Travelogue - Nashik Diaries - Day 2

Travelogue - Nashik Diaries - Day 2

The plan for today was that of sight seeing. We had planned to visit Pandav Leni Caves, Someshwar temple and Gangapur Dam. We also had planned to visit the Artillery Regiment Museum which is open to general public.

Pandav Leni Caves 📌📷🚩🚦🗿

After breakfast we travelled to Pandav Leni which is about 8 Kms from the hotel. We started from the Hotel at 11am as to have early breakfast and then come back getting ready took some time. The climate was sunny and after we reached the foot of the Pandav Leni Caves we realized that we should have come a little earlier in the day. Though it was just the start of the month of March and summers were setting in, it was a sunny climb to the top of the mountain. The kid was already cranky at the start and Wifey and me had to carry him all the way to the top.

Taken from Wikipedia site-

The Trirashmi Caves,^[1] or Nashik Caves (Trirashmi being the name of the hills in which the caves are located, Leni being a Marathi word for caves), are a group of 23 caves carved between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE, though additional sculptures were added up to about the 6th century, reflecting changes in Buddhist devotional practices.^[2][3] The Buddhist sculptures are a significant group of early examples of Indian rock-cut architecture initially representing the Early Buddhist schools tradition

Most of the caves are viharas except for Cave 18 which is a chaitya of the 1st century BCE.^[2] The style of some of the elaborate pillars or columns, for example in caves 3 and 10, is an important example of the development of the form.^[4] The location of the caves is a holy Buddhist site and is located about 8 km south of the centre of Nashik (or Nasik), Maharashtra, India. The Pandavleni name sometimes given to the Trirashmi Caves has nothing to do with the Pandavas, characters in the Mahabharata epic.

Carvings of an animal by ancient Buddhist Monks

Ludo Playing Square Carved on the floor 

Some monk may have tried carving a face on the floor

The carvings of a butterfly

Carvings of fish, Peacock and Dog on the floor

The entrance fee for the Pandav Leni Caves is around 20 INR for Indians and for other nationals its a bit higher. If you are a explorer and have time at hand then you can easily spend around 2-3 hours observing with curiosity the cravings on the stones. These people in the era that they were in, did not have any modern equipment's, yet were able to create such beautiful and long lasting carvings for future generations.

We spent time about 1hr 30mins at the caves and after exploring we left for Someshwar temple.

Someshwar Temple🛕ॐ🚩📸🎥

The temple is well known for being a Lord Shiva and Lord Hanuman Temple on the banks of river Godavari.

We also enjoyed some boating and peaceful site of sitting along the river side. We had some home made snacks and also tried Nashik Bhel at a stall near Someshwar Temple

Kid Enjoying the boat ride

After the boat ride and enjoying some snack we were off to Gangapur Dam. 

Gangapur Dam🌊✨🌟⛅🌉

At Gangapur the Maharashtra Toursim Development Corp has come up with a good location and place just ahead of the Dam to entertain tourist. Its a large set-up and provides all amenities from good food and toilets to play area for kids. Its open to all and pricing for the week days is lower with per person charge being 80 INR & during weekends being 100 INR.

We reached Gangapur Backwaters and The MTDC place at around 4.30pm in the evening, we were not in the mood to do any more boating as the activity, we felt were costly. We decided to lay low and enjoy some snack after an hours time and sat around the place. The kid was busy playing his heart out in the play area with other kids. The site was beautiful and the colors of the sky changed as soon as it was time for sunset. We walk down the walkway leading us to the backwaters and enjoyed clicking some sunset pics. Kid wanted to play in water and we did carry extra clothes for him as every parent does.

With this we ended our Day 2 with a beautiful evening at the Gangapur Backwater and Dam site. We returned back to the hotel to freshen-up and post that headed to dinner at Asian Wok and Grill on the College Road at Nashik. 

 

Travelogue - Nashik Diaries

Travelogue - Nashik Diaries - Day 1

At the beginning of the year, we are often asked to choose between a few optional holidays, so this time around I chose 8th March 2024. It was Mahashivratri as well as it was International Women's day. It had been a while when just me and my family had travelled to a place to stay and explore.

By the time it was the month of March 2024 and the date of 8th March approaching I had to get the booking done for the hotel stay. Usually before going to bed I used to search through some good hotels and locations which would suit out travel. On the night of 5th March we booked the Ensrise by Sayaji Property - https://sayajihotels.com/our-hotels/enrise-nashik/ 

This is a 4 Star property in Nashik and the location of the hotel is convenient to the tourist places nearby. It was a 2 Nights and 3 Days stay with breakfast included. Overall the stay cost us around 12K.

Vroom Vroom we were all set to leave for Nashik on the morning of 8th March 2024.

