Prologue:
A trip for Mumbai was suppose to happen since 4 years.. we planned, and cancelled, and planned, and cancelled. My friend Shreya had gone to pursue a professional course for 3 months, and we never wanted to miss this chance to visit the city while she was there. We finally planned to visit at the end of her course, and booked all our tickets in august- 2 months to go. The excitement was there all through the waiting for the day, but when it neared, I couldn't believe myself that I was actually going to Mumbai!!
Morning 4 we get up and freshen up, and we went to yeshwantpur station. Even at 5.30 in morning, we were stuck for 10 minutes in front of the station. We somehow managed to get into the train with a seat on the upper luggage berth in general coach. We had our tickets reserved from Hubli, so till there we had to go in general coach. We were early, and were lucky to get a seat, be it on those wooden base. Seeing the crowd, making a journey standing was unthinkable! We settled on the seats and Suchith had come to bid us bye with a chocolate each for me n Raksha. He couldn't even get in to the train, and had to talk to him through the window :-P
The journey started at 6.40. To pass our time, we had M S Dhoni movie and it helped a lot. At around 12, the people sitting below were due to get down in Davanagere, and by then we, who couldn't any more have bore the wooden seat, decided to move down, and successfully got those seats. Ah,this felt much better and comfortable! :-P
At 3, the train reached Hubli. We took our bags and moved to our reserved berths. Raksha went to take a nap, and I also tried to sleep, only to get disturbed by a passerby in just 30 minutes. With music on, I passed the rest of he time, had dinner and we went to sleep. As always, I couldn't sleep properly during the night journey, though I had a comfortable berth!
Our train reached Kalyan at 5 AM, where we got down and took a local to Thane. Local in Mumbai for the first time - felt nice. From thane, we took an auto to Shreya's place, and reached there at 6.30.
The excitement of having come to Mumbai took over us and we didn't even rest. We took bath and got ready quickly, had our Breakfast Aloo Paratha and left.
Our first destination was Mahalakshmi temple. We reached there by local train and then taking a bus, only to find a really long queue! Even the whole day seemed small to get though the queue to get the darshan. It was the eigth day of Dasara. From outside only we prayed the goddess and decided to move on to our next destination Haji Aali Durgah. Here there was no crowd. We visited and then quickly headed to church gate.
We took a taxi from Church Gate to Leopold cafe. We were hungry, and had nice food. The ambience of the cafe was cool, and I wanted to take some pics. I asked the permission of the manager and he said me not to take more than 5-6 pics, because of security reasons. I took them, and thanked him for letting me take the pictures. He also gave me the Leopold post cards :-)
We then walked to gate way of India, and took a ferry ride to Elephanta caves. The ride was for more than an hour, and it was nice. We reached the island, and decided to take the toy train, and then started the ascent. There were about 200 steps, and it was very crowded. There was a deviation where there were less people, and we decided to explore that less crowded path. After a walk of 15 minutes, we ended up at a cannon, and we felt bad that we climbed up all the way only for this. We headed back and reached the caves, and out of 4 caves, only the 1st one had a few sculptures, out of which all of them were semi-destroyed. The remaining few caves were empty! We regretted going there (though all our friends had said there was nothing in Elephanta and not to go there, we still wanted visit it once and see for ourselves) and thought that we should have listened to our friends and taken their advice! We went back again in the ferry and it was 6 PM when we reached Gateway of India.
We went around the streets of Colaba, shopping for jeans, tops and accessories. This place had really good stuff for cheap rates. By 8 PM, we decided to go to Chowpatty for dinner, and took a cab. We had sandwich, Pani Puri and choco-chip kulfi at the corner shop on the signal. Food, or rather chats, in Mumbai is the best! We then went to marine drive, by walk for about 500 mts and settled down. Marine drive is the best place to hang out the entire night, and it feels soo pleasant to just sit there and listen to waves. We decided to stay for an hour, and left by cab again at 10.15 for the nearest station. When we reached home it was 12 AM. It was a tiring day, and we had sweat a lot. All 3 of us took bath, and tried on our new clothes, though we knew we had to sleep :-P they were all so pretty and worth the money. We then slept at 1.30 AM.
