Matheran Trek, Maharashtra

A group of 5 of us went to Matheran hill station near Mumbai in April. This place is famous for the forests, lack of vehicles and tar roads on the hill (everyone has to walk/get on a horse on the muddy roads) and a long trekking experience it provides with spectacular view points. The main season to go to this place is Oct to May. But the heat is unbearable in the period Mar-May. It is better if someone visits in winter.

We caught a fast local from Ghatkopar (in Mumbai central railway line) to Neral. Usually Trains from CST to Khopoli/Kajarat stop at Neral. It was an 1.5 hours train ride (70kms). We got down at Neral and took a sharing taxi. There is a toy train to take us on to the top. Because of the extreme heat and 2 hours journey uphill compared to 20 mins drive by taxi, we chose to go by sharing taxi who charged 60/- per head. One disadvantage of going by taxis is the 4 km long trek to reach the market as vehicles are stopped 4 kms from the main market.

We got down at the entrance and walked uphill which took an hour. Then we went straight to the hotel for taking rest. There are lots of options to stay but weekends are a busy time so it is better if pre booking is done. We took rest for an hour and went for lunch. There is a huge market with plenty of restaurants and options to eat.

After lunch we started to walk in the forest. We moved from one view point to the other. The view of deciduous forest and hills from these view points was spectacular. Due to extreme heat, we could not enjoy much but in winter this will be a very pleasant place to be. The trekking experience in the forest was similar to the one we had at David Scott Trail in Meghalaya, only that there was no hilly terrain.

The best of all the 16 view points is the sun set point. We saw few of the view points on the next morning and in the afternoon we started back. We came back to the taxi stand on horseback and took a local train back to Mumbai. Overall, it was a decent trekking experience in the forest for about 10kms. I guess many people go there for a get away place from Mobile Phone disturbance as there is no network coverage on the entire hill.

A Trip to Mawlynnong (cleanest village in Asia)

While in IIM Shillong, I was lucky enough to see many scenic locations. One of those places I have been to is the famous village: Mawlynnong . It was termed the cleanest village in Asia by Discovery and BBC in 2003. Along with the mesmerizing cleanliness of the village, we could experience the beauty of Meghalayan Living Root Bridge.

Meghalaya is famous for the living root bridges. This root bridge is located in Nongston, Meghalaya. We started for this place from IIM Shillong at 8am and on the way we had breakfast(tea and maggie) on a roadside shop. We reached Nongston at 10:30. We got down the hill to the root bridge, played in the stream, clicked photos, trekked to the nearby villages and returned back to the car. We then moved on to Mawlynnong which was half an hour journey from there.
We reached Mawlynnong and ordered lunch in one of the restaurants. They prepare vegetarian food only after ordered. So we rested for 2 hours during lunch. After lunch we went on to explore the place. We first went to Sky View Spot. It is a platform constructed on top of the tree to get a view of the entire forest of Eastern Khasi Hills. The interesting part is the way to the top of the tree; we had to walk on the planks constructed with tied bamboo trunks.
After the Sky View, we went to the Church which was unfortunately closed during that time. We then went to see the Tree House which was facing the woods. The construction was mindblowing and the atmosphere was serene and peaceful.
Most important aspect of this village is the clean roads, dustbins put up at every corner, neatly built houses with proper drainage system and public toilets. Can you ever find such things in any ordinary village in India? That is why it is the cleanest village.
We missed an important landmark: natural rock formation. In Khasi language, "Maw" means stone or rock. If we had seen this, then we would have known why exactly this place was named "Mawlynnong". We started back to campus at 4:30m and reach within 2-2.5 hours.

David Scott Trail in Meghalaya

David Scott trail is a beautiful trek of 16km crossing streams, mountains, valleys, bridges etc. We were a big group of 40 people. We started from IIM Shillong at 8am and reached Mawphlang around 9:30am. We started the trek there and started walking when we found a beautiful blue stream down below in the valley.Then we did not know we were
actually going to play in the stream sometime later. We got down the natural stairs and reached the stream. We crossed the tiny bridge, played in the stream and walk along it to the other side.








We crossed the stream again and started our trek upward. On the way we could witness breathtaking scenarios.


