I had booked the Ashtavinayak tour with a famous tours and travels firm at Dadar more than a month back. It was a 3 day package which included bus travel, 2 nights stay in hotel of their choice, breakfast for 3 days, lunch for 3 days and dinner for the first 2 days. Usually these packages also offer complementary trip to Jejuri and Prati-Balaji temple near Pune, along with the 8 Ashtavinayak Ganapati temples.
Our Tour Itinerary was something like this:
Day 1:
Pickup starting at Borivali
Mahad (District Raigad) - Varadavinayak temple
Pali (District Raigad) - Ballaleshwar temple
Ranjangaon (District Pune) - Mahaganapati temple
Chinchwad MIDC - Hotel stay
Day 2:
Theoor (District Pune) - Chintamani Ganapati temple
Siddhatek (District Nagar) - Siddhivinayak temple
Morgaon (District Pune) - Moreshwar temple
Jejuri (District Pune) - Khadoba temple
Prati-Balaji temple near Pune (Ketkawle)
Back to Hotel
Day 3:
Ozar - Vighneshwar temple
Lenyadri - Girijatmaj temple
Back to Mumbai
I was looking for a simple non-AC bus with non-AC rooms. Who in their right minds would like an AC in winter season? Apparently a lot of denizens of Mumbai are not in their right minds. For they called me at the last minute to inform me that I can have a non-AC room – no issue. But they did not have enough patrons for a non-AC bus. I would have to switch to an AC bus package. I had no say in this matter because by then most other tours were sold out. It was an extended weekend, with 25th Dec being a Christmas holiday. I was banking on that while planning this trip. Friday-Saturday-Sunday tour and Monday (25th) reserved for rest. So I settled for whatever they were offering.
I have had a previous tour with this firm. Our trip was quite satisfactory at that time. Except for the hotel. This time the hotel was better, but the rest of the things were not up to the mark. Previously they would carry a cook, cooking utensils, stove and gas cylinder and foodstuff along with them on the bus itself. Everytime we took a halt for lunch or breakfast, they used to cook and provide the food to us. The food was quite good. Even dinner was prepared by their own cook at the hotel where we stayed at the time.
This time though, they did not carry any cook or cooking ingredients and utensils. Which is good, because is it really safe to carry a gas cylinder with you on a bus ride? But then, the food was arranged at the local hotels where we took a halt for lunch or breakfast. Some of the meals were good, some not up to the mark. The dinner was offered by the hotel where we stayed. It was strictly ok.
We stayed at Saptaruchi hotel in Chinchwad MIDC area.
The hotel room was ok - certainly an improvement over the one where we has stayed during our previous trip.
The food was not so good on Day 1 and strictly ok on day 2.
They have Solar heaters and claim 24 hours hot water. Which is a myth. You will probably get hot water throughout the day and even before retiring to bed. But the nights are cold this time of the year. And not a drop of hot water can be found early in the morning, when you need to leave for the tour. Of course, the hotel did provide hot water in tubs on calling the reception.
Mosquitoes can wrack havoc on your sleep. We suffered sleepless nights swatting away mosquitoes during our previous trip. But fortunately, this time, it being winter, we could get away with always keeping the windows locked - thus saving ourselves from the mosquito menace. Prefer an AC room if you plan to take such tours during Summer or Monsoon. If, like us, you cannot stand AC, then better carry an arsenal of mosquito repellents.
The success of any tour depends on how punctual all the passengers are. And a bit of luck of course. In our tour, almost everyone was quite punctual. And we were quite lucky to start off our 3 day tour on Friday instead of on Saturday. Monday being a holiday, many people had booked for Saturday-Sunday-Monday tours. And we heard and read horror stories of passengers stuck in extra-weekend traffic and/or in the very lengthy and very crowded darshan queues. Prefer to take such tours during normal days, and not on extended weekends.
There is a reason why the tours start off so early in the morning. There is a lot of ground to cover and any number of things can slow you down. But getting up early, sleeping late, eating oily and spicy food at odd times, all of these can mess up your digestion pretty bad. Be sure to carry any medicines or foodstuffs that help you relieve acidity and digestion problems.
The queues can be quite long sometimes. Some temples, like the Girijatmaj temple at Lenyadri may demand a strenuous climbing effort. Even sitting too long on a jerky bus ride can cause back-ache. Ensure you carry pain-relieving medications if you need any.
Ensure you relieve your bladder every opportunity you get - especially during Winter. Some rides can take longer than expected and there may not be any rest stops in between. I have included details about restroom availability near each temple.
