Bhigwan - Bhuleshwar Bird watching

I visited Bhigwan and Bhuleshwar Temple for bird watching last Sunday and found it to be a nice place for a day's picnic with one's family. There are a lot of migratory birds that arrive in these locations during November - February to spend the winter here. The visit was organized by Trek-di.

Timings: We started from Fergusson College at around 6:15 AM in the morning. Bhigwan is around 135 KM from Pune. We reached there at around 9:15 AM. We had stoppages at Yavat and just outside Bhigwan where we took our tea and breakfast.

Parking: There is an internal road where you can park your vehicle. Since we went in Trekdi hired Tempo Traveller, I din't have to worry about parking. There is a wide road between two water bodies of Bhigwan and most of the vehicles were parked there.

Fee: The water body can be visited with boats there but the local janta asks exuberant amount of money to take you in the boats. According to the information provided by the trip-organizer of our group, they charged INR 200 per person for around 2 hours of boat-ride. We started boat ride at around 10:45 AM and completed it at around 12:30 PM.


Attractions: There are so many kind of migratory birds available for your delight.

Unfortunately I was having a trip for nature related photos for the first time in my life and I did realize the importance of high optical zoom. Many of my groupmates were carrying cameras of Nikon and Sony with optical zoom of 26X and more but mine had just 3X. So most of the photos I took were not so detailed.

We left Bhigwan at around 1PM to head towards Bhuleshwar temple. We reached there at around 2:15 PM and had our lunch. The organizer didn't provide any food neither we saw any places where I could find good food. We had carried enough to cater to ourselves which came handy for us. We then proceeded to have a look at the carvings of the temple. My camera had some issues and I couldn't click more photos so here are some for your delight:

Our tempo traveller went down the road from the temple while some of the group mates walked while birding. We left Bhuleshware Temple at around 4:30 and reached Pune at around 6:45 with some stoppages to drink Sugarcane juice along the way. All in all, it was a nice trip for a day's enjoyment.

Company All-Hands to Upper Deck Resort - Lonavala

I visited Upper Deck Resort - Lonavala last Friday as part of all-hands meeting in the company I am working in. It is a nice place to spend quality time with your family. 

Timings: We started from our company office on Senapati Bapat Road in a Volvo at 10:15 AM and reached at the bottom of the hill around 11:50 AM. We took a mini-bus/Tata Sumo to reach the resort at the top of the hill since the road is very narrow with steep incline and big potholes.

How to reach: Since the bus was driven by somebody other than me, I didn't get an idea about the route. Please look at the resort's website about the route.

Tariffs: Since it was a corporate event, I don't know about the expenses company incurred in planning a whole day event for a group of people. You can know more about the tariffs on the resort website.

Attractions: The list of facilities are kept on the company's website which includes:

• Cottages

• Swimming Pool

We left the place at around 11 PM and reached back to Pune at around 12:30 AM. The place is a fun for a family but visiting it in Monsoon would be a real delight.

Company Offsite to Malhar Machi - Mulshi

I visited Malhar Machi near Mulshi last Monday as part of off-site from the company I am working in. It is nice place to spend some time with your family.

Timings: We started from our company office on Senapati Bapat Road at 10:15 AM and reached there around 11:45 AM. We had a flat tire on the way which took 20 minutes more otherwise the distance is around 35 km from Chandani Chowk.

How to reach: Road from Chandani Chowk to Paud leads to Malhar Machi. The directions are available on the resort website. Tariffs: Since it was a corporate event, I don't know about the expenses company incurred in planning a whole day event for a group of people. You can know more about the tariffs on the resort website.

Attractions: The list of attractions or facilities are kept on the resort website which includes:

• 
  

  Rooms/Cottages: I couldn't get to check them since we only had a conference room at our disposal.

• 
  

  Swimming Pool and Baby Pool: In a corporate event, you can't expect me to wear a swimming costume and go all-in at least in India especially when there are young ladies around. So this also I couldn't check.

• 
  

  Veg Restaurant: The food quality was 3 out of 5, not very good but still fine.

• Children Park: The resort has a small children park with rides like swings, see-saw and slides.
• Indoor Games: The resort has many indoor games like foosball etc... which can be utilized for ones enjoyment.

We left the place around 10 PM and reached Pune at around 11:30 PM. I found it a nice place to spend some days with your family. The best season to visit is monsoon since if you see the photos available in the gallary of the resort's website, it gives panoramic scenary during the monsoon with lush green mountains and dark clouds in the sky.

SayajiRaje Park - Akluj

I visited SayajiRaje Park at Akluj last Sunday and found it to be a nice place to visit for a full day picnic with one's family. It was a Sunday and 1st January so there was quite some crowd there and the weather was a bit hot compared to normal winter days.

Timings: We started from home at 6:45 in the morning since according to our knowledge it is around 165 KM from Pune. We thought that it will take around three and a half hours to reach there but we had a Tempo Traveller 17-seater whose max speed was locked at 70 km. Also there was heavy construction activity going on to make NH-9 four lane. So it took around four and a half hours and we reached there a quarter past 11. The park remains open from 10 AM to 6 PM.

How to reach: NH-9 from Pune through Natas-Bhigwan-Indapur and then a state highway leads to Akluj. Different routes are mentioned on the website of the park.

There are many places to view on the way including Bhigwan water body where there is a bird sanctuary. We did take a halt for around half an hour at a dhaba to take some food and rest.

Parking: The park provides open parking facility for four-wheelers without any charges.

Entry Fee: There is an entry fee of INR 400 for adult and INR 300 for child below height of 4'6". There is no entry fee for child below age 2. This covers the whole park including the water park and a meal. If you just want to go for water park, the entry fee is INR 300 but the ticket is valid only for three hours. There are big elephant statues at the entrance of the park. The water park provides swimming costumes for INR 10 on hire.

Commute inside: The park is not as big as say Essel World or Walt Disney World so commute inside is simple walk on your feet.

Attractions: The park has three kinds of attractions:

• Rides for adults: These rides are for adults with height more than 4'6". These include:
• Swing Chair
• Octopus
• Columbus
• Ranger
• Cup and Saucer
• Roller Coaster (This was close when we visited).
• Frisby

• Rides for kids: These rides are for kids below age of 5 years. When you visit these rides, if nobody is present, you have to ask people there to start the rides. These include:
• A kidzone with a slides, swings, see-saw and many more entertaining things for kids.
• Helicopter

• Merry-Go-Round

• Mini-Train (This is different from the one mentioned in family below)

• Aeroplane
• Up and Down

• Group rides: These include water park, boating, and mini-train. There are many animal statues kept at the shores of water body so it will be a fun ride for kids in the peddle-boats. The cost of peddling is included in the ticket of the park. There are speed-boats available too for payment of INR 50 extra for up to five people. The photos at the water park are censored so can't post them. Water park is best to spend time in the whole park but please remeber to carry towels, swimming costumes and extra pair of clothes with you.

Food: There are lots of small eataries spread inside the park which serves vada-pav, bhel-puri, sandwich etc... But the meal is served by SayajiRaje Shoppe which has a canteen where you get a rice-plate with 6-puris, limited shira, and unlimited sabji and dal-rice.

We left the place at around 5:30 PM but due to heavy traffic-jam and slow bus, we could reach home only at around 11:15 PM. All in all it is worth one day trip with your family but it is better you visit after a year when the NH-9 construction work completes. The commute time will reduce a lot.