A Weekend with friends in Panchgani, Maharasthra

Times change. Circumstances change. For the last five years I was lucky to have gone on a number of trips with my childhood friends. The time between graduation and marriage is the best time for trips. Young and free, rough travelling is the thing to do and we did many. Over time some friends got married and some went abroad for studies and work. In all probability the rest will get married next year. I too was to leave for Canada for studies. All of this meant the likelihood of trips will drop drastically. With that in mind we planned to have a good trip before we part ways for the time being. So we decided to go on a weekend trip to a Hill station near Pune, as a couple of our friends live in Pune.

Panchgani is a pretty little hill station sitting at an altitude of 1200 MSL. Having a rich history of people of Mumbai and Pune settling here from the times of British, it is an education hub as it features a number of top class boarding schools.

On a bright Saturday afternoon , my friend P revved up his Baleno and off we started for Panchgani. There were 5 of us. First off, Abhishek, who had an epic journey when he missed his train at Hyderabad and took a flight to Mumbai and then a train to Pune. Then Bhanu who came from Bangalore. The two Pune residents were Deepanjan and P. And yours truly.

The drive was event-less and we only stopped when we reached our Hotel in Panchgani. The road was nothing much to write about as it was littered with dhabas, restaurants and hotels. Bhanu rightly commented that it was over commercialized killing the joy of a good ride through the mountains. Our hotel though was a different story. Built in the 1920s, the Mount View Heritage Hotel sits at the edge of a hill offering spectacular views. The hotel itself features victorian architecture and had this warm and cozy atmosphere about it. There was on old Mercedez Benz sitting in a rundown garage nearby and it only added to the charm of the place.

We checked in to the hotel and were pleasantly surprised to see our room. It was much better than what I had in mind. Featuring the classic British dimensions of the time, it featured a high ceiling with support plinths holding up two ceiling fans. The walls were bare with two windows at the front side and two at the rear. A small door led to the room. Four beds were spread over the room with two of them double beds. The room can be booked for 6 persons. A small door at a corner end led to the washroom. All this classic look was a perfect setting for a horror movie.

Well, we got fresh and went outside for a walk in the neighborhood. We had no set agenda and the only thing we wanted to was to have a good time. We strolled around aimlessly. Deepanjan was the  photography enthusiast in the group and he stopped every now and then to take a pic. Sometimes the far off mountain views interested him, other times a butterfly sitting on a flower. With his stopping and starting we moved along with a gentle pace on the road which ran hugging the slope of a hill. The views were spectacular. The air was cold and the overall mood quite pleasant.

We saw a high hill ahead of us where a number of people were headed to and we casually turned our walk in that direction. We sauntered on the winding road leading to the top. The sun was setting down and the blue skies were slowly turning to orange turning the whole area into a delightful mosaic of different shades of colours. It felt wonderful. Friends and a good location. What more can one ask for?

We reached to the top and found out this was called the Sydney Point. It was almost dark now. The views all around were astounding. There was a DJ playing the latest hit numbers of Bollywood which,personally for me, spoiled the overall mood. We sat here taking in the views and the atmosphere. We left the place when it got totally dark. By this time the lights of the town were shining brightly against the darkening sky.

We strolled back to our hotel, meeting a street vendor selling strawberries on the way. Over a pack of strawberries he informed us that the property adjoining our hotel belonged to Amir Khan, the Bollywood actor. Trivia always interests me and this was a good one. For a brief period of time we were the neighbors of Amir Khan.

Later we went to the town for dinner. There was a main street lined with all kinds of shops. There were the usual Kirana, medical and hardware stores. A couple of Bakeries and cafes were what interested me. One, the Roach bakery was the oldest one in town and it displayed this fact in bold letters. It was established in 1902 making it almost 116 years old. Another small cafe with old and withered chairs inside wore an old world look to it. I was tempted to go and have something there but there wasn't enough time so we moved on. Later, back in the hotel room, while flipping through an informational booklet about Panchgani I found that Panchgani is steeped in history. It is actually a treasure trove for trivia hunters. To list off two which intrigued me, One - In 1939 when the Soviets invaded Poland, a lot of Polish people were sent to other countries and some of them made their way to India with an uncertain future. Fortunately for them, Jamsahab of Nawanagar came to their rescue and took them all under his care. Now for the connection, he sent a number of polish students to Panchgani to study. Second- Freddie Mercury, whose actual name was Farrukh Bulsara, studied in one of the schools here.

