Vihigaon Falls

This year’s monsoon had a false start in June when we had gone to Ark Wellness Retreat – when the initial few days of rains fizzled out and the sky remained cloudy but never burst open. There was a long wait for rains to arrive and the downpour finally started only in the second week of July in Mumbai. And this time the rains haven't stopped yet, bringing smiles to our faces when we are safely ensconced in our homes or offices. From my window seat in office, I always stare at the torrential rains outside, longing to be in my car instead, driving.

So I was definitely hoping for a fully wet Sunday when we made plans to visit Vihigaon Falls. And I got my wish fulfilled as the rains were torrential when we left Bombay. The downpour stopped when we were at our destination and then again started in an almighty fashion on our way back. Driving in heavy rain, sitting cozily inside the car, music playing, is one of the most indescribably pleasurable things I have recently discovered

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Ark Wellness Retreat

Monsoon is here AGAIN !
Like most Bombayites, we were also waiting anxiously for monsoons rains to start – as this has been a long and hot summer. While Bombay takes a turn for the worse once the downpour starts - as roads gets taken over by potholes, traffic slows to a crawl, trains run late and autorickshaws play truant - but the silver lining are the weekend trips. The Sahyadri hills around Bombay, which were dry and brown and quite an eyesore in the summer months - will turn green, sprout waterfalls and have the most pleasant weather possible

Although rains this year were delayed by a week, Gods smiled on us and we had rains for the day before and on our trip. Our destination was Ark Wellness Retreat (www.arkretreat.in), a new weekend getaway property in the hills around Lonavala. This is somewhere between Pavana dam and Mulshi dam, somewhere in Mulshi district. It is exactly a 3 hour drive via the Expressway from Mumbai, so it can be done without a break – but whats a weekend trip without a McDonald’s breakfast ?

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Gir National Park

We have been in Mumbai 8 years now. And we love travelling, as is evident by this blog.

So it was like a black mark on our wanderlust credentials that we hadn’t yet visited Gir National Park, which is practically next door in Gujarat. To be fair, although Gujarat sounds closeby, Gir is about 800 km away by road from Mumbai – because the road skirts all the way around Gulf of Khambat. Same with trains. And with only a single train to Junagadh (closest railway station) from Mumbai, tickets are always in short supply.

However, Gir is the only place where lions can be seen in India – only place in Asia infact. It is the last surviving population of the Asiatic lion (otherwise lions are only found in Africa now). And it is something else to see the king of the forest in his natural habitat. India is a more of a tiger country, with about 15 tiger sanctuaries spread across the nation. And it turned out to be a blessing, because the holiday (Good Friday) weekend that we travelled, all tiger sanctuaries were full. But we were able to get safaris in Gir for that weekend (The Supreme Court has limited number of safaris everyday in all wildlife sanctuaries – and for holidays, safari permits at the well known tiger reserves are sold out months in advance)

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Mango Beach House, Kihim

With 3 weddings in the second half of 2013, we hadn’t been able to take a travel break since Fratelli ! So when a small cause for celebration came up last week, we decided to splurge on ourselves a bit and drove down to Mango Beach House in Kihim (Alibaug) this weekend.

Mango Beach House (http://www.mangobeachhouse.com) is a very cosy property tucked away near Kihim beach. It is spread over a hockey-field sized plot with 8 regular rooms and two terrace suites. The regular rooms are pretty huge and the bathrooms themselves will put many Mumbai bedrooms to shame. The buildings are in white and each room is very airy with very liberal use of glass in the design

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Kaas Plateau : Valley of Flowers

Most of us have heard stories of the famed Valley of Flowers in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand – where the entire valley is engulfed in wild flowers of all colours, for a couple of months in a year. My father had the good fortune of seeing it for himself back in his younger days and he cannot help gushing about how beautiful it was, every time the topic comes up. However, that phenomenon is not limited to Himalayan peaks alone. Here in Maharashtra, in the district of Satara, there is a plateau of Kaas (locally called Kaas Pathar) which too gets covered by wild flowers, when the monsoon rains recede.

These wildflowers blossom for a very short while – just a couple of weeks – but they cover the full plateau with it. The Western Ghats in the monsoons are already at their most magical, with all the hills surrounding Kaas in a verdant green. Lakes are full and waterfalls in full flow. Amidst all this, imagine a plateau kissed by clouds & fog, covered with pink, blue, yellow and white flowers all over. And if you are lucky, you will have a clear day without the mist – with blue skies above and flower carpet on the ground (as this photo below. Photo credit www.bcmtouring.com)

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