My Unforgettable Matheran Hill Station Experience

 Hi, I' m Dhiraj , and today I want to share my experience visiting the Matheran  Hill Station. let's dive into my journey! 

   One of my friend's elder sister asked us to go to Matheran Hill Station, saying that it is a very nice place. she showed us some photos by taking a screenshot from google, and the plan was to go on Sunday. So I also asked my friends to come along and I also showed them the same photos from google, saying this is what the place looks - let's go. After that, all my friends were ready, and some of them were already part of the plan from the beginning. Then we created a group called " Trip Group." All my friends were in it, along with my female friend and her elder sisters . Their classmates also  -- three boys --and two friends of the elder sisters. Altogether, we were 14 people in the group. So everyone decided to bring something or the other in the tiffin, and we planned who would bring what. The next day, we had to leave at 4 am in the morning and reach jogeshwari station. Then, as everyone knows, whenever there's a trip planned, the excitement is something else you keep thinking, "Tomorrow I'm going there, I'll have so much fun with my friends, going to a hilly area with a whole different view," and since it was such a big group, I was super excited too. that's why I couldn't sleep early at night. I slept late and woke up at 3AM. I called my friends to check if they were awake -- they were. But the female friends weren't answering my calls , so I thought I'd get ready first and then try again.

     I got ready and left the house at 4AM. On the way, some of my friends joined me too since we lived nearby. We met up at one place and then started heading together . One of our friends lives near Jogeshwari station, so we called him. He said, "First wake up the girls, I'll be there soon."

     We tried calling the girls, but they weren't picking up. So we waited near their house and sent one of our friend to check. He knocked on the door multiple times. One of our female friend  came out, still sleepy, and just for fun, he gave her a light slap on the cheek to wake her up properly. Then my friend shouted, "it's time already, and you all are still sleeping!" As you all know, girls take quite a bit of time to get ready and whenever there's somewhere to go, they're usually the ones who cause the delay! After that, they got ready and came down.    

    Since it was early morning and December, it was pretty cold. Near their house, they had a small shop, so we had tea there. Then the elder sisters also joined us, and we all reached Jogeshwari station. From there, we took a train to Dadar station, and from Dadar, we caught another train to Neral station.

   On the train, we brought tea and biscuits and enjoyed them. At Neral, we were also supposed to meet the elder sisters and their friends. As soon as we reached, me and my best buddy went to freshen up, and by the time we were done, the sisters and their friends had arrived too at Neral station.

   Once we all met at Neral station, we started clicking photos--group selfies, pair selfies, and even some videos right there. After a while, we left from there, and it took around 10-12 minutes to get to the point where small tempos were available for the ride. Back in 2023 when I went, it was 100 rupees per person, though I'm not sure about the current rate. We took two tempos and headed towards Matheran Hill Station.

   As you know, the road going uphill through the mountains is all winding--just like the road to shirdi. The ride had a lot of bumps since the vehicle was going in circles up the slope. One of our friends started feeling nauseous and got a stomach ache. When we reached and got off, we gave him some water--he hadn't eaten anything, which probably made it worse.

We reached the entrance gate of Matheran Hill Station, bought the entry tickets(around 100 rupees or 150 rupees, I don't remember exactly), and then went in. We didn't take the toy train; we decided to walk and explore on foot instead.

Right at the beginning, we all took photos-- solo shots, group pics, and our own friend group photos. As we went further in, we kept walking, joking around , and having fun . At one point, we stopped for snacks. 

We then headed to Echo point. We all tried shouting to hear our voices echo back--some of us got it to work, but for me, my voice didn't carry far enough to bounce back. Still, we explored all the main points such as (Louisa point, Echo point, Charlotte Lake, One Tree Hill point, Alexander point, Panorama Point, Porcupine point, Monkey Point, Heart Point, Rambaug Point).

Unfortunately, we couldn't see the sunset it would have required due to stay back a little longer, and we were already getting late. We also missed out on the waterfall, since we had no idea about it at the time. Plus, everyone was exhausted from all the walking.

On the way back, we stopped at an empty spot where we played games like tag and kabaddi. It was so much fun! But with all the walking, our legs started to hurt. Since we were wearing shoes, even our toenails started aching--but despite that, we had a great time.

We left for home, and by the time we got back, it was already 9pm. And that's how my unforgettable journey to Matheran Hill Station came to an end.