A Road Trip To Matheran

I wanted to write about Matheran for quite sometime now but never got the time. And it's an experience that you can never forget. 

We drove some 700 kilometres from Hyderabad to reach this hilly town to enjoy the summers expecting it to be a little cooler than the other cities in India. Unfortunately there was no respite. It was as hot and we were sweating by the time the evening came. So, a tip, not really the best place to chill during summers. But what we loved about this place was its serenity and beauty. The best time it was to get up early in the morning and take a ride towards any of the points to enjoy a view of Matheran. Some of my favourite points have been Sunset point, Louisa point and Lion's point (Which is on our way towards Matheran). 

Haath Gaadi

Horse Rides all around Matheran

To to begin with we reached our resort one afternoon. We parked our car and took the horses and hate gaudy to reach up. If you have a backpack then it's great to walk up and down. A good exercise and you get to see and take a lot of pictures. I enjoyed my horse ride too much to let go of it. Let's just say that I felt like royalty on it and the steadiness of a horse and its warm coat just gave me comfort in this new unknown town. After dropping our bags, we headed on foot to the market where you see shops with leather bags on display and knick knacks that you could just do without. I did but a messenger bag to carry my phone (to take pictures) and a diary to jot down my thoughts and of course my son's bottle (for milk). So that my hands were free to hold the reins of my horse.  The walk was great in the evening because we had the shops to entertain us. There were no cars or bicycles only horses and hate gaudy dominating the paths. A lot of abandoned houses left behind. I could see many parsi surnames engraved on the names plates, so I am hoping that they moved on with their kids. 

The sunset point was two kilometres from our resort so we walked up and down and waited with a lot of other tourists to watch the sun set. It was a beautiful evening, we had our cups of tea and vada pau to pass the time. My parents had come along so, it really felt calm and peaceful chatting away. My son was for a change staying put and didn't run much. The sun had set but then and we clicked a few pictures and wow-ed at the beauty. Down below I could also see a tribal village (far far away) and I wondered their about their life down there. 

Louisa Point

For Louisa Point, we got up early in the morning, around 5 and had a leisure ride towards the place. It was still early so no tourists around and it really did look like a spot where movies could shoot a romantic song. But the horse riders told us that bollywood didn't come here for any scenes at all. It was just too much work to carry equipment up and then set up. The strict rules around for not having a car or any vehicle up to Matheran was really a put off and i wondered how much more this town could survive on just horses and mediocre tourism antics. I also heard another rumour while we visited another point that Anil Ambani was slowly buying off the hotels in Matheran and planning to shut the town down if they didn't allow cars up. And seriously it really didn't make sense to me. The beauty did depend of the soulless sighs of the mountains and we could just see beyond the stubbornness of locals here. 

Toy Train Back to the Car Park

The holiday came to an end and this time we took a train to the car park because we did spend a lot of the horses and hate gad. Taking a train was a better option- now that I think. The view was beautiful, the train was slowly and steady giving you a nice lull to the things out here.