Pages

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Dhakoba Trek

Dec'2013, we visited infamous trekking destination call Dhakoba. Name is bit weird but its named to honor the god who use to reside on that mountain peak. History says, eventually, statue of God Dhakoba was needed to move below the mountain peak due to daily to-fro journey for priest was difficult to worship the statue. Now, the Dhakoba temple is below the peak and any local who goes on peak has to remove their footwares before climbing the peak. It's said to be very much local rule and is still being followed by local peoples. Informarion given by local person Mr Damu Supe.

We were 5 guys: Mahendra, Duster-Parsi, SK, Aamly, Bharat-bhushan (Names here are used encrypted to avoid implications with real life people but still they know they are well mentioned here)

Well, coming back to how to plan, how to find the way and other details follows next :

We started rather we planned to start from Pune at 5am morning (well there was delay in start time due to SK :P ) . We started on Nashik road by 5.30am. Quick morning run to Narayangaov till 7 am around. We took nice breakfast (Kanda-Pohe), masala tea at stall outside bus stand on highway. Make sure you have healthy & light breakfast. Do NOT eat too much else you might need an extra stop before or while climbing those steep mountain peaks. Well, one of us - Bharat-bhushan needed an emergency stop for late morning nature's call. Sometimes tea/cigar or good nature could make the call if you didn't had it properly at home :P .

Following are the essentials to be carried for trip:-

1.       Water Bottles – 3 Litres per person compulsory.

2.       Towels + Shorts + Shoes + Sunglasses – Personal choice.

3.       Camera  - Must have

4.       Cap – Must Have

5.       Pay 500 Rs per person to SK, upfront. All the expenses would be done from this fund. (Well, 70Rs was left over after dinner/tea/breakfast)

6.       Glucose – If required.


Here map route from Pune http://goo.gl/maps/pTur6
We reached the base around 9am. Road from Junnar to Amboli 20 km patch is bad. It's under construction and will be ready in few days.

Park the vehicle near last mile-stone to village Amboli. If you notice there are two milestone at distance to 10meter. One indicating 21 km to reach Junnar while other have mark of 20km to Junnar. They got covered 1km in just 10 meter distance ;)

Walk straight as the rough footpath towards two mountains you see on left side. Note that, you won't see Dhakoba until you reach to almost 1/3 of the total trek. It's almost after 1 hour, you can see Dhakoba peak.

You have to follow footpaths on the way and guess your path. Safer way is to reach Dhakoba temple and them go to the peak.

We had small incidence with cattle group. One of us got the shouting sneeze! This disturbed the cattles. All of sudden, all of them charged on us. We were around 100meter away from them so it didn't create major problem. We kept out ground strong. It's important to NOT move around and run away. Bulls and cows kept staring at us from far. Place was rocky so cattle didn't dared to chase us down on rocky area. We took small way around to reach towards path. Eventually, Mr Damu Supe (We called him Supe mama or Supe uncle) saw us and recognized SK as he had visited the place twice before coming with us. Mama helped to make cattles go away. He also showed the path to Dhakoba peak and also joined us to come on the top.

You will see this lonely tree with its beautiful reflection is fighting for its place in pond :



Here are some pics we took at Dhakoba peak:



Beautiful view to mountains on center and right. You might see Harishchandragad if you are lucky to guess it properly and have clear weather. 

Water reservoirs on way down. This way is to climb the Dhakoba from Konkan side. Village Puli seen as base.


View towards fort Durg.


Comments welcome !

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Makarandgad Trek

Couple of weeks back, I visited the Fort Makarandgad.

We started the journey at 5.30 am from Pune. We were five guys in SUV so we had comfortable journey out from city. We preferred to bypass katraj ghat as ghat is shorter road and filled with morning rush of truck drivers struggling to push their vehicles in 30 degree slop.
By around 8am, we were near Nasarapur. Took a breakfast break at famous tappari hotel called "Shiram" . It was nice place to eat wada paav, misal and poha. We billed around 170/- for 5 guys. Place is pretty much crowded morning commuters. We left the place after our tummies filled up and couple of guys also attended morning nature's call.

We moved fast since then to reach Hatlot village on time. We managed to reach at Hatlot by 10.30 am. Got the place to park vehicle near village school. Village have good road and on daily basis only 2 buses visit the village and that's only to pick of students for school/college. Well, this also means that State Transport bus do NOT visit the village on Sunday so make sure you have transport before you plan your trek to this great fort.


Map: http://goo.gl/maps/7pcz8



View Larger Map


There is small foot path from base village Hatlot. Feel free to ask villagers about path if you are not sure.

Things to carry:
  1. raincoat / rain hat if visiting in rainy season
  2. Salt - NaCl This is good anti-agent for Leeches. Jungle is fully blood sucking Leeches. They are active after seeing heat around. It hard to notice them. Don't keep exposed body. Carry at least 100 gram of it.
  3. Full body covered cloths
  4. Water bottles
  5. Food item - Biscuits, light food, glucose. You may not get anything in Small village on top
  6. Pair of cloths. 
  7. Good Trekking Shoes
  8. Medicines if you have any known medical problem
  9. Knee caps if issue with knee pain.

Jungle is said to have Raan dukkars who tend to attack people. Keep making noise as you move. Always, keep moving as leeches will catch your feet if you stop for break.

Enjoy the view to village and small temple while on climbing the route. There are couple small plateaus where you can take stop for rest and allow team to move together.

There is nice sweet water pond on fort where you can fill up your water storage. Ghonaspur is small village have bare electricity supply and seasonal connectivity by road in summer. You can find families who can  provide lunch for a day. Enjoy the route, time and natural beauty.


