Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai

In spite of this mini golf place being open for more than a year, not many knew about it, at least amongst my colleagues and friends. No, the low awareness doesn’t mean that this place is of low quality. The place gets a definite a+ as far as entertainment at a reasonable cost is concerned.

I have been a fan of mini golf right after the first time i tried it. I have been to all the courses in Cyprus and even a few in USA (San Jose was excellent). The ones in Cyprus pale in comparison to Golfway. The course is called “Glow in the Dark” course and has been beautifully designed such that everything glows (Neon light kinds) when the lights are switched off (or is it on ).

Considering the ‘exotic’ness of games such as mini golf and go-karting, the price is extremely reasonable.  For rupees 150, you get to play 18 holes of mini-golf and you also get a sandwich and a fruit drink (which is homemade TANG, much better compared to any of the bottled drinks!). On top of this, you also get a game coin which can be used to play any of the numerous arcade games. A game of air hockey costs just 1 game coin. So, if two of you go, you can get a good game of golf + food + a neat 2 games of air hockey!

If you have already had your lunch/dinner and are in mood for these ‘free’ foodstuff, a 18 hole game without all these perks costs just 100 bucks. And this is for 1-1.5 hours of good fun. On top of this, you would spend some time appreciating the neat idea of “Glow in the dark” and maybe like Vidhya, think about adapting some of these concepts for your home!

There are lot of hidden bonuses too. The score card which you get to score your game has a “Buy 1 game, get 1 game free” coupon at the back. So, don’t throw it away. You could get a game free when you visit the next time. The 18th hole would look like an anticlimax to the other 17 holes. It is just a straight-forward shot into three possible pits numbered 1,2 and 3. But, what they don’t tell you is that if you hit into Pit no. 1 which requires you to get a straight shot, you get a free game coupon. Its a pity that we didn’t know about this, only Vidhya and Anu (2 from the 4 of us) managed this. Then, a guy slowly walks in and gives them free game coupons! That’s a freebie of 200 bucks! Now that you know this, there is no excuse for you to miss the number 1 pit!

The hole number 12 is a masterpiece. No, not in terms of the difficulty to hit the ball, but in terms of the design of the hole. Even if you have a bit of scientific inclination, i assure you that you will spend some time admiring the way the ball travels to the hole and try out all the combinations on this hole. I don’t want to give away the design of this hole. Go and admire it yourself!

On the whole, a very good place to spend  couple of hours on a weekend or a weekday rather than wile away the time watching India TV (Ok, a game of mini-golf cannot give you as much entertainment as an hour of India TV!).

written by Rajaram S

Rajasthan is considered by many to be a remote state somewhere in the western part of India. The management of Chokhi Dhani wanted to ensure that this element about Rajasthan is not missed, so they established their traditional rajasthani Village experience in a remote corner of Pune, so remote that you can easily get scared driving along the approach road at night!

How to reach Chokhi Dhani from Magarpatta: Go on the Mundhwa road towards Nagar Road. At the Nagar Road t-junction, if you take left, you go towards the airport. You have to take a right here. This junction is 5 kms from Magarpatta. Once you take a right, you have to travel for 3 kms. There is a narrow lane to the right at this point. There is also a signboard for Chokhi Dhani (on the right side). So, it is quite easy to miss this (because it is on the opposite side) at night. Once you take this right, the nightmarish road begins and goes on for 3 kms until you reach Chowki Dhani.

I made the mistake of going to this place on a weekday evening. Please don’t do that. This place would like a mela on a weekend where there are big crowds (many friends have said so), but on a weekday, it is absolutely deserted. Also, I have “attention-o-phobia” i.e. i become uncomfortable when everyone around comes forward exclusively for your service (much like a salesperson following you in a shop!). Since the place was deserted, all the performers were almost exclusively performing for us.Also, if you are not ok with hundreds of flies/insects around you, carry a spray or something, as this place is in the middle of the woods and it is infested with thousands of insects “exclusively” for you!

All the discomforts apart, they have put in a lot of effort to spruce up the entrance. The entrance fee is 300 Rupees per person which includes all the entertainment plus dinner. The moment we entered, we had a “horse” thing welcoming us. Akshara was shocked by the loud noise and she remained in a state of trance the entire time at Chokhi Dhani!

Attractions at Choki Dhani: When you pay the entrance fee, you also get 12 coupons which you use for various attractions. All the shows are free, but for the rides like the camel ride, horse ride , train ride or the Giant wheel, you have to pay using the coupons. The price varies from 2-3 coupons.

Horse Ride: One of the dirtiest horses i have ever seen and the ride was scary too. I almost fell off the cart! It is a 1 min ride through the darkness, more like a roller-coaster ride. Avoid taking kids on it.

Camel ride:  The best part of a camel ride is the time the camel stands up or sits down. You dont experience this here as you mount a standing camel. If you have never been on a camel before, go for it.

Train ride: This ride is located in a remote corner of the already remote Chokhi Dhani which means that the insects living there will relish your presence as they don’t get visitors often. An excruciatingly noisy and polluting train ride, it is on a circular track running on a petrol/kerosene engine powered through a loosely hung wire from the centre of the circular track which makes it extremely easy for one to get electrocuted!

With the rides done, it was time for the shows. They were good and would have even better on weekends with the crowds. With only us (plus few other unfortunate weekday visitors), i was struck by extreme attention-o-phobia to actually enjoy the shows.

Vidhya also get a Mehendi done on her hand (while i was watching the above guy show all his tricks). Unaware of this, i pulled on Vidhya’s hand and in the process, got mehendi done on my hand too!

