Place: Dreamlandd Resortt
Location: 60km from Pune, around 2 hrs by car via Mulshi Dam.
Duration: 1 Night, 2 Days (Saturday 1 PM to Sunday 11 AM)
Package: Accommodation (4 rooms 4 people each) + Swimming pool + lunch + evening snacks + dinner + next day's breakfast. The food is complete veg so if you want non-veg, you'll have to buy it separately on the way and they'll prepare it for you.
Cost per head: INR 2200/-
Occasion : Just to take a break from hectic office life
If you live in the corporate world, slogging your ass from 9 in the morning till 10 in the night every day including the weekends now and then, you will definitely appreciate a good break with your colleagues! Recently, my friends from office planned a weekend outing together, and it was one of the most refreshing breaks I’ve ever had in a long time.
The place we went to is called "Dreamlandd Resortt". Why the double "d" and "t"? Probably because the name "Dreamland Resort" was already taken :P or maybe it was just to be stylish and different :)
Now just to be clear, I am not promoting this place. In fact there are better resorts than this place (which we're planning to visit soon) but when we decided to book a place back then, it was the only decent one available.
That's the thing about prominent weekend getaways - You have to book way in advance otherwise you won't get a vacancy (unless you don't mind sharing the resort with a different group of strangers).
So we all woke up early on Saturday and proceeded to our rendezvous point.
I was in Sumeet's car, downing a cold pint to kick-start the road-trip.
We all met up at Bhugaon and waited for everybody to reach, where we bought eggs, paneer and chicken (as I mentioned earlier, the resort serves complimentary food, but they are all simple veg dish). We also bought chilled beers and other poisons for the destination :)
Later on the way, some of us who hadn't had breakfast yet stopped at one of Pune's most famous and iconic vada pav joints - Rohit Wadewale. The misal pav I had was super yummmmm.
We went in five cars and two bikes. Two of the cars were Premier Padminis so that was pretty cool. We waited to group at the junction that would take us up to Mulshi Dam.
This point is quite easy to miss, so for those of you planning a trip to Dreamlandd Resortt or even to visit Mulshi Dam for that matter, keep a lookout for this restaurant called "JP's Food Court" on your left. Once you reach that place, exit the Mulshi-Paud road opposite this restaurant and take the small road on the right, which is the Lonavala Aamby Valley road.
From here, it's another 10 KM to reach Dreamlandd Resortt. But the ride will take a bit longer than before because the road is narrow and unmetalled here and there. Below is us crossing the Mula river, one of the distributaries of Mulshi Dam.
And finally, we reached! Yayyy welcome puppy.
The place was extremely secluded. No other resorts or houses in sight, it was like a complete barren island. Peaceful indeed. No vehicles in sight, no sound of horns honking, just nature emitting its natural sound across the valley.
The caretaker had already prepared lunch for us, and so we got down to eating immediately. Like I said earlier, it was all veg but the gravies and side dishes were very tasty.
Once we all had our fill, we headed to our rooms and took a short rest.
As it was very hot in the afternoon, some of us lazily played cards under the shade, waiting for our stomachs to digest the awesome lunch we just had.
Three people bought their DSLRs, and so, a lot of random abstract photos were taken :D
Once the food was digested, we all rushed in to the swimming pool! Woooohoooooo…. It was still very hot around the swimming pool, but once inside the water, it was freaking awesome.
Wanna see something awesome? Check out this video below :D
When I posted the above video on Facebook, all the comments people wrote were about the amount of pee I must be drinking! Let me bring you in on a little secret - I was just acting. :D I wasn't actually drinking any beer or water or piss water for that matter, because of the very fact that it is impossible to drink anything underwater without having a drowning like sensation! Try holding your breath under water and drink something, you won't be able to do it, unless you want to drown, lolz.
So yeah, that's the actual story behind the video above :)
We also had a lot of fun with Sumeet's GoPro which we kept tossing to each other inside the pool while it recorded everything above and under the water. Unfortunately, the video sizes are very large so I'm not putting them up on this post.
Soon the sun was about to set… the view from the swimming pool was wonderful.
Here is one last video of me jiving inside the pool to Biebs with the sunset in the background… The sound system at the poolside was really good too.
If only I had glow-sticks :P
They even have a rain-dance section next to the pool with water sprays and jets from below and above. It would be awesome to have a large rave party or something like that at that spot. The pool was closed after sunset and we all headed back to our cabins to change. After that, it was time to bring out the booze!
For music, we weren't allowed to use the music system at the poolside but we had our own Bluetooth speaker. The only problem was, we overlooked one very important point. DO NOT make the same mistake we made. As you may know, such resorts do not have good cellphone reception as they are situated way at the outskirt. The good news about that is you won't be disturbed. But the bad news is, these days, most of us do not store music in our mobile phones anymore. We just listen to everything online - YouTube playlist, Spotify, Pandora etc. Hence, that night, we kept listening to the same 10-15 songs that people had stored in their phones over and over again because none of us had data reception, lolz.
Anyway, music wasn't a big concern as we had a lot of fun playing different drinking games and "truth or dare" challenges. Some of us even played with the laser and tried drawing pictures which were captured by the DSLRs on low shutter speed.
I tried lighting a cigarette with the laser but apparently, it didn't work. :P
The caretaker continuously served us kebaabs and non-veg starters. After we had quite enough of the alcohol, we headed up to have dinner. The chicken dish they made was super dillu!
After that we all headed back to our cabins and slept.
Zzzzzzzz…
The next morning's scenery was truly breathtaking.
Breakfast was already prepared and it was the traditional poha. Maharashtrians truly love their pohas :)
Such hangover faces… :D
While some people played cricket at the side, others just watched them play, dazed and droopy.
Soon it was time to pack and leave.
We took a group photo together as we headed out to the parking area. Man, that was truly an awesome experience. Apart from having so much fun as a team, it was also a good way to bond with one's colleagues.
On the way back, we stopped near Mulshi Dam to admire the view. Mannn the scenery was sooo stunningly beautiful. We ended up taking a lot of photos at this location. You really must stop by at this place too if you happen to visit Mulshi Dam.
After our dramatic group jump, we headed to Basho's for lunch.
For those of you who haven't been to Basho's, it is this popular resort right on the banks of Mulshi Dam. Their restaurant and hookah bar also overlook the dam, giving it a very breathtaking and majestic view.
We placed our orders quickly. A lot of us drank nimbu paani because of the hangover, lolz.
And with that, our awesome weekend outing came to an end, as we all headed back towards Pune to our respective homes, looking forward to the upcoming Monday office because we were all so rejuvenated and refreshed! Yeah that is what a corporate life is all about baby :)
Cheers for now.