We didn't have plans to wake up early, since we had to go only shopping today, and all the stalls will open only after 11. Still, we woke up and got ready, had breakfast and left at 11. We first went to Vile parle station and went to have lunch near Mitibhai college. We had Jinny dosa, veg cheese sandwich, a wrap and lime juice on those roadside shop, and all of them were super tasty, and we were tooo full. While walking back to the station, we shopped for a few things, and then headed to bandra.
Getting down at bandra station, we took a shared auto to link road. This is another crazy place with super cool stuffs. We shopped until 7 PM. We then took a cab, to experience Bandra-Worli sea link. It was a nice drive over the sea, and to look at the city from the sea side. We got down at Lower Parel station, and took a local to Church Gate, walked till Nariman point and settled down again in Marine drive. In all its awesomeness, it appeared to charm all the people who visited there. We had chapatis that we had got from home, and stayed there over an hour again. We took the same locals as the day before, and reached at 12, took bath, tried all clothes, and slept at 1.30 again!
It was suppose to be rest day, since last two days was too hectic and we were tired. But those stuffs in market will not let you do so, and we thought of visiting Bandra again, to finish our few left out items in our shopping list. We didn't have breakfast though, and since it was a holiday on account Vijayadashami, all of shreya's roommates were home and cooked festival food, which was very tasty. We then left to Bandra. Once again, the schedule of the previous day repeats, only for the fact that today, we reached home by 10.30 :-P We had to pick up the two-wheelers that we were hiring for he next 2 days, and we got the same at 11.15 pm. We got them home and slept by 12 AM.
We woke up soon and got ready. We had to leave by 6:30 AM, since we had to drive a lot for the day. We planned to return to Thane and not staying anywhere else, to save some money :-P So we started at 6:30 AM, packing our breakfast.
Our first destination was Matheran. We took the old highway and this road was not that good. A lot of potholes, and a lot of lorries on that early morning made the drive feel bad for a while. After a while, the road was good to drive without much traffic.
We reached the foothills of Matheran at around 8:30 AM. We had to cover another 8 kms uphill till we reached the road-end point. As we went up along the road, there were a few waterstreams, which hardly had any water. Whenever it rains, water flows down from hills and crosses the roads, thus forming mini waterfall next to the road, and this sight is awesome. But it had been more than 15 days since it had rained and thus hardly had any water in these streams. We reached the parking spot at 9 AM. We wanted to have the breakfast that we had packed, but there were too many monkeys near the parking area. We went inside a hotel, and the owner didn't allow us to have our packed meal, and insisted to buy from him. We had Vada Pav, took a few biscuits, had tea and we started to walk. We had to walk for about 2-2.5 km along a railway track, (toy train track) which was not used for a long while now.
After a walk of about 30 minutes, we reached the town. It had many shops, and there were a few view points to be visited. We decided to check out a few and then decide if we have to go till the last one or not. The first one was quiet near, and we could hardly see anything from there. We then continued to walk for another 10 minutes, and we reached another view point. This one was good, and hardly any people were there. We realized that all the points are more or less same and thus decided to walk back. So we spent some time there at that view point, and then decided to leave. On the way back, we entered the park and thought of having breakfast, thinking there were no monkeys here, since not even one were in sight. But our bad luck was on and a monkey came and snatched our bread. We then decided to leave, thinking to purchase the bread in a shop and eat it somewhere else.
We walked back to the parking area, clicking some crazy pics on the way. Our next destination was Solanpada Dam. We came downhill, and started our struggle with Google maps to find way. With a lot of confusions, we reached a nice wide road, and then the maps suggested us to take a right turn, which looked like a road to the village. We followed google's suggestion. On the way, we bought bread and some bananas.
