Matheran is a lovely little hill station not far outside of Bombay, and used as a cool mountain retreat from the chaos of the city. We went there for a night, but unfortunately didn't anticipate the presence of rather brazen monkeys. If we had, we wouldn't have carried the remains of our packed lunch from the train up the hill in a plastic bag (I know I know, we felt like such foolish tourists, though to be fair it was in a plastic tub too). Poor Stephen was the one holding it, and therefore the one who was charged at by a growling beast bearing its teeth. It went straight for the bag which Stephen smartly dropped pronto, and whilst it was tempting to wait around and find out exactly how long it takes a simian to work out how to open a lock-top tupperware, we decided to remove ourselves from the scene of the crime pretty quickly.
Needless to say the rest of our stay was blissfully less exciting. Good walks to beautiful viewpoints, excellent curry and conversation with the literary elite of Bombay*, games of scrabble in the drawing room of the old colonial house hotel we stayed in, and just sitting on the verandah looking at the treetops and enjoying the incredible quiet of a place where motor cars are banned. Definitely a world away from Bombay.
*Adam's friend Siddharth, who had suggested the hotel - a fine recommendation.
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Aha! When you return you must read Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai, in which badly behaved Indian monkeys feature prominently :)
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