My name is B P Bhat, aged 46 years. My family consists of my wife Kasturi (39), daughter Medha (15) and son Sharad (10). I have a Maruti Wagon R (LPG) car with me. Both of us are good drivers, and we enjoy driving.
Due to personal reasons we were not in a position to trek or tour much till 2007. Since October 2007, we are touring different places. We want to explore India completely before seeing any foreign countries. (However it is not a rule). So far we have seen the states of Karnataka (KA), Kerala (KL), Tamilnadu (TN), Chhattisgarh (CH), Andaman (AN), parts of Andhra Pradesh (AP). We have also seen few places in North India.
Normally we select a state (completely or partially – depending on the availability of time), study on it and tour that state. We travel in our car. Advance reservations in any hotel, booking, etc are totally NO-NO for us. Just pack every thing in our car and keep going. The song of Swadesh movie “Yuhee chalaa chal rahee, Yuhee chalaa chal rahee, kitane haseen ye duniyaa…..” is written only for us.
This summer, we wanted to tour Maharastra (MH). As a prelude to this, in January 2009, I went on a Kolapur-Shirdi-Nasik tour organized by Nirmala travels. As MH is a big state, (infact 3rd biggest state in India) and as I will be touring along with my family, I thought let me experience a sample of MH before I take my family in my car.
We always have the folloing points in our mind before we take off for any tours. That
- We are going only to see the places, and not for holidaying.
Due to personal reasons we were not in a position to trek or tour much till 2007. Since October 2007, we are touring different places. We want to explore India completely before seeing any foreign countries. (However it is not a rule). So far we have seen the states of Karnataka (KA), Kerala (KL), Tamilnadu (TN), Chhattisgarh (CH), Andaman (AN), parts of Andhra Pradesh (AP). We have also seen few places in North India.
Normally we select a state (completely or partially – depending on the availability of time), study on it and tour that state. We travel in our car. Advance reservations in any hotel, booking, etc are totally NO-NO for us. Just pack every thing in our car and keep going. The song of Swadesh movie “Yuhee chalaa chal rahee, Yuhee chalaa chal rahee, kitane haseen ye duniyaa…..” is written only for us.
This summer, we wanted to tour Maharastra (MH). As a prelude to this, in January 2009, I went on a Kolapur-Shirdi-Nasik tour organized by Nirmala travels. As MH is a big state, (infact 3rd biggest state in India) and as I will be touring along with my family, I thought let me experience a sample of MH before I take my family in my car.
We always have the folloing points in our mind before we take off for any tours. That
- We are going only to see the places, and not for holidaying.
- We will start as early as possible in the morning, drive and see as many places as possible, and retire for the day before dark.
- Any decent accommodation is OK for us. We want comfort, but not luxury. This is because we will be spending only around 8-9 hours in a lodge, that too sleeping and doing morning chorus.
- We will be eating to live and not living to eat. Experiments with any kind of foodstuff are totally forbidden as maintaining good health is most important.
- We will be visiting temples only to see the beauty and architecture of the building/temple, enjoy the total atmosphere etc. Generally we are not going to do any pooja or seeva in the temple.
- Visiting a temple itself brings us good omen, hence there is no need to worry about not doing any pooja, abhishek etc.
- We will not be buying any thing from anywhere unless a given place is famous for certain articles.
- We are not interested in seeing beaches as we hail from coastal Karnataka.
- We want to skip Wild Life Sancturies and National parks because sighting any animal in these places is just luck. (And we are unlucky people at that).
- Dress should be more comfortable, than formal.
- We will not be visiting amusement parks, water parks, etc
- In small cities, parks, museums, zoos, buildings, lakes etc, which are there in any city, is not our destination. If they hold any special significance, then we will not miss them.
- If there is any special water falls, we may visit it, that too in rainy season only.
- If a place has got historical importance, then we will visit it, irrespective of religion to which it belongs.
- Wherever guide is available, take his help to see the place.
The next step is how to go about the tour. The first point is selection of places. For this, I first opened the official web site of MH tourism http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in. As MH is a big state, it had umpteen number of tourist destinations under various headings. By this time, we were well experienced about the selection of places. So I called their office (1800 233 5050) and asked about the important tourist spots. Now I got the places to be seen.
Next I visited few bookstores and bought “Road Atlas of MH”. I got two such atlases but they were not upto the mark. (Because of my earlier tours, I know what to look for, in a road atlas). Lack of good road atlas proved to be a handicap in the initial part of our tour. Next, from the road atlas also, I looked for important places. I discussed with few MH people about the places to be seen. I also met one Mr Ullas, who is a representative of MH tourism in Bangalore. Then I also searched Internet about importance of all such places. And finally I had my own list of must-see places of MH.
The next step is to locate these places in the atlas. It is a difficult task, especially with MH. Because in MH, there is more than one place, with the same name. There are quite a few of Malegaons, Khandalas, Palis etc, and they are all prominently displayed in the atlas. (We faced this problem quite a few times. So it is difficult to know which place is the one that we actually want to see). After locating these places in the atlas, the next step is to draw the route between these places.