During your Hotel stay, prefer not to give your key for room cleaning. Tour guides do a good job but they are not infallible. And the hotel staff can sometimes mess up your reservations. When we returned on day 2, some of the rooms had been allocated to other guests and the luggage and stuff belonging to people from our group had been unceremoniously dumped outside. There was a big row and it took a couple of hours of haggling before things got sorted out. It can be really aggravating to return from a tired and long trip only to encounter such unnecessary problems. So keep the key with you if you don't mind coming back to a lived-in room.
And a final word of caution. The tour entirely depends on the punctuality of all members and on luck. But nothing is guaranteed. If it takes you too long in one temple, the others may get cancelled. During our tour, we could not visit Jejuri due to time constraints. be mentally prepared for such eventualities.
All right, enough of the instructions and guideline. Let the tour begin!
The day starts!
Dec 22
I am staring at the alarm which says 3:30 am, and wondering why the tours have to start off at such unearthly hours? The alarm clock has no answer. So I reluctantly leave the sweet embrace of sleep in order to get ready.
5:00 pm reporting time.
Left home at 5:30.
Walked to Ratna.
The damned bus arrived at 6:00.
A prime example of Indian punctuality.
Seats allotted 19-20. Its a big bus, so I assumed the seats would be somewhere in the middle. Fat chance - they are bang above the rear tyre. This, even after requesting for a good seat in the middle of the bus. So much for customer satisfaction. The seat numbers can be deceptive. The first 3 rows of the bus were numbered using alphabets. What did they use - the hexadecimal system for numbering? No wonder the seats 19 and 20 were towards the rear. What a ripoff.
The bus driver must have been blind because he never slowed down at potholes or speed breakers. Or maybe he played Road Rash too much? Whatever the case, sitting in the back of the bus, we could feel every contour in the road on our backsides. Now my spine knows exactly how the seismograph must feel during a Richter 10 quake.
The AC vent was right above my head, making my arid head fell like a windswept Antarctic landscape. Good thing we carried my jacket with the hood.
Too cold and jerked about, I finally wrote a premature one-star bad review on google.
We took a halt at Dadar. There was a public toilet just outside, beside our halt point. We used it to relive early morning traumatic bladder. The gents toilet is free of charge. But not so the ladies toilet. The ladies toilet person charges 5 rs for keeping the toilet unclean and ugly - a not-so-silent testimonial to Swaccha Bharat Abhiyaan.
It took about 9:00 am to clear Mumbai after all the pickups.
Today's Itinerary was: Mahad, Pali, Ranjangaon
Our Tour Itinerary was something like this:
Day 1:
Pickup starting at Borivali
Mahad (District Raigad) - Varadavinayak temple
Pali (District Raigad) - Ballaleshwar temple
Ranjangaon (District Pune) - Mahaganapati temple
Chinchwad MIDC - Hotel stay
Day 2:
Theoor (District Pune) - Chintamani Ganapati temple
Siddhatek (District Nagar) - Siddhivinayak temple
Morgaon (District Pune) - Moreshwar temple
Jejuri (District Pune) - Khadoba temple
Prati-Balaji temple near Pune (Ketkawle)
Back to Hotel
Day 3:
Ozar - Vighneshwar temple
Lenyadri - Girijatmaj temple
Back to Mumbai
I was looking for a simple non-AC bus with non-AC rooms. Who in their right minds would like an AC in winter season? Apparently a lot of denizens of Mumbai are not in their right minds. For they called me at the last minute to inform me that I can have a non-AC room – no issue. But they did not have enough patrons for a non-AC bus. I would have to switch to an AC bus package. I had no say in this matter because by then most other tours were sold out. It was an extended weekend, with 25th Dec being a Christmas holiday. I was banking on that while planning this trip. Friday-Saturday-Sunday tour and Monday (25th) reserved for rest. So I settled for whatever they were offering.
I have had a previous tour with this firm. Our trip was quite satisfactory at that time. Except for the hotel. This time the hotel was better, but the rest of the things were not up to the mark. Previously they would carry a cook, cooking utensils, stove and gas cylinder and foodstuff along with them on the bus itself. Everytime we took a halt for lunch or breakfast, they used to cook and provide the food to us. The food was quite good. Even dinner was prepared by their own cook at the hotel where we stayed at the time.
This time though, they did not carry any cook or cooking ingredients and utensils. Which is good, because is it really safe to carry a gas cylinder with you on a bus ride? But then, the food was arranged at the local hotels where we took a halt for lunch or breakfast. Some of the meals were good, some not up to the mark. The dinner was offered by the hotel where we stayed. It was strictly ok.
