Exploring Pune

I’ve been to India 5 times before this and I usually spend most of my time in Pune because my closest relatives are here. I know the major areas and famous places in Pune but traveling around the city without people who actually know the city is seriously an interesting and different experience.

Our exploration began right after the shibhir on Sunday with a friend (Shrish Dada). For those of you who know him and his spunky personality, you can only imagine how enthusiastic he is about making sure Rhucha and I visit like every place in Pune and eat as much as we can. Despite our post-camp exhaustion we decided to go out to avoid being bored out of our minds at the hostel. Our splurging began with pav bhaji and a mixed fruit milkshake which just happen to be my favorite foods in the whole wide world. This was the first time in a while where I had been so full I was sleepy and just didn’t want to move.

The combination of being drained of energy from the camp and being really full from amazing food Monday an extremely slow and lazy day where all I did was plan out details of my project and blog. Around 2 p.m. we decided that we should eat, but didn’t feel like going down to the mess/cafeteria outside our building or find a restaurant. In these lazy situations, Maggi is the best thing to eat. If you want more details on exactly how we made these noodles with our very, very limited resources you’re going to have to ask me personally :)

After the ridiculous lethargy of Monday, I decided that Tuesday was not going to be the same. If you think going shopping in America is fun, you’re quite mistaken. The real shopping happens in India; and in Pune specifically on Laxmi Road and Tulsi Baug. Laxmi Road is a very long street lined with a variety of shops on both sides and Tulsi Baug is this market sort of thing packed with shops and street vendors. Both these areas for some reason are always filled with people. It’s always been an enigma to me how shops in India are constantly bustling with people. But pushing through these crowds, sorting through piles of colorful clothes, bargaining, and looking at shiny jewelry hanging from carts creates the most exciting and tiring shopping experience ever.

After my shopping spree, we met up with a friend and went to a carnival near Deccan. The stalls that were set up had everything from toys to clothes to kitchen supplies to typical carnival games. We finished our cotton candy (which is apparently called candy floss here) and decided to take some rides. The first ride we wanted to take was one that swung like a pendulum and rotated at the same time. There was one problem though, the gears needed to be oiled and a maintenance guy decided to climb up the ride while it was running and pour oil. I’m not sure why he didn’t anticipate this but oil spilled all over the people on the ride. All I could do was stand and laugh at this sight. The sketchiness of this should have been a huge warning sign to avoid riding anything else. But instead, we rode 3 other rides which were so much fun!

We got back to Karve Nagar and had about 2 hours to kill before meeting up with a friend. Our first stop was Domino’s. I’m pretty sure we got a lot of incredibly weird looks there because we ate that pizza like we were eating for the first time. But it was just so comforting to eat garlic breadsticks, pizza, and a Coke after what seemed like forever. Now that we were ridiculously full we still had some time to kill and walked off that amazing dinner for an hour. One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is to be walking outside in India in the evening. There are still lots of people on the streets, no hot sun beating down on me, the entire city is lit up, and a nice cool breeze just makes the entire atmosphere peaceful. It was the perfect end to a day of adventure around the city :) 

The broken ride being oiled with people still on it.