The road went on and on. We walked, we rested, we ate, we drank, we slept, we walked and walked through the mountains to reach our destination, Lad Mawphlang at 3pm. Our bus waited there for us and we returned back in one and a half hours to Shillong.

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Bike Trip to Siva Samudram

Thanks to the adventure club our company, I got to fulfill my lifelong desire to go on a long biking adventure. We were a group of 7 members with 5 bikes. On May 15th, 2010 we set out on a day long biking trip of 295km to Siva Samudram and back to Bangalore.

The Shivasamudram falls is a segmented waterfall since the river Cauvery branches into two separate falls - the western falls known as Gaganachukki and the eastern falls, Bharachukki. Shivasamudram falls is the second biggest waterfall in India and the sixteenth largest in the world.

We started off at 6:00am from our office in Kodihalli, Bangalore and drove towards our destination.

We stopped in between at Bididi for a tasty "Tatte Idli" breakfast.Then we started off towards Maddur where we had to take a leftward diversion. We continued for a while on the SH33 before we stopped at a farm where we played in the farmland, climbed coconut trees and posed for photographs. This was the place where I had my debut experience with a motor bike. I learnt to drive a 140kg Hunk with the help of my team members.

From there I took off driving the bike at full 60Kmph speed with my friend behind me for about 7 kms on SH33. It was the first time I understood that bike driving is less strenuous than a gear-less two-wheeler or a scooter on which I had an experience of driving earlier. After that I decided to buy one Royal Enfield for myself for future biking trips :P.

We continued further on SH33 and stopped for a while at a large lotus pond. We reached Siva Samudram Watch tower about 12:30pm. We saw the Gagana Chukki falls from there and started off to Bara Chukki falls where we could play in the waters. We got to play in the water falls for over an hour and it was the first time I had a chance to stand below a water fall. It was a amazing experience. You get to forget everything including yourself when the water hits you giving the perfect body massage.

We came out of the waters and got dressed up by 2:30pm. For non vegetarians, we got nice fish fry but not many options for vegetarians except "Aloo Bajji" and "Chilli Bajji". But there were no problems of getting water, cool drinks, chips, biscuits, mangoes, coconut water etc.

We started back to Bangalore at 4:00pm. Even on the way back, I had a chance to ride the bike for about 7kms. Thanks to my friend :) We had plans of visiting Somnath temple and Talakadu but had to drop them as we were running out of time. We decided to travel to Bangalore before day break as the Mysore Highway is a bit risky for driving in the night.

On our way back, we stopped at Maddur Cafe Coffee Day for snacks and for shelter from rain. We reached Bangalore city at 8:00pm and I was back at home by 8:45 after spending an awesome day with an enthusiastic group.

During our journey, we were lucky to have a cloudy morning. The afternoon was a little unbearably hot and humid. Light showers in the evening summing up for an overall cool Bangalore weather experience.

Our Trip to Tawang

It was in March 2009 when we went on our trip to Tawang. We planned 4 days in advance by reading about the place and journey details. We booked rooms in Bomdilla Govt Guest House, and in Hotel Tawang View. We went to Ulubari in Guwahati to get our Arunachal passes. We also spoke to a winger shuttle to pick us up at IITG campus.

We were 7 of us and our journey started at 6am on DAY 1. We took the winger from Ghy to Tezpur. It took us four hours. On the way to Tezpur we had breakfast on a roadside Dhaba. After reaching Tezpur the winger dropped us at a travels office who booked a sumo to reach Bomdilla. We started from Tezpur at 11am. On the way there was clean road on the plains with trees on either sides. The view is unforgettable. We clicked pics, played on the road and resumed our journey.
We reached Bhalukpong at 1pm where our passes were checked. This is where Ghat road starts. We had nice dal, curry and rice for lunch in one of the restaurants. We started our Ghat route adventure through the dense lower hills of Himalayas. It was breathtaking scenary with a million shades of green all around. We stopped at few waterfalls, clicked photos and continued towards the first destination, Bomdilla. Last half hour was scary with all fog on a dark road. We reached Bomdilla Guest House at 7pm.
It was a comfortable stay with good food. We spoke for a taxi to go to Tawang and were lucky enough to get it to an from Tawang including site seeing in and around Tawang. We had good dinner and slept early that night. We started for Tawang at 7am on DAY2 after finishing breakfast. On the way, after a few hours we visited a monastery, hot spring and played in a stream of clear water. Then there came a stretch of 3hrs of dusty kachcha road which became irritating. After we crossed that river of death came snow. Omg the sight is still in my eyes. Initially there was snow on far away mountains. As we traveled on narrow roads with faster heart beats, we came closer n closer to snow.Initially snow was lying as small strips on both sides of the road; as we moved higher, we found big chunks of snow on either sides. We kept on going, the weather started getting chilly and we found snow all around us.
At noon we reached SELA PASS, the highest pass in the world. The sight is inexplicable. The place had white hills, clear water lake, chilling winds and lots n lots of snow to play with. We spent am hour there and entered a territory filled with snow all over. The roads through the snow, the beautiful sights continued for few hours.

