Amazingly awesome Amboli!

In the southern range of Sahyadri hills, there is a quaint hill station at an altitude of 690m., called Amboli. Being on record as the wettest place in Maharashtra, with an average of nearly 750 centimetres (269 inches) of rainfall a year, mainly falling between June and October, it is shrouded in thick fog most of the time.

When I saw Cinthol’s latest ad on TV ‘Alive is Awesome bathing experience’, I was transported to the most popular waterfall in Amboli, which is around 550kms from Mumbai. Had been there last year, just at the end of the monsoon and got a glimpse of heaven! The drive upto Sankeshwar on the Golden Quadrilateral was smooth but beyond that right upto Amboli it was a slightly bumpy ride on a two laned pockmarked road. The weather right through was beautiful, cloudy and cool. The last 5kms we drove through clouds – heavenly!

Spent the evening having hot chai and hot bhajjias! Then went for a walk in the evening to have a look at the much spoken about waterfall. It did not dissapoint! Was huge and roaring down and there were people at various levels. I decided that my next morning’s bath would be right here under this lovely waterfall!

In Amboli, due to fog and cloudy weather the sun is not sighted till about 11 in the morning! Suited me fine! Woke up leisurely and had a lazy morning lazing around at the MTDC resort and then around half past eleven, drove down for my bath to the heavenly waterfall!

It was a literal mela out there! Families with children in tow and young couples and elderly tourists all had gathered there for a dip in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Got into my swimming trunks and marched resolutely towards the chilly water. Adjacent to the waterfall there are steps that take you right to the top of the waterfall. These steps were covered with water flowing down and I sat there on the steps to get a hydro massage and also to get used to the water temperature. Was incredible! The water pounding down on my 

back and shoulders was so so relaxing!  

Next on the agenda was getting into the pool and standing under the water for the ultimate shower! I did. The feeling is indescribable! It was just awesome! As Cinthol rightly puts it – an ‘Alive is awesome bathing experience’! the roar of the water drowns out every other sound. All that I could hear was the roar of the water falling and then nothing else mattered! Nirvana!

This is something which I feel every human has to experience to get an idea of what an awesome experience can bathing be! Not just the staid standing under the shower in a bathroom or lying comatose in a bath tub. Get out there, commune with nature and get that amazing waterfall bath!

Here is a video of a waterfall bath made by Cinthol.

Bath at the village well!

The Cinthol ad being aired on Television these days brings to fore the ‘Alive Is Awesome Bathing experience’. It has fired the desire in me to undertake some of those amazing bathing adventures. Am sure you too will be enthused to do so after watching the ad or maybe after reading this post! For me, it will be the fun of travel combined with new bathing experiences.

There is one which seems quite doable in terms of not having to spend a lot of money and that is a bath at the village well. For us city dwellers, this will be an adventure, travelling to a village nearby and getting refreshed using this method to bathe. Especially now that rural tourism is picking up in India, this should not be difficult at all! All it would need is your willingness to step out of your comfort zone and live it up to the fullest. As they say, life happens outside the comfort zone!

So my next trip is going to be in Morachi Chincholi, a village near Pune in Maharashtra that tends to peacocks! Every morning and evening you will have peacocks strutting around doing their thing in the village

and you can hear them calling their mates and watch them dancing too! The villagers have woken up tothe tourist potential of this event and offer day and overnight packages. You can experience the village life to the fullest. Go for a bullock cart and/or tractor rides. Give the buffaloes a bath in the village pond. After all that go to the village well and get set for the Alive Is Awesome Bathing experience! Get hold of a few young boys

to help you experience it. Sit or stand next to the well and ensure that the boys have enough of buckets of water ready. And then at the count of three, as advised, the boys will splash bucketfuls of water at you. Ooooooh the chilling shivers that will pass through your body will be awesome! You will come alive to a bathing experience that has been waiting to be had!!

After that refreshing experience, eat what the villagers eat – bhakri with spicy chutney and veggies! Aah life is awesome!

So go for it guys! Do the ‘Alive Is Awesome Bathing experience’

Watch a video of a village bath