Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Matheran, a beautiful hill station not so far from Mumbai. The entire landscape of this place comes to life in the monsoons. Lush greenery for as far as we could see, cool, misty breeze, waterfalls, it was awesome.
It rained incessantly all the time we were there but it didn’t dampen our spirits. We got ourselves some cool transparent rain jackets from a local shop for 20 rupees each. They look sort of futuristic, straight out of a sci-fi flick. They actually are these huge plastic bags cut out in 3 places to make space for arms and neck to pass through, very useful and practical. We went out on some walks and saw some amazing views, had a close encounter with a mischievous monkey who I saw coming towards me for the chikki I was eating. But Gareth hit him with his bag, just-in-time, and he didn’t dare coming any closer. It was scary! We learnt the hard way that we really shouldn’t eat anything on the streets.
What I liked the most about this place was that no vehicles are allowed inside the town. It was so good to get away from the pollution of Mumbai. The only way into the town was by walking or riding on a horse. On our way back we hired horses. The distance was about 3 kilometers to get to the taxi stand. This was my first time riding a horse; I thoroughly enjoyed it.
-Amarsha