Coming back, we went to a restaurant and took some chicken dishes back to our hotel. Reaching our room, we settled around the dining table in front of our room and had a hearty meal. Cold weather and hot meals.And friends. Always a super combination.

The next day we woke up leisurely and checked out of the hotel. The day was again pleasant. From Panchgani we drove to Mahabaleswar and did a round of boating in the lake there. From there we moved to the Mapro Farm where we bought some stuff and had some light lunch. From here we started our journey back to Pune. We retraced our way to Panchgani, stopped for a bit on the tableland there and reached pune by night. After a quick dinner in one of the subway outlets we parted ways and returned to our respective places. For the first time I felt a bit of sadness while leaving as I knew I wont be around for the next 1 year and wont be going on any more trips with these guys.

Quick Facts
Panchgani
Altitude 1200 MSL
Distance from Pune - 100kms

Yercaud,Tamil Nadu.

Temperature 43 Deg.Chennai.I was waiting in the Koyembedu Bus Stand for my Bus to Salem.As usual I had my Quechua Rucksack with me which was quite heavy.By the time I completed my search for the correct platform my shirt was wet with sweat.I reached there 15mins before the departure time and after showing my ticket to the Driver I made by way to my seat which was in the last row.The heat was making the inside of the bus suffocating.After an unbearable 10 minutes, the bus started and finally I could breathe easy with the air blowing in from the windows.An hour later I slowly drifted into sleep.

Next day morning I woke up to cool air caressing my face.As I opened my weary eyes and looked out I noticed that the bus was cruising along the roads of Salem. It had rained the previous night and the temperature was cool.The roads were still wet and the air was fresh.This change in climate from the last evenings atrocious conditions livened up my spirits.

After reaching the bus stand I quickly started searching for a local bus to Yercaud and found one just opposite to where I alighted.After a quick confirmation about the destination I boarded the bus and sat snugly near a window seat with my bag on my lap. The local bus had the typical mix of passengers.There were some villagers clad in dhoti kurta.A couple of tourists like myself.Then a few students with bags maybe going home for the weekend.The person who sat beside me tried to initiate small talk in tamil. In reply I said only two words 'tamil illa'. He smiled and kept quiet.The bus departed on time and after a brief run through the streets the climb started.At the base the elevation is around 200MSL.The bus wound its way through the numerous hair pin bends as it gained elevation. The views were excellent. The weather was refreshingly cool and after the previous day's torture in the Chennai heat this was heaven.

After an hour the the bus reached Yercaud.The altitude in my watch was reading 1300MSL which for me is quite exciting.Yercaud is a pretty little town.Our bus made its way past little dwellings beside the road and a beautiful lake which is a staple of all hill stations in India.Far away on the hill sides I could spot hotels perched right on the edge of cliffs. I reached Yercaud Bus Stand around 8am an hour after I boarded the bus from Salem. The bus stand offers beautiful view of the town.It stands on a slope with one side fenced off. I walked over to this fence to have a look at the view. Before I could even take in the views a faint stench of urine hit me. From what I could gather this point had become an unofficial toilet. I was dismayed by this. Here was an excellent viewpoint and you make it a place to piss. Nevertheless I made my way over to the railing and had a good look around.From here the whole town was visible and right on the opposite side on the hill were some resorts.

From the bus stand I made my way to Hotel Shoba which I had booked just a day before.It is located very near, on the right side once you exit the bus stand. I checked in, put my stuff in and went out for breakfast. I had steaming hot dosa in a small nondescript hotel nearby. The taste was heavenly.They have only two dishes. Dosa and Idly. I recommend a visit to this hotel if you are anywhere nearby the bus stand.

