Tamhini Ghat

I visited Tamhini Ghat last Sunday with my family. It is a very nice place to spend some time with a group of friends and enjoy the waterfalls and the scenery on the way.

Timings: I started from my home in Aundh at 3:15 PM. The road I took was from Abhimanshri-Bawdhan-Pirangut-Paud-Mulshi-Tamhini shown here. There were lots of places to stop and take snaps but since we started late, I couldn't risk reaching late to the destination so I didn't stop at a lot of place. The road is pretty straight after chandani chowk and there are no turns anywhere to confuse you in reaching Tamhini. We reached there at around 5:15 PM.

Tariffs: There is a toll plaza along the way to Paud which charges INR 30 for two way and INR 20 for one way.

Activities: There are a lot of activities along the way. There is a turn just after you enter Paud where there is a nice place to rest and enjoy cool breeze.


There is a big waterfall when you reach Tamhini but while reaching there my wife's shoe-sole tore down and she lost her balance and got hurt badly. My daughter started crying and so I had to then put-off my plan to enjoy bathing in the waterfall. I also couldn't take any photos of the place and it was getting late and started raining so we decided to leave immediately. I would suggest to start a bit early latest by 1PM so that you reach the place before 4 and enjoy one - one and a half hours there. All in all, you can easily spend an evening with your friends there.

Company outing at Empower Activity Camp, Kolad

I visited Empower Activity Camp, Kolad last Friday as part of company outing. It is a very nice place to spend some time with a group of friends and enjoy rafting, trekking, shooting and several other activities.

Timings: We started from our company office at Senapati Bapat Road in a Mercedez Benz bus at 15:45 in the afternoon and reached at the Empower Activity Camp at around 18:30. There were lots of panoramic scenes along the way to capture but unfortunately we didn't take any stoppages except for emptying our bladders where I coudn't snap any photos.


How to reach: We took the route shown here. The route is only till Kolad but as per my understanding, I saw 'Roha' network being displayed on my phone so you might need to move a bit farther than that. Till halfway, the route is similar to reaching Tamhini Ghat. Since the bus was driven by somebody else, I don't know the exact route. I had just noticed pirangut and tamhini along the way and that's how I have provided the route. I got the following route from another website: Pune - Chandani Chowk - Pirangut - Paud - Mulshi - Tamhini Ghat - Vile Phata - Kolad.

Tariffs: The company website mentions charges of around 1800-2000 per person per day. The company had made bookings of around 50 people so we were allotted 2 dormitories for 18 people each and 4 tents for 4 people each. The dormitories had two ACs with three separate toilets and three bathrooms. The tents were air-cooled with one toilet and bathroom. We were provided with soaps, towels and blankets. I was told that the company paid around INR 3000 per person which I think is what is mentioned on the company website (1800 per person + 200 for Burma Bridge + 1300 for white water rafting on weekend).


Activities: There were a lot of activities that can be performed but some are included in the basic package while some are add-ons and separately need to be booked with extra charges. The company I am working in had arranged for:

• Target Shooting: After reaching the place, we had our evening snacks of tea with onion-pakoda and started with the first activity planned for us. There were some targets like human body, animals and water bottles set up for shooting. Everybody was provided five rounds of air-gun and I scored just two out of five. There were two bonus round if you shoot five out of five. Unlucky me.
• Night Trekking: We went on a night trek after the target shooting. The trek was full of jungle but there were no wild animals so everybody came back one-piece.
• Campfire: We had a nice campfire and a round of antakshari just before the dinner.
• Burma Bridge: We were woken up early at 5:30 in the morning just like military life. The activity was quite difficult for people with more weight and I too felt a bit of nervousness when I reached in the middle but it was still not too much of a hassle for me.
• Trust Track: In this, there was was one route of pits, roofs, fences, obstacles etc... The team of 8 was divided in 4 pairs. In each pair, one person would be blind-folded and the other person has to guide him/her in finishing the route. The blindfolded person can talk but the other person can only provide guidance by tapping head, leg or back or by any other gesture to the other person. One group leader is chosen first and shown the terrain and the he is supposed to provide all this information to the rest of the group in five minutes. The pits should be jumped upon, roofs should be cleared bending on knees and fences and obstacles should be cleared without touch.
• White-water rafting: We left the camp in a tempo to reach the Kundalika riverside. There is a dam built on the river which releases water everyday at around 10:30 AM that makes rafting possible in the river. We enjoyed some time before the water was released. When the water got released, we got training about the commands and what action to take for a command. The whole route was almost 14 KM and it took around two hours and thirty minutes to complete it.