We are going to an unknown place. Here we do not know the road condition, geography of the place, food and lodging facilities available in those places, risk involved, law-and-order condition etc. Off late we have to check the Naxalite problem also. But one thing is sure. The road condition of any state is much much better than KA. Other state’s local village roads are far better than KA’s National Highways. So deciding the route is most important. Also, the actual distance between two places is difficult to findout.
With all my previous experience in mind, finally I drew up my own itenary. So we were ready-steady-and-go.
The next step is to give the vehicle for servicing for thorough check-up. This was also done. All the essential things were packed. Arrangements were made to look after our house, other work etc in our absence. The T-Day had finally arrived on Tuesday, 7th April 2009, morning at 6.20AM.
With this introduction I am taking you on a tour of Mahaa–Raashtra. Kindly note the following.
- I have given a very small description (along with photos) of the place we have visited. Detailed description of all these places can be had from the Internet.
- The start time and end time of the day is given. Breakup of actual journey time, as well as time spent on eating, visiting the place etc is not noted down.
- Total distance traveled on each day is given. Howewer I have the breakup of distance between each place with me. Incase if anybody is interested, that can be provided.
- The actual route that we had taken also can be provided if anybody is interested.
- Any decent accommodation is OK for us. We want comfort, but not luxury. This is because we will be spending only around 8-9 hours in a lodge, that too sleeping and doing morning chorus.
- We will be eating to live and not living to eat. Experiments with any kind of foodstuff are totally forbidden as maintaining good health is most important.
- We will be visiting temples only to see the beauty and architecture of the building/temple, enjoy the total atmosphere etc. Generally we are not going to do any pooja or seeva in the temple.
- Visiting a temple itself brings us good omen, hence there is no need to worry about not doing any pooja, abhishek etc.
- We will not be buying any thing from anywhere unless a given place is famous for certain articles.
- We are not interested in seeing beaches as we hail from coastal Karnataka.
- We want to skip Wild Life Sancturies and National parks because sighting any animal in these places is just luck. (And we are unlucky people at that).
- Dress should be more comfortable, than formal.
- We will not be visiting amusement parks, water parks, etc
- In small cities, parks, museums, zoos, buildings, lakes etc, which are there in any city, is not our destination. If they hold any special significance, then we will not miss them.
- If there is any special water falls, we may visit it, that too in rainy season only.
- If a place has got historical importance, then we will visit it, irrespective of religion to which it belongs.
- Wherever guide is available, take his help to see the place.
The next step is how to go about the tour. The first point is selection of places. For this, I first opened the official web site of MH tourism http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in. As MH is a big state, it had umpteen number of tourist destinations under various headings. By this time, we were well experienced about the selection of places. So I called their office (1800 233 5050) and asked about the important tourist spots. Now I got the places to be seen.
Next I visited few bookstores and bought “Road Atlas of MH”. I got two such atlases but they were not upto the mark. (Because of my earlier tours, I know what to look for, in a road atlas). Lack of good road atlas proved to be a handicap in the initial part of our tour. Next, from the road atlas also, I looked for important places. I discussed with few MH people about the places to be seen. I also met one Mr Ullas, who is a representative of MH tourism in Bangalore. Then I also searched Internet about importance of all such places. And finally I had my own list of must-see places of MH.
The next step is to locate these places in the atlas. It is a difficult task, especially with MH. Because in MH, there is more than one place, with the same name. There are quite a few of Malegaons, Khandalas, Palis etc, and they are all prominently displayed in the atlas. (We faced this problem quite a few times. So it is difficult to know which place is the one that we actually want to see). After locating these places in the atlas, the next step is to draw the route between these places.
We are going to an unknown place. Here we do not know the road condition, geography of the place, food and lodging facilities available in those places, risk involved, law-and-order condition etc. Off late we have to check the Naxalite problem also. But one thing is sure. The road condition of any state is much much better than KA. Other state’s local village roads are far better than KA’s National Highways. So deciding the route is most important. Also, the actual distance between two places is difficult to findout.
With all my previous experience in mind, finally I drew up my own itenary. So we were ready-steady-and-go.
The next step is to give the vehicle for servicing for thorough check-up. This was also done. All the essential things were packed. Arrangements were made to look after our house, other work etc in our absence. The T-Day had finally arrived on Tuesday, 7th April 2009, morning at 6.20AM.
With this introduction I am taking you on a tour of Mahaa–Raashtra. Kindly note the following.
- I have given a very small description (along with photos) of the place we have visited. Detailed description of all these places can be had from the Internet.
- The start time and end time of the day is given. Breakup of actual journey time, as well as time spent on eating, visiting the place etc is not noted down.
- Total distance traveled on each day is given. Howewer I have the breakup of distance between each place with me. Incase if anybody is interested, that can be provided.
- The actual route that we had taken also can be provided if anybody is interested.