Welcome comments for more details!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Relocation to do list

In last 1-2 years, i have got plenty of experience in relocating the home from various locations. Let's divide on type of relocation:
  1. Intra-city : Within city but changing area
  2. Inter-city / Intra-county: Changing the city but in same region/state
  3. Inter-county: Changing city, country and culture. You can call Oversea relocation.
Let's go in details on each type of relocation. I have indeed got experience of each of these.

First is Intra-city. This is not that difficult as it seems. Here is  items checklist here:
  1. Check new place where you are going to live. See that place is clean, locality is good to live. Most needed amenities are reachable distance. 
  2. Specially like a general store, dairy, shops, transport points, Bus stop or railway station availability, worst case late night travel availability and comfort.
  3. Make list of stuff you want to move and keep. Considering if you are leaving in rented place and it was furnished or semi furnished. You need to make sure your apartment owner won't raise issue for keeping empty flat unclean OR taking away extra stuff which do not belongs to you.
  4. Sizing: Measure large items like TV, Microwave, Bed, furniture, chairs, table, freeze to get exact size of transport you are looking for. You should be at conclusion if you need large truck, mini jeep, tempo kind of vehicle. Its sometimes affordable to have single small vehicle for longer duration and do couple of trips to transport stuff.
  5. Pay electricity, phone, internet, society, loundary bills  and ask for address change for utility bills. Most important is bank communications like debit card, credit card statements should be diverted to correct new address.
  6. Start planning couple of weeks before to arrange packers and movers to make sure you get things planned well before time instead getting in trouble at last moment.
  7. Don't worry about large item. Try to divide and conquer the problem. Normally large furniture items like bed and wardrobe can be dissembled and moved. 
  8. Feel free to call your friends and close one to help you out on such relocation. May be rented packers and movers are not as careful as your friends for any antique photo and statue you have. ;)

Inter-city relocation:

Well, things are little difficult here. Remote location availability and area has to be checked before moving. Here are some additional things you need consider:
Change address of communication asap for bank, credit card, other communications.
Arrange travel and transport
Look for initial days stay in city if permanent accommodation is not ready.


Inter-country relocation:



Relocation Map :
http://goo.gl/maps/ACJu9




View Larger Map

You can post more details here based on your experience!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Chateau of France

IMG_0814IMG_0813IMG_0818IMG_0815IMG_0800IMG_0777
IMG_0776IMG_0775IMG_0773IMG_0770IMG_0769IMG_0766
IMG_0765IMG_0774IMG_0753IMG_0739IMG_0742IMG_0747
IMG_0737IMG_0230IMG_0228IMG_0248IMG_0270IMG_0269

Chateau of France, a set on Flickr.

In 2011 pre-winter, I planned to visit Tours region. Its been always a dream to pass through Royal Palaces and places where Leonardo had spent his last few memorable years.

Here are pictures of my visit to Tours, Amboise and Valandary ... Beautiful Palaces covered with untouched snow!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

My iPhone and its bugs

Nothing is perfect. Its nature's rule but we can develop thing can be close to perfect.

People say Apple stuff is pretty perfect. Lets take example of iPhone - worlds dominant handset manufacturer and seller. Best in feature, app, look and usage. I see some of basic functionality are buggy here.

1. on iPhone4. iOS 5.
We use SMS messaging service as basic tool and way to communication.
Feature, group SMS.

I added some of my friends in sms "To" list.
Put some text.


If some of the text sms failed to deliver. It shows red estimations sign like !
Problem is we never come to know what all sent successfully and which all are failed.

This is strange bug from iOS 5.0.

2. Recently, I tried to delete some pics from photo stream. iOS don't allow you to delete files from your device. 

You have to connect to PC and backup photoes and resync to delete/modify pics on your device.


3. I also have got iPhone 3GS which sometimes have issue of picking up the call. Screen fails to recognize my touch while swapping and accepting the call.

Chateaux of the France

Last end of summer in Paris, we (my wife was with me) visited some of the Chateaux around Paris. Most of people know famous Chateau de Versailles Castle. I personally didn't found it very great just because it has huge garden and lake. There is less of attractive I found. Its more crowded with lots of people rushing in and out. 

I liked another nearby Chateaux. Royal Chateau de Fontainebleau! Place is 40 min away by RER or some train going from Gare-de-Lyon to South side of France. Place is also covered in zone 6 costing you 14Euro to and fro journey by Bus service. 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/Oupx1 



Here are details copied from http://parisbytrain.com/paris-to-fontainebleau-by-train/


Paris to Fontainebleau by Train

Departure station => Paris-Gare de Lyon
Train Line => Transilien or Ter
Direction => Laroche-Migennes / Montereau / Montargis / Sens
Arrival Station => Fontainebleau-Avon (Zone 5)
Ticket => Billet Ile-de-France - Fontainebleau–Avon
Price => 8,40€ one way
Passes Accepted => Carte Orange/Pass Navigo, Ticket Mobilis, Paris Visite Card
Attractions => INSEAD, Forest of Fontainebleau, Chateau Fontainebleau
First Train / Last Train => 06:05 / 23:35 (see notes)

PDF with timetable: http://parisbytrain.com/files/2008/12/paris_fb_timetable.pdf
you will also get this timetable if you visit ticket window at Gare de Lyon. 

and return : http://parisbytrain.com/files/2008/12/fb_paris_timetable.pdf

More details: http://parisbytrain.com/paris-to-fontainebleau-by-train/

Place is beautiful to spend time with family and close group. Palace has more French history. The pond nearby Palace makes it more beautiful in view. Good to visit in Summer.

Here are some photoes:



Here is official website : http://www.fontainebleau-tourisme.com/index.php/en/



The famous INSEAD school of Management is right there.

References:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Fontainebleau
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/fontainebleau