Living in Bombay, Matheran should be the obvious place for a quick getaway. But it took me 20 plus years to get there. It’s right around the corner so you feel you can always get there ’’next time’’. Meanwhile I’ve gone everywhere else, Bhutan, Sikkim, Kumaon, the Nilgiris.. Finally we really needed that two day break, and decided to drive up to Matheran. The last five to ten minutes of the drive was harrowing since the road is so poorly maintained. Considering the volumes of traffic from Bombay the least they could is patch up the approach road. If you’re nervous about ghat driving, I’d recommend the toy train from Neral.
We had to park at Dasturi, the car park and trudge four kilometres to our hotel near Charlotte Lake. Alternatives would be to ride or be tugged in a hand cart, both of which didn’t appeal. We’d come for a walking holiday and walk we did. The air is definitely cleaner here since it’s the only pedestrian hill station I know of. The whole place transports you back a century or so when every major city in the world would have smelled of horses and not petrol fumes.
I have a thing for atmospheric , heritage hotels, so we’d booked two days at the beautifully restored 150 year old Barr House, now a NeemRana property they’ve renamed Verandah In the Forest. A deep verandah wraps around both floors of this beautiful Victorian home. There are planters chairs to lounge in and every piece of furniture, the wicker rocking chairs, the chaise longue, the highly polished dining table and even the shiny steel buckets in the bath are true to the period. Every room is named after well known Parsi or British families who once lived in Matheran. Two days here are worth more than a week anywhere else. The hotel was the best thing about our stay. After a few half hearted trudges into the bazaar and to a couple of view points , where I spent my time shouting at loutish tourists who get their kicks from troubling the local monkeys and avoiding badly behaved family groups with awful children, the hotel was both a haven and a refuge.
You can lie in a hammock in the garden or have tea up in a machan. Bring your own books or borrow a couple from their library. It’s more like staying at a well staffed residence than a hotel. Breakfast, lunch and tea are served buffet style on the verandahs, but dinner is an event, served beautifully at the dining table with silver candelabra all lit up. Lunch could be Indian but dinner is continental, from soup to dessert. You can buy their lovely fruit jams from their Uttranchal orchards as also the special aromatherapy toiletries from Forest Essentials, which are kept in stock .
The place was much like staying at my grandfather’s rubber estate in the South, but the hotel was a lovely experience. We didn’t ride or run from point to point clicking pictures or buy chikki or annoy the monkeys which is what most people coming to Matheran seem to do. You could lunch at the Parsi run Lords Central for a change but definitely have dinners at the Verandah. Check out pictures of the place at the Neemrana website
Recommended for couples seeking peace and quiet. Or an introspective group of friends , or a family that likes birds, books, good food and solitude. Two week days are a better bet than weekends