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1st April 2009, 15:58
| #16 | |
| BHPian  Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
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Yes, Strawberry with cream and/or icecream in Mapro itself is good enough reason to visit there. A sneak pic though it will be covered in detail in due course.  OT: By the way, if the bombay-pune meet would have been on Friday instead of Saturday, I could have met you guys. And I am looking forward to the Baramati meet  | |
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1st April 2009, 21:54
| #17 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
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| I was little apprehensive about the holiday home, after not-so-good experience we had with Satyam holiday home in Ooty. Search in the internet with the name 'HoneyWood' lead me to a nice website, Welcome to Hotel Honeywood, Mahabaleshwar - but I was not convinced if these two are the same place. So when I saw it for real, realized that is's the same from the photos given in the website. The resort is MTDC approved and have large rooms. Satyam has taken few rooms of it as holiday home, but rest of the property is available for others as well.  This property is located off the Pune-Mahabaleswar road, and one has to take the diversion pointed out by Kates point. Follow the road signs for Anand Van Bhuvan and you will reach there. BTW, there is entry toll in Mahabaleswar of Rs 15/- per person and a pollution tax of Rs 50/- per vehicle, these tickets are valid for 7 days. From this toll booth at Satara road we started asking direction in every junction. In the third we asked a person on bike, and they piloted us till the diversion off the Pune road. Thanks guys. Ravindra, one of the staff, helped in check-in procedure: taking the print-out of the automated mail generated by our system and opening up the room for us. Each of the cottages has two rooms in ground floor, and a common sitting/dining area in front. Both the rooms in our cottage was free, and we were given to choose any one of them. The rooms were really huge and furnished adequately. So after taking rest for a while and a refreshing bath. We thought of venutring out the market place of the town. The Main Road was bustling with activities shops with vidoe games, chikkis-fudges, tour operator offices, mapro/mala/manama sales counters and restaurants doing brisk business. I guess the crowd would at least be triple in the week-end. We took a stroll from one end to other. There were two restaurants recommended by Lonely Planet and their recommendation are usually good, as seen in our Kodai trip (travelogue @ http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ec-2008-a.html) - Country corner in the Main Road and Grapevine in the Masjid Road. We took the turn into the Masjid road, it runs parallel to the main road on left side. Though this road also has few stores/restaurants, the illumination and glitters of the main road is absent. Finally we could find the Grapevine, a small restaurant but neatly decorated with cast iron furnitures. It definitely looks a good joint to enjoy one or two drinks. As we have not learned the art of appreciating the same, took a plate of snacks - battered mutton chop. And it was finger-licking good.  We went one more time in the Main road in search for the Country Corner hotel but could not locate. Instead had a look at sales counters for Mapro, picked up some jelly cubes, and tasted strawberry fudge (and decided against buying). Came back, took the car out of the parking lot and as a good tbhpian obeyed the one ways (instead of 50 meters travelled a km I guess) while others flouted it, and came back to the hotel. Order for the dinner was given during check-in, and exactly at 9:30 the food was served - rice, roti, daal fry, egg bhurji, chicken curry. The cooking was good and we polished off each of the items. Last edited by arindamray : 1st April 2009 at 21:56. |
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1st April 2009, 23:40
| #18 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 750
Thanked: 91 Times
| 26th Mar, 2009 Previous night did a lot of mental arithmetic to calculate the optimum wake up time to catch the sunrise at Wilson point. This time we sprang out of bed, as soon as the alarm rang (very quick learners, you see!). However even with our earnest try, we reached there around 15 minutes late. Realised that my baseline of sunrise time in Bangalore was wrong as I never ever had a fortune to witness it. Still I took some of the sunrise shots   Safari at the wilson point  Our aim was to cover one view points in each side of the town and hence thought to cover Babington point (south-east), Lodwick point (south-west), Arthur Seat (north-west) and Kates point (north east). We headed out to Babington point as that was nearest from Wilson point, after going in wrong directions and asking few peoples we finally parked the vehicle near the Babington point, and then walked along a wrong path. However the walking trail was nice with trees in both sides. Came back to the car, and then took the tarred road, and the point is just 50 m away.  Next destination was Lodwick point. It is off the Bombay road. While we were thinking of asking somebody we saw the signage for the same. Taking the right turn from the road, it comes after 2 km drive , the road ends there.  After these two points we came back to the hotel, took bath and checked out. Ravindra was amazed to hear that we are checking out in 15 hours; I think he is used to see Satyam folks staying 2 nights as we get the bookings in two night slots and also wondering that we have seen nothing of Mahabaleshwar. He was right in his thought, as till that time we have not seen most of it. After checking out we went towards the direction of Arthur Seat. Before entering the Old Mahabaleshwar, one person came to us and enquired whether we would need a guide. He said there are 12 points and 2 temples in this direction. He claimed he is a govt approved guide, I haven't checked his i-card though. After a negotiation he dropped his rate from Rs 150 to Rs 120; and I was little worried about the directions from my experiences in the morning, so took Ankush (the guide) in. The first stop was in Arthur seat, and realised out of those 12, six points are there in a walking trail of a km :(. Anyway, walked along the view points, saw the Pratapgadh fort through a telescope. Also enjoyed the ice golla dipped in Kalakhatta and sprinkled with masala to beat the heat.  