Paradise Pune

Imagica Water Park

2017-12-02T19:09:00.001+05:30

As I have passport of Imagica, I have to complete my four trips in a year so last week I decided to go to Imagica Water Park.

As part of preparation, we did following:

We purchased a swimming costume for my daughter as all her costumes were small in size and didn't fit her anymore.
We purchased a T-shirt for myself which dries fast and doesn't soak a lot of water.
We took slippers, towels, swimming costumes, swimming goggles and swimming caps for all of us.
Some guidelines for clothing and footwear is given here.
Make sure you put Sunscreen protection on your complete body otherwise you might get tanned.

Timings: We started from my home at 9 AM. There was a Bhakti Shakti Cyclathon on 26th November on NH-48 (old Pune-Mumbai highway) so google gave us this route which avoided going via NH-48. But we somehow lost our way in-between and finally reached Talegaon toll plaza at around 10:20 AM. From there too when we reached the Khalapur toll, instead of left-most lane, we crossed it in a middle lane and after that, the left turn for Imagica could not be taken so we had to take a U turn and took this route to reach park. The time when we reached park was around 11:45 AM, almost an hour later than what we had planned.

We presented our passport and got tickets from the ticket window and thought of going via rope-way to Water Park but we came to know that rope-way is under maintenance so we had to go via bus.

Once inside the water park, you have to purchase a locker for which there is a deposit of INR 200 and charges are INR 150. The helpers suggest you to take out your ornaments like chain in your neck or bengals in my wife's hands and deposit them in lockers otherwise there is a chance for these items to get stuck in one of the rides and you may get hurt. You get a locker key which you need to tie on your wrist and carry for the day. Some people don't bring slippers and in summer you might get burns as mentioned here. Also the season was pleasant due to winter and there was not much sunlight.

We finally changed into swimming suits and went into the park at 12:30 PM. There are in total 13 rides as mentioned here.

The Pirate Bay: The first ride on the right when you enter the park is for kids to have tube-slides with gentle speeds and shallow pools. You can also have rain dance in this ride.
Puddle Town: This is similar to pirate bay and had some tube-slides and shallow pools.
Boomerango: After you complete the first two rides above, you reach this one where you have to carry tube from the bottom of the ride and reach the top where you slide in the tube two persons at a time. The ride provides some thrill.
Splash: In this ride, you have to site and slide. My daughter bumped her head in this one and cried for some time but neither my wife nor I felt any problems.
Soakerz: This also is a tube ride for small kids.
Floatsa: We didn't immediately went to this ride but went there in evening since there were 3-4 buses of kids from Surat's Sadbhavana school and students from some tuition class in Bardoli who occupied a long waiting queue.
Yell-O: This is a high-speed tube ride and kids may feel afraid.
Zip-Zap-Zoom: This is a high-speed mat-ride where you go down head-first on a mat. This is one of the most thrilling rides of the park.
Loopy-Woopy: In this there is a glass chamber where the rider stands and the support below his feet is taken away resulting in 39 feet fall providing experience of free fall. This is one of the most thrilling rides of the park.

During these rides, my daughter brushed her leg with a railing and got some blood so we went to medical centre where she got some liquid spray which protected her wound from water for the rest of the day. We were carrying some sandwiches which also we ate as my daughter was advised to avoid water for around 15 mins.

Screamer: This is a ride where three people can sit in an inflatable raft and there are so many ups and downs that you feel like your raft is going to turn upside down.

Twisty Turvy: This is a two person ride and just like its name, there are lots of twists and turns in the ride on an inflatable raft. The minimum weight requirement for this is 50 kg so kids are not allowed to sit inside.
Wacky Wavess: In this ride, large waves get generated in a pool. In between there is music during the weekend on which you can dance.

Raaftastic: This is again a three person ride as per what I remember and all of us enjoyed it quite a bit.

Swirl Whirl: This is a four person ride and one of the most thrilling rides of the park. You swing like pendulum from one side to the other in a cone shaped ride.

In between the rides, we had lunch from 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM where we took one Indian meal and one Oriental meal from Ammos.

All in all, we had a great day. We covered almost all rides and more. My daughter went to the Pirate Bay thrice, Boomeranggo too thrice and many other rides also she went multiple times. We literally ran out of time. I hope you too enjoy your time at Aqua Imagica!

Update: I visited the Imagica Water Park again on 18 Feb to complete my 4 visits on Imagica Passport. This time we also decided to go to Snow Park as there was a free snow park entry on adult tickets.

In Snow Park, there is a 45 minute duration for which you are allowed to go. You can choose at what time you want to go in the park at every hour, so you can decide to go at 11 AM or at 6 PM. You also are given a coat, pants, hand gloves and boots to protect you against cold since the temperature inside is less than 0 degree centigrade. There are multiple activities that you can do inside:

There is a tube ride on snow
There is an igloo
There is artificial snow fall

Snow park is worth visiting once to see what it is and how it feels.

Madhai - Pachmarhi - Jabalpur - Bhedaghat - Kanha National Park

2017-11-19T17:10:00.003+05:30

It was almost two years since I took a big trip to Kerala in November 2015. So this Diwali I decided to once again take a decently sized trip to places in Madhya Pradesh. There has been many ads such as the ones shown below from MP Tourism which impressed me (even though some of them are irritating to other people), so I decided to take a plunge. Since Gwalior, Bandhavgarh and Khajuraho are a bit on the northern side, I decided to cover only the central and east side places. Some of the places such as Bhedaghat or Kanha National Park are part of my daughter's study, so I decided to show those places to her.

We contacted MP Tourism office in Mumbai to book hotels and National Park Safari along with Taxi.

Pune to Madhai: The journey started from my home at 2:30 PM on 20th October when we departed to board a train for Itarsi. For the first time in my life, I decided to book tickets for 1st class in Indian Railway (not that I wanted to travel in it but 2AC and 3AC were full). We had given a preference to Coupe (where there are only two seats) but we were given two seats in a Cabin (where totally there are four seats). So we got some company on the other two seats. Earlier we thought it was a problem but when my daughter mixed up well with the other kid named Anand in the compartment and started playing games with him, it was a relief for us.

We reached Itarsi junction at 5 AM in the morning on 21 October and the taxi was there to pick us up. We departed for Madhai and reached there at 7 AM. Another nearest railway station is Pipariya but all the tickets were full for Pipariya and so I only booked tickets till Itarsi.

Madhai: The sunrise with Satpura range of Mountains in the background was beautiful as shown in images below. MP Tourism has created a new Bison Resort at this place which we selected for our stay. Bison Resort is located on the banks of river Denwa and on opposite side of the river is the gate to Satpura National Park. After reaching there, we asked for early check-in since typical check-in time is 12 PM but were allowed to occupy a room at 7:30 AM only and also had a breakfast done which included Poha, Corn-flakes, Bread-butter-jam and some fruits (watermelon). I had not planned anything for morning so we took some rest.

Satpura National Park has multiple entry gates, Parsapani, Madhai and Jamani Dev. But the one near Bison Resort is Madhai. The booking of safari for this was not done at MP tourism office but was done online from the forest department website.
There are two kinds of bookings done:

Whole Gypsy
Single Seat for each passenger

There are two kinds of charges: One that needs to be paid to forest department, which is around INR 600 for 3 people and is paid while booking online. The rest of the charges for Gypsy, driver and a guide is paid at the time of making an entry which is around INR 3000 for full gypsy for long route and INR 2400 for short route but if you are sharing the gypsy with others using single seat, you need to pay only your share. We took our lunch at around 2 PM and then approached the Satpura National Park Madhai Gate ticket counter at around 2:30 PM where they took the rest of the charges for Gypsy, driver and guide from us and then allotted a guide. Since I had done single seat booking for 3 seats, the rest of the seats where occupied by somebody else.

We had sightings of Deer, Bison, Peacock, many varieties of birds and Wild Boar but no Leopard or Tiger. We took the dinner at night at Bison resort.

Pachmarhi: We departed for Pachmarhi at 7:45 AM the next morning on 22nd October and took the route shown here. We reached Glen View resort at around 10:30 AM. Our route had some kachcha roads and the driver was not happy and if you want, another route with state highways go via Pipariya and takes just 7 KM extra.