After a while, we were skeptical if we were on the right road, since there were no signboards for the place we were heading. We still continued in hopes, and ended up on a muddy road. After a short distance, the road abruptly ended to a big farm house. There was no one around. 3 girls and that farm house - pretty scary. We inquired the house owner, and he directed us to go on the other deviation, which was only 500 mts on that muddy patch. We followed what he said and finally reached our destination,
Nobody knows this place I believe. There was only a Marathi family, about 15 in number and were playing in water. The first sight of the dam was awesome. Before reaching here, we were cursing ourselves for having chosen this place, but now it felt it was worth taking the pain of coming till here with all those difficulties. We parked our vehicles quickly, and took some pics of the waterfall like structure of the dam and decided to jump in the water. There were about 4-5 guys apart form that family, and decided to have fun until the family stays, considering the safety factor. Without wasting much time, we got into the water.
After playing for a while, those family members were getting out of water and making their plans to move. We also came out of the water, changed into fresh clothes while they were still there. We then went to the other side of the dam, where the sight was beautiful. Clean and calm water, with a hillock behind- this place was perfectly hidden. We ate our sandwich and bananas, and by the time we finished, those family guys left. We now hurried to take a few pics and decided to leave. Though we wanted to stay here for a while, it wasn't safe enough since it was so secluded, and we started our drive back to Thane at 4:30 PM.
We were feeling fresh after playing in water, and the drive on that country side road was awesome. Until we reached Karjat, the road was empty and serene, after which the highway traffic started. We stopped for a tea break and resumed our drive, and without taking anymore breaks, we reached home at 8 PM.
The schedule was same as previous day. We left at 6:30 AM, but we took a different route this time. We decided to hit the highway until expressway, and then switch to the old highway of Mumbai-Pune. Though early morning, there was too much traffic, and we reached the old highway by 8 AM.
We stopped for breakfast in between and had Missal Pav, which tasted good. Resuming our drive, we reached the curvy uphills of Khandala. The highways are well constructed and the roads are awesome, and the drive feels good. We reached Khandala at around 10 AM, and decided to take the turn to Rajmachi fort.
Road to some extent was good, and then the muddy road started. It was too horrible, and we had to cover 8 km like this. It was too bad and we couldn't drive at more than 10 kmph. We gave a break and the sight was good from there, but the fort was no where to be seen. Inquiring a few local people who happened to walk past us, informed us that we need to trek to the fort. It was too sunny, and we decided to return. We went a little ahead, and then took some pics and then took a U turn, and came back to the nice roads of the highway at Khandala.
We then decided to go to Tiger point. We drove uphill again and reached there at 12 PM. This point was awesome, and the view was too good. It is situated at a much higher altitude than the Lonavala city. We took some pics, spent some time and decided to visit Bhushi dam. We started downhill and reached the dam at 1 PM.
There was no much water, and no water flowing from the dam, and thus there was no waterfall to play here. There were quiet a few people, and on inquiring some local people, we got to know there is a waterfall behind, for which we had to walk for about 200 mts. We went up and found a small waterfall, which was good. We didn't play in the waterfall, but just rested there by putting our feet inside the water and taking a fish spa. There was a small shop nearby, and we had Vada Pav and Maggi, thus finishing our lunch as well. We spent some half an hour there and decided to leave.
We drove back to Lonavala city and stopped near a bakery to buy some chikki. We then had some juice and gola and started the drive back to Thane, since there was no more places which was worth a visit. We also didn't give a break anywhere and thus reached home at 5 PM.
I had to meet my friends Unnati and Trupti the next day, and since there was a free evening for a day, I decided to meet them if they were free. Raksha and Shreya were really tired and didn't wanted to go anywhere. My friends also agreed to meet the same day, and I went to Church Gate to meet them. We went to 145 Kalaghoda restaurant. The place and food both were good, and meeting them after 8 months also felt great. We then went to Marine drive, spent some time there and we left. I reached back home at around 12 AM.
Today we thought of taking rest, Raksha said she wanted to do some home decor shopping. I said I can accompany her, since Shreya was not going to come with us and she had to pack up her stuffs to move to Harihar. We left home at 10 AM and went to Crawford and Kalbadevi Market. Decor and electronic items are indeed very attractive and cheap here. We reached the market at 12 noon, and didn't realize how time passed. I again shopped for about ₹3000 today, buying socks in wholesale rate, hand kerchiefs and a few Kurtas. Kalbadevi market is very good for Kurta's and Salwar materials. We spent a lot of time, and though we wanted to visit some more shops, we didn't have time and we had to rush. So we left the place with a sad heart - despite being shopping things for 4 full days. Yes, Mumbai is such a crazy place to shop!!
