Trip to Mahabaleshwar - Day 2

Day 2 started off with a lot of enthusiasm. We had planned to cover few of the 50-odd points in Mahabaleshwar, and then head towards Panchgani.

Mahabaleshwar is the largest hill station in Maharashtra. However, there is nothing much to see within Mahabaleshwar. The places around the hill station are more enticing. As is the case with most hill stations, Mahabaleshwar too was discovered by the British in the late 1700's, to escape the heat of Mumbai in summer. Other hill stations discovered and established by the British include Darjeeling, Dalhousie, Munnar, Mussoorie and so on. Though the first Briton to set foot here was Sir Charles Malet, the hill station was built under the supervision of General Peter Lodwick and Sir John Malcolm (Governor of Bombay). Other British officials to visit this place regularly were Elphistone, Carnac and Arthur. Most of the points in Mahabaleswar are named after these British generals. For example, Malcolm point, Arthur's seat, Elphistone point and Kate's point. (Kate was Sir Malcolm's daughter.)

Back to our trip. We started off the day by visiting old Mahabaleshwar. There are two temples that one can visit. The first temple was an old Shiva temple. The second and the more interesting one was the Panchganga temple. It is called so as the temple was built on the congregation of five rivers: Gayatri, Savitri, Krishna, Koyna, Venna and Saraswati. Hey wait, now that's six and not five, right? We too fell into a predicament when we entered the temple. There were six outlets from which the rivers flowed and the names of each were written above the outlet. Then, we observed something unique. There was no water flowing from the Saraswati outlet. My husband explained that it is so because Saraswati is a mythical river and no one knows whether it actually existed. Sheesh! That solved the mystery of the five rivers.

A Nandi bull outside the Shiva temple

Panchganga temple from a distance

Our next stop was to visit the view points. Basically, the view points are given different names. However, all of them offer more or less the same view of the Koyna valley. The moment we got off our cab, we were hounded by "guides". We were told that they were no signposts and that recognizing the points would be impossible for tourists. Nevertheless, we ventured without a guide and we were happy that we did so. There is actually no need for a guide, you see! The 1km stretch consisted of Suicide point, Echo point, Malcolm point and Tiger's spring. Tiger's spring is the place where animals come to quench their thirst at dusk. There is an old man who serves water to the tourists and is happy with whatever "bakshish" the tourists offer him. He said that he been doing this for the past 25 years. He apparently returns home at dusk as leopards are known to visit the spring for a sip of water. The old chap was adorable and very happy at the prospect of having somebody to talk to. He even obliged us by taking a very cute snap of ours. Yippee!!

View from Malcolm Point

We visited a few other points, the most ridiculous one being "Monkey Point". On hearing the name, you would think that it would be a place where you would spot lots and lots of monkeys. A big thenga to those who think so! When we reached the place, there wasn't a single monkey in sight. On the opposite side of the road, I spotted some people standing atop a ledge and looking across at a mountain. Then, our driver cleared the confusion and said that they were looking at the mountain as the shape of a certain rock in between the hills resembles a monkey. Eooowww!! Now, is that what you had call Monkey Point. Hmmphh!

Random view of the Koyna Valley

Another view of the Koyna valley - Now, I did warn you that they all look the same :P

After the disappointing view points in Mahabaleshwar, we proceeded to Panchgani. Panchgani was truly amazing. The plateau is lined with strawberry farms everywhere. We visited Mala's jam factory where we could sample any fruit crush. We tried out the rare variety such as kiwi fruit (according to me, it tasted yuck and looked like pista-flavored falooda), black current, blueberry and raspberry. We bought a bottle of black current crush to take back home. We also bought a kilo of yummy chocolate fudge. Then, we had some fresh strawberry ice-cream.

We then headed to the famous table-land in Panchgani. We hired a buggy (horse-cart) to take us around the table-land. We were also promised that we would be shown some 6-8 points. Now wait till you hear this. The points were places that were some kilometers away where shooting of famous bollywood movies were made. There was the bunglow from Raja Hindustani's Palankhet, where Aamir and Karisma Kapoor stayed. The hill-top where Rishi Kapoor and Jaya Prada danced to the beats of Dafli-wale. The scene from the movie Mela (I do not blame you if you don't remember this movie), where the good triumphs over the evil in the climax scene.

View from Table-land

Then, we were taken right to the center of the table-land, where there was a lake. It made a pretty picture! But according to the ghoda-wala, what made it interesting was not the mirage-like effect but the fact that it was the very same water from which Aamir Khan came out in the song Mangala Mangala from the movie Mangal Pandey. Just when thought our ordeal was over, there came a surprise. We were shown one more point. There was a small circle of pebbles and stones inside which there were what looked like stone imprints. We were told that it was the foot imprint of the five pandavas. Gosh!

These are the foot imprints of the five pandavas - koi shaq? ...

On second thoughts, I am wondering what happened to the foot imprints of Kunti and Draupadi? :|