On way to Pachmarhi, there is a Denwa Darshan point where you see Denwa river flowing in a valley between two mountains as in image below:

Denwa Darshan

After reaching the hotel Glen View, it was already late but we requested and the hotel served breakfast and also allotted a room to us earlier than the usual check-in time.

We freshen up ourselves and started for some points that can be covered in our car from hotel at around 12 PM. The first point to visit was Handi Khoh which gives a nice view of valleys of Satpura range of mountains. The next one was Priyadarshini Point and finally we went for Bade Mahadev and Gupt Mahadev. Since time was running out and it was already 2:15 PM, we didn't cover Gupt Mahadev and departed for hotel back for lunch.

After taking lunch, we decided to start again for Champak Lake and had some scooter boat ride which was a bit costly as it was INR 400 per person for just one and half minute ride. The same on Tapola lake at Mahabaleshwar was for INR 100 per person.

Champak Lake

Finally we went for Rajendragiri sunset point. The point is inside a well maintained garden. Since we reached late, we didn't spend a lot of time here otherwise it is a nice place to visit.

The next day on 23 October we had hired a Gypsy as it is recommended for some points such as Bee Falls and Dhoopgarh to have a four wheel drive due to steep slopes and inclines. The Gypsy cost is INR 3550 per day which includes INR 1400 fees for Pachmarhi forest department and rest for Gypsy, guide and a driver. Also at these places, the private vehicles are stopped much farther from the site and you have to walk long distances to reach the destination so local Gypsy is much more convenient.

The driver sharply reported at 9:30 AM and took us to Bison Lodge Museum from where the forest department permit is to be obtained. There is a museum at this place which gives an overview of Satpura National Park wildlife and vegetation.

The next destination for us were Pandav Caves. Here there are five caves where it is assumed that Pandavas stayed during their exile. Even the name Pachmarhi is derived from words Pach - five and Marhi - cave.

The next destination for us was JataShankar Cave/Temple. The guide took us to the cave of Lord Shiva. It require a walk of almost 15 minutes on stairs below ground level to reach the cave. In monsoon, this gets filled with water and remains closed.

We then departed for Bee Falls. There are almost around 500 stairs to walk including both up and down to reach the final waterfall. The waterfall is very big but the rocks are not arranged properly and when it is crowded, there is no proper place to sit and the surface of rocks sometimes is too slippery to even walk and there is always chance to fall down. The waterfall is around 100 feet tall and is worth visiting though but be careful. The name of the fall has come from the fact that if you sit under the water flowing from the fall, it feels like thousands of bees are making noise in your ears.

We then departed for lunch at the hotel. After lunch our first destination was Parasailing place in Pachmarhi. The charges are around INR 300 per person for a 5 minute parasailing activity. You along with a sail is tied with a rope to the back of a Gypsy and then it is toed fast to fill enough air in the sail to generate lift. You will hang in air at around 100 or so feet and will be able to see the surroundings.

After parasailing, we were supposed to go to Reechhgarh but we didn't have enough time so left for Dhoopgarh. On the way, we go past Echo point where there are beautiful hills and nice panoramic views.

After the sunset, somebody flew a Drone at the site as shown in the images below. This activity lasted for almost 15 minutes and generated a lot of curiosity in the minds of the visitors there.

After Dhoopgarh, we went back to hotel and departed for Jabalpur the next morning.

Bhedaghat: We departed from Pachmarhi on 24th October at 8 AM via this route to Bhedaghat. We reached there at almost around 2:30 PM. Our stay was at Motel Marble Rocks which is on the banks of the Narmada river overseeing the beauty of marble rocks. While we were waiting for lunch, I couldn't resist to take some snaps at the hotel.

We decided to visit the Dhuandhar Water Fall in the evening itself. There are multiple activities that you can do at the water fall.

There is a cable car/rope way which takes you from this side of the river to the other and gives you a nice glimpse of the water fall on the way. On the other side of the river, there is a jeep ride which takes you to marble rocks, but since we were already going to go to Nauka Vihar, we didn't take this one. The last rope way back is at 6:30 PM so you better be back earlier than that otherwise you will have to take a 23KM route to come back on this side of the river in a vehicle.

There is a Boating ride available at Nauka Vihar. The shared boat costs INR 50 per person for half an hour and INR 100 per person for an hour. I had heard that the full ride takes you till Dhuandhar water fall but they cut the route half way only. A complete boat of 5 people can cost INR 500. There aren't any motor boats. The person rowing the boat was quite humorous and you can hear some of his jokes in the video below.

There is a private route (which charges INR 100) that allows you to take your vehicle till the starting point of the water fall and since my wife's legs were paining, we decided to take this one. The water fall at night too looks beautiful and the water droplets that keep the air humid are clearly visible in the photos below.

Finally when we arrived back at the hotel at around 6:30 PM, we came to know that there is a Laser Show conducted at the nearby location by MP Tourism itself and is quite good. Multiple songs were played and 3D laser was used which generated good effect. Initially there was a musical fountain which was used.

The next day on 25th October, I woke up early and decided to visit Chousath Yogini Temple. Since the temple has around 150 or so stairs to climb, my wife gave a miss on this one. The temple has 64 Yoginis but some of the idols were damaged. The shape of the temple resembles that of Khajuraho. The temple is almost one thousand years old.

When I came back to the hotel room, we started for Bargi Dam via this route. There is Tilwara Ghat on the route where we spent around 15 mins or so. Water of Narmada river is considered very sacred same as for the Ganga and many people take bath here.

Bargi Dam can be visited from both the sides. One route takes you to the point from which you can have a view of large water reservoir. The second route takes you to Maikal resort where you get a chance to have some boating on the reservoir.

We then decided to go back to Jabalpur and reached the Indian Coffee House at around 3 PM. The reason for choosing this restaurant was that we were completely fed up of eating punjabi food at all the MP tourism hotels since last four days. We had tried eating South Indian on way from Pachmarhi to Jabalpur at Gadarwara but we didn't like it much. The food at Indian Coffee House was much better and the filter coffee was good too.

Jabalpur - Indian Coffee House

After lunch we decided to visit the places in Jabalpur city and the first such place was Balancing Rocks.

Just next to this place is Rani Durgawati Fort. There are quite some number of stairs that you have to climb to reach this place. You will have the view of complete Jabalpur from this place.

We then decided to go for Bhawartlal Garden. There is a Rani Durgawati Museum just next to the garden but it was already closed by the time we reached there. The garden was quite big and also had a big skating ring inside it but there was no facility to rent skates so we just spent an hour at the place.

Since we already had South Indian food in the morning and was eating Punjabi food all days in the previous four days, we decided to go for some Pizza at Domino's. We then came back to hotel and decided to take rest. Typically the hotel gives breakfast at 8 AM but I had asked them to serve a little early as we wanted to depart for Kanha.

Bhedaghat - Breakfast Motel Marble Rocks

On 26th October, we left for Kanha National Park at 8:30 AM from Bhedaghat. There are multiple routes to reach but we took the one shown here. The entry to the National Park has big gate as shown below.

Kanha - Entry

Our stay was at Baghira Jungle Resort and we reached there at 1:15 PM. We then were given a room and went for lunch as the jungle safari was at 2:30 PM. The gypsy picked us from out hotel at 2:35 PM and when we reached Kisli gate, it was already a queue of 10 people for verification of identity. At the gate, you need to show Aadhar or any other government issued ID card for the names you have made bookings for. Here too, there is around INR 1200 charge of forest department, INR 300 for guide, INR 300 for driver, INR 300 for hotel pickup and rest INR 2400 for Gypsy totalling around INR 4500 per safari. The evening safari is only between 3 PM to 6 PM while the morning safari is from 6 AM till 11 AM. Our evening safari was in Kanha zone and morning was in Kisli zone. There are other zones too such as Mukki, Sarhi and Khatia.

We had sightings of many birds, Deer, Bison, Jackal, Chital and Barasingha, a Bear and a very short sighting of a Tiger (mostly its back and tail) by my daughter. Unfortunately, neither me nor my wife were able to spot a tiger when our guide and driver pointed out to us but my daughter had a sighting and then the tiger went away to hid in grass.

For the first time in my life, I saw what is called "Jungle Ka Kanoon" in "The Jungle Book". The monkeys were eating fresh leaves on the trees and whatever was left was being thrown on the ground which was getting picked up by deers. What a great cooperation among the animals!