We reached back home at 6:30 PM. We had to pack and leave home at 8 PM to catch our trains back to hometown. Shreya had her train form Dadar, and we had it from Kalyan. We went along with her to help with her luggage and then got down in Kalyan to change our train. We boarded our train at 10:30 and we had another 22 hours to reach Namma Bengaluru!
The journey in train is always nice, but something funny happened. Raksha got down of the train in Raichur and the train departed, thus she was left in the station :-P And she had no money and nothing at all, except her cell phone. She managed to get money from someone, promising him to transfer once she reaches home, and took the next train till Gooty, and then a bus to Anatapur, and again another bus to Bengaluru. Despite all this, she managed to come exactly at the same time the train reached the platform, and helped me with getting our bags out of the train (Yes, the train was really slow :-P) It was 12:30 AM when I reached home, after dropping Raksha to her PG.
Thus Mumbai was visited, seen, loved and now missed! No wonder they call it a city of dreams. It is indeed a beautiful and fast city, and to imagine a life here seems a very good idea, though Mumbaikars say it only looks to be nice, but not actually to live here, considering the fact that there is no work life balance in this city. People are always in a hurry. Yet, There is something about this city that would sure attract you, and given a chance to visit again, you wouldn't deny it :)
A trip for Mumbai was suppose to happen since 4 years.. we planned, and cancelled, and planned, and cancelled. My friend Shreya had gone to pursue a professional course for 3 months, and we never wanted to miss this chance to visit the city while she was there. We finally planned to visit at the end of her course, and booked all our tickets in august- 2 months to go. The excitement was there all through the waiting for the day, but when it neared, I couldn't believe myself that I was actually going to Mumbai!!
Day 0, October 8th:
Morning 4 we get up and freshen up, and we went to yeshwantpur station. Even at 5.30 in morning, we were stuck for 10 minutes in front of the station. We somehow managed to get into the train with a seat on the upper luggage berth in general coach. We had our tickets reserved from Hubli, so till there we had to go in general coach. We were early, and were lucky to get a seat, be it on those wooden base. Seeing the crowd, making a journey standing was unthinkable! We settled on the seats and Suchith had come to bid us bye with a chocolate each for me n Raksha. He couldn't even get in to the train, and had to talk to him through the window :-P
The journey started at 6.40. To pass our time, we had M S Dhoni movie and it helped a lot. At around 12, the people sitting below were due to get down in Davanagere, and by then we, who couldn't any more have bore the wooden seat, decided to move down, and successfully got those seats. Ah,this felt much better and comfortable! :-P
At 3, the train reached Hubli. We took our bags and moved to our reserved berths. Raksha went to take a nap, and I also tried to sleep, only to get disturbed by a passerby in just 30 minutes. With music on, I passed the rest of he time, had dinner and we went to sleep. As always, I couldn't sleep properly during the night journey, though I had a comfortable berth!
Day 1, October 9th: (Mumbai tour and shopping)
Our train reached Kalyan at 5 AM, where we got down and took a local to Thane. Local in Mumbai for the first time - felt nice. From thane, we took an auto to Shreya's place, and reached there at 6.30.
The excitement of having come to Mumbai took over us and we didn't even rest. We took bath and got ready quickly, had our Breakfast Aloo Paratha and left.
Our first destination was Mahalakshmi temple. We reached there by local train and then taking a bus, only to find a really long queue! Even the whole day seemed small to get though the queue to get the darshan. It was the eigth day of Dasara. From outside only we prayed the goddess and decided to move on to our next destination Haji Aali Durgah. Here there was no crowd. We visited and then quickly headed to church gate.
