9 to 11 days, Saturday, January 9, 2016 Pune

Namaste,

so let's continue arrival and stay in Pune.

Once again, it must be realized that things don't always go as hoped on a journey.

Arrival in Pune after a really comfortable sleeping bus ride and moreover, the people from the bus company were so nice and set their next stop and our exit point at a location 150 meters away from our booked hotel for the next 2 nights. This once again shows how friendly the people are here. When I wanted to give the guy who took our luggage into and out of the bus a small tip of 20 rupees (30 cents), his colleague immediately refused and said it was not okay, we are guests in his country. He still wanted to know one thing from us, what "I Love You" means in German so that he can say it to his wife in all languages ;-)

The bus to Pune

So now let's go to the hotel, it looks quite nice from the outside. Straight to the reception, No, you have to go one entrance further, that's where the hotel is.

Ok, no problem, when we arrived there, the guy at the reception (who always goes to the basement to laugh) said we can't check in here, 'Not for Foreigner', not for foreigners! Excuse me? But you have my booking confirmation here, 'you can't check in here'. Ph what now, is it starting all over again. My first thought was, you idiots, you can all go to hell! Where can I quickly leave this country...?

So stay calm, let's go back to the first entrance where we met, I assume, the boss of this place. He calmed us down and explained everything to us again and his colleague or friend who was present immediately picked up the phone and checked another hotel with an even better location for us. And after a short, very nice and funny conversation, a taxi driver appeared who took us directly to the mentioned alternative hotel. When we arrived there, he didn't even want money for the ride because he can stay for free in the other hotel, as far as I understood. You see, in the end, no one is abandoned here in India.

Ok, let's dedicate ourselves to the city of Pune, at first glance it looks like a city again compared to Aurangabad where everything just looked like a wild accumulation of houses.

But unfortunately, personally, I also didn't find the expected spirit of India here, because there was again the chaotic tangle of people and cars. Although a few days before, several voices said Pune is beautiful... Unfortunately not for me. But we could discover a few things.

First, the Shaniwarwada Palace, of which only the foundations remain, the rest supposedly burned down in 1828. Furthermore, after a 500-meter walk, we reached the Dagdusheth Ganpati Temple, which according to a description should be one of the most impressive in all of India, but in my opinion, not really. So, we put our best foot forward and continued marching, and after a short time, we arrived at the famous Laxmi Road, unfortunately, I didn't stay there for long either, as the traffic hustle and bustle around it was still not inviting.

We grabbed a taxi and went to the next destination, which at least should provide peace for an hour, the destination was Parvati Hill or Parvati Caves on top of a hill.

Which was tiring to climb but rewarded with a great view and also, up there, there were no honking cars. When we came down again, we went to the German Bakery (yes, the German bakery) where we rewarded ourselves with strawberry cake and Black Forest cake J

The following day, the plan was to sleep in and in the late afternoon, head to the train station where the next train was waiting for me with an hour's delay.

Off to Goa...