Hello everybody, hope you’ll are doing well. As some of you may know, we travelled to Mumbai-Lonavala last March and the travelogue is long due.  The plan was abruptly made when my husband mentioned that he would like to visit Mumbai and being the traveller that I am, I quickly researched what other places we can visit near Mumbai and finalized with Lonavala.

We did our flight booking from Kolkata to Mumbai and after staying at a friend’s place at Versova, Mumbai for a few days we headed to Lonavala one fine dawn. We booked a cab and it took us around 3 hrs via the expressway to reach Lonavala. Our hotel, The Upper Deck Resort is situated at the highest point in Lonavala and it took our cab a rocky uphill ride to reach our hotel. We checked in at 12 and first thing first, I needed some rest.

Upon reaching the resort I found out that the resort has no cellphone reception except for the reception area, and I thought, ‘complete bliss!’. Our friend who stays in Mumbai told us that monsoon is the best time to visit Lonavala but we went anyway. It was scorching hot during the day time so we just rested until the sun started coming down. Around 4 I went to the pool, relaxed a bit and after 5 we came outside and just sat on the chairs on the lawn overlooking a breathtaking view. We received mobile network and could access to the resort wi-fi from the sitting area as well at the restaurant. But we opted to enjoy the breeze and the view instead of staring at our cellphones.

After sitting there for hours, we went for dinner. The buffet wasn’t spread but we could order anything from the buffet menu. We ordered Tandoori Roti, A chicken dish, wonton soup and gajar ka halwa. Every item was delicious and we retired into our rooms with happy stomachs and watched some movie on the flat screen. As much as we still wanted to sit outside, it was cold and we weren’t carrying any warm clothes.

The next day we woke up early, had a hearty breakfast and strolled around the property clicking pictures. The location was picture perfect and every corner was Instagram worthy.

After a fruitful photo session we went to have a grand lunch. We ordered cheese balls, chicken hawaiyan salad, alu methi, butter naan, a chicken curry and gajar ka halwa. I couldn’t have enough of the cheese balls and the alu methi while my strictly non-veg husband indulged in the delicious chicken curry.

After lunch we went for Lonavala sightseeing, headed towards Khandala and then went to see off our friend at Lonavala bus-station who was also travelling to Lonavala but left a day ahead of us. Our auto driver said that no auto heads towards our resort after 6 because it’s uphill, so we didn’t get an opportunity to explore the Lonavala market. We headed back to our hotel and after freshening up, went back to the sitting area to spend another serene evening. After dinner, we watched another movie and soon after my husband fell asleep, I started feeling melancholic. I’m a big time insomniac and it was hard for me to fall asleep. I was having an urge to read creepy stories on my phone but since there was no network, I went outside for some wi-fi reception. There was not another human in sight and apart from the reception, it was pitch dark. I’m too cold prone so I started shivering and thus retired to my room, but not before opening a reading material on my phone. I wish I was carrying a book with me.

We had our cab booked to Mumbai the next day and our cab arrived around 10. And thus we bid goodbye to Lonavala, but also making a point on our minds to come back during monsoon.

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