GNE Get-Together in Mahabaleshwar / Pune with College Friends

1st May, 2015. It was a long weekend with Friday off, so, I took Thursday off and I went to Mahabaleshwar as I preferred a hill station in the hot Bangalore weather. Yes, believe it or not, Bangalore is hot these days !

Since I am not a lavish traveller, I took a non-AC sleeper train till Satara, reached there on Thursday noon, skyrocketed my budget by taking an auto from railway station till bus stand for 150 and then took a cheap non-AC local bus to Mahabaleshwar, which took me through Wai and Panchgani to my destination. Some nice person helped me a lot as that particular day, it was a local bus strike in two years, as he quoted and buses were running off-schedule and less in frequency.

I reached Mahabaleshwar around 6:30. It wasn't dark yet. I roamed around the bus stand a little, sat at CCD for 3 hours till it was 10, finished watching Furious 7, put up the tent in a stranded govt property nearby where there was a pet dog. He barked a lot, but I was determined to sleep and get used to a barking dog. I had a nice sleep hoping that tomorrow, I will roam around the place and enjoy some nice weather.

I woke up early and went to Wilson's Point to view the sunrise which had happened by the time I reached there. I stayed at that place for about 2-3 hours, waiting for friends and finally when it was getting hot, decided to go back. I reached the bus stand and it was hot. I sat at CCD for  a while when my friends reached the place. I met Moku, Shaiwal, Naresh and Pandeyji. Joked about some things and went onto Mapro garden where Shaiwal told they serve free stuff.

 the view was 3X beautiful
but that particular spot was exploited :'(

Shaiwal and Pandey ji took us behind Mapro, inside the fields, made us walk a lot and took us to a place, a very beautiful view point which until that was time was unexploited and was being constructed into a bungalow or a restaurant. We were sad and couldn't find a view point comparable to that for quite sometime. It was hot, so we decided to go back to Mapro and we enjoyed delicious food. Tasty strawberry smoothies and free shots, which kept us busy.

We started our journey back to Pune and there was an unbelievably bad (>15km) one-way jam in that hilly route to Mahabaleshwar. Some vehicle had just taken off the electric wire. We were very happy and had a lot of fun, sitting uncomfortably in a tight car, watching people getting out of their vehicles, driving past that never ending jam (on the other way up), while we easily drove relatively very very easily (the other way down). What a holiday they must have enjoyed !

Mapro Garden.

We reached Pune and had a beer in the evening and slept. I wasted the next day, Saturday, as Moku didn't get up to go to Sula Wine Factory. We went to a TJ's Brew Works in the evening, partied till late. I boarded a train back to Bangalore on Sunday.

Mahabaleshwar/Pune was very hot, but nice that I met some college friends and enjoyed my weekend doing something new, not very exciting, but still, something new !

Next time, Mahabaleshwar !! Proper season and proper plan !!

I am not moving my ass in this hot weather for another 3-4 months now !!