The other things that we skipped were Head and Body massage, astrologers (of various kinds), Giant wheel, game stalls (absolutely junk prizes for the winners) and few other things on the sides.

Once we had exhausted the activities, we went for the dinner. Vidhya overheard one of the waiters ordering for 10 rotis for the 4 of us. 10??? 10 phulkas would be barely enough for just me. The waiters were overly eager to move on to the next course after the rotis, whereas i was stuck in a loop of “Ek aur roti”. After a while i got fed up of their attempts to push the rice on my plate to get me moving and stopped asking for more. The food was good, but just not enough for me after the exhaustion of fighting the insects.

Moral of the above long story:  Never ever go on a weekday. Go on weekends and i guess you would have fun. I don’t see the scope of going there more than once.

written by Rajaram S

On the way from Pune to Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar, a casual traveller can easily ignore Wai  as just another dot on the map.  But, if the little effort of deviating around 3km from the main road is made, you are assured of getting enough natural beauty to your heart’s content.

Route to Wai from Pune (from magarpatta): Go to Hadapsar, take the left on Prince of Wales Dr (the left after the left close to Big Bazaar) and keep going towards Kondhwa Road. From here, follow directions for Katraj. There are a few forks on this route, but keep going towards katraj. Once you reach Katraj, you will pass the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological park (a.k.a. Pune Zoo or Katraj Zoo ) on your left. You should see a Ghat section in front of you. On crossing this road, NH4 will “arrive” from the right. Join it and enjoy the drive for around an hour. After around an hour, you will come across a mountain cutting across the highway leaving you wondering on how to cross it. This is the Khambatki Ghat. The best part about this Ghat section is that it is one-way leaving you freely to overtake slow vehicles even on a blind curve. The ascent on this ghat is wonderful and if you can, do stop for some beautiful photo opportunities. No, don’t plan for a photo session on the way back, as the way back doesn’t have a ghat section, but a long tunnel! Once you cross this Ghat, you will see signboards for Wai/Mahabaleshwar (go under the bridge to the right). This is a nice single lane road with lot of banyan trees for company.

After around 8-9 kilometres, you have to turn for Wai (Going straight will take you to Panchgani/Mahabaleshwar). After around 3 kms, you enter Wai village. Maybe Wai was a village long time back, but it is a bustling town now and you will surely ave a strange look on your face as to why so many sources on the internet called Wai a beautiful village (just as i did!). But, what you have reached is the town centre. The real beauty of Wai is beyond that.

The village centre too has interesting spots. There is the Maha Ganapti mandir (the first photo of this post) and some nice small temples/bridges to photograph! But, the real reason why many visit Wai is a further 3 kms away, in a place called Menavali Ghat (or Menavli). Btw, it is pronounced “May”navali and not “Mee”navali. I confused quite a few locals by asking for directions to “Mee”navali Ghat.You just have to keep going a further 3 kms on the same road you entered Wai. Do not take the left (near the Ganpati mandir) crossing the bridge. We shall go there later

Menavali Ghat, the place which contains – as people would like to say – the temple appearing in Shah Rukh Khan’s Swades. This was the place which the movie referred to as Charanpur. Of course, they must have spent a lot of time cleaning up the temple’s surroundings to make it look so good. Nevertheless, the place is calm and serenely beautiful. You don’t see people by the hundreds like in Lonavala, just the few who have taken the trouble to drive over to this remote area. We spent close to half an hour taking lot of photographs.

Akshara was quite interested in the buffaloes, as she was seeing such an animal for the first time After the Shaniwar Wada trip, Akshara has taken a liking to the umbrella and it is very difficult to pry it away from her once she takes it.

I also read somewhere that the big banyan near the banks was the one used in the movie Swadesh for the Panchayat scene. So, we took some photographs near it for posterity’s sake

Right neat to the place where you park for Menavali Ghat is the Nana Phadnis Wada. This is the place where Nana Phadnis, a minister in the Peshwa era built a wada (house) for himself on the banks of the Krishna river. We didn’t have time to go inside and explore the house, but the wada looked very photogenic in the light drizzle that was on.

Not many who visit Wai take the trouble to drive another 9 kms in the single lane road until Dhom dam. You have to come back to the village centre from menavali Ghat and then cross the bridge next to the Maha Ganapathy Mandir and take a right. This road will take you to Dhom dam. But, it seems, dhom dam is closed to public and there are also signs that photography is not allowed. But, we drove a little ahead and asked people to point us towards any place where we can get close to the water (backwaters of the dam). We were shown the way towards a boating place. It is a narrow lane which opens up once you come close to the water and the view was AMAZING!

The pictures definitely don’t do justice to the beauty of this place. Vidhya even started comparing it to the views near lake thun in Interlaken, Switzerland! There were just 2 other groups of people there and they were also about to leave. The view was such that you felt the need to immediately take a panorama.

There was this strange formation on top of the mountain nearby (Second photo below). We thought that it may be the remnants of a fort, but the locals said that there was no fort there and it was just some rock formations. They looked pretty impressive from far and i am surprised that i never saw any information/photo of this online. If you have any info on this formation, drop in a comment.

We spent close to 15 minutes at this place enjoying the solitude. We left as we wanted to be back in Pune before late night. Some more photos…

On the whole, it was an enjoyable 7 hour round trip –> 2 hours from Pune to Wai (1.5 hrs if you leave early in the day), 1.5 hrs back (time saved because of the tunnel through Khambatki ghat) and the rest spent in photography and a south indian snack at gandharv dhaba (just before the Wai exit on the road from NH4 to Panchgani).

written by Rajaram S