Hongkong sojourns

Hey friends,

It's been quite some time since I wrote any blogs...The simple reason being want of time.Today I will take you all to Hongkong which is not only home to the world's Fortune 500 companies but also a wonderful holiday destination. It also has a wonderful climate all round the year, has wonderful island's close by and Macau is within a 1.5 hour cruise ride from here. In this blog, I will provide you with exclusive insights as an Indian whose stayed in HongKong for a brief period of time

Buy an Octopus card as soon as you land in HongKong, You can recharge it at every MTR station, Nine-Eleven stores and many other places.

Places to go :- Ocean Park, Disney Land, The Peak, Avenue of stars, Ladies market, Temple street market, Lan Kwai Fong, Big Buddha and Po Lin monastery, symphony of lights, Ritz Carlton etc.

Do not forget to go to the Sky-100 an obsevration deck on the 100th floor in one of the tallest buildings in Hongkong

HongKong is a series of islands connected by series of underwater tunnels - for roads as well as the MTR. It's a city built with a great amount of planning. Borrowing my colleague's adage which states, " It's basically two cities - one on top of the other". Obviously he was referring to the amazing MTR network which seamlessly helps you cover more than 100 km in less than 30 minutes. While travelling in MTR, be careful to not jump the queue. HongKong natives are extremely polite and I have seen old people give up their seats for the more deserving ones like pregnant woman, disabled etc.  

Vegetarians may have a tough time in HongKong, as white meat is considered as vegetarian here. Walk in to a Mc' Donalds outlet and they would serve you Fish / Egg burgers if you ask for a vegetarian meal. If you are Indian vegetarians, it is preferable to stay somewhere close to Tsim Tsa Tsui. Here you will find a wide variety of Indian foods - both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Additionally, there are a lot of Indian stores here as well- selling ready to cook meals, SIM cards, currency exchange etc.

While most Indians spend considerable amount of time shopping cheap stuff at the ladies market and Temple street market, it is important to be cautious with your valuables. The lanes are narrow with heavy crowds in the evening. It is possible that your wallets / phones may get flicked if you are not careful enough. While bargaining is allowed at these places, do not bargain too much or get into arguments. Just walk away if the atmosphere does not look favorable for you.On the plus side, you will find some very good leather stuff, electronics etc owing to HongKong's proximity with Shenzhen which connects HongKong to mainland China. There will be people selling you Iphones at a very cheap cost. These people are basically trying to rip you by selling you an Iphone look-alike Android powered phone. Do not fall into their trap.

You can also head to Macau which is at a 1.5 hour journey from HongKong. Head to Central - ferry terminal and catch the Turbo Jet from there. Macau is beautiful and has eye -popping casinos, cathedrals, museums which can keep you completely occupied. You may also do bungee jumping, sky walking etc. from the Macau tower.

So that's my 50 cents for you and hope that you have a great trip. Please share your comments/ queries in the comments section and I will try my best to resolve them

AshtaVinayaka Darshan - Shortest route from Mumbai itinerary

Hey fellow Ganesha devotees,

I have been to Ashtavinayak yatra couple of times, one as recent as Feb’2017.   

The thought of writing a blog was inspired by my desire to help fellow devotees on the best possible shortest route to cover the entire trip.

On my recent trip, I saw lots of people asking the locals questions like what should be the next stop, what are the available lodging options etc.Answers to these questions may differ basis your mode of commute, duration of your trip etc. I sincerely hope my blog proves useful for you to plan the AshtavInyak trip in a smooth and timely manner. May the supreme divine power bless you with all the wishes that you seek..!! 

Ganapati Bappa Morya!! 

Few important points to remember:-

 To complete the Ashtavinayak circuit, it’s important to come back to the 1st Ganesh temple you visited after finishing the rest

• While all Ashtavinayak temples are open till 10 PM, Lenyadri closes at 6 PM since its located in a cave (without lights).
• From Mumbai, the last CNG pump is in Chakan MIDC area.
  
  
• The shastras have defined a specific sequence for Ashtavinayak yatra. They are 1) Shree Mayureshwar – Morgaon 2. Shree Siddhivinayak – Siddhatek 3. Shree Ballaleshwar – Pali 4. Shree Varad Vinayaka– Mahad, 5. Shree Chintamani – Theur 6. Shree Girijatmaj- Lenyadri 7. Shree Vighneshwar – Ozar 8. Shree Mahaganpati – Ranjangaon 9. Back to Morgaon for completion of the Ashtavinayak Darshan circuit. 

