Drive On..Part 2

Yawwnnnnnnnn.....I had secretly changed the alarm to 3.25 without Rathores knowledge.
But there were too many natural alarms to wake me up long before that....There was this murga....which had gone bersek I guess....kept going with his morning cry.."murge ki baang"...in the middle of a hot afternoon...imagine that....it just keeps goin kudckooooooooooo..every now and then...It was damn irritating.
Then there was this guy who was the attendant at the cottage...he came asking if we wanted to eat something....and the prospect of a garma garam dal - chawaal was all too to tempting to resist.
After all these adventures....we still managed to start for our M'baleshwar Darshan...by 4PM...and that too after a decent rest.

The next thing on the agenda was a "mast" chai as my dear rathore states it.He has this strange idea of it...some specific additives that he always needs...I don even know of them.We were basically lost in the middle of a market..and we had no idea where we wanted to head to...so gulped a couple of 'cuttings' before starting of in one of the directions...where there supposedly were 12 site seeing points..the prominent one that I could make out was the Arthurs Seat.There were also mentions of a few temples when we were leaving from Mumbai....but both of being such devotees..decieded to ditch the holy places competely..and let the God s rest.
We finally reached this Arthur seat after a long but scenic drive....but there was quiet a lot of traffic both ways. And pretty obviously there was a big crowd too.
Here again there something abt the crowds that rathore and myself both do not like...and we weren't actually enjoying this one too. And the spot also was alet down of sorts..as in all the 12 supposed view points were meant to view a single panorama albeit from different angles and altitudes. So we decieded to flee away from this place as fast as possible....and after a couple of detours ..we finally came to Kates (or Cats as rathore named it) Point....supposedly a sunset point. The approach road was a beauty ...as in it was a single lane road and a wall of greenery on both sides....a very very pretty site. We didn't wait there till sunset...because there was a good half an hour for that and as rathore put it..."Bahut sunset dekhe hai yaar Mumbai mai.."..we headed for Lake Vienaa..of which we had some glimpses from the various points.

After another set of directions we reached the Lake...and it was a pretty site....we decieded to go for a round of boating...That was one of the best parts of the trip....there was a slight chill in the air...and once on the lake it was very peaceful...The twilight sky , the blue waters of the lake...perfect for a romantic boat ride.....but alas...I was snapped back to reality when I turned my head to see this creature named Rathore siting beside me...what a shame...and all the romaticism went whoooshhh!

We headed to a decent eating place from there...had a couple of 'mast chais' followed by a round of Dum Aloo and Tandoori rotis....it was getting chilly by now...and we were also feeling a little dirty(??). So we were just dreaming if we could get a heavenly hot bath and a Bonfire to top it.And our dreams turned to reality as we prepared ourselves for the bonfire...with 'Yeah jo des hai tera' in the background....thanks to my walkman which had an inbuilt speaker too.

Had a little chat with our attendant Mahendra over the bonfire ...of his where abouts ...and what he does..and how much he has studied and all that. He was surprised to know that we were teetotellers(ahmmm...well am not one actually..but my buddy definitely is...). and a further round of snaps....

Finally our batteries went low at arnd 12...and we dozed to Shankar Jaykishan's eternal music...

The last and final part to follow...with the return ride!!!
Cheers...