Matheran, is the historical hill station situated right beside Mumbai, in the way towards Pune. Why it's historical, is let me tell you - its the only hill station/place in India, where no vehicle is allowed inside the city's limit. All cars, taxis, buses are parked well outside at the city's boundaries. From that parking, you have to travel the whole small hill station on your legs. I have been there twice. Matheran means mathe pe raan, i.e. Forest on top, and yes its fully covered by trees, the trees are so dense that you cannot roam the place at nighttime, because it gave you a horrifying mystifying feelings.

We started our journey from Pune. For guys coming from Pune side, they should board a train till Karjat, it will take around 2.5 hrs to reach there. Try to reach Karjat as early as possible. From Karjat you will have to board Mumbai local going towards Mumbai CST, and get down at the 3rd local station from there named Neral. From Mumbai side, you have to board any Karjat/Khopoli bound local and get down at Neral. Its the base starting point for Matheran. From there you can get to top with any of the two options. Either you can board the toy train, or you can go through shared Taxis. For the toy train, its better if you book the tickets before through IRCTC online site or through reservation counters, because train only consists of 3-4 bogies, and everytime you'll find a long queue waiting for the train for general tickets. You must take train atleast for 1 side, to experience toy train in the mountains, climbing slowly. The train take 2 hrs to reach the top. Otherwise you can board the shared taxi (which will take 5-6 persons at a time) charged at Rs. 50 per head, and it will only take half hour to reach the topmost mountain of Matheran.

You have to take an entry ticket intended for tourists to enter Matheran, and from there you have to continue the whole journey on your foots. Although you can get horses to support your, but I will never prefer riding an animal, so I would say, you should try your foots, even if you're tired. At Neral, you can book a hotel room, even you will get agents at the entry points of Matheran, but if its the not the peak season, its better if you book any rooms while in Matheran. You see the rooms/hotels first and then you can book the rooms according to your preferences. You have to walk atleast 2-3 km before you'll reach any hotels from the parking place, and walking in red sands will make your shoes and feets red.

Go to your booked room, take a nap, take a bath, and start your journey at around 11AM time. You'll need atleast 2 days to visit the place, and 2 days are enough.The first day, we took a round of the whole main Matheran mountain, visiting all the points overlooking deep down valleys and more mountains in the vicinity. If you're a good athlete, you can visit all the points in one day, it will certainly get you tired though, but don't miss Sunset point. Try to reach there by evening, and you'll get the awesome view of sun setting down while sitting at an extended rock off the mountain, the wind is flowing very soothly, and you'll instantly feel to sit your night out there, but you must start your journey back just after the sun set, because there are no lights and Sunset point is about 3 Km far from the main city, and it'll get real dark, and if you don't have torches, you can feel helpless. So try to walk faster to reach your hotel after sun set. Whole Matheran is covered with dense trees, and some placers looks spookey. When I was going to see one point at the noon time, the whole way was looking deserted, and sun light was not that good even because of thick trees, and I was passing a Parsi Kabristaan, I felt real spooked out, and all the thoughts of 'Wrong Turn' type movies came into my mind, but I can assure you that it is one of the safest place around, so dont forget to get spooked.

2nd day, we covered the extension of Matheran mountains, which is called as Garbut point. Very less people visit that place, and its more thick jungle out there. It was closed once as one leopard was found there, but after its removal, the path was opened again, and we visit that place and it was the most spookiest place I have ever seen in my life, the total dense thick jungle, and you're alone, even the villagers walk so fast, that they passed you in no time and get vanished in the surroundings. We even lost our way to garbut point, I think we missed a shortcut, and then we reached that point by a not-much travelled paths. My heart was always in my mouth during that whole journey, but it certainly gave me the life time experience. Overlooking the misty mountains, relieved me of all my tensions, all tiredness, and those two weekends, I felt like I am out of this world. Matheran is the paradise for young-married couples. My experience with Matheran is a total relaxed journey on foot, a bit tired but worth trying once.

GRuchirG.