In and around Pune in 7 days!

Before I even start writing this post, I would like to let you know that this is one of my amateur attempts at travelogue-ing. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy reading!

So, to start with, I recently went to Pune on a pleasure trip with my parents. How often do we remember that it is as important to spend time with your family as it is with your friends? Keeping that in mind, I urged my parents to plan a trip that will not only be a refreshment for our minds, a break from the monotony of our daily lives but at the same time, memorable. 

Hence, we ended up planning a short trip of one week in and around Pune, Maharashtra. With the help of a travel agency, our trip was well planned from the beginning to end, except for a few difficulties that are ought to come up on a maiden visit to a city.

We had checked into a hotel called Hotel Executive Residency located at North Main Road, Lane No. A, adjacent to Hotel "O", Koregaon Park, Pune- 411001. The hotel had fairly good rooms. Since our stay at the city itself was brief, we chose not to spend too much on the rooms and rolled with an AC double-bed room. Neither did we try out the food from the hotel restaurant as we were more eager to explore new food joints and restaurants.

Hotel Executive Residency Entrance 

I wouldn't say we found anything impressive around our hotel, but with the help of Zomato,  I did manage to find a small Tibetian restaurant named Uncle's Chinese (Lane No. 7, Koregaon Park) which serves delicious momos. The momos are called Dimsuns, which I wasn't too familiar with but they were absolutely finger-licking good. They serve 6 Chicken Dimsuns for Rs. 179+SGST+CGST. Other than that, we mostly ate at Mc Donalds. (:P) 

Chicken Dimsuns at Uncle's Chinese

The next morning we visited the Shaniwar Wada, built by the Peshwas in 1732. To be honest, the movie Bajirao Mastani was the main reason behind my interest in visiting the fort. Most of the monument is in ruins now except the entrance gate, which is the only part of the historical fortification that still stands firm.

Shaniwar Wada entrance gate (up); Other side of the entrance gate (down)

After this, I had to drag my mother to the Phoenix Market City for a little bit of shopping at Forever 21 and H&M, since Kolkata is yet to have them. I picked a bunch of clothes, accessories and a bag from the stores which I will skip displaying in this post. That was all we did on the second day.

On the third day at the city, we covered places like Aga Khan Palace, Raja Dinkar Kelkar museum, and the Mastani Mahal which is inside the Kelkar Museum. 

Aga Khan Palace

Mastani Mahal inside Raja Dinkal Kelkar Museum 

If I start describing all the places, this post will bore you to death, hence I am trying to keep it short by providing Wikipedia links for you to read (in case you want to know more about these beautiful places).

Moving on to the fourth day, we set out for Mahabaleshwar at 7 AM. Mahabaleshwar is about 130 kilometers from Pune and is located at an altitude of 4,439 ft. It is famous for its age-old temple. The road that led to our destination i.e., NH48, was absolutely picturesque. It will be hard to take your eyes off the scenic beauty throughout the journey. The vast amount of green soothes your eyes. We literally drove through clouds and the monsoon season made the journey all the more pleasant. 

Highway to Mahabaleshwar

View on the way

Cloudy roads on the way to Mahabaleshwar 

On our way back to Pune we stopped at a few places, including some view-points - Mapro Garden, Sydney Point and another unnamed view point at Panchgani. The views from all these points were equally breathtaking.

Mapro Garden is basically a Strawberry farm. But apart from producing a variety of Strawberry based products, they have a fairly decent food court which serves as a food stop amidst the long car and bus rides.

  Mapro Garden entrance (up); French Fries from their food court (down left);
Coffee from their food court (down right)

Our next stop was the Sydney Point which is nothing but one out of the numerous view points. The best part is, irrespective of where you stop, the view from all the hill tops is nothing less than breathtaking. The rows of table top mountain ghats and the enormous valleys below adorned with huge naturally formed lakes every 50 kilometers are blessings to the eyes.   

View from Sydney Point, Panchgani 

        

Rows of Ghats seen from Panchgani 

The next morning, that was the fifth day, we set out for Malshej Ghat. It is a mountain pass located at an altitude of 2300 ft. approx., nestled amidst the rugged hills of the Western Ghat range, about 140 kilometers from Pune. This was our last stop for the trip and perhaps the best one. There is only one resort called the Flamingo Hill run by MTDC - Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. There are other private resorts but this one has the best location with valley view cottages. What this destination offers is the sound of gushing waterfalls during the monsoon season and enthralling view of vast rows of ghats as suggested by the name of the place itself, a wide variety of flora and fauna, occasional visits of Flamingos and the dance of the sunshine, shades and the clouds.

Valley View from MTDC Resort

Waterfalls during monsoon at Malshej Ghat

This place is one of the best getaways from the urban cacophony. There are few other destinations at a distance of 50-100 kilometers from Malshej, like:

a) Shivneri Fort, -the birthplace of Chhatrapati Shivaji
b) Pimpalgaon Joge Dam,  an enormous lake and a dam
c) Harishchandragad

d) Kalyan 
e) Bhaja and Karla caves which are ancient Jain/Buddhist caves carved out of the rocky mountains

We had spent three days and two nights at Malshej Ghat and it was hard leaving such a beautiful place to return to the chaotic urban life but we have got no choice, do we? The sceneries still linger whenever I close my eyes. Hence, I suggest every one of you visit Malshej Ghat if you are ever in Pune and have a few days at hand. However, it is tough to get rooms as there is only one MTDC resort which will require you to pre-book your room. The best time is during the monsoon months of August and September.

You will thank me later.