This will be a first in a series of posts on my trip to Pune India from late March/early April. It was an interesting trip and I have lots of photos to get through and share. This post captures a few of the details on the long trip to India, the hotel that I was staying at and the details on my first day.
Getting to Pune was a long haul. My routing was from Vancouver to Frankfurt, a three-hour layover and then a slightly shorter leg from Frankfurt to Mumbai. From there, it was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Mumbai to Pune. I think it ended up being about 25 hours door-to-door.
Flying into Mumbai at 2:00 in the morning - from the lights you could see how huge the city was.
In my first post I covered off some of the details on the trip to Pune. The airport in Mumbai was frankly better than expected. I got through in OK time and was on the drive to Pune.
I didn’t see much of the city, with it being the middle of the night. It took a very long time to get out of the city to make the drive. I got to the hotel in Pune about 6:00 a.m. The sun was just starting to come up, and as I got checked in and up to my room, I got my first sight of this part of the city.
The view from my room as the sun came up on Pune for my first day.
The front entrance to the hotel.
The hotel was quite nice - a JW Marriott. Very modern and very western in style. The biggest benefit was that it was only a 5 minute walk to the office. My room was pretty great - lots of space, nice big king bed, big shower and a good desk to work at. Given that I was going to be there for 2 full weeks, it was a pretty good set-up.
A look at my room.
The bathroom area was quite nice as well.
On arrival, as a “Gold” member, I had a little treat left for me. Gold covered treats (chocolate)!
After getting settled in, it was time to go to bed! The room had nice blackout blinds that let me make the room nice and dark. As given that I had maybe slept 3-4 hours in the last 25, it was pretty easy to get to sleep. I slept until a little after noon. I didn’t want to sleep too long, but I needed some.
After my nap, the day had brightened and I had a nice view over the city. It was surprisingly green!
I was meeting up with two of the local guys, Kedar and Dattatray, later that day. But it gave me a few hours to explore and I thought it best that I got outside to get some sun and stretch my legs. I was feeling a little bit hungry, so I thought it was time to get some food. Between the hotel and our office is a big, very western style mall. I was told there were a bunch of food options in the mall, so that seemed like a safe bet for my first local meal.
It is a very modern, western-style mall. Even has a big movie theatre on the top floor.
On the third floor, there were a series of restaurants and I picked one to have some lunch and a beer. The food was fine - nothing special but it worked for what I needed. After having lunch, I went for a walk near the hotel to get a bit of the lay of the land and see what there was about.
A map of my afternoon walk. It was a quick walk and I got to see some of the local sights.
Just north of the hotel as I walked up the busy road there is a temple. It was pretty busy, with lots of people, all dressed in very colourful outfits and with flowers everywhere. I would have liked to go in, but not being aware of the local customs, decided against it. As it tuned out, I would have been fine to go in.
A typical store front along my walk.
India has the presidency of the G20 in 2023. They will be hosting the big event in September, and all around the city there were signs about the event.
My walk took me up the main road, then along another busy street before I turned down a smaller street that took me into more of a local neighborhood. I immediately noticed that the streets are all lined with huge trees that overhang the streets. Many of the trees were bursting with beautiful flowers, in a range of colours. Reds and purples and yellows. It was quite nice. It was still quite early in the day, so it wasn’t too busy. BUt it was intersting to see.
The more interesting side street that I wandered along heading back to the hotel.
I was wandering for a couple of hours, and it was quite warm. I eventually made my way back to the hotel and chilled out until it was time to meet the guys.
They met me in the hotel lobby at 5:30 and we headed over to a local park to do a short hike in the beautiful late afternoon light. The street the hotel was on sits between two sets of hills. We hiked up into the east hill, along some well defined paths that cimb quite quickly. Kedar explained that the hills, which were covered in trees and bushes and cacti were barden a decade ago. The locals are planting trees and keeping them watered in an attempt to bring the area back to a more natural state. It’s an impressive recovery.
On the hill there were lots of cool cacti, many of which were starting to bloom. It would have been incredible in a few weeks. Apparently we’re at the end of the dry season, heading into the rainy season. So the trees that lose their leaves are just starting to sprout leaves. In a few weeks it will be much greener.
And of course being me, I was immediately fascinated by the local birds. I’m sure they are all pretty common for the locals, but all new to me! One of the most interesting things about Pune (actually even in Mumbai I noticed) is that the sky is constantly filled with birds of prey, soaring over the street. They are called Black Kites and they are everywhere! We get the odd bald eagle, but not in these volumes! And I did mange to get some decent pics.
One of the prettiest birds I saw - a Purple Sunbird!
The brilliant purple metallic features indicate a breeding male. This one was clearly protecting his turf.
Red-vented Bulbul. This was one of the more common birds I saw during my time. But they have such a lovely call.
There were quite a few of them about. Making lots of noise!
After hiking around the hill for a while, we went back down the other side of the hill into the Fergusson College campus. Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science, and was founded in 1885. A number of India’s Prime Ministers have attended the school. The college is named after Scottish-born Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of Bombay, and the college has been under the jurisdiction of the University of Pune. The campus is full of big trees and has a lot of beautiful old buildings.
As we wandered the campus, checking out the buildings we had a Greater Coucal fly in front of us and perch up in a tree. This got Kedar quite excited as they are apparently quite rare and are a sign of good luck. Not good enough - none of my pics turned out.
The sun was starting to go down, so we headed out onto FC Road to find some dinner. As it was getting later, the streets were crazy with people - this was what I expected! There were people everywhere and you could barely move down the sidewalks. Kedar had a local restaurant that he wanted to take me to. We left our name on a list and wandered a bit.
The very busy FC Road.
The restaurant we to dinner at - Vashali - was crazy busy - a constant stream of people in and out.
I got to have my first proper Indian meal! The thing this restaurant was know for are their dosas - a crepe-like dish made from ground lentils and fermented rice. Then it’s fried (you can tell there is lots of butter…). It was stuffed with a mixture of potatoes, onions and cashews and served with a selection of chutneys. It was delicious!
On the first evening, Kedar and Dattatray took me for a walk up into the hills, then down and into the Fergusson College Campus and then out and onto FC Road for some dinner. Here’s the map.
Looking down on the busy street from my hotel room window.
It was about 9:00 by the time I got home. It was fully dark out and I was feeling pretty wiped. I pushed through to stay up a bit later before finally allowing myself to go to bed. I was feeling pretty good about getting myself onto local time and slept almost all the way through the night.
It was a good start to the trip.