We stayed at Saptaruchi hotel in Chinchwad MIDC area.
The hotel room was ok - certainly an improvement over the one where we has stayed during our previous trip.
The food was not so good on Day 1 and strictly ok on day 2.
They have Solar heaters and claim 24 hours hot water. Which is a myth. You will probably get hot water throughout the day and even before retiring to bed. But the nights are cold this time of the year. And not a drop of hot water can be found early in the morning, when you need to leave for the tour. Of course, the hotel did provide hot water in tubs on calling the reception.
Mosquitoes can wrack havoc on your sleep. We suffered sleepless nights swatting away mosquitoes during our previous trip. But fortunately, this time, it being winter, we could get away with always keeping the windows locked - thus saving ourselves from the mosquito menace. Prefer an AC room if you plan to take such tours during Summer or Monsoon. If, like us, you cannot stand AC, then better carry an arsenal of mosquito repellents.
The success of any tour depends on how punctual all the passengers are. And a bit of luck of course. In our tour, almost everyone was quite punctual. And we were quite lucky to start off our 3 day tour on Friday instead of on Saturday. Monday being a holiday, many people had booked for Saturday-Sunday-Monday tours. And we heard and read horror stories of passengers stuck in extra-weekend traffic and/or in the very lengthy and very crowded darshan queues. Prefer to take such tours during normal days, and not on extended weekends.
There is a reason why the tours start off so early in the morning. There is a lot of ground to cover and any number of things can slow you down. But getting up early, sleeping late, eating oily and spicy food at odd times, all of these can mess up your digestion pretty bad. Be sure to carry any medicines or foodstuffs that help you relieve acidity and digestion problems.
The queues can be quite long sometimes. Some temples, like the Girijatmaj temple at Lenyadri may demand a strenuous climbing effort. Even sitting too long on a jerky bus ride can cause back-ache. Ensure you carry pain-relieving medications if you need any.
Ensure you relieve your bladder every opportunity you get - especially during Winter. Some rides can take longer than expected and there may not be any rest stops in between. I have included details about restroom availability near each temple.
During your Hotel stay, prefer not to give your key for room cleaning. Tour guides do a good job but they are not infallible. And the hotel staff can sometimes mess up your reservations. When we returned on day 2, some of the rooms had been allocated to other guests and the luggage and stuff belonging to people from our group had been unceremoniously dumped outside. There was a big row and it took a couple of hours of haggling before things got sorted out. It can be really aggravating to return from a tired and long trip only to encounter such unnecessary problems. So keep the key with you if you don't mind coming back to a lived-in room.
And a final word of caution. The tour entirely depends on the punctuality of all members and on luck. But nothing is guaranteed. If it takes you too long in one temple, the others may get cancelled. During our tour, we could not visit Jejuri due to time constraints. be mentally prepared for such eventualities.
All right, enough of the instructions and guideline. Let the tour begin!
The day starts!
Dec 22
I am staring at the alarm which says 3:30 am, and wondering why the tours have to start off at such unearthly hours? The alarm clock has no answer. So I reluctantly leave the sweet embrace of sleep in order to get ready.
5:00 pm reporting time.
Left home at 5:30.
Walked to Ratna.
The damned bus arrived at 6:00.
A prime example of Indian punctuality.
Seats allotted 19-20. Its a big bus, so I assumed the seats would be somewhere in the middle. Fat chance - they are bang above the rear tyre. This, even after requesting for a good seat in the middle of the bus. So much for customer satisfaction. The seat numbers can be deceptive. The first 3 rows of the bus were numbered using alphabets. What did they use - the hexadecimal system for numbering? No wonder the seats 19 and 20 were towards the rear. What a ripoff.
The bus driver must have been blind because he never slowed down at potholes or speed breakers. Or maybe he played Road Rash too much? Whatever the case, sitting in the back of the bus, we could feel every contour in the road on our backsides. Now my spine knows exactly how the seismograph must feel during a Richter 10 quake.
The AC vent was right above my head, making my arid head fell like a windswept Antarctic landscape. Good thing we carried my jacket with the hood.
Too cold and jerked about, I finally wrote a premature one-star bad review on google.
We took a halt at Dadar. There was a public toilet just outside, beside our halt point. We used it to relive early morning traumatic bladder. The gents toilet is free of charge. But not so the ladies toilet. The ladies toilet person charges 5 rs for keeping the toilet unclean and ugly - a not-so-silent testimonial to Swaccha Bharat Abhiyaan.
It took about 9:00 am to clear Mumbai after all the pickups.
Today's Itinerary was: Mahad, Pali, Ranjangaon
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