Matheran - Beautiful place

Matheran is a nice small hill resort on the Western Ghats, about 100 odd kms from the city of Mumbai. If you are going from Mumbai, you have to take a train and travel in the Central Line and then get off at a station called Neral and then take a taxi from there till Matheran. This taxi ride is something you will remember for a long time for the bumpiness of the ride. From the point the taxi drops you, you have to eithe walk/trek the 3-4 kms upto the Matheran village or take a Horse ride or hand cart till the village.

My Journey started from Thane station. The station I used to catch a local every morning to Currey Road. On a daily basis the total number of people coming and going from each of the Mumbai Local station must be the largest in India.

So finally got to take a pic inside the train!

Coming back to Matheran, this place doesnt allow any vehicles inside so all you find on the roads are people and horses and hand carts. The roads are dusty in the sense that there will be a layer of red soil on your shoes after your nice walk outside.

But who cares. There is no noise as such to screw you wonderful holiday. All you hear are the voices of people, animals and birds...how nice.

This is a typical street scene in the morning in Matheran!

Thats my horse "Bobby". He is 8 yrs and quite senior in this trade. He listens to Santhosh, the trainer standing on the left. His horse "Stallion" is 3 yrs and is one of the studs in Matheran according to him.
The best thing about Matheran is that this small place has some 40 points for tourists to visit and most of them are natural points. There is no man-made fencing etc to spoil the natural scenic beauty of the place.
The pic below is the echo point and is one of the more crowded places in Matheran.

This is not the sunset point, but I caught a wonderful sunset here. Most of the visitors to this place are Gujjus and so 90% of the restaurants are vegeterian. But I have to tell you that I enjoyed the veggie dishes for the 2 days I was there.
Its quite a lethargic outpost near Mumbai and ya forgot to mention that plastic is also banned in this tiny hamlet. In the hotel I was staying they had a small disco and I made most of it, dancing with kids :)...ok I also lost in TT to a 12 yr old kid. Now you know how good I am at TT!