[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by MX6

He was lucky. Entering one-way is a lesser crime in Mumbai than being caught speaking in a mobile while driving. Even mobs might attack if they catch a person talking on the mobile!
And yes, 5 or 10 bucks for offences which are contentious like FFE. You know why the traffic cops in Mumbai are called Pandu? Interesting story behind it.
Read this interesting stuff which will teach about how to handle Pandu.
Quick tips on handling a Mumbai traffic cop (pandu) | this is mumbai city

LOL nice link. Am pretty Used to bribe Rs 100 in Delhi so did not want to negotiate any more.

[harishnayak]

DAY 5 - TRIP TO MATHERAN

I decided to get my leaves extended and take the entire week off and thus this trip to matheran.

Ideally we should have started in the morning around 10:00 am but convincng everyone , post anniversary chores etc made us start for Matheran aroun 2:30 pm. None of my relatives/cousins had been there earlier and a quick google of what to see/distance etc made us believe that we should reach there by around 4:30 so we started.

Soon after hitting the Hwy towards Pune we came to know that Matheran was about 90 kms and i though in my mind that we would not be able to make it before 5:30 pm and i was right , anyways the journey continued as it had been yeeear since we all went for a picnic and there was no better time than this.

Here are few pics of the drive... to be contd

Modern transport Vs conventional transport - Bullock cart along with the bulls stuffed in the truck

[harishnayak]

The ride to Matheran was one of the steepest that i've come across so far. I had to turn of the AC as the car was not ready to climb with the AC on.

Anyways the climate was pretty cool so it helped. Here are few pics showing the climb

[MX6]

Aaha. So you are catching up with Matheran now! It's been some time that I've updated the matheran leg of my log.

[harishnayak]

CONTD..

Finally we made it to Matheran after a 3 hours drive. Here are few pictures

[harishnayak]

My Granny was with me and walking 2.5 kms was not possible for her so we hired a hand pulled rickshaw for her. The Guys were initially asking for rs 600 per person and guess what they came down to ?? Rs 150..lol.

So she took the rickshaw and rest of us decided to walk. Now there were 2 routes

1) The regular mud track
2) The rail track - which was a short cut and we decided to take that

[harishnayak]

And then we headed towards the Khandala point. Now this was one nice point and we all had fun walking down the stairs to reach this point.

There were few thirst friendly monkeys who did not leave an opportunity to steal our water bottles leaving us thirsty for the climb up the stairs.

Came back near the railway station and some nice Vada paos before starting the 2.5 kms trek back.

It was already dark by then and guess what there were NO LIGHTS ON THE WAY AND A COMPLETE PITCH DARK JUNGLE , my cousins , my mom and aunt decided to take the horses and my Granny braved to walk and thanx to the powerful torch of my Nokia E72 ( yes it has a torch too ) that rest of us paved the way thru the quiet and Dark Jungle before finally reaching the parking area.






Friendly Monkeys

Trying to open the water bottles kept by us

Cmon open up

Yipee, i made it







Antonio Banderas in Disguise

Couldnt stop laughing..manpower bogie







Shot in Pitch Dark conditions..way to go

[Fordmanchau]

Hey Harish,
Just caught up with your thread again and finished just in time for lunch.
It was a wonderful read with some amazing snaps. Particularly like the snaps of the sealink taken in night.You had fun, didn't you??
Waiting for more updates man!!

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Hey Harish,
Just caught up with your thread again and finished just in time for lunch.
It was a wonderful read with some amazing snaps. Particularly like the snaps of the sealink taken in night.You had fun, didn't you??
Waiting for more updates man!!

Thanks Fordmanchau. even i'm trying my best to cover up as and when i'm getting time.

We sure had lots of Fun.

Next leg of the trip is From MUM - PUNE ( stopover ) , PUNE - GOA ( stopover ) , GOA - DELHI ( non-stop )

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by harishnayak

We sure had lots of Fun.

Next leg of the trip is From MUM - PUNE ( stopover ) , PUNE - GOA ( stopover ) , GOA - DELHI ( non-stop )

Hi Harish,

i can almost feel your enthusiasm and passion for road trip, through your narration and photographs.

Traveling with Grandparents is always fun. i do not remember clearly my trips with my grandparents. Good that you have some photographs of your trip with your Granny. They are the trophy pictures.

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Hi Harish,

i can almost feel your enthusiasm and passion for road trip, through your narration and photographs.

Traveling with Grandparents is always fun. i do not remember clearly my trips with my grandparents. Good that you have some photographs of your trip with your Granny. They are the trophy pictures.

I'm glad that you liked the TL , encourages me to proceed with more speed and details.

I took lots of pics but obviously not all are posted here. We also took lot of family photographs as it was a very rare occasion with almost 90 attendance from different parts of India

DAY 6 -

We reached home pretty late after the Matheran trip around 2:00 am and were dead tired. Our original plan of starting for Pune at around 9 flopped and we started at around 12:00 in the noon.
What had actually happened was before we got up the maid had accidently put our clothes in the washing machine and almost 30 % of our clothes were wet so even inspite of waiting for them to dry they did not and we decided to put some of the clothes on the cars back seat , music box etc..I hated the way my car looked but i guess we did not have a choice.

The total distance from Mum-Pune was around 150 kms and most of the people i knew and on the blogs etc claimed to have done it in 2-3 hours ( i'm not sure if they included the time taken within both the cities too )



The toll charges are now Rs 140 - The most expensive in the entire trip. I do remember that last time ( 2008 ) when i drove to Goa it was around Rs 110. Rs 30 in about 1.5 yrs is not too much of an hike for a traveller like me.

My friend back in pune had taken a leave and was expecting us in the afternoon but he was surely in for a surprise soon..

Here are few excellent pictures of the Mum- Pune Hwy for the people who have not travelled on this stretch. I have more pics and will post them shortly as soon as i export them.

[harishnayak]

Here are some more pics from this wonderful xpressway. It was a dream to drive with no dogs , idiots etc coming in your way , all we did was stepped on the pedal and chit chatted

[harishnayak]

Here is a nice video of the xpressway showing a crashed innova ( looked like a driver who slept while driving kind of an accident ) and the tunnel

YouTube - Mumbai Pune expressway drive

[harishnayak]

Not sure if my friends here are liking this TL or not. I know i'm going a little slow only due to the fact that there's a lot to tell and very little time to say ;((.

I will try my best and finish it ASAP.

[harishnayak]

Finally we reached Pune after a long 5 hour drive due to some A**** who gave us wrong directions. I tried calling up my friend but he could not guide me properly as even he was new to Pune.

I wish i had called MX6 as he stayed at the same place as my friend ( which i came to know later ).

Here are few pics of my friends son. Now this dude had a battery charged bike and i spent about 2 hours making him ride his bike via a remote. Here are a few pics