My Trip to pune

I AM BACK!!!

This time it was Pune my City-In-Law. I have been to Pune couple of times but this time I was able to take time out to visit 2-3 spiritual places around Pune (you know what happens at Inlaws place :P). This was a very short trip still I thought of sharing my views with you all. The places I visited were Shree Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Shree Shani Shignapur Temple and Bhimashankar Temple.

Before sharing the experience about the places mentioned above, I would also take time to tell all my Delhi was that will bring back the memories of their childhood. I visited the Appu Ghar in Pune, it was nowhere close to the one we had in Delhi but was enough to bring back the memories. The best part was that we were the only people in the Appu Ghar. Now the travels begin.

Appughar in Pune



Shree Shridi Sai Temple :

We started our Journey from Wadgaon Sheri in Pune around 1130pm to Shirdi Village which is in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. From NH 9 the distance is 154 Kms (3 hrs drive). We reached the place searched for the hotel. There are plenty of options available depending on your requirement such as u need room for changing or for staying. We checked in around 3 am and took rest for an hour. The best time to visit the temple is when the morning aarti is happening this is at 6 am. You will find several people offering help so that you can take a shortcut to the temple please avoid them as it will only be waste of time and money. As we had less time we were not able to click photographs (sorry for that). After darshan, we left that place at 8 am for Shree Shani Shignapur.

Shree Shani Shignapur:
If you don’t have a vehicle don’t worry there are several private jeep owners that drive people from Shridi to Shignapur. This is 40kms distance can be covered in 2 hrs looking at the condition of the road and traffic. Shree Shani Shignapur Temple is now completely changed. You are now allowed to take bath and reach the main temple in wet clothes. Moreover, you are not allowed to stand on the platform and offer oil to the main motor. Now the temple is more systematic considering the number of people visiting the temple. On an off day, you will find 30,000 to 40,000 people and the oily platform and wet clothes can lead to a stampede. Women are not allowed to go near the main moorti and there are several mortises and a well that women are not supposed to touch. I would suggest not to bring any souvenir from the temple except Prasad as Shani Dev can either bless you or can punish you for evil deeds. If you are a businessman then you can keep the Shani yantra for your “Galla”.

Shani Shingapur

Shani Shingapur

Shani Shingapur


Bhimashankar:

Next day we planned to visit Bhimashankar. This is 112 km away which is 3 hrs drive. We started our journey at 10 is in the morning. It is advisable to drive slow so that you can see the ghats. Ghats are the natural waterfalls that appear this the rainy season due to heavy rainfall. The road to bhimashankar is very beautiful and there is no mobile network in that area. In the rainy season, you can see the chocolate milk flowing from the hills as Maharastra has red soil. If you are sleeping or driving very fast you will miss the scenic beauty. You can find cars stopping at ghats and people taking bath. This can make your trip a bit longer. Please make sure that you keep the whole day for this only as the queue in bhimashankar is very long. If you have never visited Maharashtra earlier I would request you to try the peanuts that we get in bhimashankar they are different in taste. The temple is very old, sorry to say this but like any other temple, you can tip the Admin there to skip the queue and enter the graph griha. It was good to see fewer beggars and the Prasad was not lying on the floor as they have kept the temple really clean. Due to the ongoing construction, there is waterlogging. While coming back you will find several restaurants but don’t expect too much out of them as they are away from the population. Towards the end of the journey, we were so tired that we could hardly talk or move.

Bhimashankar

Bhimashankar

View from hills at Bhimashankar

Weather in Bhimashankar

Natural waterfall at Bhimas

Coming up: “Trip to Mathura, Vrindavan and Nainital”

20 Comments

  • Praveen Wadhwa says:

    Wow, toofani doora.
    A nice declaration of the visit.

  • Nandan Jha says:

    That was pretty quick. Was it because you were in City-in-Law :-), he he.

    Looking fwd to Mathura, Vrindavan and Nainital.

  • parveen says:

    hey what is this man. i dont understand.

    admin— cant we work out for a standard procedure for stories. who want to read these stories after reading rrg, nandan, vishal, amitva,ss,praveen and great dl like writers.

    sorry guys but you should chek before publishing.