We completed one safari at around 6 PM and came to hotel room. While coming back on the way itself, there was a deer that was sighted on the road. The driver told us that sometimes even tigers are sighted in this manner on road but we were not that lucky. We had our dinner at the Baghira Resort hotel and had a good night sleep. We had another safari in the morning at 6 AM for Kisli zone but there were not many animals seen.

My recommendation to you is you reach Kanha in evening and stay for two nights and take two morning safaris and one afternoon safari. As morning safaris can go on for 5 hours, there are more chances of seeing tiger.

Kanha - Dinner

We completed our safari early at 10 AM and then departed for Nagpur at 10:45 via route shown here. We had a short break at Haldiram HotSpot after 4 PM where we bought some sweets for our neighbours and office colleagues and had our lunch with Chhole Bhatura, Paper Dosa and Papdi Chat. We reached the Nagpur station at around 5:30 PM and then took the train at 6:30 PM.

All in all, I found the trip very refreshing for me and my entire family. During the 1050+ KM journey, I saw heavy road construction activities going on in Madhya Pradesh and I felt that five years down the line, Madhya Pradesh would have a very different image in terms of infrastructure. Surprisingly, during the same time, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Chauhan was in Washington DC and he also made the statement that roads in Madhya Pradesh are better than that in Washington DC. You can call this a coincidence or serendipity but I felt there was something in it.

Our taxi actually was of Nagpur and so the owner had to pay INR 150 per day for 8 days in Madhya Pradesh for taxi permit. If the taxi was hired from Bhopal, it would have costed us just 1 day permit to drop us at Nagpur station and we would have been able to save INR 1000 or more. This was a mistake that costed us more for taxi fare so please keep in mind.

I was carrying a tripod and a good SLR camera but I didn't realise that many of the places were nice to capture the Milky Way. Since we were tired, I didn't try it but away from city with low lights some of these places are ideal to capture the Milky Way at late nights. Maybe I will try this next time. Happy Journey to you!

Mahabaleshwar

2017-08-16T22:32:00.001+05:30

Last week I went to have my first trip to Mahabaleshwar during my eleven year stay at Pune. Due to heavy rain and cold weather the whole trip turned out to be a pleasant experience.

Route: We took the route shown here while starting from our home at 9 AM. On the route, we had planned to stop at Mapro Garden where we reached at around 12:30 PM. There were several things to do at the Mapro Garden including

Lunch - We ordered multiple items

Grill Sandwich
Italian Delight Pizza
French Fries

The Grilled Sandwich already had some fries. We could have taken an ice cream instead of fries if we had the knowledge.

There was one jumping trampoline available for kids to enjoy which was free to use

There is one shopping mall too where Mapro items are available at 10% below MRP. We bought some raisins and almonds coated with dark/milk chocolates:

We left the place at around 2 PM and reached Rajesh Hotel at 3 PM. The room was not as per our expectation but since we had already paid advance, we decided to stay. We than took an hour of sleep and then took off for site seeing.

The first place we decided to visit was Venna Lake where we reached at around 4:30 PM. There was heavy wind when we took a ride in lake in a manual row boat. The ride was for a short time of around 20 mins but it was worth it. There was heavy fog and the weather was really chilly but we had carried jackets and sweaters with us which served their purpose. You need to shell out INR 20 for parking and INR 300 for boat ride. The boat can accommodate up to 6 persons but even with three, we had to pay the same for the whole boat.

We spent around half an hour more and decided to leave for our next point which is Lingmala Waterfall and reached at around 5:30 PM. There is an entry fee of INR 15. The waterfall closes at 6 PM so you better reach early. You have to climb down and up around 500 stairs before you finally reach the waterfall view but the whole walk has many scenic views.

My wife was carrying some food items and one monkey came near her to grab them from her purse so both my wife and daughter panicked and decided to run back towards the entry point. We couldn't spend enough time at the place due to this but still managed to stay till 6:15 PM. We reached hotel at around 7 PM and then decided to call it quits for the day as all of us were very tired from the journey.
We then went for dinner at Rajesh Hotel itself which served a buffet with following items:

Salad
Veg Manchow Soup
Paneer
Veg Kofta
Mungdal Halwa
Corn Pakoda
Jeera Rice
Dal Fry
Papad
Chhaas
Puri/Roti

The next day we had our breakfast at the hotel which included following items:

Idli - Sambhar
Aaloo Paratha - Dahi - Pickle - Ketchup
Bread - Butter - Jam
Milk - Cornflakes
Tea
Coffee
Watermelon

We completed our breakfast by 10:15 AM and proceeded for Pratapgarh Fort. The fort is located around 20 KM from our hotel and we reached there around 11:45 AM. The fort provided many scenic views and we really enjoyed there and spent almost an hour or more.

We left the fort at around 12:45 PM and started going back to Mahabaleshwar for lunch. There were many scenic places and many waterfalls along the way where we saw many people enjoying their time but we had to go to Tapola so didn't wait.

We reached Mahabaleshwar at around 2 PM and decided to take lunch at Shreyas Hotel. They were offering fixed thali and we ordered two such for three of us which we thought would serve the purpose. It took the guys 20 mins to bring the food so you can see the duo waiting in the images below. The thali had following items:

Tindli Bhaji
Chana Bhaji
Aaloo
Paneer BabyCorn Mushroom Mutter
Puri
Dal
Rice
Kadhi
Gulab Jamun
Batata Wada

We started for Tapola at around 3 PM and reached there at around 4:15 PM. It is situated 22KM south. There you have a big lake which offers boating but the prices are exorbitantly high. The only better attraction than Venna Lake is Water Scooter ride.

We completed Tapola visit at around 5:30 PM and started our way back for Mahabaleshwar. We reached our hotel at 7 PM and then decided to go for visiting market. There are many shops in the market and my wife bought some chappals and umbrella. The weather was so cold that when you exhale air, it was forming steam fog in the air. Finally we completed our shopping at around 9 PM and decided to go for dinner at The Sizzler Place. We ordered two sizzlers

Oriental Sizzler
Vegetable Sizzler

The food was really great and cheaper than the same available in Pune. We liked both the meals that we took at Shreyas Hotel and even the prices were cheaper than that of Rajesh Hotel.

The next day we again had breakfast at Rajesh Hotel with Idli replaced by Vada Sambhar, Aaloo Paratha replaced by Upma and Watermelon replaced by Melon. The rest of the items were same.

We checked-out of hotel at 9:30 AM and started our journey back home. We first decided to complete Kates Point which is around 8 KM from our hotel. We started from hotel at 10 AM and reached at around 10:30 AM. From Kates point, you can see a big rock which looks like an Elephant Head. There is also waterfall and the complete view of river flowing. Due to greenery and fog with clouds, the view was very good.

We departed from Kates Point at around 10:45 AM and started for Arthur's Seat. The route for Arthur's Seat passes via old Mahabaleshwar and due to heavy rush, there was lot of traffic so we turned around and decided not to visit the place. We almost wasted an hour and came back to where we started from but then continued to Mapro Garden where we decided to have a short break with a Fresh Strawberry with Cream.

We left the Mapro garden at around 1 PM and departed for Parsi Point. There are vendors showing several points with telescopes such as:

New Era School where Taare Zameen Par was shot
Raja Hindustani shooting at Table Land
etc...

There were people offering different games such as Balloon Shooting, Game of Luck with balls, Throwing Rings etc... for INR 30 each. My daughter did play some of them but didn't win. We then departed at 1:45 PM for Table Land where we reached at around 2 PM. This is Asia's second largest Mountain Plateau. We were offered horse ride but we decided not to take any.

We finally started from Table Land at 3 PM and reached my home at 5:30 PM. The whole trip was quite refreshing. The beauty of Mahabaleshwar can easily be compared with that of Munnar from Kerala. I really felt why I didn't visit the place earlier. Hope you do not make the same mistake!

Sinhagad Fort - Khadakwasla Dam

2017-08-05T22:24:00.001+05:30

A month back I went to visit Sinhagad Fort for the first time since I have arrived in Pune. On the route I also stopped at Khadakwasla Dam for a while. The whole route was very scenic and also the fort was worth visiting.