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| Haji Ali Durgah |
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| Local |
We took a taxi from Church Gate to Leopold cafe. We were hungry, and had nice food. The ambience of the cafe was cool, and I wanted to take some pics. I asked the permission of the manager and he said me not to take more than 5-6 pics, because of security reasons. I took them, and thanked him for letting me take the pictures. He also gave me the Leopold post cards :-)
We then walked to gate way of India, and took a ferry ride to Elephanta caves. The ride was for more than an hour, and it was nice. We reached the island, and decided to take the toy train, and then started the ascent. There were about 200 steps, and it was very crowded. There was a deviation where there were less people, and we decided to explore that less crowded path. After a walk of 15 minutes, we ended up at a cannon, and we felt bad that we climbed up all the way only for this. We headed back and reached the caves, and out of 4 caves, only the 1st one had a few sculptures, out of which all of them were semi-destroyed. The remaining few caves were empty! We regretted going there (though all our friends had said there was nothing in Elephanta and not to go there, we still wanted visit it once and see for ourselves) and thought that we should have listened to our friends and taken their advice! We went back again in the ferry and it was 6 PM when we reached Gateway of India.
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| Hotel Taj as seen from Ferri to Elephanta caves |
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| Elephanta island |
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| Elephanta Cave 1 |
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| Gateway of India |
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| Sunset time, Hotel Taj in silhouette |
We went around the streets of Colaba, shopping for jeans, tops and accessories. This place had really good stuff for cheap rates. By 8 PM, we decided to go to Chowpatty for dinner, and took a cab. We had sandwich, Pani Puri and choco-chip kulfi at the corner shop on the signal. Food, or rather chats, in Mumbai is the best! We then went to marine drive, by walk for about 500 mts and settled down. Marine drive is the best place to hang out the entire night, and it feels soo pleasant to just sit there and listen to waves. We decided to stay for an hour, and left by cab again at 10.15 for the nearest station. When we reached home it was 12 AM. It was a tiring day, and we had sweat a lot. All 3 of us took bath, and tried on our new clothes, though we knew we had to sleep :-P they were all so pretty and worth the money. We then slept at 1.30 AM.
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| Marine Drive |
Day 2, October 10th: (Shopping)
We didn't have plans to wake up early, since we had to go only shopping today, and all the stalls will open only after 11. Still, we woke up and got ready, had breakfast and left at 11. We first went to Vile parle station and went to have lunch near Mitibhai college. We had Jinny dosa, veg cheese sandwich, a wrap and lime juice on those roadside shop, and all of them were super tasty, and we were tooo full. While walking back to the station, we shopped for a few things, and then headed to bandra.
Getting down at bandra station, we took a shared auto to link road. This is another crazy place with super cool stuffs. We shopped until 7 PM. We then took a cab, to experience Bandra-Worli sea link. It was a nice drive over the sea, and to look at the city from the sea side. We got down at Lower Parel station, and took a local to Church Gate, walked till Nariman point and settled down again in Marine drive. In all its awesomeness, it appeared to charm all the people who visited there. We had chapatis that we had got from home, and stayed there over an hour again. We took the same locals as the day before, and reached at 12, took bath, tried all clothes, and slept at 1.30 again!
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| Nariman Point |
Day 3, October 11th: (Shopping again :-P)
It was suppose to be rest day, since last two days was too hectic and we were tired. But those stuffs in market will not let you do so, and we thought of visiting Bandra again, to finish our few left out items in our shopping list. We didn't have breakfast though, and since it was a holiday on account Vijayadashami, all of shreya's roommates were home and cooked festival food, which was very tasty. We then left to Bandra. Once again, the schedule of the previous day repeats, only for the fact that today, we reached home by 10.30 :-P We had to pick up the two-wheelers that we were hiring for he next 2 days, and we got the same at 11.15 pm. We got them home and slept by 12 AM.
Day 4, October 12th: (Drive to Matheran and Solanpada Dam)
We woke up soon and got ready. We had to leave by 6:30 AM, since we had to drive a lot for the day. We planned to return to Thane and not staying anywhere else, to save some money :-P So we started at 6:30 AM, packing our breakfast.
Our first destination was Matheran. We took the old highway and this road was not that good. A lot of potholes, and a lot of lorries on that early morning made the drive feel bad for a while. After a while, the road was good to drive without much traffic.