We came down in altitude to cross mountains. And again we went up headed to our destination. We reached Hotel Tawang View at 7pm. It had spacious rooms and served very very yummy food. The candlelight dinners are unforgettable. We chit chatted for sometime n went off to sleep.

DAY3 at 7am we started for Tawang siteseeing. First we went Madhuri Lake (lake named after Koyla movie song was shot there). It was frozen during that time of the year. We walked on the ice lake, played with snow, made an ice man. It is the most wonderful memory I have.
After that, we went to Tawang Monastery. Spent some time there and moved to emporium and exhibition. After that we had lunch at a local restaurant and explored the place till late evening. In the night, we again had the delicious meal at Hotel Tawang View and took rest for the night.

We started back to Ghy early in the morning (4:00am) of DAY4. We reached Bomdilla at 11am. Our taxi driver arranged for a sumo from Bomdilla to Tezpur. We reached Tezpur at 5:00pm. We got down at Tezpur and caught a shuttle winger back to our campus and reached home by 9pm on DAY4. We came through the same routes, reliving our memories. This is the best part of this trip, we got to see all those beautiful places twice during a single trip.

Other Information:
Arunachal Pradesh Website: http://www.ttmi2.com/arunachal.html
If i remember correctly, we had around 7000/- per head expenses in the trip.
On the way, we got tiny shops where maggie was served. So, vegetarians need not worry :P
Hotel Tawang View: 03794223009
Bomdilla Tourist Lodge: 03782222049

My trip to Karnataka

It was Saturday, the 21^st of July, 2007 when I started off to Bangalore with my parents. We were on Karnataka tour. Having reached Banglore on 22^nd morning, we went to our uncle’s house. Got ready and drove off to Dharmastala. 

The way we drove in was with varied picturesque beauty. In the beginning we could see the huzz buzz of the Bangalore city. Its population, pollution and traffic jams. There were 4 peculiar things I noticed in Bangalore. The first was yellow colony sign-boards. They had a peculiar shape resembling the temple’s gaali goopuraa. The second was the taste and architectural excellence of the houses. The city center had many many independent houses(unlike in Bombay and Hyderabad) where every house had a unique style of building. Every house used typical “Bangalore Tiles”. The third was flowers. Every lady I have seen had a garden of flowers in her hair. The fourth was their eating habits. They have coffee almost all throughout the day. Take tiffin in place of lunch. Their main course of food consisted of some or the other “Bath”- alubath, metibath, tomatobath with “sappasaaru”- rasam and buttermilk. After crossing the city I could find huge palace type houses on either side of the highway each with a unique architectural excellence. One thing I couldnot understand was “Are the Kannadigs so rich to afforde such houses or are that the construction rates low” I donno the answer. 

After crossing Hassan, a junction we were in “Sakkalespur”. That place had 450cms of rainfall annually. There were mini hydel projects, waterfalls, reservoirs, coffeewood products I could fine on the way. In the ghat road I could find myself surrounded by trees. There were trees of sandalwood, banana, entagling pepper creepers, long n lean gun powder(pooka) trees, pine, coconut and many others. We could atlast reach Dharmastata after traveling for 7 hours by road.