After this hearty breakfast I made my way back to my room. It was a simple affair with a neat bed, a teapoy and a chair. A window offered views of an abandoned bungalow nearby. I quickly took a refreshing bath and tucked in for a nap.

I woke up in the afternoon thoroughly refreshed. The temperature was still around 25 and I just wanted to have my lunch and go back to sleep. But somehow I got up and went out. I decided to  skip all the touristy spots and just go for a big long walk around town. I started off from my hotel crossed the bus stand to my right and continued to walk towards the lake that I had see earlier while coming on the bus. The lake was swarmed by tourists everywhere. All the roads beside it were filled by them. Even then the lake looked mesmerizing.There were a lot of paddle boats moving around in the lake and the sight was quite pretty. I looked around for a place to eat and found one.It was nothing to write about.Poor service and poor food. Next I went round the lake and took a stroll inside a park there. Again it was swamped with tourists and I was not feeling enthusiastic about spending any time here so I took a few pics and went out. I continued on the same street and gradually the number of people began to dwindle. The crowd was limited to the lake. Far away now I could see I was in the quieter part of the town.

I looked around and found out that I was on the opposite side of the hill on which the Bus stand and my hotel is situated. So basically its like the town is divided into two parts on two hills.Typical small town dwellings lined both sides of the road. Nothing remarkable here. From this part I slowly made my way to the opposite side. I took many random turns going where my heart told me go at that instant. I was in no hurry. Soon I fond myself in a street with a dead end. Just near on the end to the right in between two small houses, a bit down below I saw a pretty tower jutting out from a branches of a tree.It reminded me of the watchtowers in the videogame 'Age of Empires'.I kept staring at the tower trying to figure out what it was when a passerby asked me something in Tamil. I had no idea what she said. I simply pointed at the tower and said 'just looking'. She indicated that I can go down on a path and said its a church.I thanked her and I started making my way down to the church on the rough mud path. I met a person going in the opposite direction. I asked for the proper path and he guided me to the church and to the exit which went around the church. After  a minutes walk I emerged behind the exquisite church. It was a sight to behold. I was spellbound by the architecture. I love heritage buildings and this was one beautiful building.

From here I joined the streets again. Other highlights of my walk were walking past the Monfort School with its stunning location and excellent grounds. Then the Notre Dame Estate which lies on a small hill of its own.Again stunning location. The building also looked magnificent and reminded me of the grand manors of the Victorian Era.There were many small pretty cottages which which all the English look about them. I made a mental note to look for an accommodation in these kind of cottages the next time I come to Yercaud.

After this lovely walk I made my way back to my hotel room. The sun was about to set and I didn't want to be out in the lonely streets after dark.(The bus stand area was pretty crowded even after dark but the streets out in the far away hills were lonely.) After a dinner of dosas in one of the small restaurants nearby I called it a day and tucked in for the night.

The Library and Sports Club Building

The next morning I went for a stroll again and this time I went to a different part. The winding streets and the pretty cottages again made my morning refreshing. After breakfast in the same hotel I checked out form my hotel and went to the bus stand. A bus was ready to depart for Salem and I boarded it.I reached Salem at around 11am. I finally reached my home in Nellore at 1am in the night.

Maredumilli,Andhra Pradesh

                    Maredumilli is a village situated in the beautiful maredumilli range in the northern area of Andhra Pradesh. Lying at an altitude of  400 MSL Maredumilli lies in the middle of a thick forest all around.It forms a part of the Eastern Ghats.It is just 120km from Bhadrachalam and around 80km from Rajamundary.