While this circuit can be done if you are centered/ based in Pune, it can be an extremely tiring journey if you are attempting this circuit from Mumbai. Since I am based out of Mumbai, my itinerary was custom made based on the least travel required to complete the journey. 

My constant travel companion on almost all my road trips is my wife and this one was no different. My preferred mode of travel is my Toyota Etios which also has a CNG sequential kit thereby making all the trips really economical.

Day One- Varad Vinayaka (Mahad)  

We left from Mumbai around 9.30 AM and being a Friday there was some amount of traffic on the roads. (We left a little late to avoid the crowd fully knowing that all Ashtavinayak trips originating from Mumbai usually follow the same routine for the 1st two temples).

We reached Mahad around 12 PM post sipping some coffee from the Mc Donalds at Kalamboli. While the road directions are different, you can drive down the expressway and take the Imagica exit (Khopoli). Once you take the left turn, drive straight for 2-3 km. and then take a small left turn. This turn will lead you right till the village where the temple is located. The temple is a 5 min. walk. Incidentally this is the only temple where the devotees are allowed right inside the temple sanctum and allowed to directly worship the idol. As predicted there were no queues and within 15 minutes we had finished our darshan here. We left Mahad at 12.30 PM and were now headed to Pali

Day One- Shree Ballaleshwar (Pali)  

This temple route passes right through Imagica and is a drive of roughly 40 km. from Mahad. The roads leading to Pali were by far the best roads on this entire trip. The lush green scenery and the pothole free roads are a visual and driving treat for any Mumbaikar. We reached Pali sharp at 1 PM and pilgrims can avail the free parking facility provided by the temple trust. Again, there were absolutely no queues and we finished our darshan of the Dhundi Vinayak and Ballaleshwar within the next 30 minutes. The absence of queues really help in spending some quality time with the lord (as the temple security is more lenient in allowing you to pray in front of the deity). Do not forget to take some Kandi pedas as Prasad on your way back.

 We decide to have lunch since it was 1.30 PM and we were hungry. A new restaurant had opened diagonally to the main entrance and the ambience seemed just right. (Pics attached - Vishnu Mauli). We reached back to the Khopoli toll entrance by 2.45 PM (30 min lunch and 45 min for the drive back till the toll plaza). We were now on our way towards Junnar.

Hotel pic

Day One- Shree Girijatmaj (Lenyadri)  

We covered the Pune expressway real quick and reached the Chakan exit by 3.30 PM. We were conscious about reaching the temple prior 6 PM. A quick look and realized that the roads (which were being built on our last visit) was ready and we could maintain a good speed. Finally, we managed to reach the temple parking lot by 5.45 PM. This is also the 1st temple on day one to charge a small parking and entrance fee. You have to roughly climb 200 steep steps to reach this temple. Make sure to carry some bottled water as there are no hawkers on the way–up to the temple and you will definitely feel thirsty. We finished our darshan quickly and reached back at the parking lot by 6.30 PM. 

Day One- Shree Vignahar (Ozar)  

Getting to Lenyadri on time was the only stress factor and we were slightly relaxed by now. We had been to Ozar couple of times earlier as well and it was like 2nd home for us. Now Ozar for the urban travelers, can be the quaint village hamlet right out of your favorite novels. It is situated on the banks of river Kukadi, is very peaceful and the people staying here are extremely humble.

We reached Ozar and checked in to our favorite hotel here (Arya regency) by 7.30 PM. We had a relaxing shower and decided to have a quick darshan of the deity here prior having our dinner. The temple is a 5 min. walk from the hotel and the darshan was completed within the next 15 minutes. We had our dinner at the Arya restaurant by 8.45 PM (the Pakodas, vada pav’s here are a must try). Tired of the journey, we retired to bed by 10 PM and woke up only around 8 AM the next day

 

Day Two- Shree Mahaganpati (Ranjangaon)  

We decided to have another round of darshan at Ozar considering it was not crowded. Post our sumptuous breakfast, we left Ozar around 11 AM. Our next stop was Ranjangaon which was at a distance of 65 km (drive of around 2 hours).  We decided to take the shortest route suggested by Google Maps. However this route turned out to be a disaster – as the roads were not good and it was a single lane (narrow road). We reached Ranjangaon on the anticipated schedule i.e. 1 PM sharp.