All in all it was a trip worth remembering for the rest of my life.

Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar

I visited Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar last Thursday. It is a nice place to spend an evening with your family.

Timings: The mall remains open from 11AM to midnight. We reached the mall at around 8 PM and left at around 10:15 PM.

How to reach: The mall is around 15 KM from Aundh. It is on Samrat Ashok Road in Viman Nagar and is easily reachable.

Parking: The mall has ample parking facilities and charges Rs 20 for car. Do make sure you remember the pillar number where you park your car since there are four sections A, B, C and D and each section has 16 parking areas. If you forget to remember the pillar and come back at a time when it is full, God help you in finding your car!!!

Fees: There were no entry fees to the mall. There were a group of guys playing guitars but there were no charges for it.

Attractions: There are a lot of attractions including

• Branded apparel and footwear stores including Bata, Raymond, Allen Solly, and many more.
• A lot of eateries including SubWay, McDonald's, etc... and we had a nice dinner at Rajdhani. The two empty katories had aam-ras and custard poured later.

• There is a gaming area at the top floor of the mall where you can find a lot of rides and games including dodgem cars, a toy train, etc...

All in all, it is a nice place to spend an evening with your family.

Inorbit Mall, Viman Nagar, Pune

I visited Inorbit Mall, Viman Nagar, Pune just day before Christmas. It is a nice place to spend an evening with your family.

Timings: We started from Aundh at 4 PM in the evening. We were there till 7:30 PM. I don't know the exact timings but it remains open till around 9:30 PM on weekends.

How to reach: The mall is around 15 KM from Aundh. The mall is at Samrat Ashok Road and is easily reachable.

Parking: The mall has ample parking facilities and if I recollect correctly, it is free of cost.

Fees: There were no entry fees to the mall. There were dance shows being conducted in the mall but even for viewing them there were no fees being charged.

Attractions: There were many especially due to Christmas, notably:

• Dance show: Some performers were performing dances and also asking children to join

• A Christmas tree was set up

• A barbie's home was attracting a lot of people including us:

• There is a gaming arena at the top floor of the mall where you can find a lot of rides and games including dodgem cars, a toy train, etc...:

We left the place at around 7:30 PM. All in all, it is a nice place to spend one evening with your family.

Balaji Temple Narayanpur

I visited Balaji Temple near Narayanpur on february 1, 2012. It is a nice place to spend two-three hours with friends/family.

Timings: We started from Aundh at 3 PM in the afternoon. The temple is around 50 km from Pune. From Chandani Chowk, take NH-4 towards Bangalore. The exact route is Warje-Ambegaon-Budruk-Khed-Kapurhol-Balaji Temple. There is a turn at Kapurhol towards Narayanpur that you should not miss. The temple remains open between 6AM-8PM. The aartis are conducted at fixed timings of the day.
Parking: There was ample parking available since it was a weekday. I am not sure if weekends remain full.

Fees: There are no fees anywhere but as you enter the temple, some teenagers come to put a tilak on your forehead and you are forced to shell some coins. This to me seems like a forceful donation but I managed to get away with just Rs. 2.

Attractions: The temple has beautiful carvings but I couldn't take a lot of photos. Here are some for your delight:

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.