Pune-Lonavla-Khandala-Pune
Looking back at the trips I made from Pune, the one to Lonavla was a lot of fun. After having failed to keep up with the planned Schedule, we were just in time for the Mumbai express which would take us to Lonavla. We were a group of 5 (Myself,Praveen,Sunny,Dinesh and Johnson). Dinesh and Johnson were in Pune with a client assignment and decided to join
us when they heard about the plan.
The train took just an hour to reach Lonavla, out of the station we stepped into streets of Lonavla. It looked like a crowded market place. The first priority was breakfast as our trip was suppose to be a relaxed one because we knew there isn't much to see and our plan was to stay overnight at either Lonavla or Khandala and go back the next day. Unix was the topic of discussion on our short walk to the restaurant (what else, when 5 unix admins go on a trip ?).
The breakfast was south Indian and soon after that we started to inquire about where to go and how to go. The Cashier at the hotel was whom we chose to ask the questions and he din't disappoint us .He would arrange for a scorpio to take us to the different spots in Lonavla and Khandala. After a bit of bargaining game we decided that it will be indeed the Scorpio that we would hire. It was rather spacious for 5 of us. The drver said that it would only take about 5 hours for him to cover all the points. That did disappoint me and Praveen who planed for an overnight stay. Leaving the place without saying "cheers" was not somethin we agreed to, .It was only 10 Am so if everything can be done in 5 hours we would get about 2-3 hours and can leave by 06:00 PM.
The scorpio then took us to the different points, the weather was good to our liking, don't think there was much we can ask at the time of the year than enjoy the brief spells of Sunshine,showers and the never stopping wind.
Johnson had a pretty good Digital SLR with him so the main attraction was photography. the sites we saw where not breathtaking or unforgettable. The few sites I liked were the view of the Mumbai-Pune expressway from a park above, the encounter with rain near the Bushi dam and. I really wanted to go up that small stream to as far as i can,but the lack of enthusiasm in others made me forget the whole idea of it, ohh yeah we had an extended lunch with beer to keep up our track record of drinking at every tourist place we visited.It was a Saturday and there was a decent crowd and "bird watching" was prominent part of the trip. Me and Sunny had an uphill running race (Cheered by a few chance spectators)
More than the sights, what we enjoyed most were the little moments and talks and laughter we shared, offcourse it was more fun after a couple of beers. The trip to Lonavla-Khandala came to an end at 6:00 PM when the scorpio dropped us at the rly station just in time to catch the Crowded Pune local. We were back in Pune by night With Sunday left to catch up on all the sleep
ohh we didn't forget to carry back a few packs of Lonavla Chikki.
