My Pune Trip !!

Well.. let me tell you what I was expecting from the trip !! A ride on the Pune Express highway was what I was expecting !! I had heard too much about the highway to take it lightly. But junta here told me too high a price for a trip on that highway.. and deciding that it wasn't worth 300-400 bucks.. I decided to go by train itself. I started at 16.30  (on 14th July 2006) from IIT Powai and took the train at 18.00 from Dadar. The train slowly chugged along and reached Kalyan at 19.00.. and I am like .. "What the hell ? !!" I had reached Karjat in an hour from Dadar the previous Sunday. But the good news was that I got a seat at Kalyan (where some n junta boarded the train and it became really crowded)

    Got down at Pune at 22.00 and the worst part was that I had spent 65 bucks to come to Pune from Mumbai and was going to spend a 100 to just go to my Perima's place in Pune from the station !! Sadly I saw a 100 bucks fly out of my pocket. I would have waited for buses had it been my house.. but it was Perima's house.. and I didn't want to keep her awake too long. Actually I prefer buses in a new place bcos of 2 reasons.. One it keeps stopping at many places.. whie the conductor keeps shouting the bus stops and thus I get to know more about the place.. and the more important and obvious reason being.. the economy of bus fares.

  Finally I saw my Perima after 12 years... and my cousin and his wife popped in after an hour. I had a good meal and slept. The description of events on Saturday (which included a visit to a bowling arena and a Pub !!) would require another blog.

  Finally I started my journey back to Mumbai on Sunday at 11.30 am. The best way to come to Mumbai from Pune is to go to the Asiad bus stand and buy tickets there. There's a bus every 15 mins and if you take the deluxe buses (which cost 155 bucks btw), they are only half full most of the times.

   Now for the ride.. It was pleasant.. My only crib was that I didn't see any highway for atleast an hour from Pune. I started to think about VP's brother's marriage that I was supposed to be at in Chennai. I had missed it only bcos of my project which didn't seem to be going anywhere. Soon my thoughts were taken over by the toll gate that I saw after Dehu road.. Whoah..!! They charge a cool 120 bucks for a car and around 300 bucks for a bus !! Pple say it saves you 2 hours on the highway and the savings you make on the Petrol and more than enough to justify that charge.  !! Whatever.. it didn't matter much to me .. atleast not at the present.
    
 It stopped for a while near the place where people going to Lonavla were supposed to break off from the highway. Had my lunch of 2 Vada Pav there.

    Now sit back and enjoy the photos I took on the highway..!!

  

  

    

 

I would have loved to be on that highway for some more time.. but alas.. Mumbai beckons..and by 15.30 I was at Dadar. And I had almost forgot that I had to visit Kmap on Sunday. I called him and went to his house. Lotsa photos there too.. but.. that would require another blog !!