Today is the start of the 10 day festival of Ganesh Chaturthi in Pune. I hope to be able to catch some of it on several days, take some nice pics and blog about it next week or so.
Pretty Imperial versus Welcoming Westin
We came back last night from a trip to Delhi, Agra and Chandigarh. A very enjoyable trip, from which I will report to you in a number of posts during the following days. I want to start of with our hotel in Delhi: We stayed 4 nights @TheImperial Hotel in Delhi. My expectations were high, […]
Pune, part 14: pimp my ride
So I like to recycle, upcycle, downcycle, decorate, beautify aka pimp or pimpify, as I call it jokingly. I tend to put flowers, glitter, decorations and so on on everything. Be it my bike, my car, my house, my garden….whatever. Not surprising that I love to see that also when done by others. In principle […]
Pune, part 13: Vishrambaug Wada
Vishrambaag Wada is described at Wikipedia as “a fine mansion” situated at central Pune’s Thorale Bajirao Road. It was the luxurious residence of Peshwa Bajirao II, the last Peshwa of Maratha confederacy, in early seventeenth century. The same one that built Shaniwar Wada and that I showed you on a picture: the horse rider statue. […]
Pune, part 12: Punakars
So far I have not seen many other white people in Pune. Yes, of course, in our hotel, which is an international 5 star hotel, we do see people from everywhere. But in town….not so much. We see mainly Punakars, I presume, or at least Indians. Here are some pictures: Reading or sleeping in a […]
Pune, part 11: Shaniwar Wada; the palace fort
Shaniwarwada is a palace fort, built in 1746. It was the seat of the Peshwa rulers of the Maratha Empire until 1818 when the Peshwas surrendered to the British. The fort itself was largely destroyed in 1828 by an unexplained fire, but the surviving structures are now maintained as a tourist site. It must have been […]
Pune, part 10: Central Pune’s architecture
Walking through Central Pune, the area of the Peths (neighborhoods) and Wadas (court yarded houses), you see quite a lot of nice architecture. Or maybe I should say: “…what obviously once used to be beautiful architecture…”. Since practically everything seems in some state of (urban) decay and neglect. For photographic reasons I see the charm […]
Pune, part 9: Mahatma Pule Mandai vegetable market
Mandai, officially known as Mahathma Phule Mandai, is the biggest vegetable market in Pune City. It is located in heart of Pune in Shukrawar Peth area. The market has eight entrances and is located next to Tulsi Baugh which is another big market in Pune.Along with vegetables one can also get fruits and articles for Pooja (Hindu worship). This market was built […]
Pune, part 8: business in Central Pune’s peths
I promised you architecture today, but had a change of heart;-). Today I show you what you see when walking through the hustle and bustle of Central Pune’s peth’s. Peth is a general term, in the Marathi language, for a locality in the Indian city of Pune. Most of Pune’s originally 17 peths were established in the […]
Exploring Central Pune, India, part 7
OK, enough about the hotel, about the sky and about music…let’s explore Pune. I took the autorikshaw to go from the hotel to the oldest part of town, Central Pune. These autorikshaws are quite low, especially for a tall european like myself, so you can not sit up straight. And if you like to look […]