Travel: CECIL HOTEL @ MATHERAN

I have always stayed at Cecil Hotel during my trips to Matheran. We have checked a number of hotels here, and feel this place is total value for money. We called them and booked our rooms in advance. 

Varda in the open space below our rooms

Cecil Hotel is set in a sprawling property with old buildings. The rooms are large with high ceilings and can easily accommodate four people. They allot you rooms as per requirement. There’s an attached bathroom and a dressing room to boot. 

There’s a veranda running outside the rooms with a railing. Then there is the sit-out beyond that, with the garden full of plants, trees and a few flowering shrubs. The place is quite rustic and that just adds to the charm. They have 20-odd staff working at Cecil Hotel. These men are friendly and helpful. 

The package includes stay, breakfast, lunch and dinner at Rs. 1400 per person. It’s a pretty good deal. They have a huge dining room that has tables and chairs to seat fifty people. By Mumbai standards, the room can comfortably seat a hundred. Breakfast is served on the veranda outside the rooms along with piping hot coffee or tea unless there’s too much crowd. In such a case, they serve it as a buffet in the dining room. Lunch is served at your table and it’s a set menu. It’s the same with dinner. There’s an old-fashioned brass bell outside every room, to call for room service. 

Gujarati Thali

The food is in the style of a Gujarati Thali most of the time, though they do serve Pav Bhaji or Chinese Fried Rice & Manchurian Gravy on some nights. They also try to please the customers by making something special if we tell them a few hours in advance. 

A section of the dining room

The place is silent and calm, all the time. There’s a section of garden with swings and see-saw for children. There’s a badminton court and one can borrow racquets, shuttlecock, badminton balls, etc from the office. They also have indoor games like carom and chess. Yeah, all olde worlde! 

Venkat

There were four dogs that hung around, obviously fed by the staff. They were quite friendly and were helpful in chasing away the monkeys that run amok in the area. There were also a couple of adorable kittens that lived in the kitchen. 

Two of the friendly doggies

It’s the best place to unwind, I would say! 

Monkeys

Monkeys on the railings outside the veranda. The one on the left is eating a kulfi that we gave him

Travel: A TRIP TO MATHERAN

A view on the way to Matheran

This is probably the sixth time I am going for a holiday to Matheran, a hill-station close to Neral near Karjat. We were six of us in the family who left home at 6.30 am on Friday to catch a local train from Sion station to Kurla. From there, we caught a fast train at 7.12 am to Neral. 

Venkat, Vinny and Yours truly in the toy train

We reached Neral at about 8.15 and booked tickets on the toy train. We had vada pav for breakfast as we waited for the train to leave. It left a few minutes late and we chugged out of Neral on our way to Matheran. The train runs across hills and valleys throughout the journey that is supposed to last two and a half hours with two stops in between. Ours took a good four hours to reach Matheran station. 

Water Pipe is one of the stations on the way to Matheran

While it wasn’t the most comfortable of journeys, the view more than compensated for it. Travelling across a vast amount of greenery, we were also entertained by a number of monkeys that came close to the railway track foraging for food, especially close to the stations. There were a couple of them with little babies clinging to them. When we threw some berries, they rubbed away the salt and masala with both their hands before popping them into their little mouths. They are just too smart and intelligent I must say!

He's dusting the salt-masala off the berry before popping it into his mouth

It was almost one o’ clock when we got off at Matheran. While there were two men from Cecil Hotel to carry our luggage, we trekked up the gentle slope for another half an hour before we reached there. 

He's all set for a ride. Isn't he handsome!

Matheran is a hill-station where vehicles are not allowed and they are very strict about it – not even cycles. The peace and silence that hit you is simply amazing. Our hotel was situated in a remote corner where even the horses didn’t disturb us. It was just us, a few more guests, the hotel staff, a few dogs and monkeys spread over a large territory. 

A veg-fruit-spice market that had been established in 1919

While the youngsters went riding one day, Venkat and I walked to the market. We walked for about a couple of kilometres, just getting a feel of the place. Imagine not having to look over your shoulder every few seconds while walking! No bikes, rickshaws, cars, cabs or buses to knock you down or blow your ears off with their honking. There were restaurants, a bar, bakeries and shops selling leather handbags, Kolhapuri chappals, hats, cane baskets and more. And of course, there were a number of hotels offering different packages. We stopped at a bakery to have a fresh scone dripping with cream and hot tea. Both were delicious. 

That's me on the hand-drawn rickshaw

Horses walk next to people while there were a few hand-drawn rickshaws – this was something new as they weren’t around the last time we visited the place – that can carry one person at a time. I was beat by the time we finished the round of the market and so we opted to take a rickshaw each back to our hotel. 

Varda, Vinny, Pratika & Viggy

Evenings were fun with Viggy playing the guitar and singing along with Pratika. The rest of us lounged around listening till dinner. After dinner, we played a few rounds of carom and also took walks around the garden. The silence seeps into your very bones and brings about a much needed peace. 

He was too cute and had to be caught on camera

We had breakfast at the hotel on Sunday morning before we began our walk down to the taxi stand. It took us 40 minutes to trek down the gentle slope with monkeys for company. The return home was swift with a stop for lunch at Vashi and we were home by late afternoon. 

That's Venkat as we began our trek down to the taxi stand on our return journey

Two days of bliss, yummy vegetarian fare that I didn’t have to cook, sunrises and sunsets to please the most difficult of people and loads of family bonding! I couldn’t ask for a better holiday.