My cousin sister and I visited Tudor Retreat, Kalote, near Khopoli over a not-so-rainy weekend. As 2 women, we were quite concerned about the safety of the place, and were assured by the owner Mrs Khan that we would be absolutely safe and relaxed over there. Safe, maybe; happy and relaxed, definitely not!
We had booked the 1-day package for Rs. 3000 (3 meals inclusive). The lady told us that she was giving us a huge room in a cottage. The road was quite bad, but the drive in the rickshaw (13 km, Rs. 125 by rickshaw) was scenic.
On reaching Tudor Retreat at 12pm, we were shown a huge, nice-looking cottage which is shown as “White House” on the site. As soon as we entered, it was obvious that the place was very badly maintained. We were first shown 2 rooms that were so tiny and low-ceilinged that I felt claustrophobic. One of the helpers hurriedly rushed up to say we were to be given the big room, and we were led there: to a room which was in fact a dorm!
There were beds for 17 people inside, just 1 loo (clean but no water), 4 huge doors, 8 windows (1 window’s glass was broken) and a massive loft above that was open on all sides. Oh, and there was no electricity coz of load shedding. Dont believe the pictures on the site at all. The actual beds look like they are discarded 2nd-rate furniture, not wrought-iron stuff, and the bedsheets were icky. (The helper fellow brought clean sheets, some towels and a bar of soap though.) The room had NO view (of the lake or anything else unless a wall is a view) at all, had a cracked ceiling, and cobwebs all over. My cousin n I freaked out over all the possible snakes/insects/creepy-crawlies that were sure to come through all the windows n doors and the loft. Plus, it was totally not worth 3k a nite! After some watery tea and washing up from a bucket of water brought from outside, we packed our bags and went out deciding to leave unless they gave us a better room.
This time we were met by Saif, the smooth-talking lady’s son. He said he’d give us an excellent room immediately, which was a little guest cottage that belonged to one Mr. A.P.Sinha for whom these people are caretakers. It was truly pretty and clean, but had no electricity although the load shedding time was officially over. Lunch was to be served at 2pm, n we had an hour, so decided to clean up and shower. Without electricity, there was no hot water of course, but we didnt mind coz it was hot and humid outside - but the water was just freezing! Abandoning the bath plan, we went for lunch. The food was v.good (this was the only thing that saved the Khans from being lynched by the guests). After lazing by the lakeside, we went back to our cottage for a snooze. As we walked, we realized that it was in the most far-flung corner of the place, a good 10 min away from the main resort. We saw there was still no electricity. After making 3 calls in 1 hour to the Khans, a fellow turned up to check things; all he did was switch off n on all the switches. Nothing happened of course. He told us power will come back in a while. By this time, we were both paranoid. What if the electricity went off in the nite? There was no invertor, we were far away from people, there was no intercom system.
So we packed our bags again. It was 5pm now, and if we were going to return to Mumbai in time, we had to leave asap to catch a train. Walked out to ask for our money back, and were met again by Saif who told us he would give us another excellent room in front of the estate, with an AC and invertor. Apologized profusely for having put us in a room where he knew there was a problem; this really pissed us off, the utter lack of concern with which he shoved off 2 women into a really far-flung place that had known electricity problems! He kept insisting we check out the new room, relax for a while there, and then if we didnt like it, he’d drop us to the station. Like idiots we agreed. He even upgraded our package from 1 day to 1 n half day. The room was decent, it was in the “Tudor bungalow” shown on the site. Again though, it had absolutely no view. We relaxed in the cool interiors in the AC, and we thought our troubles were finally over. But no, the loo was quite dirty and we had to call the people again to get it cleaned. Then the geyser wouldnt work. So they directed us to the bathroom of the dormitory-type room in the loft of the bungalow, which thankfully had a working geyser and was clean too.
As darkness settled in, the power went again, but we had an invertor so were quite comfortable in our room. At 9pm, we strolled out for dinner. They informed that dinner would be after 9-30. By 9-45, most folks stayin there had also gathered around the mess hall waiting for the food. After many queries from all of us, it was finally served exactly at 10-15pm; by then the kids of the 2-3 families there had gotten super-irritated, were crying, and refusing to eat. The food was again very good though.
The nite was peaceful. Breakfast was to be served at 9am. The day-picnic people arrived at 9-30, and were given breakfast within 15 mins, while all of us, the people who’d paid up already, had to wait till 10-15. Meanwhile, one of the couples staying there said they found a snake in their room at nite, and the guy had to walk across in the dark to find someone to get it out coz the Khan woman had coolly switched off her cellphone. When the snake had been chased off, a rat was found. The two had spent half the nite in the light of a laptop (coz again, no electricity) and the other half looking around for more beasts with all lights on. Thank goodness that didnt happen to us!
After the delayed breakfast that also delayed our day’s plans, we went for a hike to the waterfall. That was lovely, the only good part of our trip, probably coz it was the only thing where Tudor and the Khans were not involved.
We returned by 2pm; the previous day’s rickshaw-wala (who we’d asked to come and fetch us for Rs. 125) was to come at 3pm. After showering and packing, we went for lunch and waited till 3pm for it to be served. Then there was a long line for the buffet coz of the day-picnickers, by the time we reached the food, half the stuff was not there. Since we didnt have the time to wait, we took a little rice and curry (the things that were still there) and went outside the mess hall (no chairs left) to eat. While there, we heard Mrs. Khan talking to Saif abt us. She had the audacity to ask us for Rs. 1500 more coz we stayed for a meal more than the original package. Mr. Saif told her it was all taken care of, and proceeded to demand Rs. 700 from us for the lunch of rice and curry. Both of us were too tired to fight with him. I yelled a bit, we paid Rs. 500, and we left in the rickshaw.
My cousin and I had met up after a v.long time to catch up, and instead of a relaxing time, what we got was a really really bad deal. Like she said, we went to destress and ended up distressed!
I specially joined Mouthshut to warn everyone so that nobody makes the mistake of going there. The Khans are unscrupulous thieves; I dont know how else to describe people who are willing to cheat others out of their money by giving absolutely crappy rooms and abysmal service. And they illegally sell alcohol without a permit. This place may be good for a day trip, but for an overnite stay, it’s not worth going to Tudor even if you’re offered a free package!