                     A few days back owing to a friend's wedding I went to my home in Aswapuram in Khammam Dist. Inevitably,the gathering of our friend's group after a long gap resulted in a trip.We decided to visit the quaint and quiet maredumilli area.We had booked the cottages a few days back and it was to be a 1 night and 1 day trip.We booked a Tata magic for the six of us and off we went.We left our homes at 2pm in the afternoon and reached Maredumilli at around 6pm.It was quiet dark by then.Maredumilli has a Govt Inititave called Vana Vihari.That is where we booked our cottages for the night.

Our cottage for the night.We had booked two of these.

             The next morning we were woken up by the cleaning lady knocking our door.Apparently the staff followed the 8am check out very seriously.On enquiry we found out that a contingent of police officers had booked a number of cottages due to some camp they were having.By 8am a couple of officers were strolling near our cottage waiting for us to get out which we promptly did by 8:05am.

Ordering Bamboo Chicken for dinner

              We walked out casually outside with no set plan in mind.We went to the town centre which is a crossroad to the left of the resort.Here we tried to negotiate a price to hire an auto to the nearby sights but liked none of the offers.So we decided to walk.A couple of friends were reluctant but the rest of us convinced them by saying that this was the best way to get a feel for the place.

In the coffee plantation

              So we started our walk on the main and only road that leads to the various sights around the Village of Maredumilli. This was the main road leading towards Bhadrachalam from where we had come the other day. The walk turned out to be a brilliant idea.The weather was nice.The temperature comfortable and an occasional gust of wind blowing.We walked past murmuring brooks,fallen trees,chattering monkeys,moss covered culverts and butterfly filled clearings in the forest.After an hour we passed by a coffee plantation.It was all fenced but further ahead a gate was open.We strolled in and went a bit ahead.The atmosphere here was just beautiful.It was  a bit dark with branches of trees shading the area.There was a clearing in the branches through which rays of sunlight were falling.And they were falling on a fallen tree.We sat on that log and just monkeyed around.

A beautiful stream

            After spending an half an hour there we resumed our walk.We had walked around 5km when we reached the first of the waterfalls.Here we spent some time chatting and taking pics.The waterfall is nothing spectacular but offers a good spot for a picnic.

The scenery surrounding the road was wonderful

             We also passed a medicinal plants garden and an under progress rest house. At around 1pm we had covered 7km and we decided it was time to end our walk and maybe hitchhike and reach bhadrachalam by evening.But to our growing apprehension no vehicle was stopping and no RTC was bus was in sight too.Our apprehension was due to the fact that we were in a jungle area and we did not want to get stuck there by the time it got dark.

            Around 1 30pm we reached a village which brought huge relief for us.This village was nothing more than a couple of huts strewn along the stretch of the road.We went to a shop and had biscuits and some tea.We enquired about the next RTC bus there and found out that there was a bus after 30mins.But when we spotted an empty auto we hired it immediately and reached the next town chinturu.From here we boarded a RTC bus to reach Bhadrachalam by dusk.After some snacks and a bit of a shopping we reached our homes by 8pm.And thus ended our small trip to Maredumilli.

Info
-You can book cottages at this website-http://www.vanavihari.com/
-There is no problem of food as the whole street has shops lined on both sides of the road selling the local speciality Bamboo Chicken.All shops close by 8 30pm.
-No mobile network works here except BSNL.
-The nearest town on the bhadrachalam side is Chinturu.

My brother recently gave me a waterproof camera.I clicked a few pics with it.

Another one at a wonderful stream which runs along the main road for some distance. 

Mainpat,Chhattisgarh,India.(Post 2)

Mainpat evokes memories of sleepy villages set against a backdrop of green rolling gentle hills and colourful fluttering flags of the Tibetans.The virgin forests,the numerous waterfalls and a unique place where the land shakes under ones feet make mainpat a perfect retreat for the people of Chhattisgarh.I personally found the solitude of the place its biggest draw. It is my favourite place in Chhattisgarh.

I visited mainpat last year and heres my post about it.Last week myself along with my work colleagues made another trip there.This time I suggested we stay the night there.We made the required arrangements beforehand and off we started at around 5pm from our place near Tamnar which is 45km from Raigarh,Chhattisgarh.Our group consisted of my seniors Amol,Yashwant,Naveen,Varun,Vinay,pankaj,satya and myself.

