vacation at this time. Took sometime to get onto mouthshut as got back to some hectic work and busy home schedule.
Booked a family room in MTDC through their website well in advance. The plan was, we see how it went and then proceed further west to Dapoli-Harnai-Murud for a bit of salt water & sun.
Set course early morning at 6 am and took the N.I.B.M Road approach via Undri to Saswad. Now this is a diversion as the Katraj tunnel was shut for repairs ahead of the monssons. The distance was slightly longer but nice scenic route and not much traffic inspite of the diversion. At Saswad turned off towards Narayanpur via Balaji temple/shrine (venkateshwara hatcheries fame) and after a short drive through some ghats met up with the Pune Bangalore highway. Stepped on the gas and beautiful half an hours stretch. Turn off right towards Wai from the highway and then a steep climb to reach Panchgani. Drove through Panchgani and arrived at Mahabaleshwar at 9am. Very pleasant this time of year. Pune-Mahabaleshwar via Saswad 136km as per my speedometer.
Always heard that Mahabaleshwar is very commercial, and is the reason we avoided this trip for a long long time. The good thing was the MTDC resort was a km away from the main marketplace where all the hustle & bustle is. The family rooms at MTDC were spacious reminded you of the British era. Large rooms and an extra changing room and a dinning room. The bedroom opens directly to the balcony(drawback) where you can sit out on the chairs provided and watch all the horses go by luring the kids for rides and the strawberries and raspberries on sale. In the mornings and tea time the cobblers land up with their fancy footwares for the ladies. What I enjoyed most were the Ice cream walas on their cycles, 10 bucks a cone. The rooms were much to rave about, cost me 800 bucks per night, the beds were made of iron and made all sorts of noise. If you want a little more comfort I suggest you take the cottages for 1500 bucks which are at close proximity to the restaurant and reception. The family rooms were at the back adjacent road.
The restaurant that the MTDC runs is quite good and reasonable enough but for change we went out to town and a place worth trying out is the PWD mess just a little ahead of the family room in the MTDC complex itself. Nice homemade food and very reasonable. Thali kind of system and they have a menu as well to give a la carte.
While in Mahabaleshwar, I don’t think you should waste much time in going to the points, except for Arthur’s seat which is worth the drive, takes about half an hour to reach there. My kids were crazy about the commercial boating spot which is very popular with the tourists(peddle boat 100 for half hour0 and the fresh strawberries and awesome roasted bhuttas. Nice evening outs but make sure you go there well before sunset otherwise you’ll never get to the boat ride.
You must try out the strawberries with fresh cream in any of the stalls but it tastes the best at the farms on the stretch between panchgani and mahabaleshwar. Heavenly. The market is bustling in the evenings, we bought chocolate fudge to bring back home, but be sure to taste it before, some of the shops don’t make it well. You get sandals and shoes quite reasonable here to my surprise, picked up a pair for my son. You must also try out a meal at sher-e –punjab right at the entry to Mahabaleshwar. Lovely punjabi food and quite reasonable(outdoor venue).
One morning we ventured out to Tapola which all the locals rave about. Please do not take this trip as it was a waste of time. After travelling almost an hour and a half you land up in the middle of nowhere and a small shed with a couple of crooks offer you boat rides for an unearthly price.
Imperial stores is worth a visit for their fast food joint and a small cute little departmental stores. I picked up some ready to eat stuff like cup-o-noodles, bread butter etc from here and decided not to eat out that night. Nice change.
Picked up supply of strawberries and baby carrots and headed next morning for Dapoli-Harnai-Murud.