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| Morning ride |
We reached the foothills of Matheran at around 8:30 AM. We had to cover another 8 kms uphill till we reached the road-end point. As we went up along the road, there were a few waterstreams, which hardly had any water. Whenever it rains, water flows down from hills and crosses the roads, thus forming mini waterfall next to the road, and this sight is awesome. But it had been more than 15 days since it had rained and thus hardly had any water in these streams. We reached the parking spot at 9 AM. We wanted to have the breakfast that we had packed, but there were too many monkeys near the parking area. We went inside a hotel, and the owner didn't allow us to have our packed meal, and insisted to buy from him. We had Vada Pav, took a few biscuits, had tea and we started to walk. We had to walk for about 2-2.5 km along a railway track, (toy train track) which was not used for a long while now.
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| Stream of water on the roadside |
After a walk of about 30 minutes, we reached the town. It had many shops, and there were a few view points to be visited. We decided to check out a few and then decide if we have to go till the last one or not. The first one was quiet near, and we could hardly see anything from there. We then continued to walk for another 10 minutes, and we reached another view point. This one was good, and hardly any people were there. We realized that all the points are more or less same and thus decided to walk back. So we spent some time there at that view point, and then decided to leave. On the way back, we entered the park and thought of having breakfast, thinking there were no monkeys here, since not even one were in sight. But our bad luck was on and a monkey came and snatched our bread. We then decided to leave, thinking to purchase the bread in a shop and eat it somewhere else.
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| View from Matheran |
We walked back to the parking area, clicking some crazy pics on the way. Our next destination was Solanpada Dam. We came downhill, and started our struggle with Google maps to find way. With a lot of confusions, we reached a nice wide road, and then the maps suggested us to take a right turn, which looked like a road to the village. We followed google's suggestion. On the way, we bought bread and some bananas.
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| View from one of the view points of Matheran |
After a while, we were skeptical if we were on the right road, since there were no signboards for the place we were heading. We still continued in hopes, and ended up on a muddy road. After a short distance, the road abruptly ended to a big farm house. There was no one around. 3 girls and that farm house - pretty scary. We inquired the house owner, and he directed us to go on the other deviation, which was only 500 mts on that muddy patch. We followed what he said and finally reached our destination,
Nobody knows this place I believe. There was only a Marathi family, about 15 in number and were playing in water. The first sight of the dam was awesome. Before reaching here, we were cursing ourselves for having chosen this place, but now it felt it was worth taking the pain of coming till here with all those difficulties. We parked our vehicles quickly, and took some pics of the waterfall like structure of the dam and decided to jump in the water. There were about 4-5 guys apart form that family, and decided to have fun until the family stays, considering the safety factor. Without wasting much time, we got into the water.
After playing for a while, those family members were getting out of water and making their plans to move. We also came out of the water, changed into fresh clothes while they were still there. We then went to the other side of the dam, where the sight was beautiful. Clean and calm water, with a hillock behind- this place was perfectly hidden. We ate our sandwich and bananas, and by the time we finished, those family guys left. We now hurried to take a few pics and decided to leave. Though we wanted to stay here for a while, it wasn't safe enough since it was so secluded, and we started our drive back to Thane at 4:30 PM.
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| Solanpada Dam |
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| Solanpada Dam |
We were feeling fresh after playing in water, and the drive on that country side road was awesome. Until we reached Karjat, the road was empty and serene, after which the highway traffic started. We stopped for a tea break and resumed our drive, and without taking anymore breaks, we reached home at 8 PM.
Day 5, October 13th: (Drive to Lonavala and Khandala)
The schedule was same as previous day. We left at 6:30 AM, but we took a different route this time. We decided to hit the highway until expressway, and then switch to the old highway of Mumbai-Pune. Though early morning, there was too much traffic, and we reached the old highway by 8 AM.
We stopped for breakfast in between and had Missal Pav, which tasted good. Resuming our drive, we reached the curvy uphills of Khandala. The highways are well constructed and the roads are awesome, and the drive feels good. We reached Khandala at around 10 AM, and decided to take the turn to Rajmachi fort.
