Recently I had to suddenly head out for a quick trip to the beautiful hill town of Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra.
It was around the New Year weekend, and even though I went there for some work, the hills promised to give me a great time.
While I love road trips, I have never really taken a bus ride that counts as a road trip. But this time, there was no other option and so I had to take the bus.
It started off somewhere around midnight, and while almost everyone was dozing or trying to get to sleep, I was up and excited. What does the highway look like so late at night? Would we stop for some chai? Remember, I told you in an earlier travel story that any time I am traveling by road, I have to stop for chai at the highway, or in the middle of the villages or small towns I am crossing.
Anyway, we did stop somewhere around 3am at night. Of course I got off immediately and went straight for a cup of steaming hot ginger tea. It was nice let me tell you that.
We reached Mahabaleshwar somewhere around 7 in the morning and the first thing that welcomed me was the cold. I could see I would definitely head out for some walk trails as soon as I got some time off from work.
Once the initial formalities were sorted and other things taken care of, I realized with a big smile that my phone had no connectivity! I love it. This is no doubt one of the best things to happen when you are traveling, and come on, why to kill yourself with stress over your phone, when there are better things in store?
Such as….finding a walk trail in the middle of a hill station jungle (kind of a jungle actually).
My friend and I headed out just like that. I admit I had a book in hand; this lovely book of short stories by Jayant Kaikini titled No Presents Please (just finished reading, and if you want to take a look at that sepia toned Mumbai of the 70s and 80s, give it a read). I was meaning to read it sitting somewhere atop the hills, but on the way through our walk, guess where we reached? A tea stall!
This lovely woman there promised me she would make me a cup of ginger tea that I would love, and love it I did, so much so that I ended up having two more cups. And then, as if on a lark, I asked her if she could keep the book with her, so that I could collect it on my way back. Out there, I didn’t feel like looking at a book you know.
Off we went, walking along the bend of the road, no idea where it was taking us, and gradually moving out of the busier parts of the city.
On one side of the road I saw this tempting trail leading into the trees. And I told my friend I really had to walk in there. We ended up walking and coming to the start of stairs, those old stairs covered in vines. What lay ahead none of us knew. We just went along.
When we finally reached the top, the beautiful city of Mahabaleshwar lay spread out in front, cooling us off with its sweet smelling breeze. I wanted to click a picture, but realized my phone was dead, and so was my friend’s.
Anyway, we came back holding on to that sight and that memory of the unplanned walk.
If you’re in Mumbai, I’d still say go ahead and do a quick weekend getaway there. The weather in Mahabaleshwar will be beautiful during December till January, and again during the rainy season (but you can’t really walk in the slush then).
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