Travel Day - 8th March

I had discussed of my travel plans with my office colleagues and one of them was a native of Nashik and had suggested a few places. The 1st place to visit on our list was Bhagur. This is the birthplace of the great freedom fighter Swatantra Veer Savarkar or to us known as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. For breakfast we were going to stop at a place which I knew from my trekking days and it was a place ahead of Khed Ghat on the Pune-Nashik Highway. If you are travelling from PCMC area it would be better to take the route through Talwade as it will get you to the Nashik highway early and ahead of Chakan so that you can miss a lot of traffic.

We took our first halt at Panchratna Hotel just ahead of Khed Ghat. There we ordered some South Indian breakfast of Masala Dosa, Uttappam, Chai and Sandwich. Since we had the kid along everything moves at the pace that they want. Usually my kid is up for travel and exploration as well as he likes to visit hotels with us to have food not home made. We spent about 30-40 mins there, my wife gave the necessary feedback on the sandwich which was extremely dry and inedible and the hotel staff obliged and reduced the amount from the actual bill.

With the expansion of the Nashik Highway, it has become easier and faster to travel on the route which was earlier marred with traffic snarls, accidents and delays due to heavy truck movement. The govt has thought through the route and had craved out various by-pass along the route which freed up traffic happening at crticial junctions like Rajgurunagar, Narayangaon and further.

Veer Savarkar Wada @Bhagur⚡🏠🚩🚦🚶

Our first destination was Bhagur. We reached Bhagur at around 1pm in the afternoon. The loaction is easily identifiable on Google Maps.

Board Showcasing the location of Veer Savarkar Wada

This is a small town but the location to the Veer Savarkar Wada is well directed.

Board showcasing the Veer Savarkar Wada

As soon as we entered the Wada, we see a large and very lively portrait of Veer Savarkar. The eyes still speak to you even though the photograph is timeless. I asked for permission whether we can click the photos within the Wada and the management in the Wada obliged.

The poem written by Veer Savarkar

 We explored through the house and took a lot of pics which we would not be able to see in our lifetime. Some of the images displayed put us back in time and I was trying to visualize what it would have been during the time of struggle of independence.

Family picture of Veer Savarkar

Place where Veer Savarkar Pledged his life for Bharat

Goddess before whom Veer Savarkar took the pledge

A very young stoic Veer Savarkar

Various portraits of Veer Savarkar through his life-time

The clan tree of Veer Savarkar

He was sentenced to 50 years in prison but he came out victorious

Seeing through the eyes and visualizing some of the images raised hairs on my hand, the emotions of being there was a different feeling. Its a freedom fighters place who selflessly worked on the single goal of independence by hook or crook and he meant that.

The official wada which was Veer Sawarkar's residing place had a lot of architectural geniuses to keep anyone intending to arrest him would end up in the wrong floor and long places and this would give him time to escape.

Small Doors to Escape into the oblivion.

Post visiting the birthplace, we were off to Nashik City. We had booked ourselves in Enrise by Sayaji where we were to stay for 3 days and 2 nights. We were to check-in anytime after 12pm. We reached Nashik City around 3pm in the afternoon and were off to the room for some rest. Kid and me were up and Wifey was fast asleep. Kid wanted to have some snack so we travelled few kilometers to a snack center and had Masala Dosa. There I saw a scene out of the Night Manager series on Hotstar. Rungta Shopping Hub was the name of the large property, here is the pic for reference.

In the evening we had plans to visit the Swami Narayan Temple as well as visit the Kalaram temple. It was Mahashivratri as well as International Women's day and I had a plan for us three to celebrate that in a good restaurant in Nashik. Next stop was Swami Narayan Temple.

Visit to Swami Narayan & Kalaram Temple🛕📿ॐ🙏🙏

Sir please go back, 3/4ths are not allowed into the temple, thats what the guard said and told my wife and kid to go ahead and go inside the temple premise by the time I travelled back to the Hotel and get changed.

Kid and Wifey at Swami Narayan Temple

The temple premise was very pleasant and we also offered milk and water to the Shiv Lingam as it was the night of Mahashivratri. The temple also has a small garden in the backyard and has some visuals of various Hindu beliefs like Samudra Manthan & Ram Sita Lakshman Vanwaas.

Ram Sita and Lakshman depiction of Vanwaas

Post this we visited the Kalaram Temple.

Kalaram Temple

Post the temple visit we were off to a small family celebration as it was Women's day, I had searched through the day to check out places which would be cozy for all of us. The place we visited was Tales & Spirit Bristo. https://www.talesnspirits.com/order/nashik/ Comfy place for couples, family and friends. One of the best ambience I have ever visited.

With this we ended the Day 1 in Nashik. It was refreshing. Stay tuned for Day 2 and Day 3