Dharmastala temple is also called Manjunatha Temple(that temple was shown in the telugu film “Manjunatha”) The Manjunath Temple, at the foot of Kadri Hills attracts devotees and tourists in thousands. Dharmastala is regarded as the home of Dharma or righteousness. We got a peculiar room in the temple guest house. Thousands of pilgrims were offered food in the temple everyday. We took our dinner in the temple’s “Annapoorna Dining Hall” which could accommodate a thousand at a time. The neatness, love n affection shown by the people there was remarkable. Having seen the shiva, ammavaru and ganesha we started off to “Kateel” the next morning.

On the way we found a beautiful temple –“Ramashetra”. It was about 5 kms from Dharmastala and had about 25 statues of different gods n goddesses in marble. It was a high investment project. We could also find River Netravati. We reached Kateel in 3 hours. Kateel had “Durga Parameshwari Temple”. It is situated in dakshina kannada in the middle of the sacred river Nandini. From kateel we stared off to Udipi. Udupi is known for the Krishna Mutt (Temple of Lord Krishna). The Krishna idol is turned(Stala purana says that the lord had turned to see his devotee tied in ropes to prove that he is there) and we had to see the lord from a window having 9 holes resembling Naagraha. The window is called the “navagraha dwara”. The mutt provided food for many devotees. I saw something strange in Udipi. The autos there were shrunk and elongated. From there we moved to “Anegadda”- Ganesh temple. Then we went to Murdeswara. The way to Murdeswara had a a place where we could find ourselves in between a beach and backwaters on a stretch of 5 kms. The was a memorable sight. On the way we could find many factories and coconut trees as in Kerala. We somehow passed through heavy rain n reached our destination.

Murdeswara had spectacular constructions. An enormously big shiva sat behind the temple with ganga shiva scene, Krishna Ratha, Surya Ratha and ascetics around him. The temple is on the shores of Malpe Beach. Then we started off to Kollur to see “Mookambika temple”. That place also had a dining hall for the devotees. We stayed for the nite and started off to Sringeri.

Sringeri had ammavaru’s temple. According to legend, Adi Shankaracharya is said to have selected the site as the place to stay and teach his disciples, because when he was walking by the Tunga river, he saw a cobra with a raised hood, providing shelter from the hot sun, to a frog about to spawn. Impressed with the place where natural enemies had gone beyond their instincts, he stayed here for twelve years. Adi Shankaracharya also established mathas in the northern (at Jyotirmath, near Badrinath), eastern (at Puri) and western (at Dwaraka) quarters of India. We saw the mutt’s meditation hall on the other bank of tunga. This place also had a large dining hall which could accommodate a 1000 at a time.

From there we moved to Hornadu. On the way I could find tea gardens, coffee fields, dense forest, oil reserves and an iron ore. Both sringeri and hornadu are admist hills n fog. Hornadu had “Annapoorneswari Temple”. Her beauty had no competition. She was in complete gold. The whole temple was decorated with flowers. The speciality of that temple was that the devotees were given breakfast and coffee along with lunch and dinner. The temple staff asked everyone if they had their prasadam. The warmth n affection they showed had no comparison. Many devotees donated different food grains, spices, coffee grains into different boxes placed there. 

One thing I noticed near all the temples was that there were no beggars. The kannadigs are selfless people with a good taste. We stayed in Hornadu for a nite and moved off to Banglore on 25^th July, the nxt morning. On the way back we saw Bellure’s Chennakesawa temple which had the architectural masterpieces of “Amarasilpi Chakkana”. We started off from Bangalore on 26^th to Hyderabad. On the whole we could see the Shillong cherapunji, Ooty and Darjeeling teagardens and dense forests of India in this single trip. :)

My First trip to Cheerapunji n Shillong

We five of us, Upma, Trapti, Priyanka, Prerna and I having thought for a week came to a conclusion to visit Shillong and Cheerapunji during our vacation. We were all sad that the camp for which we came 2 weeks early was cancelled. This idea suddenly brought light into our lives. There were serious discussions among us regarding our safety and stay in those new places. There were dreadful dreams and also full length disapproval from our parents. Everyone said that only girls going to a new place is not safe.

