DAY 2
Sydney Point
Now comes the most exciting part, actually one of the major reasons why I wanted to visit Panchgani so bad “Cycling”. The next day we went cycling early morning to Sydney point to experience the beautiful sunrise. Though the weather was a bit cloudy & we didn’t experience the typical sunrise from Sydney point, we definitely had some fun time cycling & clicked way too many pictures while returning back to Zostel. Once we reached Zostel, all I could think about was breakfast. They served poha, coffee, conrflakes, omelette & toast, what more could a perfect breakfast look like? (Om nom nom :P)
Couldn’t get over how fun & exciting my morning was before breakfast & just how calm it got after breakfast. Because all we did after breakfast was chilled in the common room & stared at the beautifully designed Zostel property & the lovely mountain view opposite.
Lingmala Waterfall
In the evening we visited a dam called Lingmala waterfall which is a bit far from Panchgani, closer to Mahabaleshwar. This was a random place that we found on the way & it turned out to be a good one. If you like the sound of water/streams, this is definitely the place for you. We reached the dam around 5 pm & it shuts by 6 pm so we didn’t really get to spend much time there but it was worth visiting. After that we headed to Mapro garden, wait, but did I tell you I ended up having Maggi again? Hahah.. I think that’s one thing you gotta do when you’re in Panchgani/Mahabaleshwar.
Mapro Garden
Mapro garden is the perfect place for people who love trying a new type of juices? They have a variety of products but they are specially known for their drinks & if you visit Mapro garden you can test all the drinks & then buy whichever you like. The environment is very pleasant around Mapro & there’s also a cute cafe inside it where I ended up having “cold coffee” hahaha. If you’re my friend you’ll know why the cold coffee is in brackets & if you don’t I’ll just keep that for another post.
Well, after visiting so many places & having fun we still had a lot of time to kill before we could get done with our second day, so we visited a place called the Cheese Factory. Wish I could tell you how they made cheese & how my experience was watching it but I can’t, because this girl (me) visited that place around 8.30 pm & the factory shuts by 7 pm so all I did was tasted five different types of cheese that they made at the factory & bought the one which had garlic it in (obviously) who doesn’t love garlic in their food? At that time all I wanted to do was go home toast some bread & apply this cheese & eat. I see your mouth watering now so I better change the topic but before that, if you’re planning a trip to Panchagani please visit this place before 6 pm so that you can experience the whole cheese making process.
Day 3
Devrai Art Village
Things in Rachel’s head – “Time to leave. I know. But I still want to visit more places. I don’t wanna go back home. Wait. You still have to visit Dev Rai art village on your way back home. Oh yes. But. No. Why go back after that. I think I should stay back for a one more day. No. No. Can’t. Ok fine”
So we packed our bags, had breakfast & left to visit Dev Rai Art village before we could head home. The name itself fascinated me so much that I just wanted to know all about it (especially because it was related to art).
Devrai Art Village is a non-profit initiative to connect with nature and celebrate creativity. They create things made of iron, brass, stone, wood, bamboo, and fabric. I wouldn’t be the best person to tell you everything in detail so I’m going to leave a link to their website below for you to get a better idea about them.
Devrai Art Village – https://www.devraiartvillage.com/
So I’m going to tell you the thing that fascinated me the most & I bet you wouldn’t be surprised. As we entered, we started checking the tiny things on the left side of the gallery which was half made of brass & half of natural things e.g. real leaf, stone, vegetables but, but, there was this weird looking black piece of art which I couldn’t figure what it was so I asked the lady working there & she told me it’s *cow dung*. I looked at my friend & said I wanna take this home hahah (didn’t buy it though). But I got a really pretty ring in the shape of a tortoise which was made of stone & brass.
After we checked all the pieces in the in the gallery, we headed towards the live workshop, which was the most interesting part because we got to experience a new form of art. I’m going to insert all the pictures from the live workshop so that you get a clear idea of how everything’s made.
Zostel Activity
Also, I just realized I forgot to mention the best part about Zostel, so before we could leave they made us do a fun gardening activity where we planted tulsi & mint plants. The whole idea of this activity was to learn how it’s done. But the activity didn’t end there, so the person who comes next after me & stays in the same dorm/same bed number has to water & take care of the plant & continues so on. It’s much cooler than it sounds.
Coming to the most important part, the budget, so I spent 5k including everything, I think that’s good enough, what’d you think? Let me know some cool long weekend destinations to visit next, in the comment section below.
Tata.