Travelling

This is the full merged blog of a 13-day road trip from Pune to Gujarat and back. Day wise separate blogs are available in the hyperlinks as this entire could be too lengthy to read. Day 1 Pune - Ahmedabad   We started from our home in Pune at 4:15am for Ahmedabad. The expected drive time was around 13 hours by the map ( excluding breaks). We took the Ravet route to Mumbai which was good. The saying "Mumbai never sleeps" could be sensed when people seemed rushing to their workplaces even before 7am. The roads between Mumbai and Vapi were terrible and took much longer. The roads were under construction and had heavy vehicles all the way. It needed patience and skills to navigate that route. After crossing Vapi , we finally stopped for a break and had lunch. After a filling lunch, we resumed our journey. At Bharuch, we got onto NE4 (National Expressway 4) which is one part of the golden quadrilateral project connecting Mumbai to Delhi. Now this was an enjoyable driv...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 10 Ahmedabad - Saputara  We started at 8:15am from the accommodation at Ahmedabad for our journey towards Saputara. The roads were good. We stopped on the way on NE4 for breakfast. The Jagdish outlet serves good breakfast, a bit spicy though for my liking. Replica of the mall is on the other side of the Expressway where we stopped while going towards Ahmedabad on Day1. The drive started again and after 3 hours , stopped for lunch at Hotel Furat. We got good Punjabi food followed by very thick sweet lassi. We started our journey again. Saputara is a hill station. We wanted to see the sunset , but the sunset point was under maintenance. We then re-routed towards table land. That was a happening place with loads of activities like horse riding, camel riding, balloon shooting, ring game, scooter, bike, remote controlled car, decorat...

The better part of being in Goa is the cruise. We directly went to the mandovi bridge and found a few agents there. We booked our tickets with Paulo Cruise for 5.30pm We boarded the cruise well on time. The lower deck had filthy washrooms. There was also an air-conditioned enclosed room on the lower deck where the performances were conducted. They had a few local dances by their dancers and also had a few dance activities fort be guests. The upper deck had chairs to sit and have a good view of the sea, sunset, water, other ships and the natural beauty in general. There was a counter also to buy some food items and drinks while onboard. This was an average experience for us. While on our way back to the hotel, we saw a few more cruises on the way which looked better than what we had experienced. Anyways, we enjoyed and the kids had fun.

The most famous and most commercial beach in Goa. Our hotel was 10-15 min walking distance from Calangute beach. The beach and the water is quite dirty with trash scattered around. The beach has agents who offer a package of 5 water sports in around 1300 INR. The shacks are okay. The charge 200 INR for a set of 2 and those charges are waived off if you buy snacks from their shop. It's good to relax on the shacks with some snacks/drinks and look at the sun rays falling on the water and then finally the sun going down. As a matter of fact that's one of the most picturesque landscape of Nature.

We freshened up at our hotel and walked till the boating ticket counter, bought the tickets and then had to stand in the queue for around an hour before we could get onto a boat. The boats have a capacity of 150 passengers and ferry the visitors to the Vivekananda rock memorial. There's an entry fee to the memorial. They have a small room where they show a documentary about the place, it gives the visitors a background about the importance of the rock and what happened in the history. The place has 3 different halls. One has the statue of Vivekananda, another one the footprint of goddess Parvati and the 3rd one is a meditation hall. All the halls expect you to be silent and photography isn't allowed inside the halls. The view outside is amazing with water all around and when you get to see the sun going down, it looks awesome. There's a statue of Sri Thiruvalluvar near the Vivekananda rock memorial and it looks mesmerizing too. We then came back to the starting point by the...

A new spot near Hinjewadi, around 3 kms from life republic and 18 kms from pimple Saudagar. This is kasarsai dam. Boating club, restaurant, clean washrooms, parking space and a tapri all integrated. The roads are clean and well maintained except for some 2-3 kms that are rough. The place is good, provides a nice motor boat experience (₹70 per person), speed boat is also available. The view is beautiful, has a few swans and other birds flying and swimming around. The sunset is beautiful. You get an opportunity to click loads of pictures of yourself, the sunset and nature as you like. The in-house restaurant is clean, though not aware of their spread and pricing. A nice spot to spend a few hours with family and friends. [caption width="780"] Beautiful sunset[/caption]