Even after so many hurdles, we set off to Shillong on Saturday, 22nd of July, 2006. We were all in high spirits and fully confident of our bravery and unity wherever we go. We made many vows to each other, to be like this and that. I don’t know how many of them were kept but we were all together just like siblings caring for each other throughout the trip.

We started journey by boarding our 8.ooam campus bus. We set off to Shillong in a sumo with 5 others in it. By the time we started it was 10.00am. There in the sumo we met a man, Mr. Satish Batra who was involved in some business in Shillong. He gave us the route map and details of hotels in Shillong. The way to Shillong was beautiful, full of green trees on hill sides. The road took us higher and higher with the climate getting colder and colder. On the way we could see BARAPANI LAKE, which is an artificial one. It is said that it is the part of a river which was blocked on both sides. It was very beautiful, lake in between hills and greenery. There is a park near it named after NEHRU.

By the time we reached Shillong it was 1pm. Then Satish uncle sent his manager Chotu bhaiyya to look for a hotel for us. We booked a room in HARI OM hotel and thanked him for his help and bid him goodbye. Then we had lunch and hired a taxi for local site seeing. The driver’s name was Shahidul. He was a very good and experienced and the most important thing is that he knew hindi, we were relieved. We first went to ELEPHANTA FALLS. The story says that those falls were actually named by Khasis which meant “Falls in three steps”. But the British named them “Elephanta Falls” because there was a rock which broke n fell off during the 1887 earthquake that resembled an elephant. We spent good time over there playing in the cold water. From there we went to the “SHILLONG PEAK”. From there we could see whole Shillong. The view was startling as we dint know that Shillong was so vast and densely populated. We then went to the “WILLIAM WARD’S LAKE.” That was also beautiful. We went boating in the lake where Prerna and Trapti tried rowing the boat. I was a bit tensed but they were not that bad rowers. It was 6.30pm by then so we dint want to risk roaming out in the dark in a new place. We asked the driver to drop us at the hotel and come again at 5.30 in the morning. We all locked ourselves in the hotel room from 7pm on Saturday night till 3.30am on Sunday, 23rd of July, 2006.

There was a shock for all of us in the early Sunday morning. Trapti fainted and puked. We all panicked and stood awake from then. We dint know the reason why she puked. I thought that it was due to acropobia. Well, we checked out from the hotel at 5.30 am and started for Cheerapunji at 6am in the same taxi. Road to Cheerapunji was very beautiful. Fro the beginning of the journey till about a third we found only greenery and hill slopes everywhere. The next third had clouds seen between the hills. We were surprised seeing ourselves higher than the clouds. In the last third we found only fog. This part was all covered with fog, we could not find what existed, a valley or plain or a village 2mts away from us. The car sped up and down the hilly slopes circling the hills. That was the most enjoyable ride among all the rides till now.

We first went to a park near a bridge with a water fall. We couldn’t see anything in the fog and rain, neither people at a distance nor the waterfall but could just hear the sound. From there we went to “Thangkarang Park”. Spent some time over there, had breakfast and went to the limestone cave. It was a good adventure in the cave. We had to pass through the narrow passages in it to reach the other side of the cave. We had to get totally drenched in the dirty waters of the cave. From there we went to “SEVEN SISTERS FALLS”. Even here we couldn’t see anything due to the engulfing fog. During a half an hour wait over there we could only get a glimpse of the falls. It was awesome and can never be forgotten. That was the last place we saw in cheerapunji. It was 11.30 by then. We started back to Shillong and reached around 1pm. Infact Shillong was only 80 kms from Cheerapunji which is on the India-Bangladesh border.

After we reached Shillong, we saw the “CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SHILLONG.” That was very high and had a very vast area. It had beautiful paintings, sculptures, idols and posters. From there we asked the driver to take us to a restraunt. We bid him goodbye and had lunch in Bamboo Hut very famous for Chineese. Infact Shillong is famous for its chineese food and footwear along with denim. Then we went to the taxi stand, hired an Indigo to come back to Guwahati by 6pm. We were back in the campus by 8pm having boarded our 6.45 campus bus.

This was our journey, very enjoying, fantastic and memorable. This has given us the confidence to do anything daring and risky. We are all happy to be back to start a bright new chapter in our lives, being “SENIORS”.