And after that he was saying all other points have similar views. Though it is true to some extent, we stopped at two more points and gave rest a skip.   Came back to the temple complex, and first visited the Panchaganga temple. It is believed that streams of five rivers (Krishna, Venna, Koyna, Savitri, Gayatri) flows through this temple. The temple actully have five ducts coming in and joined into one and then flowing to a square pond.    Next we went to the Mahabaleshwar temple. It's a Shiva temple deriving it's name from three Sanskrit words Maha (Great) Bala (Force) and Ishwar (God), or in other words God of Great Force. The name of the town is derived after the name of the temple. Here a natural rock is worshiped as Shiva.  After this we bade good bye to Ankush. And was in dillema whether to visit Kates falls as it is almost noon, and the Sun god was in his full glory. But then thought let's go because we might not be visiting this place again. And what a wise decision it was. The best view of all is seen from here, as Krishna river forms its curves through the mountains.  After this, we straightaway head out of Mahabaleshwar. The two attractions which we missed were - Venna Lake, saw it from the road but didn't venture in boating and Connaught peak, which offers a view of the lake; apart from the waterfalls which we purposefully skipped as there would be very less/no water at this time of the year. Our next destination was Mapro, and we planned such a way that we should reach there at lunch time |
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2nd April 2009, 09:10
| #19 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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2nd April 2009, 10:45
| #20 | ||
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
In my 5 visits (all on official conferences) to Mahableshwar the only time I went to Babington was when I went without my camera, I was under the impression we were going to the market during one of our breaks from the daily conferences (our typical breaks where between 4.30 PM & 6.30 PM so that we could cover the sunset points and then continue our conference) so the picture taken out of my mobile would not do justice to the glorius sunset we saw.  Quote:
Kates point is one which you could do anytime, the sheer beauty of Krishna winding its way through the valley. Similar picture which I had taken during my visit in October  Dont know if you saw the elephant head at Kate's point, sheer magic by nature. Rock formation resembling the head of an elephant with the viewing point resembling an elephant's howdah.  Great travelogue looking forward to the rest...Cheers | ||
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2nd April 2009, 12:08
| #21 | ||||
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
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2nd April 2009, 21:57
| #22 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 750
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| Mapro Our next stop was Mapro. Had heard of this place so much and we were not disappointed. First went through the place, and then had our lunch. In the nursery  The food counter  Sitting area  The food available is veg only. The pizza size is only 12 inch and obviously two person can't finish that, so we were left with only choice of sandwitch. But that's just anciliary, as main items we were looking at the strawberry with cream (and ice cream). I took a strawberry crush also.    After lunch, we went to the sales counter. We were overwhelmed by the choice of varities of crush/syrups available, and the sales person asked us to check the samples to decide. And after lunch, with all these samples, I was almost on the verge of bursting. Picked up few of them, also a Straberry Chew pack and proceeded towards Panchgani. |
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2nd April 2009, 23:50
| #23 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
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| Panchgani Another 10 km, and we were almost at Panchgani, the first view point, Parsi point, comes write on the road. The name came from the Parsi population used to do morning/evening walk in this place. It provides a lovely view of the Krishna river in the valley and the Dhom dam on it.  Just after this we were stopped before entering Panchgani, and an entry fee (Rs 10/- head, Rs 30/- for car) collected. They insisted that it is collected even if the vehicle just passes Panchgani. After that we proceeded towards table land (take a right turn from main road at Shivaji statue, and then the left in next crossing) Tableland has been credited with the privilege of being Asia’s second longest mountain Plateau. This is a wide expanse of laterite rock and this place offers the grandeur view of Panchgani hill station itself.      Further down the road there are two more view points Sydney Point and Harrison's Folly (both on left hand side).   Since Mapro, I was getting calls from my cousin asking my ETA at Pune. In one of them he suggested me to visit Krishna at Wai though it will be 8/9 km deviation. So we went into Wai, asked for Krishna, and was shocked to see it, though there were couple of temples beside the river, we didn't stop and turned back to the main road and hurried to Pune. Later my cousin told that we had to proceed farther to get to see a dam.   We crossed two excellant tunnel. While coming back we realized how much travel time the Kambatki tunnel has saved, while going to Pune, the tunnel took hardly took 2 minutes, whereas while coming out of it one has to take the Kambatki ghat which will take more than 20 minutes to cross the same strech.   5:30 pm we reached the NDA gate, my cousin came to escort us from there, and we were home. The rest of the day went in chatting and hogging some home made food. |
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2nd April 2009, 23:54
| #24 |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: bangalore
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| Nice writeup!! the photos are very good. I can feel the ice cream melting in my mouth |
