Monsoon Tripping in Pali - Mango Huts

Monsoons are here..as in, in India and the South Western Coastal region of the country is particularly lucky in getting abundant rainfall. They certainly don't come soon enough and Bombay is sweltering by the time they do.

I was itching to head out since the first rain shower, but we were waiting for Ramzaan to get over, celebrate Eid with the family and then head out. It's the month when me and the hubby don't drink, so why bother traveling..tee hee

I locked on Mango Huts, Pali and what worked in it's favor was that most other places were booked since this was the weekend after Eid and secondly, it had just 2 cottages on the property, so this meant quiet!

Pali is just about 3 hours from Mumbai but oh man, the traffic that day was SICK! We started about 8 and reached Mango huts at 12:20 PM. In addition to my cousin who travels with us for most of our short trips, the hubby's cousin had also tagged with us for this one,


Once we got out of Bombay and on to the expressway, we could see the Monsoon in all its glory - it was lush green, all clean, misty and wet. It got even better once we took the turn to get off the Eway towards Pali.

We reached after the usual getting lost for 10 mins.













The property has just 2 cottages and both are spaced out from one another, so you are ensured privacy. The kitchen and dining room separates the two cottages. A stone pathway goes around the property, covering the garden which has covered gazebos.

 The only minor grouse I had was that the kitchen was next to our cottage and that feeling of complete privacy is compromised.

Having said that the staff is absolutely non intrusive and lets you be and also we could them in the kitchen only during dining times.

 We were shown to our cottage, which turned out out to be better than my expectation.












A large covered veranda, with a chaipai to sit on and enjoy the view. Although I liked the back of the cottage more.

It comprised of a large living room which had sitting space at one end with a TV and an extra bed and extra mattresses on the other end. 

 The 2 bedrooms with 4 poster beds and attached baths were nice, cozy and comfy.

Both the bedrooms open into the back of the cottage which is an open green space, filled with trees, birds and small ponds created by the rains.

   

The kitchen and dining room to the left of the cottage

 The weather was gorgeous too. We settled in the back, chilling with some wine and music.

We had a late lunch, which was  the very basic kind. It was a 6/10. Decent but no great shakes. Also, I had informed them that 3 of us are non vegetarians but despite that there was no non vegetarian dish - one regular daal, one dry daal, one sabzi, rice and chapati. There was gulab jamun for dessert. Meh

Post lunch we took a short power nap, the party the night before, the leaving early, the traffic laden drive and the wine had put me into a stupor and only a nap could have set me right.

We had tea and went for a walk outside the property. The snakey village road has almost zero traffic and with the green and fields around along with the misty rain felt amazing.









What was the icing on the cake was that there was a large pond just abutting the property and a trail goes around it. We were in literal heaven.

We spent some time chilling here, watching the birds and then walked back to the road. We walked on the road under a canopy of trees and saw another small pond.













Oh did i mention that the hill across the pond had a waterfall too.

Writing of these places never ever does justice to the actual view, more importantly, it does no justice to what you feel.

 The sun set down and we only headed back since the drizzle was turning into a downpour,

It was a whether for whisky and so that's what we did.

There was this trippy light in both the bedroom & it really made it all seem a tad crazier than usual.

At one point we got so happy that we were totally tripping on Chemical Brothers and just living it up, It helps when the husband is a Sound designer for the films.

Anywho...we had already told the manager that we will be having a late dinner and told him to keep everything in the dining room and we will help ourselves. So, be assured, we were not being in anyone's way.

We went for a night stroll and the chill in the air, the clean night air was just woooooo hooooo!

Lion like dog :-|

We finally had dinner at around 3 AM.


The dinner was not good. They had informed us that they could not get chicken and hence they were doing an egg curry. Since we are not stiff about these things, especially in far off places in villages, we told them, 'No sweat!'. But the egg curry was blah, of course the food was cold and this was purely our fault.  called it a night...err,morning!

Had a sound sleep. Woke up at about 10, freshened up, had a hearty breakfast which was the one good meal that we had there - there was poha, bread and omelette along with tea/coffee. No one does poha quite like the Maharashtrians man!

We headed for Bombay at about 12:30 PM and got here in record home. I was inside my house at 3 PM. It was a treat driving although there was an onslaught of rain at the Eway- the kind that makes it nearly impossible to see.

What an awesome getaway - Highly recommended in the monsoons. You have been warned of the food on the table and have been clued into how the place is food for soul - cast your vote and head out or not!

Until the next monsoon chase!