Lonavala! :)

Antu and I were invited to road-trip it to Lonavala with Jo's family yesterday. Of course I jumped at the opportunity! And so glad that I did, I've been getting pale sitting at home for almost two months now and so I really needed to get out! It was really fun and we came back at least two shades darker thanks to the large amount of our time there that we spent in a lovely happy place called a "swimming pool" :P

Lonavala is a little "get-away" town about 60kms from Bombay. It was more of a get-away back in the day though. You know, before we became hell-bent on making our planet a nice and HOT place to be and before the air was clear enough to see through for miles and miles. But anyway, it's still a nice place and a break from the extreme hustle and bustle of Bombay.

The drive was fun! We listened to the radio the whole way, bugging Jo's mum to change the station every time they played a bad song! But there were actually a lot of good songs yesterday. I generally complain about the radio in Bombay because first of all they don't have Radio Indigo (come onnnnn!!!) and the other channels keep playing the same new hindi numbers again and again and again... But yesterday we got some good ones! Ranging from Ay Hairathe from Guru to Jaane Kyun from Dil Chahta Hai... Although we were hoping for the song Dil Chahta Hai itself because that would've been perfect, you know? Road-trip and all :P

Lonavala is situated at a higher altitude than Bombay. It wasn't much cooler, but much less humid and there were some nice views.

 The swimming pool at the guest house as seen from one of the balconies!

We left the city around 8:30am and reached after about an hour and half and then ate breakfast (Aloo parathas with raita! So yum!!) and then Jo took us to this school close-by which is the venue of her annual Karate camp (she's a black belt in Karate!!) That was really awesome cause we've heard so many stories from her camps and it's always nice to see the place where the stories actually took place, right? I know I felt so good to be able to show them Hebron when we went up to Ooty!! Since I'm pretty much always bursting with Hebron-stories!

Walking to the camp-site

Look! I found another red-spiral staircase. I have a thing for them apparently!

These steps are the place where some serious training happens. Jo had to do some ridiculous amount of jumping up and down them when she gave her test for her black belt.

Pretty flowers!

This little dog was sitting rather bored inside the gate of the house next to the guest-house we were at.

After that we went back to the guest-house that Jo's family friends had rented for the weekend. We changed into our swimsuits and splashed around in the pool for ages. Ah, felt so good. I love being in the water!! Especially in this weather - such a blessing!

Reflection :)

Happy in the pool!

And then lunch! You know how I said I'd become sort of a pseudo-vegetarianliving with my granny? Well yeah, haven't eaten non-veg in aaaages and so I was one happy person at lunch because there was chicken curry and mutton curry! :)

Fully satisfied after lunch!

We packed up and left for Bombay around 3:30pm... Stopping briefly to buy some Chocolate Fudge and Chikki which is what Lonavala is famous for! 

Once we reached Navi Mumbai (a satellite town connected to Bombay - where Sharan lives!), we stopped for kulfi at this little ice-cream shop called Supreme that's supposed to be one of Bombay's best! Like I said, I'm really not a kulfi fan but then I'd never really had authentic kulfi before so I thought I should give it a try. It was yum... but I think I'm done with my kulfi-quota for... well, a long time! It was just a lot and it's very rich! But still, glad I gave it a try! 

Came home around 9pm after we spend some time at Jo's place in Dadar and I finally caught up on some sleep! So all in all, I had a fantabulous weekend!! Can't believe I'm done with four exams!! This is what my timetable looks like now...

8th April 13th - Social Theory

15th April 20th - HRD

19th April 23rd - Research

20th April 24th - Urban

8th May 13th - Gender

13th May 18th - Media

Just two more to go!!! Oh, and the dates that are cancelled are what the original timetable looked like! You know... before wonderful Mumbai University made whimsical change of plans #1. But anyway, I guess all things happen for a reason. We'll know. Someday. 

Toodles!