Route: I took the route shown here while starting at around 8:15 AM. It took us around one and a half hour to reach Sinhagad Fort and we arrived at 9:40 AM. On most weekends there is heavy rush and you don't get parking at Sinhagad Fort and has to park very far from fort but on 16 July when I visited, there was less rush since there was landslide in previous week and people got stuck for 3-4 hours on the fort itself. There was heavy fog at the hill so the surroundings were not at all visible but we did try to cover the whole fort.

Food: The fort has many eateries and most of them offer the same items which is as below:

Zunka - Bhakri
Baingan Ka Bhartha
Kanda Bhaji
Curd
Tea

All the items were quite good. While climbing down we stopped at some points to have view of greenery and water reservoirs and also stopped at Khadakwasla. The dam was completely filled with heavy rains in the catchment area of the river.

We came back at around 2 PM. All in all, it was worth visiting the fort once.

Dakor Vadtal Anand

2017-06-07T23:33:00.001+05:30

Last week I visited my brother's residence in Vallabh Vidhyanagar and decided to visit nearby places of interest which included Dakor and Vadtal temples and Amul Dairy.

We stayed at Mahadev Nagar in Vallabh Vidyanagar. We planned to visit all three places in a day. At around 9 AM we started from our place to Dakor via this route. It is situated around 35 KM from Vallabh Vidyanagar. We reached Dakor at around 10:15 AM and parked our car in a paid parking for INR 30. We then went for Darshan and luckily, we were able to have Shringar Darshan. After that we went for some donation and got some prasad for our donation. Typically you get 5 packets of prasad for INR 50. Recently there is a boat ride created on Gomti lake and we went for ride at around 11 AM which cost INR 10 per person. The ride takes you to the center of the lake where there is a temple. After boat ride we again went for Rajbhog Darshan and finally departed for journey back at around 11:45 PM.

We reached Vallabh Vidyanagar at around 12:45 PM and had lunch. We then started for Amul Dairy visit which is located here. We had taken prior appointment from Amul Dairy as mentioned on the website. Timings for visit are between 2 PM to 4 PM.

The photos are not allowed but I somehow sneaked some. It took almost an hour to complete a plant visit. We then bought some chocolates from inside the Amul Parlour at MRP without any discount but when we went out, we found that there is an Amul Retail Parlour outside where things are 10% cheaper then MRP so please keep this in mind when you purchase. At around 4 PM we departed for Vadtal temple and reached there via this route at around 4:30 PM. We completed Vadtal temple visit by 5 PM and then went back to Vallabh Vidyanagar.

The weather was very hot there but we still enjoyed our time.

IPL - Rising Pune Supergiant vs Gujarat Lions - MCA Stadium

2017-05-10T23:47:00.001+05:30

For the first time in my life I decided to go for a live cricket match. Since I am from Gujarat and staying in Pune, what other match better suits then RPS vs GL which took place in MCA stadium on 1st May. I had booked tickets from bookmyshow for four of us.

Route: We left my home at 7:30 PM and took the route shown here. It took us almost an hour to reach the entrance of the stadium and we were already late by half an hour to reach at 8:30 PM. The match had already run till 7 overs in first innings and the score was around 1/61 when we sat. When you park the car, make sure you remember some landmark otherwise when you come out of stadium, you might miss where you parked. I already saw at least 5 guys searching for their cars.

Food: There were multiple breaks for drinks at 7 and 13 overs in both innings as well as in the middle of the two innings when you can have some snacks. Multiple items were there for sale including Vada Paav, Samosa, Burger, Pizza, Masala Corn, Pop Corn, etc... along with cold drinks. Free water was also provided and wash-rooms were ok to use.

There were early wickets for RPS but finally they managed to win with help of a century from Ben Stokes.

When we came out of stadium, there was heavy rush and the car didn't come out of parking for almost half an hour. We safely reached home at around 1:10 PM.

Please enjoy if you get a chance at MCA.

K Factory - Baner Pune

2017-05-10T23:21:00.000+05:30

I went to K Factory - Baner Pune in the month of March with my family to have a good dinner. This is a new happening place that has come up in Baner and I really felt worth visiting.

Food: The restaurant menu is available here. The restaurant also offers hard drinks but the seating arrangement is separate for them on first floor. We went for the ground floor where only soft drinks are served.

We ordered three main dishes and soup:

C2 Tomato Basil Soup
F3 Tandoor Roasted
R2 Cottage Cheese Tikka Lasagna
R3 Pasta with Farfalle and vegetables

The three dishes were really delicious especially the R2 and R3. Soup was clear so neither of us enjoyed it. Tandoor Roasted was like pizza but with less toppings. The total bill for three of us came to around INR 900. I found it worth visiting again.

Banana Leaf - Aundh

2017-05-06T22:41:00.000+05:30

I had visited Banana Leaf - Aundh in the month of May 2017.

The menu of the restaurant is available here. We had ordered two dosas, one idli-vada and one uttapam along with two filter coffees. The restaurant is not very expensive so total bill came to be less than INR 300 for two of us.

The restaurant has closed and now a new one named "Madras Cafe" has come up.

Adlabs Imagica

2017-04-03T22:16:00.002+05:30

After a long time (i.e. almost 5 years since Sayaji Raje Park), I went to enjoy my time at one of the theme parks of Adlabs Imagica along with my neighbours (although I did visit theme park outside of India in 2013). It was very hot during the last week of March and due to holidays; there was a lot of crowd but surprisingly the visit turned out to be very pleasant and enjoyable.

As part of preparation to visit the park, I had done following on the previous day:

Booked tickets on http://book.adlabsimagica.com/. PayTM gives some cashback if you want to buy on its website. You also have an option to buy Passport which allows 4 entries in a year to either Imagica Theme Park or Water Park on any days. There is a discount on Tuesdays for theme park and Wednesdays for water park.
Downloaded Imagica App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adlabs.themepark. The app provides information about ride timings (yes, surprisingly not all rides are open all the time), park timings, ride eligibility in terms of height, ride waiting time in real time. The Imagica map was somehow not opening in my app.
Read several websites such as Quora, Tripadvisor to plan the trip according to the information available. Even though tickets are bought on website, the physical tickets need to be collected on one of their counters.

Timings: We started from my home at 8:30 AM (although we had planned to leave at 8 AM sharp). Four families had taken two cars and we first reached Shree Datta Snacks at around 9:45 AM. There we took some breakfast which included:

Vada Paav
Poha
Upma
Methi Vadi
Sabudana Khichdi
Tea

We started for Imagica at around 10:10 AM and reached there at 10:25 AM. At the entry of the park, there are 15 window counters that gives physical tickets in lieu of online bookings. If you have bought a Passport, you need to get yourself photographed and you will get a card which you have to preserve for next trips. Only the first counter among counters issuing express tickets issues cards in lieu of passport online booking since they need to take your photograph.

The park opens at 10:30 AM but the rides start at 11 AM. We had decided to go for rides for kids first so we started with following:

Splash Ahoy: In this ride, a family controls a set of 4 water cannons in a boat and 4 or 5 boats move around a water reservoir and people throw water at each other from these cannons.

Happy Wheels: In this ride, the kids below 52' are allowed to ride cars and during the ride they learn about traffic rules.

When we were having the ride, Anil Kapoor sprang up from somewhere and we did have some snaps in with him as below.

Dare 2 Drop: This was a ride for adults and it really provides a thrilling experience. The ride takes you to a height quite speedily and then throws you down with an experience of weightlessness in gravity with free fall.

Humpty's Fall: This ride provides the same experience as Dare 2 Drop but for kids.

Tubby Takes Off: This is one of the best rides of the park for the kids. Two persons occupy one elephant which turns round and you can press a switch to take your cart up and down. It is situated at a bit of height so provides a complete view of the park.

While going for next ride, we passed by Gold Rush Express, which is described as a family roller coaster but it was close since almost a month.

Loch Ness Explorers: This ride is also solely for kids and a boat passes through waters and jumps and dumps to give some thrill to the kids.

Bump It Boats: There was a long queue in this ride since there are only 5 boats and each boat can provide ride to only one person. It almost was 1:15 PM when we completed this ride although we stood in the queue at 12:30 PM.

While going for next ride, we passed by Save the Pirate and Wagon O Wheel but the former was off while the later was only for small kids.

Alibaba and Chalis Chor: Some of our group members had gone to stand in long queue of this ride so after completing Bump It Boats, we directly jumped the queue for this ride. In this ride, you sit in a cart and pass through a treasure of Alibaba and you are given a gun to shoot some green targets. If you succeed, it accumulates your points and report at the end of the ride. Many of our riders scored as much as 13K including me.

