Monday, October 03, 2005

Matheran -- Travelogue

Imagine a hill station, with no tar roads, no motor vehicles, no smell of gasolene, only trees and trees all around, clean fresh air and aerial views that are breathtakingly beautiful, then you get Matheran.



LOCATION : Convenintly placed between Mumbai and Pune. It is around 131 Kms from Mumbai and 144 Kms from Pune. The closest railway station is Neral, which is 11 kms from Matheran. Toy trains used to ply between Neral and Matheran, but this year monsoons has severly affected most of the bridges/track and there are no trains plying as of now. Hopefully the service will start next year. Taxis and Private vehicles ply between Neral and Matheran. These vehicles are parked at Dasturi Naka (3 kms from Materan) and are not allowed to enter Matheran. Rs 25 is charged per person at the entrance. This money is used ably to maintain Matheran.

CLIMATE : The weather in Matheran is pleasant all through the year. Best time to visit is from October to May. Going to Matheran during monsoons, will be a different experience altogether.

ACCOMODATION :

Budget Hotels : MTDC, and several hotels. MTDC is located at the very entrance of Matheran.
High end : There is one 3-star hotel. Forgot the name.

During peal season time, it is best to book hotels before you embark to Matheran.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS :

FOOD :

You get decent Veg/Non-Veg fare in the MTDC hotel and all around Matheran.
Just like Lonovala, you also get Chikki and Chocolate almond fudge here in Matheran.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES/TRAVEL TIPS : Do not take your own vehicle to Matheran, the road between Neral and Matheran, just like the Pune roads is full of pot holes. Get to Neral, and from there take the private taxis. Most of the taxis are antique pieces, but they do the job.

Once you are in Matheran, the only means of transportation is your legs, horses, ponies and hand-rickshaws. There are around 15 points in Matheran to visit, my group visited 6 off those.

Most of Matheran is very clean, but you do get to see plastic here and there. Compared to Mahableshwar this place is alot cleaner. We also saw laying of hand-made roads made by digging out stones.

While coming back, if it is possible, try to walk down from Matheran to Neral. It was a great trip, made easy due to availablity of public transportation. Matheran is a perfect example of how a hill-station will be, if there is not much off commercialization. I just hope it will be like this ever.

Yellow Flowers



12 Comments:

At 7:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice one dude.
Hope we will catch this place very soon. :)

 
At 7:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

what is that pic? roads are laid with coconut husks????

 
At 8:37 PM, Blogger Srihari SN said...

Kats - the pic is about people laying roads using stones dug out off there - those are stones man stones - dont know what kind though - hard stones

 
At 5:00 PM, Blogger Narayanan Venkitu said...

Rare to see such gems of tourist locations. Rare to read such gems of reviews!

Thanks for doing this ! I would love to visit this place..sometime during my visits to India.!!

Nice photos.!

 
At 5:02 PM, Blogger Narayanan Venkitu said...

Oops, there is something wrong with the photo links. Click on anyone of the photos, it always goes to the first photo.!!

 
At 9:37 PM, Blogger Srihari SN said...

Nayanan sir,

Thanks for pointing out the wrong links and thanks for the comments :), yes try to visit in and around Pune during the monsoon season, its green everywhere.

 
At 8:10 AM, Blogger Krish said...

My cousins used to go there and said it was a lovely place. I hope I can visit that too some day.

 
At 12:20 AM, Blogger Cogito said...

Nice Travelogue ! I am glad that they made the decision to disallow vehicles inside Matheran ! Its a beautiful place.

 
At 3:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Me and my trekking partner Brajest walked all the way up, lots of monkeyes, we walked up on the narrow gauge rail track, it was good fun. We had a pony trekk for 17 kms, and nearly broke my back. The horse on which I sat was a race horse previously, for some reason it did not like me, and I had to change half way to one of the destination point. I did this in 1995. It is a fantastic place, and I miss those days and my friend Brajesh.

Rajan
Edinburgh

 
At 11:15 PM, Blogger Narayanan Venkitu said...

Thanks for fixing the links, I love the yellow flowers and the hills behind...looks like a dream vacation spot.!

 
At 2:38 AM, Blogger Srihari SN said...

Thennavan - Do visit, its a great place

Arun - yes dude, no motor vehicles inside Matheran has gone a long way in keeping this place clean

Rajan - Thanks for dropping by, where are you put up now ?

Narayanan sir - Matheran is full off these yellow flowers, and it is quite heavenly

Hari

 
At 2:38 AM, Blogger Bibek Roy said...

Good to become visiting your weblog again, it has been months for me. Nicely this article that i've been waited for so long. I will need this post to total my assignment in the college, and it has exact same topic together with your write-up. Thanks, good share.

best time to visit munnar

 

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