Trip to Lonavala - by Reya

At 11 O clock on Friday, I started packing for my trip to Lonavala. This trip is special because I was going with my parents + grandparents (ammamma, tata, bamma, tatayya). Also with my cousins Vivek and Vikas. I packed all my favorite dresses, my flower frock, princess gown, hannah montana frock, my barbie t-shirt, my swim dress etc.
   The train came at 11 o clock in the night. The name of the train was Duronto Express. It was an AC train. It had pictures of nice scenery on it. It was beautiful. We clicked a picture in front of it and got into it.

In front of Duronto Express

Saturday

After waking up the next morning, I played with my brother in the train. We ran from one end to other end in our bhogi. After crossing Pune, we saw western ghat moutain ranges which were beautiful. By 11, we reached mumbai where we waited for my atha to pick us up. I met vivek and vikas and told jokes to them and we all played tumbling monkeys, etc. After some time we had lunch, and we played again. In the evening we started to Lonavala. We told many jokes and sang together in the car while going. We reached our resort - Treasure Island. But dint find any hidden treasure in it. :)

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Sunday, we played in the resort with vivek and vikas. They got tumbling monkeys and we all played. We also played table tennis and some fun games. We all swam together. They left us in the evening to go to mumbai and i felt very sad.

On Monday, the first place we went to was Wax museum. There I saw statues of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, King Sivaji, etc. Bamma liked it very much. We also went to Tiger's point. There i shouted and  my voice echoed. I went to Khandala park, there i saw so many monkeys. I also ate corn cobs. After coming back to the resort, my family and i went swimming.

Inside Wax museum

Tiger's Point

On Tuesday, I went to Karla caves. there i saw some classrooms for Buddhist monks which were built in 2nd century BCE. We went up the caves through a narrow slippery path. I felt scared. I also went to Bhaja caves where i saw pillars there was some language written on it. I also saw many stupas which some drawings. I also saw Sivaji's Logad Fort from there.

Karla Caves

Unknown language on the pillars of Bhaja caves

Wednesday
We started to Panchgani from Lonavala in the evening. Panchgani is Amir Khan's favorite place. We went by a car called Innova. After reaching Panchgani, we wnt to a hotel called Prospect which was built in 1912.It was a beautiful100 year old hotel. It had a heritage look but modern interiors. In the hotel, there were 32 birds in a big cage along with two tortoises. There was also a big private pool.

Cage with 32 birds and 2 tortoises at Prospect hotel

On Thursday, we had a tasty breakfast - puri with aloo curry. They served home made strawbery jam made with honey and not sugar. I loved it. So i had an extra bread toast. Even tata, ammamma, tatayya, bamma loved the jam. Then we went to various view points. The first view point where we went was tiger's spring. The water tasted very pure. After that we went to Dukes point and after that to Elephant point where a rock looked like an elephant. On top was it was Kates point which looked like elephant's carriage. After that we went to a place which had telescope. We saw all the filmy shooting places through it. Both tatas jumped down the fence for fun. It was a no-entry zone, so nanna felt scared and warned them not to do so. Then we went to Arthurs point where a king used to sit and direct the world. Below that was window point where we were not allowed to go because it was dangerous.

Elephant point ; on top Kate's point

Tiger Pure water Spring

Friday
On Friday, we went to local Panchgani tour. We went up a mountain where we saw 5 table lands. Then i understood why the name panchgani. We went by a horse carriage. It was a very shaky ride. We saw pandava footprints and the place where they lived for a while during their aranyavasam. We then bought nice jams as Panchgani is famous for Mala jams. Vedant and I like Mala's cherry berry jam very much.

Pandava footprints

5 table lands : Giving Funny poses

Saturday
We started back to Hyderabad. We first went to Lonavala and ate dal khichdi at our favorite restarent. Tatayya really enjoyed eating dal khichdi. He likes to try out many new dishes wherever he goes. We got into the train at 4 pm.  It was a fun trip as we were all together. Going with grandparents is so much fun as they keep answering all our doubts.