Delhi - Mumbai - Shirdi - Pune - Mahabaleshwar - Delhi Trip (August 2011)


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Monsoon trip to Maharashtra (August2011): Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Trimbakeshwar–Pune-Bhimashankar-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi

Trip stats

Start date: 13-08-2011 (Saturday)
End date: 20-08-2011 (Saturday)
Total number of days: 7
Mode of journey: Train and Private taxi

Trip Itinerary

Day1: Delhi to Mumbai Central by train
Day2: Local site seeing in Mumbai by private taxi
Day3: Mumbai to Trimbakeshwar to Shirdi by private taxi
Day4: Shirdi to Pune by private taxi
Day5: Pune to Mahabaleshwar to Pune by private taxi
Day6: Pune to Bhimashankar temple to Pune by private taxi
Day7: Pune to Delhi by Duronto Express by private taxi

Accommodations

Central government guest houses at Mumbai and Pune, Hotel Shanti Kamal at Shirdi

Travelers

Me, My wife, Father-In-law, Mother-In-Law, Sister-In-law

Today I thought why not to share my above travel details with fellow members and readers, so here goes our basic purpose of above journey was to visit Shirdi Sai baba, booked train tickets well in advance and a known tour operator booked Innova for Rs. 12/KM for our rest of journey.

Day1: Delhi to Mumbai

We boarded Mumbai Rajdhani from New Delhi train started at 4:40PM on time; journey was quite smooth and fast all meals are served well and completed the dinner by 8:00PM.

Day2: Mumbai Local Site Seeing

Reached Mumbai at 8:45AM our pre booked taxi was waiting outside takes us to our guest house in no time, got freshen up and had coffee, started our local site seeing around 12 noon, thank god weather was good that day we encountered little bit of rain only, we are able to cover Juhu beach, Gateway of India, Marine drive and Haji Ali dargah only as we all visited Mumbai numerous times in past so nothing new for us just roamed around and enjoyed Mumbai.

Please find below the pics of day-2 of local Mumbai site seeing:

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Mr. Ambani's Home

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Toll Plaza at Bandra-Worli sea link

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View of Mumbai from Bandra-Worli sea link

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View of Mumbai at start of Bandra-Worli sea link

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Bandra-Worli sea link after Toll Plaza

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Bandra-Worli sea link

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Bandra-Worli sea link

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Haji Ali dargah visited in evening
 
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Thread Starter #2
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Re: Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi trip (August2011)

Day-2 Pics contd...

Pics contd of local Mumbai site seeing:


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Above pics are clicked at Juhu beach

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Above pics are clicked near Bandra-Worli sea link

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Taj Hotel

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View from Gateway of India

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Chariot ride at Gateway of India
 
Thread Starter #3
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Re: Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi trip (August2011)

Day-2 Pics contd...

Pics contd of local Mumbai site seeing:

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Evening shots of Hotel Taj

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Gateway of India

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Boat ride at Gateway of India

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Evening shot of Marine drive
 
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Re: Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi trip (August2011)

Good decision there not driving all along from delhi.
But it would have been better had you hired a car (read you hired a black &yellow taxi) from mumbai.
Waiting for further pictures and stories.
 
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Re: Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi trip (August2011)

Good decision there not driving all along from delhi.
But it would have been better had you hired a car (read you hired a black &yellow taxi) from mumbai.
Waiting for further pictures and stories.
You are not surprised to hear that i had done the same trip in wagon-r next year after my 24hrs nonstop drive to Pune. Just that i lost pics so not able to post my log.

We hired Innova from day we reached Mumbai, i called Innova a taxi hope this clarifies your doubt.

Thanks for your support Superbad will post more pics soon.
 
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Re: Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi trip (August2011)

Ya. I thought so hence the brackets.
Since your travelogue had parts of mah to cover i thought it by that way.
If your travel had a stopover say at rajasthan,guj and so on then driving all the way would have made sense.
One would not feel tired with the long distance driving since during train travel you could get enough rest.
i suggest next time travel along the konkan coastline. You would love to drive along Mum-goa route.
 
Thread Starter #7
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Re: Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi trip (August2011)

One would not feel tired with the long distance driving since during train travel you could get enough rest.
Yep i almost gave night drives and hardly likes to drive more than 10hrs in a day, on my second Maharashtra trip in my wagon-R i stopped midway after Udaipur and on return journey from Pune to Delhi i stopped around Himmatnagar which makes my my life easy on this trip.

i suggest next time travel along the konkan coastline. You would love to drive along Mum-goa route.
You are right Konkan coastline is very beautiful yet to drive on this route in my own car, nowadays i am preoccupied with North.
 
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Re: Delhi-Mumbai-Shirdi-Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Delhi trip (August2011)

Nicely written buddy and very nice pictures. Really liked the Worli sea link.
 
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Day3

Mumbai-Trimbakeshwar–Shirdi

Started our Journey from Mumbai to Shirdi by 6:00AM and planned to visit Trimbakeshwar temple near Nashik en route. Maharashtra looked awesome in monsoon view was quite scenic with occasional heavy rain, journey was quite fast paced.

little we know that Sawaan is still going on in Maharashtra and on top of that its third Monday which considered quite auspicious by locals, so there was unprecedented rush over there at temple with continuous rain no private vehicle was allowed within 5KM (approx) of temple, somehow manage to get parking for our hired Innova and boarded the bus for Trimbakeshwar temple. There was very long queue outside the temple and our number came after four hours but it’s worth every wait.

After our temple visit we headed for Shirdi and able to reach our hotel Shanti Kamal by 9:00PM in the evening, hotel is located on main road but little away from main temple rooms were small but clean had our dinner outside.

Please find below the pics of Day3 from Mumbai-Trimbakeshwar–Shirdi


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Sorry for the pics quality most of pics was taken from my mobile which got poor camera.
 
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Day-4

Shirdi-Pune

Manage to wake up by 8:00AM, had darshan of Sai baba by 12:00 Noon and started our journey for Pune after 2:00PM, roads are in good condition with less traffic able to reach at Pune guest house by 7:00PM had a tea break en route.

Not much to click today, find below couples of pics from our tea break time:


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Thread Starter #12
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Day-5

Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Pune

Started from Pune around 8:30AM, no rain as of now roads were in good condition drive was quick and fast paced, stopped at Mc’ Donald for breakfast en route. All view points are not open in monsoon due to heavy cloud formation near them visited available points had our lunch in main market, tourist guides are available at nominal charges 200-300 rates are fixed, they also have ID card it’s better to hire tourist guide which saves your lots of time also you will not miss any point.

Returned Pune by 9:00PM taken a tea break en route.

Please find below the pics of Day-5 from our Pune-Mahabaleshwar trip:


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Day-6

Pune-Bhimashankar-Pune

Started early from Pune for Bhimashankar second jyotirlinga of our this trip after Trimbakeshwar, route was quite scenic with occasional heavy rain en route, roads are quite good throughout.

Unlike Trimbakeshwar temple it was less crowded with devotees after successful darshan we headed straight to Pune and manage to reach at our guest house by 7:00PM.

Please find below the Day-6 pics of our Pune-Bhimashankar-Pune trip:


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