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3rd April 2009, 00:29
| #25 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 750
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| 27th Mar, 2009 In this, I am going to post some exclusive snaps - of one of the unique institutes of the world where all the three armed forces receive training together. Yes, you guessed it right, it's National Defence Academy in Pune.  Training place for horse riding  A decommisioned warship  Fountain near the market  Standing for the values  The hostel blocks, called the sqadron. The one being seen is Charlie. They have 15 such squadron.  In memory of Kargil, capture of Tiger Hill  In canteen   Sudan block, the administrative building  Science block  The parade ground. I remember seeing his passing out parade here.  In memory of the horses of Adjutants during passing out parade. A commendable job done by them, being well behaved for the entire duration with so much loud sounds.  The Tricolour flying high. Yes, they play the vital role in keeping it that way.  |
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3rd April 2009, 08:20
| #26 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
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3rd April 2009, 14:31
| #27 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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3rd April 2009, 23:30
| #28 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 750
Thanked: 91 Times
| After the NDA tour, we went to the Sinhgad fort. This fort was a major bastion of Shivaji, but was lost to Aurangzeb. The famous battle of Sinhgad was fought in 1670, where Tanaji Malusare, commander of Shivaji recaptured the fort. To avoid the sighting of the army guarding the fort, Tanaji scaled the steap cliff leading to the fort, with the help of a monitor lizard, and then throwing rope ladders to others to scale it. The battle was own however Tanaji lost his life. It has been captured nicely in a Bengali poem... "Sinhagad-er Sinha giyechhe, pore achhe sudhu gad Tai laho mata, haraye putra Tanaji Maleswar" The lion of lion-fort is lost, only the fort remains Acceept that mother, losing the son Tanaji Maleswar In remembrance a bust of Tanaji has been set up there.  Parts of once extensive fortification are currently in ruins.  View from top  Entrance of the fort  Our Pune trip was mainly comprised of visit to these two places, rest of the time went into meeting the relatives staying there. After a dinner at 'Up and Above' where one can see the wel lit Pune city from the top deck of the restaurant we call it a day to head out to Ganapati Pule next morning. |
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4th April 2009, 00:29
| #29 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore
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| We hit the road again 28th Mar, 2009 We start off from Pune at 6:45, a 45 minute delay from the planned departure time, bidding goodbye to the Khadakvasla lake lit up by the morning sun.  We are group of six - us, Tuktuk and Babi (my cousin and his wife), and my Pisi, Pisemoshai (my father's sister and her husband, tuktuk's parents) in two Tata vehicle - Indica and Safari. Less traffic in that hour, ensured us we reach Satara for breakfast at 8:30 am. After breakfast, another half an hour drive we reach Umbraj. After taking the exit for Umbraj from NH4, the 4th underpass need to be taken for the right turn to Patan/Chiplun. The road was two lane SH, but nicely shaded with trees on both the sides. BTW, I was strictly instructed to follow the indica, so that I do not zoom ahead.  The view from the ghat sections  The serpentine ghat road  Within one hour we were at Koyna, where we took the diversion to see the Koyna dam. The entrance to the dam site is closed after 26/11. However one can go little up to the Nehru garden, from where a spectacular view of the dam, the sluice gates and the huge expanse of the reservoir can be obtained. It also houses a exhibition of photographs, showing the development of the dam stage by stage. Photography is strictly prohibited, hence :( After spending close to 45 minutes there, we were on our way to Chiplun. We reached there at 12:30, and was looking for the resort Hari mentioned (Quality resort), but somehow missed it. We were almost certain that we had to next town Sangameswar to get some option, if at all any. Suddenly we saw a large building on RHS which looked like a hotel with proper parking etc. We promptly went in, and ordered our food. It was a hotel management institute, and we were discussing that we might become the guineapig of the trainee chefs of the institute. However even if it was the case, the food was good, and that's what mattered. The road went through different plantations, cashew, mango, banana, coconut. Finally we reached Nevali Phata, from where we took the right to G'pule. About 4 km before G'Pule, we saw the first glimpse of the sea and we were so mesmarised that forgot to take out the camera. Finally we reached the MTDC resort, for Konkani Huts we had to drive a little further (about a km), at around 3:30 pm. Finished off check-in procedure, sat for 5 minutes, changed the clothes and headed out to sea. From then on till the night we were in the sea or in the beach or in the beachside restaurant till our dinner was over (except for the bath after coming out of the sea). No pics as I was not carrying the camera :( 29th Mar, 2009 Woke up in the morning, greeted by the orange hue of the sun. Behind the konkan huts there is a waterbody - a river or the backwater from the sea. As we checked in late, we got the rooms in the back side, which did not offer the view of the sea, but this river/backwater. As the check-out time is 9:00 we didn't want to miss the opportunity to go into the sea again, though for a very brief time. We checked out and then had the breakfast there itself. Now time for some of the snaps: Sunrise  Konkani huts  Restaurant  Glimpse of the Arabian sea  Seating arrangements  We stayed here  The river/backwater  Us  |
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4th April 2009, 10:22
| #30 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
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