Matheran 2019

Matheran Trip:

Karjat is railway station where you can reach easily by taking train from Mumbai or Pune.

From Karjat, you need to go to Neral. There are local trains, it just takes   15-20 minutes. 10/- ticket
Some trains take you to Neral as well.

From Neral, you have two options
(1) toy train to Matheran,(3 hours)
(2) taxi to Dasturi Naka(30 mins), walk to Aman lodge (10 mins) (coolie 50/- to carry luggage) and then toy train to Matheran (30 mins)
I prefer #2

If you are taking car, you can drive till Dasturi Naka. (After Neral, road is good but steep spopsl in ghat)

In Matheran, there are so many hotels you can pick the best for your budget. Everything is within 2 kilometres from bazar.

You need to rent horse to to visit points. Remember to negotiate. 500/600 for a round of 5-6 points.

There are couple of restaurants veg and nonveg, ok-ok food. Nothing special that I found in food.


Make sure you cover sunrise and sunset point, beautiful view as always.

Little bit of rain should be the best season. I visited in March, it was warm in afternoon but evenings are chill.

2 days (1 night) are enough to cover major points. There is no need to see all points, look same-same.

No vehicles, so no pollution - breath fresh and you need to walk so completely healthy trip.

BSNL experience

BSNL - I wanted to join after using other service providers for broadband internet.
I started with great excitement and visited BSNL office at Parvati (Pune), huge office. Employee  there made me feel like I am in typical Govt. office, all were too slow and not at all interested in me (customer). They have only few plans available and that is displayed on a wall. They will always direct you to *that* wall whenever you ask any question about plan (though s/he has free time).
If you passed this phase and planned to go with some plan then you have to go to particular person and ask for application form. He will pull out some form from his huge file lying on table (since 19XX). You should feel the form and attach photo, docs. Interesting thing started when he asked me the originals of those doc which we never carry with us. :) fortunately I was having Pan card with me, so saved.

I asked what is expected time then he simply replied like "let's see" / "8-10 days or may be more". (not sure)

After couple of days, I got the connection but broadband was not started and when I asked then 'exchange' in my area replied as "wait, there are no port available right now" this is the best answer till now. they think of port is available after providing connection. I am still waiting for this....

And after few days, I got the broadband working. Its good and impressive speed.
Become happy at last !!!

Call AT&T toll free no from BSNL - 000-117
You can not call this from normal BSNL landlines, you need ISD. Getting ISD is like crossing mountain.

Nagaon-Kashid beach


If you are in search of any nearby spot for 1/2 day picnic then look at this option, just 165 Km from Pune.

We started at 7am from Pune towards Khopoli via expessway, less traffic in morning so I enjoyed the drive. After Lonavala-Khandala keep on left side of expressway and read the instruction and follow Khopoli-Exit (on left side) you will get out of express way. Go towards ‘Pen’ – road is good but you can drive at 40-50 speed. From ‘Pen’ – take left and go to Alibag. Keep asking people because there are not many instructions on Roadside. Again road is good but crowded. Beware of speed breakers. Before entering Alibag, take left and follow Murud/Roha/Nagaon road. Nagaon is just 6km from there. You will find ‘Shivaji Maharaj’ statue on right side of road, take right turn to go to Nagaon & straight to Kashid/Murud. We reached there at 10.30am.

Nagaon- Road at right side from statue takes you to Nagaon beach; in between you will find many cottages on the way. Mostly cottages there are an extension of the houses, they provide simple room and very basic amenities and (mostly) don’t serve food. I like such place because less crowded compared to hotel and you will get different feel. There are many water sports at Nagaon beach like speed boat, motor boat; you will like it. Sea water was muddy at time of my visit so I didn’t prefer/like to dubaki which was disappointing for me. Also due to soil this beach does not have white sand so muddy water. I am not sure if it is not the case all time. Beach is long and all safe. You can take your car on beach which is not possible at most of beaches, i enjoyed driving on beach (filmy style). Food stalls are available near beach where you can get snacks and full meal also. We had Surmai fish thali there, I liked it. For dinner, we went to one hotel in Nagaon which is near to Shivaji Statue which we crossed while entrance, this is normal hotel and provide veg/non-veg decent food and ambience. We spent one day at Nagaon.

Kashid: Next day we checked out at 8am and started towards Kashid beach. You have to take right turn from Shivaji statue, and follow Murud/Roha road. After 10-15 kms you will be at Birla Mandir. I didn’t find anything special in this mandir except huge garden and beautiful god murties. We spent half an hour there and moved towards Kashid beach. From there it’s around 15-20km away. Small ghats and full of greenery, this way is along the costal side. Go slowly and enjoy the drive. This drive was the best one. On kashid beach, there are so many sea side huts/shades made available to relax and there are small hotels which provide only snacks not meal. This beach has white sand and sea water is also clean, so we enjoyed. The people from huts provide you water buckets(paid) for bathing. We got hungry after spending hours in beach so jumped on egg omlate and burgy with pav. We took rest for an hour and started return journey at 3pm.

Back to Pune at 6.30pm

Lohgadh Trek

Hello friends,

Started enjoying this monsoon with Lohgadh trek, will be sharing our trek.

We took Pune-Lonavala local in morning 6.30am which reached Malavali station @ 7.45 am (Rs. 14/- J). @ Malavali, we had some breakfast (Garam-Garam Vada Pav and Egg Omlate) at small Tapari. Vada-pav is perfect for monsoon. We started walking towards “Bhaja Caves” which is 20-30 min from Malavali. Car can go upto Bhaja village, parking is available. Out second group came by car and joined us at Bhaja. Bhaja Village has three visiting spots Bhaja Caves (caves), Lohgadh (Fort), Visapur (Fort).

Lohgadh and Visapur forts are near to each other and both are good for trekking. Visapur is difficult in comparison so we headed up towards Lohgadh. From Bhaja to Lohgadh-base (payatha) is simple walk but on inclined road so this will make you little bore but good for heart and scenery is fantastic. On the way you may have fresh lemon juice/cucumber to recharge. I didn’t find Tak/Dahi much as like any other fort. Walking for an hour will take you to Lohgadh base point. From base you can see all rock patches around you, this is not like any other fort. Lohgadh paytha (base) is a small village but you can get snacks/food. After small break, we started climbing fort. It took another half hour to reach on top.

Fort is more flat and wide on top. There is one Shiv Mandir. We had some snacks and food there which we carried. You won’t get any snacks on top so carry it. We started visiting all corners of Lohgadh ( 8 sided Tank, Shiv Mandir, Masjid), after this we walked towards Vinchu-Kata (special of this fort). Vinchu-Kata is very narrow long part of fort and connecting portion is also small. You can get down from rock patch or there is one side way (very narrow) to go towards vinchu-kata. Here you should be careful. Rock patch is not very easy so we went via side way. In heavy rains, this side way will be slippery. Vinchu kata is very similar to Rajgadh machi where narrow slippery path. It takes 1 hour to visit all fort.

In all this was a nice trek.

If anyone don’t want to walk from Bhaja to Lohgad base then they can drive upto base via Chandani chowk – Pirangut - Paud OR via Lonavala After reaching Paud take right and drive for around 40 odd km. Just after you cross “Dudhiware Khind” you reach to the same place Take right for Lohgad base. Also, you can come from Lonavala side upto base.
Make sure you have good vehicle as road is not good. Also while going from Lonavla, don't miss the left turn before Khind.



enjoy trekking….



@@@ Rhudaynath @@@

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