European amusement park in Pune

We saw there was a European Amusement park in Pune, combined with a replica of the Taj Mahal. Just having seen the real Taj Mahal, this temporary attraction in Pune intrigued me. So we decided to pay it a visit, just for fun... Our expectations were not very high.

The use of the word european as a recommendation is more seen in India, like in Singapore Korean is a good recommendation. Funny!

And look, there was also an indoor ice skating ring; wow!

"Pay there...". Where? No idea...

Then we saw a hand through one of the small holes in the wall....ah...THERE!

Let's first check out the replica of the Taj Mahal:

Green fabric makes grass fields, red fabric makes red clay earth pathways;-).
Even the ponds have been copied...

And there is the Taj, let's have a closer look.

Ok, made from sort of triplex material. Here and there literally held together with scotch tape.

Looking back to the entrance that is made as a replica as well. Yes, I recognise it clearly.

It looked very amateuristic and poorly done, yet I had to smile, since it was endearing as well.

And it DID resemble, in a rough way... Judge for yourself by looking at my pics of the real Taj in my previous post!

So how about the european amusement park?

There was a merchandise part, there were some drinks and foods to get, there was the ice skating hall and of course "the attractions".

Let's first look at the shopping section:

Carpets, curtains or bedsheets anyone?

There was fashion, jewelry, handbags, shoes...Household items and what not...

...magic tricks for sale...

...bangles..LOTS of bangles... I bought a set of two; very nice.

This stall sold dresses and outfits for deities in various sizes.

From S to XL. I bought some small items here.

Teeny tiny turbans for small statues.

My suitcase is stuffed already, otherwise I would have bought the ganesha mask and the monkey mask.

Ofcourse there was candy floss!!!

Foodstall decorated with jalapeños.

Pizza-joint;-)

Look at these fab prizes! Clocks in sailboats and other stuff you always dreamed about;-).

The ice skating ring was in a quite dark tent, so I have no pics of that, but here are......The Attractions:

Well, it  doesn't look bad, does it?

There were a couple of larger 'rides', like these.

It was not clear to us what the european aspect was of it all. Maybe it was a left-over park from the fifties in europe?

The roller coaster was not functioning. They seemed to be trying to fix it.
Not the most glam roller coaster I have seen;-).

This very nice vintage swing thing seemed out of order as well and here too they were trying to fix it.

I loooove the look of this swing!

Then there were the rides for the little ones:

This mini-merry-go-round was hand-pushed by this guy.

Aaand...pushshshsh!

The following  two attractions were slightly bigger then the mini-merry-go-round and they were motorized.

The contrast between the 'fun' attractions and the sadness and desolation of it all intrigued me.

Anyway, the visitors and children seemed to enjoy themselves, and in a strange way I did too.

The Ganesh celebrations are going on these days, so tomorrow I will blog about that. Have a nice day!