Mahabaleshwar

Finally, am prepared to blog about the trip. Came home day before yesterday, but because of one thing or another, kept putting it off for easier things to do. We had initially planned a trip to Goa but because of a lot of things that happened in the interim (I believe that there is in existence a Cosmic law that diverts all my attempts to go to Goa) we ended up making plans for Mahabaleshwar.



Its the morning of the trip, and its time we leave, Ruhie calls up and says she will be leaving from her house in ten minutes, and I decide that its high time I start packing. Throw in some random clothes, run down, and walk to the highway and wait for her rickshaw to pick me up.



Because we had huge bags with us, the drivers at checknaka assumed that we'd be going to the airport, and haggled the both of us, saying things like "we've kept the rick waiting for you" and "its ready just for you" and one guy told the other drivers "the deals already done with me"! We did not want to use any of their ricks, but they just wouldn't let us. They were worse than the tourist beggars at the Gateway and the guys at Fashiopn Street.



We walked upto R-Mall, and waited till the car picked us up. The driver was half an hour late, so were we, and we had to pick up people from all over the town. There was a celebration at MAcDonalds by the time we had everyone into the car. Then we set out to Mahabaeshwar, and its an amazing ride... a lot of irrational screaming through the tunnels, predicting the road ahead, and contemplation of the things we'll be doing there happened. Somewhere down the line, the stupid place acquired the name of mabee, and although that sounds like a ma-ki-ankh/bhen-de-takke substitue gali, I prefer to use it because its easier to type.



Halfway to Mahabaleshwar, we stopped at this place to eat, ended up drinking tea and acting surprised whenever we bumped into each other that we were there.



Mahabaleshwar welcomed us with strawberries, raspberries, and insane taxes. Obviously, there was a kickback to our driver, but we ignored that. Ended up at an amazing resort, nice rooms, good and confusing architechture, and dysfunctional water supply. Our room did not even have tubelights. After eating and drinking and stuff, we ended up at table land, where I rode my own horse. Was pretty good at it, but did not actually make it run. The instructions were simple: wherever you pull the reign, it goes. That turned out to be true. Amazing sunset there.



After that, we went back to the hotel, after a short visit to the market, and then tully ho ke girne se samjhi humko gravity.



Next morning, rose late, contemplated swimming, realised that the water was too cold, got a cold, others woke up after that, had food, headed out to Pratapgad, the place where Shivaji killed Afzalkhan and centuries later history teachers would force helpless little students to memorize the exact date. Photographed the flag that stands in instead of Shivaji's.



Boating next, nice huge one hour of somehow managing to stay afloat despite the various attempts at rowing by all of us which more than once came close to toppling all of us. After boating came perhaps the single most amazing thing of the entire trip - at least for me. Horse Riding again, and this time, I actually raced it by myself and was so thrilled that I took two huge rounds and one small one, and stopped only because of cost rising parallel to my adrenaline level.



Calmed down with booze in the evening, talked out, and enjoyed the last day. We made sufficient noise to get a complaint, woke up at eight twenty when the check out time was eight, ended up leaving the hotel for a mostly strawberries shopping spree, which took MUCH longer than expected, and then we set off home.



Stop at somewhere for lunch, which arrived obscenely late, and without half the things we ordered for - even sans the butter in the butter naan. Kya kare pandu...



Then the car broke down, and we crawled up half the city post the expressway. Reached home late... and went to sleep dead tired.



Horse Riding at Table Land







Paraglider at Table Land







Paragliding is a slow, relaxed activity as compared to parachuting. You just more or less hang around in one place and slowly descend.



Me at someplace sufficiently too dangerous to stand







The clouds and the flag at Pratapgad. Our eyes were treated to amazing sunrays all the way back from mabee...





More photos later.