  • Nandan Jha says:

    @ parveen – Ghumakkar welcomes all. As long as there is a honest travel experience, we would publish it. We often work with new Authors to make their stories richer and it takes time. We chose to publish over not-publishing and have seen that with time, everyone gets better and better.

    If you have an advice for Author, please provide it in a constructive and encouraging tone. I look for your support.

    • parveen says:

      @nandan—sorry, if my words are rude. yes, you are right. ghumakkar welcome all. promoting new authors is good thing.

      i am not commenting on his writing, but we need more details on such important site like shirdi and shani dham. 4 destination and 4 paragraph. thats it.

  • Mukesh Bhalse says:

    The post was not up to the mark and didn’t met quality standards of ghumakkar. I am sorry Anupam, if it hurt you but the fact remains that it could have been more detailed and comprehensive. The post seems to be written in Do’s and Dont’s format and looks like instruction manual rather than a travelogue.

  • Ravindra Sharma says:

    You are back but with nothing special. Where is Pune in this post? All three destination you cited in post are more than a hundred kilometres from Pune, How the post could be A TRIP TO PUNE.

  • Gita AM says:

    Nice pics Aynoo and an interesting and easy to read post.

    Perhaps your post could have been titled My Trips “Around” Pune?
    Bhimashankar must have been lovely in the rains. Went there in 2002 August when the mist, no fog, was so dense that we could not even see beyond a couple of feet.

  • Mahesh Semwal says:

    beautiful narration , beautiful pictures especially views from Bhimashankar.

  • Spell Checker says:

    A good beginning in criticism.

    M lovin’ it!

  • Hey ! I didn’t find it boring at all. Pics are specially good. True, I expected more information but for that google and wikitravel is always there.

    A promising start, Anupam ! Please go deeper now onward. We are lovely people, want to read more and more! Rather, ye Dil Mange More !

  • Thank you all for the reaction. It was good to see mixed reactions. I am not that frequent traveler and not a professional blog writer. But I think these reactions will help me improve my writing skills. Will try to make my next post more descriptive and informative :)

  • D.L.Narayan says:

    Hi Anupam, your pictures have captured the magic of monsoon in the western ghats. However, the title is a misnomer since most readers expect to read about the travel attractions of Pune. Nice to see that you have taken criticism in the right spirit. Looking forward to more travelogues from you.

  • Nirdesh says:

    Curt and concise is perfectly okay with me!

  • Dr. Ravi Sharma says:

    Hi Ghummakkar’s….
    Can anyone help me related to PUNE to BHOPAL on road conditions, travel time and actual problems faced so on……

    Regards
    Ravi

  • kishor says:

    Nice Info with Real pictures & Expected more info..

  • MOHD AKHTAR SAAD says:

    wow great to spare time and money for tours, will you please tell me how much it costs for such tours and how can an ordinary Indian manage finance for such tours.

    • Md. Akthar, I don’t know about other people but as far as I am concerned me and my wife take out an amount every month from our salaries and then once we have a decent amount we go on a vacation. e.g. 2 people taking out 2500 each every month for an year will make this amount 60,000. it is a good amount for travelling domestic. Else you can have quotations from travelling agents and then make a saving plan according to it. Do not go for big names. Ask for itinerary from big small every agent possible no matter what cost they tell you. Read online review of hotels. once everything is done, you can write down the price of flight/train tickets, hotels and cabs on the basis of your research and match it with the amount that agent has given you. Choose the one that is less and travel. Happy Travelling!!!

  • Hello all,

    Its been quite a while I have not been travelling, so I was out of touch. This is because life is keeping me busy. First I got promoted in office and was made to travel but that all work and no fun. In October 2017, I for promoted in personal; life and is now a father of a very naughty son. Due to all this I was very much occupied. Yesterday I was speaking to my wife about a vacation and today I logged back to Ghumakkar just to read the recent post. I saw Md. Akhtar’s comment on my old post and this has motivated me to start travelling once again and share my experiences. I will soon start writing my expericences again.

    I would like to thank everyone who have given me the feedback and would try to incorporate those next time. Happy travelling guys!!

  • Eva Cooley says:

    Pune is indeed a very unique place in India, with its fusion culture of Hindus and Muslims both combined with North and South flavors. Indeed a must-visit for anybody coming to India for its culture and food.

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