This was almost half way for us so we decided to take a halt and go for lunch at around 2 PM. We went to Roberto's Food Court for lunch and all of us ordered different items such as:

North Indian Thali - This had two veg (Paneer Butter Masala / Aloo Mutter), Dal, Biryani, Roti.
Oriental Thali - This had two soups, Manchurian with gravy, one of rice or noodles.
Gujarati Thali

We ordered one each of #1 and #2 and it more than served three of us. We also got a free ice-cream with Thali and also ordered one shake (Choco, Mango, etc...) with one meal which got some discount. For people holding Passport, there is a scheme where you get 20% discount on food items in MRP. For this, you have to purchase INR 500 coupons by paying INR 400 at select outlets and then the coupons can be used at food outlet to purchase food. We utilised three passports to pay INR 1200 to get INR 1500 coupons which we utilised to get 4 thalis which were INR 330 each. The total bill including shakes was more than 1500 so we paid rest from cash/card.

After lunch, we went passed Detective Bow Wow but it was not open so we skipped it.

Deep Space: This ride has a roller coster in dark, i.e. they claim it to take you to moon with a shot to space and back. Small children might feel a little bit uneasy in this ride but it provides good thrill to teenagers as well as adults. This had very long queue and it took almost an hour for us to get in the ride since there were people with Express passes also that were entering in large numbers. Some of our group members waited in this ride while others went ahead and enjoyed I for India in the meantime our turn came. We were waiting here from 3:30 and completed the ride at 5:15 PM.

The ride Motion Box Theater is next to Deep Space but we skipped it.

I for India: When some group members waited at Deep Space to get our turn, I and some others went for the other ride I for India. In this ride you sit on a platform and you see a projection on screen which is a video captured in a helicopter travelling above many prominent places in India such as Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Kerala, Leh, Kashmir, Rajasthan, and many other places in India. This ride is similar to Soarin in Disneyland but instead of US, it shows glimpses of great India. The ride sometimes does provide thrill as you feel sometimes as if you are travelling in a helicopter above the monuments. The video in this ride is around 15 minutes long and 99 people enters the ride at the same time so this will take around 30 minutes of yours.

Rajasaurus River Adventure: After completing the Deep Space, we went in this ride at around 5:15 PM. Some of our group members were waiting in queue for this ride so we didn't have to wait long in this otherwise there is long queue and even the starting time of this ride is around 3:30 PM. This takes you in a boat through a jungle of dinosaurs and finally dumps you from a big height as if you jump from a waterfall. The ride involves some thrill so children be prepared.

Mr India: This is a 4D ride and provides a lot of thrill. You sit on a car seat and then a video is played in front of you along with movement in your car seat in such a manner that it feels you are part of the video and your heart does pound a bit.

During the time we were doing Mr India, the Parade happened between the time of 5:30 PM and 6 PM but we missed it.

Wrath of God: We went in this ride just since it was next to Mr India and it took almost 15 mins of our time which was wasted. The ride provides some details about three Gods, God of wind, God of Water and God of Fire but apart from this, there is nothing more to see.
Mambo Chai Chama: This is a typical tora-tora ride and has nothing new but still we went for it just to complete our count.

Screaming Machine: As it was already 6:15 PM, my wife and I decided to give a final boost to our adrenaline. We went for the ride that is considered to be among the biggest novelties of Imagica theme park in India. The ride is really a heart-pounding. It is like you are riding a 150 ft swing and that too rotating on its axis. The ride is longest among all thrilling rides and lasts for around 4 minutes. I have not been to Universal Studios but whatever rides I have experienced so far, this one was among the most thrilling rides. For the first two minutes of the ride I was enjoying but then after it became like a panic for me as the thrill literally turned into fear. If you are facing the land and the ride throws you down from 150 feet to ground and then takes you to the other side, it becomes difficult to keep yourself cool. The guy sitting next to me was experiencing the same for sixth time with third visit to park in last one month on his Passport ticket and it was his third time for that day itself while for me even the first one was difficult.
Nitro: When we entered this ride, it was around 7 PM and only the last round was pending so we were lucky to sit in this one. This is the most thrilling roller coaster of the park and it does leave up to its promise.
The Magic Carousel: I finally took my daughter for the Magic Carousel as the lights turns on after 7 PM and finally grabbed a shot of my life as below.

We did finally came out and took the last shot at the entrance where Imagica letters have been created.

From the list, you can see that there are around 25 rides and we were able to cover around 19 of them in a day. Even with very hot day, we enjoyed a lot and the park did provide good facilities such as cold drinking water, food, wash-rooms and even special room for nursing mothers at every few distance. Finally we left the park at around 7:30 PM. During the whole day I just forgot about rest of my life including my work or other tensions. The only thing in my mind was to enjoy the day with all the rides. I would recommend you all to do the same with your family and visit the park.

Although the fees are quite high in the park compared to other alternatives, some of the rides such as Screaming Machine and Nitro does give the park status of a world-class amusement park. Many parks outside of India charges USD 100 per day and if you take purchasing power parity, multiplying it by 20-30 gives you INR 2000-3000 but for Imagica, the fees are lower at INR 1500 and even cheaper for school/college students at INR 1000 so the family of three can enjoy for a day with INR 4000 in tickets and INR 1000 for food, travel and other expenses. So I would consider it a fairly priced park. Please go ahead and enjoy at least once.

Update: As part of finishing my four yearly visits as part of Imagica Passport, I went to Imagica Theme Park again on 18 March. This time I had decided to visit the rides that we missed out last time such as:

Save The Pirate: In this ride, you sit in a boat and the boat moves up and down. This is similar to Dare 2 Drop but a mild version for kids and family entertainment.
Detective Bow Wow: This is an interactive show where a detective tries to find thief of one of the museum items from the audience itself.
Motion Box Theatre: This ride is similar to some extent, Mr India, where you sit and experience a 2D movie played in front of you and then your seat moves around giving you a 4D experience.

We repeated Nitro, Screaming Machine, I for India, Dare 2 Drop, Tubby Takes Off and Alibaba and Chalis Chor.

All in all, it was a great experience visiting the park again.

Someshwar Wadi Temple, Baner

2017-02-24T23:28:00.000+05:30

On this Mahashivratri, I visited Someshware Wadi temple for the first time in more than ten years since I arrived in Pune. This is a special day when devotees are allowed to go inside the shiv temple and take blessings from near the Shiva Lingam.

Apart from temple, there is a fun fair next to the temple that holds only on this day. In fair, there are many rides that children can enjoy in. I and my wife also sat in one toy train ride and it really was fun.

Vishal Shekhar Music Concert - Crescendo 2017

2017-02-07T18:48:00.001+05:30

I attended Vishal - Shekhar's live concert at SSPMS ground as part of ISB&M's cultural fest Crescendo. The show was open to anybody so I bought the tickets and attended the concert.

Entertainment: The show timing was 5:30 PM so we started from my home at 5 PM and reached the ground a bit late at 5:35 PM using this route. When physical tickets were issued to us, it came as a surprise that it was for standing and there was no seating available. My wife and my daughter refused to attend the concert standing since their legs were paining so I decided to consult the management at the concert. Finally, my wife decided to convince the management to give us VIP tickets with some increased price. We stood in the queue till 6:30 PM and also took some photographs in the booth setup by Radio Mirchi Love 104.2 FM. At 6:45 PM, we were allowed to go inside. Both Vishal and Shekhar were going to come at 7:30 PM so meanwhile ISB&M students provided some commentary and tried to entertain the crowd. Accompanying him was RJ Nickey as seen in snaps below.

Vishal and Shekhar arrived at 7:40 PM sharp and then continued their music mojo for two hours continuously. They sang many songs from the films where they have provided music such as:

Nashe si chad gayi oye - Befikre
Ude dil befikre - Befikre
Jag ghumiya thare jaisa na koi - Sultan
Baby Ko Bass Pasand Hai - Sultan
Want to be my chhammak chhalo - Ra.One
Tu hai Aasmaan Main - Jhankar Beats
Suno Na - Jhankar Beats
Bachana Ae Hasino - Bachana Ae Hasino
Salaam Namaste - Salaam Namaste
Dus bahane karke le gaya dil - Dus
I hate LUV stories - I hate LUV stories
Bin Tere - I hate LUV stories
Jee Le Zaraa - Talaash
Madari - Coke Studio
Selfie le le re - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Balam Pichkari - Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani
Tu tu tu meri - Bang Bang
Zehanaseeb - Hasee toh Phasee
Right Here Right Now - Bluffmaster
Ni Gori Tera Jhumka - Ungli

And many others that I don't remember.

