Short Panchgani Holiday with Gang of Girls

 Panchgani holiday Home

Have you ever taken a short vacation to Panchgani? Always on the lookout for a decent Panchgani Holiday Home?  It was a well-deserved break we all took, away from the maddening city for some quiet quality time. The due date was approaching with loads of excitement and last minute planning.

Destination Panchgani

The destination was nearby Panchgani keeping in mind the time constraints, and varied age group of our all Girls group. Three generations taking a pleasure trip together, aunts Pervin and Teena, sister Farzeen, daughter Zenia and me.

Getting to Our Panchgani Holiday Home

The rail journey started in the wee early hour at 5:30 AM. We settled down and polished off the chicken sandwiches and coffee. From Pune station, we transferred to our AC sumo to take us up to the winding Ghats. We all looked out eagerly like little children and admired what the view offered us stopping to take some pictures to later upload on Facebook. Our Panchgani Holiday home was rustic but well kept.

 

Mount View Hotel

We all reached Panchgani-Mount View Hotel in one piece with minor backache after the bumpy ride on Indian roads. Mount View is run by a Parsi family. It has modern amenities yet charmingly rustic. We settled in two rooms and later enjoyed the yummy lavish meal of Fried chicken, dhansak -rice, cutlets, roti, stew, and cachumber. yet had a place for fruit custard.

The fresh evening air gave us the energy to walk to the local Agyari and market to get our evening supply of snacks and drinks for an all-night card party. We had a lovely sing-song session under the stars in our pajamas.

The beautiful outdoors

I got up much earlier than the others, thanks to the band of birds who insisted on waking me up. We found a little pathway beside the hotel and decided to venture down, treading carefully on the dried fallen leaves that made a crunchy sound. It was quite scarey peeping off the cliff.

To my surprise, I saw houses below perched on the corner of the cliff and a campsite with tents and a burnt out campfire. I waited and did some deep breathing exercises filling up my lungs with pure unadulterated oxygen. Wish I had my camera to capture the sunrise above the hill overpowering the dark shadow to lighten up the green fields

 

The next day itinerary

The next two days were filled with sightseeing, shopping, gossiping, savoring ice creams and milkshakes. Panchgani and relaxation go hand in hand. Had a superb relaxing time in our Panchgani Holiday Home- Hotel Mount. The highlights of our trip were the Visit to the MAPRO strawberry festival and discovering Aamir Khans Bungalow just next to our hotel. We shopped for channa, chickki, jams, and strawberries all to take back to our families.

Bye bye Panchgani Holiday

Memories packed along with bags and loaded on the Neeta Travel Bus back to Mumbai was very saddening but reality had to be faced. Hoping to take another trip with my wonderful Gang of Girls.