Owing to a delayed and relaxing start, we decided to quickly finish our darshan. There was some amount of queue at the temple (assuming it was a Saturday and this placed is close to Pune), but the darshan was complete in about 30 minutes. Since we already knew there were no places to eat lunch / snacks at Siddhatek, we decided to have a quick lunch here. The food turned out to be quite good (Rotis, dal and Bhindi fry). We left Ranjangaon by 2.30 PM

Day Two- Shree Siddhivinayak (Siddhatek)  

While this time too, Google Maps showed us a shorter route (13 km less) we decided to stick to the state highway route. This was a good decision as we were able to cover the distance faster owing to the superior quality of roads. Siddhatek is a remote village near Daund and it’s the least commercialized place of all Ashtavinayak places. Hence you will not see any good restaurants or hotels to stay at this place. But you can definitely have the yummy sugarcane juices and fruits like guavas, bananas to your heart’s content here.  We reached here by 3.45 PM and to our delight, there were no queues at all. We finished our darshan by 4 PM.

We left Siddhatek at 4.30 PM. and were headed straight to Morgaon

Day Two- Shree Mayureshwar (Morgaon)  

Siddhatek to Morgaon is a distance of around 74 km. We reached Morgaon by 6 PM. The quality of roads increased drastically once we were in Baramati. We parked our vehicle in the parking lot and decided to complete our darshan before deciding the next course of action. (Phew. let me come to that later). It was only a queue of around 20 -25 people and the darshan was complete by 6.30 PM. The last time we did Ashtavinayak was in the holy month of Shravan and every temple had a waiting time of at least 1 hour for the darshan. Things were pleasantly different this time around.  

Note that Jejuri is quite close to this temple (~12 km). I was unaware of its proximity on my 1st visit because of which I had to take an independent trip to Jejuri. Ensure you wear clothes appropriately as you would be completely yellow by the time you complete your Jejuri darshan (owing to the turmeric offering done here)

During our last Ashtavinayak trip we had planned to halt at Morgaon on the 2nd day, but since we had completed Morgaon darshan by 5 PM that time, we went to Theur and ended up booking an OYO room in Pune. This time, reaching Pune seemed difficult as we were not comfortable driving post sunset. We decided to look for options to spend the night at Morgaon. The first one was Arya Hotel on the Morgaon- Jejuri road. But this hotel seemed isolated (2 km away from the temple) and had a deserted feel to it. On our way back, we saw another hotel (Hotel Morya) right opposite the main temple entrance.

While we did not quite like the feel of the hotel, we were left with no choice as Theur did not have any hotels in its vicinity and it would have been real late in the night by the time we reached Pune. This hotel was an average hotel, but we decided to stay here as it was really close to the temple. Few tips in case you are staying at this hotel 1) check the bed sheets carefully as we could find hair on the beds in our room. We insisted them to put a new bed sheet right in front of us 2) there is only one good quality restaurant in the vicinity which is diagonally opposite to this hotel. Note that they close at 8.30 PM and have a limited menu (We got the option of Puri bhaji and Misal Pav. We tried both, but the latter was really good) 3) both my laptop charger and Iphone charger got blown off owing to voltage fluctuations. My mistake was that I kept them plugged to the sockets after use. Since there were no switches accompanying the sockets, sudden surge in power (on current coming back) seemed to be the culprit. 4) While I was told the room price is 1200 Non AC / 1500 AC, another couple were quoted 1500 Non AC/ 2000 AC right in front of us.  Next day morning we again had a repeat darshan at 9 AM prior to our breakfast. Again, we completed our darshan in about 20 minutes time and left Morgaon by 10.30 AM.

Day Three- Shree Chintamani (Theur)  

Sunday morning and the roads were pleasantly empty. Morgaon to Theur is about 60 kms, however since this road partly lies in the Bangalore – Pune route we could drive at consistent high speeds. We reached Theur at 11.30 AM. Now, we could see a good amount of queue and I can definitely say that Theur was the longest queuing time for us on the entire trip. It took around 30 minutes for the queue and we had completed the darshan by 12.15 PM. Do not forget to have the most yummiest and sweet guavas sold by local women outside the temple. Though they are slightly expensive, they are really worth it. Also, you can bargain with them to give you a good deal in case you are buying 1 KG or more. 

On our way back, I had preplanned to meet a family friend at Khyber (Pimple Saudagar area in Pune) for lunch. We reached there by 1.45 PM (slightly delayed as lot of political processions were found on the road coz of Shivaji Jayanthi). We left Pune by 2.50 PM and reached the food court right before the Khalapur Toll plaza by 3.30 PM. Had a refreshing coffee break at Café Coffee day and took the exit to go to Varad Vinayak (Mahad) to complete the last leg of our journey.

N that's how our trip for this year was. May Lord Ganesha help us seek his blessings again and again

Thank you for reading my blog. Please feel free to post any questions not covered in my blog above and I will try to answer them to the best of my knowledge