Even though there were hiccups, the final music experience was great from the duo. The whole experience was different from that of Shreya Ghoshal concert that I attended last year since this one was more focused on music while the earlier one was more focused on singing. Really enjoyed a lot.

Shirdi - Aurangabad - Ajanta - Ellora

2017-01-31T08:08:00.002+05:30

I took a short trip to see places near Pune that I haven't visited since last 10 years even though I was in Pune and I was stunned at the beauty of those places. I am talking about Ajanta and Ellora caves and Bibi Ka Maqbara. I hope you find this post useful if you plan a trip.

Firstly, I had decided to visit only Ajanta - Ellora but one of my acquaintances also hinted on visiting Shirdi so I included that too in my trip. I had booked a cab from savaari.com for 4 days with driver. We were given Swift DZire by the local cab provider Sonika tours and travels. I had booked Aurangabad Gymkhana Club hotel for 3 nights from MakeMyTrip.com.

Pune to Aurangabad, Day 1: We started journey on 26 January 10:30 AM after finishing flag-hoisting on the Republic Day in both my daughter's school as well as in our society. I took the route shown here to visit Shirdi, Yeola and Aurangabad in that order. The driver was good and suggested us to visit Ranjangaon MahaGanpati Temple which is located here. We reached there at 12 PM and saw a huge queue. There is a facility to buy "Direct Darshan" tickets which cost INR 50 per person with kids free. So we went for it and completed our Darshan in around half an hour. We left Ranjangaon at around 12:45 PM for Shirdi.


Ranjangaon Temple 1	Ranjangaon Temple 2

Some of our acquaintances had warned us to not take Ahmednagar bypass and the driver also had the same view so we took route going via Ahmednagar town. We decided to take a halt for lunch at 2:30 PM at Phule Restaurant which is located on the route to Shirdi here. The restaurant serves punjabi food at a rate unheard of in Pune. We ordered Mix-veg with Tandoori Rotis and Jeera rice with Dal fry and Dahi (curd). The total bill of all the items came to INR 182 (each item around 45-55 INR and Roti for INR 6). The items were very delicious and not at all oily. In Pune, even in the best of restaurants, I am unable to find healthy food with such low cost. The total bill wouldn't even serve one person in Pune. Even in photo you can see how empty the plates are to validate that it really was delicious.


Phule Restaurant 1	Phule Restaurant 2

We started from restaurant at around 3:15 PM and reached Shirdi at 4:15 PM. I had booked online tickets for Saibaba darshan from online portal for 4 PM time. We reached there at 4:15 PM and went for darshan. At Shirdi, there are private parking available where you have to park your car and leave all the belongings behind including shoes, camera, mobile phones and then enter the temple, so I was not able to take any photos. The parking charges range from anywhere around INR 70 to 100. We parked next to Sai Murali Complex for INR 70. The temple has Saibaba Idol in gold as well as a part of the temple in gold too as per what I saw but I might be wrong. There are some Samaadhis too in Sai mandir which is part of Samadhi Mandir and there is one beautiful Lendi Garden. We spent some 15 minutes in the garden to take some rest from our hectic schedule. We proceeded towards Yeola at 5:30 PM to have a look at some Paithani Sarees.

At Yeola we visited Kapse Paithani store which is very famous for its Paithani sarees and my wife bought two of them for her mother as well as herself.


Paithani sarees at Kapse	Paithani Saree with my wife

We left Yeola at around 7 PM towards Aurangabad and reached there at 9 PM. We checked-in the hotel and went for dinner. We were carrying some methi thepla, sandwiches and handvo which served me and my wife and for my daughter we ordered Malai-Kofta, Cream of Mushroom soup and Naan. The food was good. After dinner, we went for sleep.


Aurangabad Gymkhana Club	AGC Dinner

Day 2: Our room was having a balcony in east so was fortunate to see sunrise of Aurangabad. Since we had long travel the previous day, we had decided to go for Ellora Caves the next day since it was near around 30 KM from Aurangabad.


Sunrise from AGC	Room

After freshening up, we went for breakfast. The hotel offers unlimited breakfast and we opted for it. The breakfast included cereals (corn-flakes and chocos), fruit juice (Pineapple), fruits (Papaya and Banana), south indian dishes (Idli, Dhosa and Uthapam) with Sambhar and Chutney, Poha, Aloo Paratha, Bread Toast with Butter and Jam, Jam sandwich and Tea. All these items were good and provided enough variety for our stomachs.


AGC Breakfast	AGC Breakfast

Ellora Visit: We left the hotel at around 8:50 AM and took the route shown here. There is a Cantonment toll of INR 40 while going and coming back to Ellora caves. We reached the caves at around 10 AM. There is a car park which is 400 m ahead of the caves and charges INR 30. The Ellora Caves consist of 34 caves but not all caves are of similar importance. Cave 16 and cave 32 offers the best glimpse of the artistry of older Indian sculptors. The entry fee is INR 10 per adult and child is free.


Entrance Cave 16	Entrance Cave 16

The first cave at the entrance is Cave 16 which is the largest monolithic structure in the world according to some websites such as Quora. The whole cave has been carved from a single large stone. The sculptures are anything short of amazing and mesmerizing. I have seen many of my friends visiting caves of other countries but if I have to visit something like this in my own country, I was wondering why to go anywhere else! The cave is of load Shiva. As per the details, all the caves consist of three religions, Hindu, Jain and Buddha. Caves 16 and 32 are of load Shiva for Hindu religion. Rest of the caves from 1 to 29 are of Buddha but caves 31-34 are of religion Jain which shows Mahavir Bhagwan in the sculptures.




Cave 16	Cave 16

There were many good caves with a lot of sculptures. Just enjoy by having a look at them below.

As shown in the last image, there is a big garden in front of the cave 16 but not worth spending time in. The caves 16 to 1 can be covered by walk and so does caves from 17 to 28. But to reach to cave 31-34 and 29, you need to take a local bus which charges INR 21 for two-way for adults and free for children.

After we completed Ellora caves at around 4:30 PM, we started for Ghrishneshwar Jyotirlinga Temple which is located here. You need to visit the temple without any mobiles, camera so I was not able to take any snaps there. Before entering the temple, men need to take their shirts/baniyans off which looked a bit odd but I had already done such thing in Kerala in Thirunakkara Mahadev Temple. Looks like all Mahadev temple requires this. Finally we started for hotel at around 5:30 and reached at 6:30. All of us were very tired and our legs were paining so we relied on half a tablet of Combiflam and my daughter went with Ibuprofen.

We then had some swimming in the hotel pool and enjoyed our dinner with Veg Manchurian, Veg Hakka Noodles, Veg Fried Rice and American Choupsey.

Day 3: We again had breakfast at the hotel and this time Poha and Aloo Paratha were replaced by Sabudana Khichadi and Puri-Bhaaji while Pineapple juice was replaced with Watermelon juice and Papaya was replaced with Apple. The rest of the items were same so we filled our stomach and started for Ajanta caves at around 9:25 AM with route as shown here. See that the route shows Ajanta Cave and not "Ajanta View Point". There is some confusion around this. The view point is from where you can view the complete range of caves and you can climb down the hill in half an hour to reach caves but there is an alternate route that reaches the bottom of the caves and then you have to take a MSTRC bus to reach caves. We saw some cotton farms along the route and couldn't resist to take snaps as below:

Ajanta Visit: It took almost two and half hours for us to reach Ajanta Caves and we reached there at 12 PM. We parked our car for INR 30. There is a bus which takes you to actual caves and charges INR 22 for one-way Air-Conditioned coach. We took it and reached the entry point of caves. We took entry tickets which were INR 10 per adult and child is free.

Unlike Ellora caves, Ajanta caves have both paintings as well as sculptures. Ajanta has 28 caves compared to 34 for Ellora and all are connected on a single route. To preserve the colors of the paintings, flash is not allowed in the caves so I had to rely on natural light to capture the photos.

