After being almost 2 weeks in India I had the chance to discover the surroundings of Pune together with Shreya, Mohit, Abhishek, Prabha, Anton and Alex last weekend.
Our trip with the large yellow rented van inclusive driver led us to Malshej, 120 km north of Pune. The box wagon looked like it has had his best years already but their was an almost new Sony entertainment system on board. Actually this did not help because we had no media to feed this system.
We took the 5 PM bus from the university to the city of Pune where we were picked up with the yellow van. After buying some beverages, mostly bottled water, our trip began.
There was already heaps to see on the way out of Pune:
- Street Food
Just imagine an ice cream van. Maybe a bit smaller, no drivers cab and not even an engine. This is an object where street food is being prepared and sold. On offer is:- corn on cob
- momos (see entry before)
- fruits (bananas and others)
- The usual Traffic chaos: Cars, Motorcycles, Bicycles, cows, dogs etc.
- Slums:
It did look like a huge area where tents in different colors had been set up. People were sitting outside their tents chatting, doing some craft or just other things. You saw that these people life with the minimum.
As we were getting away from the center of Pune the traffic became less but still there was honking present. And even on so called highways people didn’t care about lanes. To the vans left and right were alternating smaller cities and fields. Fields where sugar cane, rice and other things are growing. On some of these fields where ox’s dragging along a plow with the farmer walking behind with his feet under water in the mud. Time passing the daylight became less and hence there was nothing more to see outside. So we sang along songs from the FM radio, Abhishek was smoking his pipe and we were also chatting.
We reached a restaurant on the way at 9 PM. It didn’t rain so we decided to sit outside. First the waitress set up a table inclusive chairs in front of his restaurant to the roadside just for us but as drinking beer in the public is not to be done we got another table behind the restaurant in the garden. I enjoyed a mushroom soup as starter, followed by mushroom something with roti (kind of bread) as main course. We still had a few minutes after dinner so we started to play “trueth or dare”, the english version of “Flaschendrehen”. In the end each of us had to decide once whether he chooses trueth or dare. Abhishek for example had to do a lap dance because he had chosen dare. Alex had to drink a full glas of beer without breakoff. And Mohit did a belly dance for us. Later on Anton saw a young cat rushing through the backyard – in the end he had that cute little thing in his arms and was petting it. Our driver was not sitting with us for dinner but our group paid the meal for him.
Another 30 minutes van ride later we reached a random hotel on our way. Abhishek and Mohit negotiated a price for us: 3800 Rupee for 2 twin rooms, 2 extra mattresses. The rooms were not very spacious and the interior looked like it needs an renovation but for one night it was ok. And the toilet was a combination of these with holes in the floor where you have to stand beside and a european toilet. The van driver decided to sleep in the bus. Until 1 AM we all sat together in one room, enjoying chai and chatting. Abhishek decided not to go to bed instead he said he will go for a hunt with his air rifle. He explained that he will not be in a good mood when he just slept 3 hours. Anton joined him.
At 4 AM the alarm clock rang, we got up, packed our stuff and entered the bus without any breakfast. The bus was digging through thick morning fog. I was wondering how the bus driver was able to steer through the steep curves with hardly any sight. The answer was easy: he was just following the markers in the middle of the road.
We reached a waterfall at Malshej at 6:10 AM where we made some nice pictures in the dawn. Another 20 minutes later we arrived at our destination where the bus driver parked on the car park.
This was maybe not the best location for a climb but no doubt challenging and picturesque. We were standing in front of a huge waterfall. Slippery stones everywhere. Nevertheless we tried and succeded the climb. It took us about two hours to climb and sometimes we were stucked but then found another track. Each time when we turned on an angle of 180 degrees we were rewarded with an awesome scenery. Another reward was the shower under the cold water of a sub waterfall at the highest peak of our climb.
The way back to the base of the huge waterfall was not easier but faster. The advantage of climbing down was that we were able to see the picturesque scenery without turning.
Each of us got some bruises when he slipt on his butt and also some scratches. Our clothes changed their color completely during the climb and Abhisheks trouser went straight into the bin despite the fact that he did not have any spare trouser. This is why he wore some pinky cloth around his hip for the rest of the day.
Back on the car park at 10:30, still tired, we saw that some food stalls had opened there. This was a blessing because we still did not have any breakfast.
After this revitalising corn on cob our driver turned the ignition and steared towards Pune. We stopped once on our way on a hill to give our feets a treat from the tiring journey. Up there the grass seemed to be extra green and the wind blew very strong. Apart from that there were some stony areas within the grass fields.
Hungry again we stopped at McDonalds in Pune at 3 PM. Finally our first meal there after almost 2 weeks. The menu looks less than in Germany. I had a large McMaharaja menu (175 Rupees) with coke. The burger is almost the same as the BigMac in Germany but with chicken instead of beef. Its taste is ok as usual at McDonalds. My cup holder broke on the way out of McDonalds and Prabha was helping out very friendly. She asked for a replacement at the cashier desk and got another coke for me.
Our van headed then straight to our campus and dropped us off. The bus driver did not even ask us to clean the van so we left the rubbish.
Finally I have paid roughly 2000 Rupees for an amazing 1,5 day trip. The scenery was very picturesque and I got something else to see than Pune.
The only negative aspect of this trip was the hour long bus ride to and from Malshej.
