Tourist Attractions and Places near Pune and Mumbai

A new addition to the “Places near Pune” blog -> A forum where one can post travel experiences, trip reports, ask for suggestions, check on routes etc; basically a place to share information about how and where to spend the next weekend.

I have, on multiple occasions, heard friends remark that a friend of theirs had been to “some” place “some” where and that it was very good. Then, i start off tracing this “friend” in the hope of getting more details about this place. If all of us (and our friends) can share such information on a single forum, then we don’t have to unnecessarily strain our memory cells to remember “who was it that talked about a good route to Pavana dam, in one of the  birthday parties i attended last year”!

But, there are dozens of other forums already. Why one more? Actually, there aren’t, at least to cater to the specific need of people wanting to visit places close to Pune and Mumbai. Most of the existing ones are deep inside huge travel websites like tripadvisor and loneleyplanet with just 1-2 line comments from some stranger somewhere. Most of the visitors to my blog are friends and friends of friends. If we start putting in info on places we visit (as part of a family trip, project event etc) and start inviting our friends also to do so, we would have extensive information on lot of places, information that is first-hand and not just the 3-4 line copy-paste description available on travel websites.

So, go on to the forum, get yourself a login, start writing about your trips and also answering other’s queries. And, please forward this information to your friends too.

written by Rajaram S

If you are in Pune on December 5th (Sunday), make sure to go and see the Pune international marathon. Also, a good opportunity for photographers in town! Click on the map below to see a bigger resolution map.

Kms Point Place 0 Starting Point Alaka Takies Chowk. 1 Bharat Wollen / Peter England 2 Pot Suliya Maruthi Mandir, / Near Neverekar Hotel 3 Turn Right Tejaswini Steel/ Primary School 4 Interwood Sale / Elite Marble / Indus 5 Turn Left Motichand Premchand Maternity Hospital/ PC Board 6 Turn Left LXD Dsoza / SB Pednekar Jewels / 7 Turn Left Clover Center Shopping / West End Theater 7.5 Turn Right Blue Nile Restaurant 8 Council Hall / Pune Archieves ,Pune 9 Turn Right Wadia College Signal nr Mobaz / Hotel CanaughtPlace 10 Turn Right Italics / Crome Bus Stop Behind/ Htel Moke 11 Kalpataru Habitat ahead Bus stop/ Pingle Garden 12 Turn Left Kalyani Bridge 6 And 7 Pole 12.5 Papien / Meri Flex / Nike Showroom 13 Turn Left Neelanjali Board / Society 14 Vidhya Alankar Corner/ Nagar Road Juntion 15 Turn Left/ Right Ganesh Mangal Kendra / Golf Course 16 Ambedkar Colony/ Nikita / Akshay Store 17 Turn Right BEG Chowk / Junction 17.5 Bombay Sappers Gate 1 Ahead 30 mts. (Small Gate) 18 Start Of Holkar Bridge / 1st Lamp Post 19 Turn Left/ Right Tree 89/ A EM ; 89/a House/ KE/ 156 tree 20 Vijay Cycle Company / Rajgarana / Bata Shop 21 Kirloskar Employment Gate 2 21.95 ½ Marathon Finish Janta General Syore Small/ Hanuman Mandir 22 Cross Highway Chajjad Petrol Pump/ Anand Service Station 22.5 Raviraj Heritage / Chatrapati Shivaji Udhyan 23 Mishra Dairy / Sherniwas Nirmati 24 Turn Right Mali Prashishan Centre ( 70 Mts Behind) 25 Turn Left Brehman Chowk Signal 26 CYG Parking Board / Armament Colony R 27 Millenium Gate / Rajbhavan Gate R 27.5 Pune Universites Chowk ahead Viveswara Sahakari Bank 28 Turn Right Indraprasat Mangal Karyalaya/ 29 Shorole Pashankar / Dominoj 30 NCC Ground / Jai Hind Hoarding / Balbharati 31 Turn Right Film & TV Institute Gate 32 Turn Right Hivanjali Vastre Niketan / Bridge Nal Stop ahead 32.5 Navlakha Complex / Sudami Manke Institute 33 Dental Clinic / PNG Building / 49 & 99 Shoping 34 Siddarth Complex 35 Turn Left Karan Sanskruti / Ahead Kothrud Police Thane 36 Paranspe School / Vidhya Bhavan Primary School 37 Dasbhuja Jewellers/ Bank Of Maharashtra Mayur Colony 37.5 Turn Right Pizza Hut / Kasat Exclusive / Near karishma 38 Turn Left Ahead Nimbalkar / Gandhi Lwans /Echayee 39 Mehendale Garage 40 Darpan Laboraties/ Before Bhide Hospital 41 Turn Right/Left Wagjai Mata / Appa Electronics / Behind SP College Ground. 41.5 Kaveri Lodge 42.058 Turn Right / Left Nehru Stadium Gate inside 157 mts Inside the ground Nehru Stadium,Pune

For more details check out the official website of the Pune Marathon here.

written by Rajaram S

Magarpatta City celebrates Diwali every year by lighting candles all along the inner circle and also by having a fireworks display. The fireworks display is very good and lasts for around 15 minutes. Today (Nov 3, 2010), we are going to have the fireworks/candle lighting within the city. Last year, i had gone to the terrace on Tower 2 for taking photographs of the fireworks. I had also taken my tripod for the long exposure shots. The view from the top was awesome. The fireworks were being lit from the top of the water tower at a distance which gave a good opportunity for wide shots including the other buildings.

On the day of Diwali, we got together at a friend’s place for the usual dose of sweets and savouries “imported” from the south! Akshara (below photos are from 2009, 1 yr ago) enjoyed the festivities and of course the photo requests from friends and family.

Akshara hadn’t reacted too well to the cracker sounds on the day of the Magarpatta fireworks, so we restricted initially to the “softer” stuff like sparklers (Kambi Mathappu), Flower pots (busvaanam) and Wheels (Thara Chakkaram). Later when she got used a bit to the sound, the bigger and louder ones came out. Got some some nice photos too, in the light from the sparklers.

After we exhausted ourselves with the crackers, we started “forcefully” finishing off the remaining sparklers. Then i suggested guys to start “painting with light”. The photos below are taken with a long exposure (10-30 seconds) while the person draws the shape. Why is it that people always start off with the heart shape when asked to paint something with sparklers? Then, people started trying their names and their spouse’s and kid’ with the warning from the wives that they wouldn’t be allowed back into the house without them getting the name right If you notice the last photo below, there is a gap between each letter. it is a single photo (no merging). Let me know how you think this photo would have been taken.

Looking forward to tonight’s show in Magarpatta. Hoping to capture some good panorama’s with the sweep panorama feature in my new camera (Sony DSC TX5).

written by Rajaram S