3 posts in 2 days.... I'm spoiling you!
Today was the second of a 2day 'off' period. Yesterday Jessica and I just chilled for the whole day, watched a couple of movies, made a couple of skype calls, swam, slept etc.
So we felt that today we should at least do something slightly proactive, and therefore decided to visit Parvati Hill. We drove past this hill the other day when Jen took us all for an early morning walk through the woods, and everyone recommended it to us as a nice place to visit. There were no rickshaws to be found on the road immediately outside Sangam, so we wandered along enjoying the morning warmth until an empty one finally pulled up with the assumption (correct, this time) that we'd like him to take us somewhere.
The ride to Parvati Hill took about 25minutes through heavy traffic (it's Diwali, we think this was the reason for more traffic than usual and the lack of empty rickshaws), and cost just over £1.
Parvati hill is quite high, and has what everyone calls 'elephant steps' paved up it. They are indeed huge, and trick you into thinking the slope isn't quite as steep as it actually is, because every few paces you take a step up. We walked for maybe 10minutes, dodging small children, goats and rangoli designs, before reaching the temple at the top. There was the most amazing rangoli there - the biggest and thickest we'd seen and it was a really lovely sight at the end of our hill trudging. But there was more!
We started by paying our 10rupees to go into a museum about Maharashtra; there were old chariots, some weapons, coins, plates etc. Most of the information was only in Hindi and not translated to English, but we enjoyed it anyway. Then we wandered to the left and discovered more rangoli, and a beautiful temple in pastel colours, with pictures from hindu stories painted into the alcoves of the walls around the edge.
Next, we walked towards the amazing sight of an even bigger temple, which had obviously been recently repainted; orange and red! It was stunning, and surrounded by walls which were obviously really old - the bricks reminded me of pictures of Ankor Wat.
When we'd finished marvelling at that, we turned around and spotted more golden domes at the opposite side of the hill top, so headed that way. This was the main Parvati temple complex, and covered a much bigger area. It had a high wall all around it, which you could walk around for the price of 5rupees, so of course we paid, and carefully climbed the steps, acknowledging the sign which warned us we were doing so at our own risk because the temple was protected and authorities could therefore not fit safety railings! The views from here were spectacular, and we spent some time being amazed at the size of Pune, and also wondering whether we could work out what direction Sangam was in. Although Jessica and I have already started to refer to this place as 'home' rather than 'Sangam', which is great because it means I'm starting to feel settled!
Having exhausted ourselves taking photographs of and from the temple walls, we made our way back down the hill, and as it was still quite early, we caught a rickshaw to nearby Saras Baugh, which is a park with a little lake that Aleia had mentioned to us at breakfast. It was very pretty, and I can see myself using it as a calm peaceful reading spot away from Sangam on days off in the future! A walk around there led us back to a rickshaw and a bumpy journey home (see!), and then we had an hours' rest before lunch. The rest of the day has been pretty chilled, and ended with a nighttime swim which was fun :)
So that's it - you're finally totally up to date. Jessica managed to remember a lot of the things that I wanted to blog about, and beat me to it, so I'd like to suggest that you check out her most recent entry. Numbers 5,7 and 9 were definitely things that I'd wanted to mention, and the rest is all relevant as well!
It's back to work tomorrow with video training and a visit to one of our community partners included - busy busy as always! So until the next time,
TTFN!
Today was the second of a 2day 'off' period. Yesterday Jessica and I just chilled for the whole day, watched a couple of movies, made a couple of skype calls, swam, slept etc.
So we felt that today we should at least do something slightly proactive, and therefore decided to visit Parvati Hill. We drove past this hill the other day when Jen took us all for an early morning walk through the woods, and everyone recommended it to us as a nice place to visit. There were no rickshaws to be found on the road immediately outside Sangam, so we wandered along enjoying the morning warmth until an empty one finally pulled up with the assumption (correct, this time) that we'd like him to take us somewhere.
The ride to Parvati Hill took about 25minutes through heavy traffic (it's Diwali, we think this was the reason for more traffic than usual and the lack of empty rickshaws), and cost just over £1.
Parvati hill is quite high, and has what everyone calls 'elephant steps' paved up it. They are indeed huge, and trick you into thinking the slope isn't quite as steep as it actually is, because every few paces you take a step up. We walked for maybe 10minutes, dodging small children, goats and rangoli designs, before reaching the temple at the top. There was the most amazing rangoli there - the biggest and thickest we'd seen and it was a really lovely sight at the end of our hill trudging. But there was more!
We started by paying our 10rupees to go into a museum about Maharashtra; there were old chariots, some weapons, coins, plates etc. Most of the information was only in Hindi and not translated to English, but we enjoyed it anyway. Then we wandered to the left and discovered more rangoli, and a beautiful temple in pastel colours, with pictures from hindu stories painted into the alcoves of the walls around the edge.
Next, we walked towards the amazing sight of an even bigger temple, which had obviously been recently repainted; orange and red! It was stunning, and surrounded by walls which were obviously really old - the bricks reminded me of pictures of Ankor Wat.
When we'd finished marvelling at that, we turned around and spotted more golden domes at the opposite side of the hill top, so headed that way. This was the main Parvati temple complex, and covered a much bigger area. It had a high wall all around it, which you could walk around for the price of 5rupees, so of course we paid, and carefully climbed the steps, acknowledging the sign which warned us we were doing so at our own risk because the temple was protected and authorities could therefore not fit safety railings! The views from here were spectacular, and we spent some time being amazed at the size of Pune, and also wondering whether we could work out what direction Sangam was in. Although Jessica and I have already started to refer to this place as 'home' rather than 'Sangam', which is great because it means I'm starting to feel settled!
Having exhausted ourselves taking photographs of and from the temple walls, we made our way back down the hill, and as it was still quite early, we caught a rickshaw to nearby Saras Baugh, which is a park with a little lake that Aleia had mentioned to us at breakfast. It was very pretty, and I can see myself using it as a calm peaceful reading spot away from Sangam on days off in the future! A walk around there led us back to a rickshaw and a bumpy journey home (see!), and then we had an hours' rest before lunch. The rest of the day has been pretty chilled, and ended with a nighttime swim which was fun :)
So that's it - you're finally totally up to date. Jessica managed to remember a lot of the things that I wanted to blog about, and beat me to it, so I'd like to suggest that you check out her most recent entry. Numbers 5,7 and 9 were definitely things that I'd wanted to mention, and the rest is all relevant as well!
It's back to work tomorrow with video training and a visit to one of our community partners included - busy busy as always! So until the next time,
TTFN!
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