We completed all the caves around 3 PM and went for lunch at MTDC restaurant just at the entrance of the cave. We had ordered Special Veg Thali with Mix Veg Curry, 2 Chapatis and Jeera Rice. The thali had Dal, Rice, two veg sabjis - palak and mutter paneer, Raita, 3 Chapatis and Salad. We found food to be of good quality but the pricing was a bit on the higher side.

We then did some shopping of souvenirs and hats. The person who was selling souvenirs started with INR 650 per piece and was finally willing to give it for INR 100 per piece. Just think of the margins. The same for hats. We were told the price of around INR 400 for three hats which finally got purchased for INR 250.

We then went for Ajanta View Point which is situated around 17 km away from the caves if you take the road here. If you start early in the morning to reach Ajanta, then you can take the view point route and from there climb down to caves in 45 minutes and ask your driver to come to the caves to pick you up. The view point has a non-operational MTDC restaurant.

We departed from Ajanta View Point at 5:45 PM. We reached Aurangabad at 8:15 PM and visited one of the Paithani shop here. My wife bought one normal dupatta from there but other items were costly and didn't fit our budget. My wife and I again had to take half a combiflam for our paining legs but my daughter was spared. We only ate fruits at night but arranged for a burger pizza for my daughter.

Day 4: We woke up and packed our luggage and took breakfast at the hotel. The variety today was Paav Petis and Upama replacing Puri-Sabji and Sabudana Khichdi of the previous day and Papaya and Watermelon juice getting repeated. Rest of the items were same. We filled our stomach, checked-out of the hotel at 9 AM and started for last few items at 9:15 AM.

Bibi Ka Maqbara: This is situated along the way towards Ellora and we had to again pay INR 40 for Cantonment fees. The total distance was 18 km from hotel. To cover all the different places like Panchakki, Daulatabad Fort and finally reaching Bhoj Thali Restaurant, we took the route shown here. We reached Bibi Ka Maqbara at around 9:45 AM. There are entry charges of INR 10 per person with kids free. Bibi Ka Maqbara is called Taj of the Deccan and seeing it does remind of the same. I had visited Taj in the year 2005 and visited its mini version now in 2017. The artistry on it is not as fine as it is on the Taj but still worth visiting.

We left Bibi Ka Maqbara at 10:40 AM and started for Panchakki. I personally didn't find this place worth visiting. It also has entry fee of INR 10 per adult with kids free. We spent some time shopping for our neighbors at Panchakki and left at around 11:30 AM for Daulatabad fort. We reached the fort at around 11:45 AM. The fort requires around 1.5 KM worth of walk and it also has a lot of monkeys to save oneself from. After three days of heavy walk, all of us were tired and my daughter and wife decided not to climb the fort. I too decided to go only upto some height but then came back.

The whole trip for me was a refreshing experience. I hadn't thought of enjoying so much with my family after a long time. I would recommend you all to visit all the places to know India's heritage and history. I visited the place in January but monsoon is also a good season to visit but you have to make sure that you don't slip on wet surface.

While returning back, our driver suggested to visit Shani Shignapur so we took a stop at this place while taking this route. This village is famous for not having any doors in houses but still there are no thefts. It also has a temple of Shani, god associated with planet Saturn and people in the village believe that the God punishes anybody who attempts theft. We spent some 15 mins visiting temple but then left and reached Pune at 9 PM. There was heavy traffic near Shikrapur and Wagholi so it took some real effort from the driver to get us in Pune in one piece.

P.S.: I missed Pune International Marathon as well as two India-England T20 matches due to the trip. Better luck next time.

Arangetram at Tilak Smarak Mandir

2016-12-17T23:00:00.001+05:30

I visited Arangetram of nine students conducted at Tilak Smarak Mandir on this Thursday. The students were conducting it as part of completion of their Bharatnatyam training from Kalaniketan Bharatnatyam School, the institute where my daughter goes for her classes.

Arangetram started at 5 PM but we reached there only at 6 PM since we had our office working. The dances were nothing short of amazing. We were mesmerized by the dance, the singing and the music. There was an interval at 6:45 PM when certificate distribution was conducted and students were awarded their degrees. This lasted for around half an hour and after 7:30 PM, the second phase of Arangetram started and multiple dances were done with stories of Krishna Radha, Shiva Tandav and Natraj. Since I had to attend some meeting, we had to leave at 8 PM and we couldn't attend the full ceremony.

All in all, it was one of its kind experience.

World of Veg

2016-12-09T09:11:00.000+05:30

We visited World of Veg restaurant as part of celebrating my wedding anniversary last week. The restaurant is located at Ramsukh House, next to HDFC House/Nexa Showroom at Shivajinagar.

Food: The menu of the restaurant is available here. The restaurant offers Thali as well as a la carte. Since we were only three of us, we went for Thali. It had following:

Jaljeera
Chhash (Buttermilk)
Dhokla as steamed Farsaan
Vada as fried Farsaan
Chaat
Srikhand as cold Sweet
Doodh pak as hot Sweet
Strawberry burfi as dry Sweet
Veg Makhani
Paneer Kadhai
Tomato-Potato sabji
Gavar sabji
Fulka
Puri
Chutneys

The ambience was really very good with terrace having lots of plants and flowers but we took indoor lunch since it was sunny and hot outside. The pictures do show that the thali and katoris were silver.

The per thali charge was 600 and 20% were taxes so it cost INR 720 per thali and there was no discount for kids which I considered to be a bit on the higher side. I would have preferred Panchvati Gaurav compared to this one except for the ambience. I would like to visit the restaurant again at night to see the view of whole Pune at night.

Lonavla Wax Museum

2016-09-27T19:43:00.000+05:30

I visited Lonavla Wax Museum last month while visiting other places. I was a bit disappointed with my visit since the museum is a replica of Sunil's Celebrity Wax Museum and the entry charges are same but the experience is not the same.

Route: The location of the museum is here. This is very near to the original Sunil's Celebrity Wax Museum and that's why we got confused and visited this one.

Activities: In the original Sunil's Celebrity Wax Museum there are more than hundred wax statues but in this one there are only 11-12 statues which takes less than half an hour to cover. We found Bruce Willis, Mr Bean, Michael Jackson, Harry Potter, Lata Mangeshkar, Mother Teresa, Narendra Modi, Barack Obama, Arnold and other statues.

Fees: The entry fee is INR 150 per person which I found to be on the higher side considering just half an hour of enjoyment. There were other activities too for which there were separate charges.

I would not consider visiting it as value for money.

Hadshi Temple and Pavna Dam

2016-08-21T19:15:00.001+05:30

I visited Hadshi Temple and Pavna Dam last week as there was heavy rain the previous week so chances of having to see greenery around Pune was worth having.

Route:We started for Hadshi temple on route shown here at around 8:30 AM. There were waterfalls and rivulets along the way which the kids enjoyed. My wife had prepared some pop-corns which came handy for breakfast along the way.

We reached the temple at around 10:15 AM as the roads were not that good so driving at a speed was difficult. The temple has Vitthal avatar of Krishna and Rukmani. There was a temple of Saibaba too. There were ponds where we saw lotus and butterflies on the lotus too.

We spent some time at the temple having our breakfast with thepla and patra that the two ladies had planned for us.

We moved from there to Pavna Dam at around 11:45 AM. We spent some time at the Dam just seeing the beauty of nature.

We finally went to Tony Da Dhaba near Lonavala to have lunch and then came home.

All in all, it was a nice picnic for the kids and us.

Westend Mall, Aundh

2016-08-15T12:52:00.001+05:30

We visited two eateries in Westend Mall at Aundh in the last one month. The mall itself opened somewhere in the middle of June and so we tried our hands on eating there.

The first one was Kailash Parbat. The menu of the restaurant is available here. We ordered following items:

Veg Combo
Gulab Jamun
Chat Platter

The total bill was around INR 450 which was not on very high side.

The second time we went there, we tried Wadeshwar whose menu is available here. Some items are specific to this shop such as combos. We chose to order following:

Combo one which had Masala Dosa, Filter Coffee
Combo two which had Biryani, Filter Coffee
Aappe
Ghee Idli

The total bill was around INR 550.

Both the places were reasonable for eating out.