We reached Kamleshwarpur, which is where both the staying options of mainpat are available,at around 10 30pm.We chose the private resort Mercury instead of State Tourism's one as it was way cheaper.An arrangement was made with the manager of Mercury for a campfire.By the time we arrived the campfire was ready and our dome tent was yet to be set up.It was very chilly and the warmth of the fire quickly made us settle down around the fire.we started off with the obvious horror stories but an hour into it we couldn't quite get the spooky atmosphere going as every now and then someone cracked a witty reply to a scary situation and the whole tense build up was broken.Vinay sir told a couple of awesome stories but we had nothing much to go on so we changed tracks and launched into a full scale jokes mode.Now amol sir started off a joke that nearly had people falling off their chairs with laughter. He followed it up with another and now my cheeks were paining.One followed another and we had a wonderful night.We stayed near the fire till 1 am and then went inside our dome tent.There were cots and sleeping backs ready for us.The bags were of quechua make and quite good.We tucked in ready to sleep but with the excitement we couldn't quite sleep right away.More round of jokes followed and there was jumping around in sleeping bags.We finally slept around 3am.

The next morning I woke up with a start as Yashwant sir was yelling at the top of his voice waking everyone.It was 6 30am and we all went for a walk in the cool morning breeze to a nearby check dam.We strolled around, took in the views and took some pics.The breeze especially was refreshing.Next in the schedule was an ATV ride.Only satya and Myself were interested in that and we took it.The handle was a bit off to the left and we had some problem negotiating the vehicle.After the ride we headed off for River crossing near a nearby stream.The resort people were very laid back in their attitude and they took their own sweet time in setting up the equipment.They set up a rope across a small stream with a tree on each side.We decided to start with the one who weighed the least and that was me.I got ready with the belts,carabiners and the gloves.The crew put me in position with me hanging with my hands holding the roller.Then they left me and away I went rolling till I reached the mid point.From there I used my hands to roll to the other side of the stream.Having done a 1km zip line and bungee jumping in rishikesh I was mildly excited with this experience.After my turn it was satya's turn and one after the other everyone did it.

Next we moved to Jaljala.This was a bizarre place where the land under our feet moved as we jumped up and down.When I first heard about the place I did not give it much thought.But having reached there and experiencing it first hand was very thrilling.We jumped around here for quite some time and next moved on to a nearby waterfall.These falls are a bit far from jaljala but the route to reach it starts off from the same place.We hiked through the forest and descended down to the falls.The falls were beautiful.Vinay sir,amol sir and yashwant sir couldnt control the excitement and they jumped into the chilly waters.Shivering in the ice cold water they shouted and screamed as they tried to muster some resistance in their bodies.After they could hold on no longer they left the water and after some group pics we moved on to our next place,Fish Point.

   
There was a huge crowd at Fish Point as it was a sunday.We reached,immediately selected a place and undressing till our undergarments jumped into the ice cold water.We frolicked around in the water for some time and only came out when we couldn't handle the chilly water anymore.Next we moved onto Tiger Point.

It is so named because a Tiger was spotted here a long time ago.This is area is located around 5-10km from Kamleswarpur towards sitapur side.We sat around here,had some bhel and took some pics.It was soon dusk and it was time to go.On our return journey we had an awesome dinner at Tamjeed dhaba.It capped off a wonderful journey to a gem of a hillstation that is Mainpat.

A short video of our trip.

In Brief -
Mainpat is 178km from Raigarh and 80km from Ambikapur.
Best time to visit is in the monsoon season and winter season.
Staying options include the privately owned Mercury Resorts and a Govt owned Resort.
A car can be booked from Raigarh.It costs around Rs3000 - Rs4500.People here genrally charge Rs11 per km here.Buses ply between Ambikapur and Raigarh but they are largely unreliable and not comfortable