Khireshwar is one place which you won't be able to get to from information from the net or any book . Come to think of it, I don't think the 6 of us who went would be of too much help either. You'll soon see why.
loaction : Khireshwar, no idea where, Maharastra, India
landmarks : none
Best time : 10th July, 2007 (what? I didn't go there the other 365 days of the year.) But seriously go only in the monsoons.
requisites : not too much water because there's enough around, 3/4 th quarter whiskey per person (with thums up preferably) and 1 quarter whiskey per 6 people (to be drunk neat for warmth) [Umm you do the math], windcheaters that you would probably wear for a while and then cast off because you're getting wet anyway, very strong sturdy shoes, a camera.
How to get there : Take a train to Kalyan (It leaves C.S.T at 4 A.M. and reaches Kanjur Marg at around 4:50). At Kalyan, stock up on biscuits (glucose ones especially because dogs like them) and eat breakfast. Take the State Transport (S.T.) bus headed for Malshejghat and get off at the MTDC (Mahrashtra Tourism Development C for something I have no idea what) resort.
Once there, get inside the resort compund and find a medium sized dog we christened foggy. If you don't find her then take the next bus back to Kalyan and go hom
e. From the resort get to a village called Kubi which is 2.5 kms away.The trail starts from Kubi itself. Ask locals for khireshwar and keep doing so every time you meet one because there are millions of trails joining up and splitting from the main trail. You will have to cross atleast 1 stream whose difficulty is about one 40000th on the return journey because you don't give a fuck then. The main trail gets swamped up at times, but still carry on or you could do what we did which is find a few rocks, sit down and drink whiskey for a bit. You're probably thinking that that's a bad idea but it worked like a charm and as Ashlene predicted, we soon refound the path. You then come across a lake called The Great Lake of China (Guess who christened this one). You'll soon reach Khireshwar which is a modest village with nothing much to do. Don't ask how much time it takes because it t
ook us more than 3 hours to get there but around 1 hour to get back to Kubi. Once at Khireshwar find Aishwarya hotel. There aren't any other hotels though there are several small boards wth the word 'hotel' written on them but incidentally they all point to huts with cows in them. Not an
ideal place to eat but whatever suits you. Anyway munch down on your poha and drink your amazingly nice tea. Soon enough the water starts evaporating and you start shivering. The booze comes in handy then. Start the return journey around 3 and take a dip in the Great Lake. Push each other, tug people under and 
just freak out because truly speaking it's one of best things I've ever done. Go trigger happy with the camera. Also spend some time under the small waterfall which comes along. You get the S.T. bus at Kubi and then head home. Back at Kanjurmarg at around 8:30.Foggy : Yeah it's extremely foggy but this isn't what this is about. Foggy is the name of the dog we met at MTDC that followed (or rather led) us for around 20 km. We would have been totally lost if it wasn't for the dog. We did feed it a lot of food but the other do
gs (named rainy (because it was raining when we met him) and faffy (I truly don't know why)) didn't travel half as much. Most times we let foggy lead. That's why I mentioned earlier that if you don't meet foggy return home. It was the second most useful living thing after me (Rashmi don't load up your shotgun). Anyway, by the end of the journey we rechristened it soggy. Guess why?Check all the pics at : http://iitb.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14129&l=ce5c6&id=603150860.