Road to some extent was good, and then the muddy road started. It was too horrible, and we had to cover 8 km like this. It was too bad and we couldn't drive at more than 10 kmph. We gave a break and the sight was good from there, but the fort was no where to be seen. Inquiring a few local people who happened to walk past us, informed us that we need to trek to the fort. It was too sunny, and we decided to return. We went a little ahead, and then took some pics and then took a U turn, and came back to the nice roads of the highway at Khandala.
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| Road to Rajmachi Fort |
We then decided to go to Tiger point. We drove uphill again and reached there at 12 PM. This point was awesome, and the view was too good. It is situated at a much higher altitude than the Lonavala city. We took some pics, spent some time and decided to visit Bhushi dam. We started downhill and reached the dam at 1 PM.
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| View from Tiger point |
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| View from Tiger point |
There was no much water, and no water flowing from the dam, and thus there was no waterfall to play here. There were quiet a few people, and on inquiring some local people, we got to know there is a waterfall behind, for which we had to walk for about 200 mts. We went up and found a small waterfall, which was good. We didn't play in the waterfall, but just rested there by putting our feet inside the water and taking a fish spa. There was a small shop nearby, and we had Vada Pav and Maggi, thus finishing our lunch as well. We spent some half an hour there and decided to leave.
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| Waterfall at Bhushi Dam |
We drove back to Lonavala city and stopped near a bakery to buy some chikki. We then had some juice and gola and started the drive back to Thane, since there was no more places which was worth a visit. We also didn't give a break anywhere and thus reached home at 5 PM.
I had to meet my friends Unnati and Trupti the next day, and since there was a free evening for a day, I decided to meet them if they were free. Raksha and Shreya were really tired and didn't wanted to go anywhere. My friends also agreed to meet the same day, and I went to Church Gate to meet them. We went to 145 Kalaghoda restaurant. The place and food both were good, and meeting them after 8 months also felt great. We then went to Marine drive, spent some time there and we left. I reached back home at around 12 AM.
Day 6, October 14th: (Shopping again :-P)
Today we thought of taking rest, Raksha said she wanted to do some home decor shopping. I said I can accompany her, since Shreya was not going to come with us and she had to pack up her stuffs to move to Harihar. We left home at 10 AM and went to Crawford and Kalbadevi Market. Decor and electronic items are indeed very attractive and cheap here. We reached the market at 12 noon, and didn't realize how time passed. I again shopped for about ₹3000 today, buying socks in wholesale rate, hand kerchiefs and a few Kurtas. Kalbadevi market is very good for Kurta's and Salwar materials. We spent a lot of time, and though we wanted to visit some more shops, we didn't have time and we had to rush. So we left the place with a sad heart - despite being shopping things for 4 full days. Yes, Mumbai is such a crazy place to shop!!
We reached back home at 6:30 PM. We had to pack and leave home at 8 PM to catch our trains back to hometown. Shreya had her train form Dadar, and we had it from Kalyan. We went along with her to help with her luggage and then got down in Kalyan to change our train. We boarded our train at 10:30 and we had another 22 hours to reach Namma Bengaluru!
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| Over filled bags while returing |
Day 7, October 15th: (Train journey full day)
The journey in train is always nice, but something funny happened. Raksha got down of the train in Raichur and the train departed, thus she was left in the station :-P And she had no money and nothing at all, except her cell phone. She managed to get money from someone, promising him to transfer once she reaches home, and took the next train till Gooty, and then a bus to Anatapur, and again another bus to Bengaluru. Despite all this, she managed to come exactly at the same time the train reached the platform, and helped me with getting our bags out of the train (Yes, the train was really slow :-P) It was 12:30 AM when I reached home, after dropping Raksha to her PG.
Thus Mumbai was visited, seen, loved and now missed! No wonder they call it a city of dreams. It is indeed a beautiful and fast city, and to imagine a life here seems a very good idea, though Mumbaikars say it only looks to be nice, but not actually to live here, considering the fact that there is no work life balance in this city. People are always in a hurry. Yet, There is something about this city that would sure attract you, and given a chance to visit again, you wouldn't deny it :)
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