Devka Beach and Daman

2016-07-14T18:39:00.004+05:30

I visited Devka Beach last week when I went to Surat. It was a one-day trip from morning 8:30 AM till 10:30 PM at night but we really enjoyed every bit of it.

Route: We started our journey from my in-laws' place taking the route shown in map. We started at around 8:30 AM from our place. We had a small halt at Jalaram Khaman House in Chikhali where we had some Khaman for breakfast. This really reminded me of my school days when we were having such delicious khaman from our canteen. The true taste was because of "Tadka" that they put on the khaman which is nothing but a lot of oil adding to my already overweight body.

There were some traffic delays which increased our time to reach and we reached at Devka beach, Miramar hotel at around 11:45 AM. We used the washrooms of the hotel and meanwhile kids started demanding some play. You can clearly see the photos above of all the three kids enjoying.

My friend had decided to take lunch at Cidade De Daman but there was some marriage ceremony in the resort and was completely booked for lunch and no outsiders were allowed. So we decided to just take some rest by enjoying the sea-view there and decided to move to Jazeera for taking lunch.

We ordered following items in lunch:

Veg starter - Veg Kabab
Non-veg starter - Chiken Chili
Veg soup - Cream of Vegetables
Non-veg soup - Chicken Manchow
Two vegetables - One with vegetables and one with Paneer
One non-veg vegetable
Naans and Rotis

We finally stayed at Jazeera hotel till 5 PM. The kids enjoyed splashing water in ocean waves.

Finally the ladies decided to do some shopping which actually turned out to be a lot of shopping. We started from Devaka at around 7 PM after having some Breezer and also some Faluda.

While returning home, we had small dinner at Sugar and Spice.

All in all it was really a very nice day spent. The total cost of the trip including commute cost (but excluding shopping of course) came to around INR 500 per person which didn't look high to me.

P.S. Anybody seeing photos of my handsome friend and his beautiful wife and willing to give them modelling contract can directly contact me with comments on this post.

Chaat Bazaar Aundh

2016-07-03T22:50:00.003+05:30

We visited Chaat Bazaar, a newly opened restaurant last week at Aundh. Earlier there was a book rental shop JustBooks Plc which moved to first floor while the ground floor got leased by the new restaurant. Our favourite Kadhai in Anand Park got closed two months back so we wanted to try our hands on something new.

Food: We went to restaurant multiple times and tried several different items as given in the list below:

Pizza Dosa - This was a very new item for us and surprisingly, it turned out to be good. My daughter likes pizza and she liked this one too wrapped with dosa around it. There were two chutneys with the item which was quite tasty.
Masala Dosa - This was an item made of beet root and the sambhar was better then even at Vaishali.
Chinese Bhel - This was not something according to our expectation and I didn't think it was value for money.
Pani puri - This was quite good.
Hakka Noodles - This along with gravy manuchrian was what my daughter was looking for.
Gravy Manuchrian - This was good but not as great as that of Rahul restaurant.

We will keep visiting again to check for more items. It is worth trying out.

ISKCON Temple Nigdi

2016-05-15T19:10:00.001+05:30

I visited ISKCON Temple near Nigdi yesterday. It was a nice place to spend an evening with your family.

Timings and Route: I left from my home in Aundh at 6 PM and took the route shown here and reached there by around 6:40 PM. There are different times for aarti and the next one was at 7 PM. The last one had already completed at 6:25 PM so we were neither late nor early.

We took some pradakshina around the temple and then waited for the curtains to open to have a view of Krishna and Radha. I told my wife how beautiful the multi-color chaniya/lehanga of Radha looked. I even searched for photos of temple and didn't find such dress worn by her in earlier photos Google search.

Fees: There were no fees for the temple.

Food: There was some prasad being given outside the temple and we took some to taste it. It was delicious at best.

All in all, we did enjoy the trip.

P.S. : No selfies were allowed in the temple but I had taken some photos of the temple itself and looks like Krishna didn't like it since I forgot my slr camera lens cover in temple itself. Big punishment for taking photos!My daughter found the lens cap from my car. So no punishment from Krishna in taking snaps.

Lashkari Bhajiya Dumas

2016-05-04T22:09:00.001+05:30

Typically I write about places in Pune but this time I visited a nice eatery near my native place Surat and I wanted to share my experience. We went to Dumas to eat Bhajiya this Sunday when I visited my native place Surat.

Food: You get to eat different kinds of Bhajiya here that includes:

Tomota Bhajiya
Onion Bhajiya
Methi Bhajiya (Gota)
Ratalu (Kand) Bhajiya

Charges were 80 per plate (which included around 250 gm of bhajiya) but were varying based on the type. For a group of seven of us, we hardly spent around 500 for our breakfast. I also took parcel for my parents as they didn't accompany us. All in all it really was one of its kind experience. I would recommend you to go there if you visit Surat.

Greens and Olives Aundh

2016-05-04T20:59:00.001+05:30

We visited Greens and Olives restaurant on last Thursday as part of celebrating my wife's birthday.

Food: The menu of the restaurant is available here. The restaurant offers buffet lunch and a la carte. There were many items on menu but we ordered following:

My wife and I ordered Brocolli Cheese Soup - we really liked it.
We ordered Classic Italian Minestrone Soup - this was plain soup so we didn't like much.
Lebanese Platter - this included Falafel with Pita Bread and Hummus. I had recently eaten a similar item in Surat and I knew how to eat it otherwise it was difficult to understand how to eat it.
Mexican Rice - This was the best item we had.
Brownie with ice cream

The total bill came to 1635 which was a bit on the higher side for three people but due to my wife's birthday, I didn't care much.

Nature Photography Exhibition in Balgandharva Kaladalan, JM Road

2016-04-15T23:49:00.002+05:30

There was a nature photography exhibition in Balgandharva Kaladalan, J M Road between April 9 - 11. My wife and I visited the exhibition on April 10, in the evening at 7:30 PM. The exhibition timing was between 11 AM to 8 PM. My daughter didn't accompany us since she wanted to spend her sunday evening playing in garden with her friends rather than visiting an exhibition.

There were many artists whose pictures were kept. Photography was not allowed otherwise I would have kept some glimpses of those photos here. The photos covered animals like tiger, deer and others, birds, butterflies and buildings. There were photos of scenic views from Uttarakhand, Kashmir, Sikkim and other beautiful places too. Unfortunately not only Indian but even buildings of other countries were covered.

It was a good half an hour fun for us.

Sigree Global Grill - Dhole Patil Road

2016-03-12T14:07:00.001+05:30

I visited Sigree Global Grill restaurant on Dhole Patil Road as part of taking on lunch some office guests visiting from US.

Food: The menu of the restaurant is available here. The restaurant offers buffet lunch and dinner. There were many items on lunch.

There were soups but nobody went for any.
The restaurant served many grills both veg and non-veg which included

Mushroom
Mayonnaise with Salad
Pineapple
Potato
Paneer
Brocoli

In the mains, there were four vegetables which I am not able to recall but one was with Paneer, one Jalfrezi, and two more were served.
We went for Naan, Roti and other breads.
There were two dals, makhani and fry.
I went for rice rather than biryani.
I also ordered for fussili with pasto tomato souce for pasta among varieties.

Finally we went for desserts and found ice-cream, chocolate and strawberry mousse, cake, and many others.

The experience was very similar to Barbeque Nation. Since it was financed by office, I didn't care for cost. I even dozed off on my desk when we reached office.

Shreya Ghoshal Solo Concert

2016-02-24T20:43:00.003+05:30

I visited first of its kind Shreya Ghoshal Solo Concert in pune on 21 February.

Entertainment: We started from Aundh at around 5:45 PM and reached the Law College Ground at 6:15 PM. We had booked tickets from bookmyshow and physical tickets were issued to us there. There were seating arrangements and we were on the back side but I had carried my Zoom Lens SLR and a binocular. The organizer had also put projector screens for viewers seating on the back.

Shreya arrived half an hour late by around 7 PM and sang continuously for almost one hour. Then there was a break for around 45 mins and then she continued singing for one more hour. Many nice songs were sung by her including "Saaibo", "Sun raha hai na tu", "Yeh Ishq hai", etc... We were mesmerized by her voice.

Charges: There were four different tickets available ranging from INR 500 to INR 2000. We had bought INR 500 tickets for three of us.

All in all, it was a great Sunday evening.