Bhuleshwar Temple

The Bhuleshwar Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and situated about 50 km from Pune. It was built in the 13th century on a hill from which it overlooks the surrounding landscape. The monsoon hasn't started yet, therefore everything is still brown and dusty.



We were grateful to a fresh wind which made the felt temperature (inside and) around the temple much better. It actually was really nice.





Next to the temple, but also in Pune and in many other places around, you can currently spot red blooming trees. As our driver told us they are called Gulmohar Tree here. In German they are called "Flammenbaum" ("tree of flames") and since they are usually the only natural colour at the moment (next to brown and a little bit of green) the name is self-explanatory.



The temple shows lots of carvings that date back several centuries. Although many figures have been damaged in the past, it is still impressive.






It was really fortunate to have our driver with us. As a native he could not only explain everything to us, but he also took away the feeling that we might disturb the people who came to pray, and not like we did as annoying tourists.





The way the temple is built with a partly open roof and plays with light and shadow gives it a mysterious atmosphere that I enjoyed a lot.










It was a really nice temple, worth to drive there, and most of all it was not touristy at all.

On the way back our driver insisted to stop at the side of the road to get us some coconuts

... and why not ... :)

Saturday nights ...

... in Pune can be quite relaxing and fun.



And they should be able to silence even the very very last sceptics. This time I literally threw myself out of the rickshaw...


;-)

Housemates

I decided it finally is time to introduce my house mates to you. They have been living with me for a few weeks now and they are quite nice. I won't mention their names for privacy reasons, but here are some pictures of them:

Elephants

As I mentioned earlier, elephants are an ordinary way of public transport here in Pune and we see them ALL THE TIME on the streets. There is no plausible explanation for why I didn't get a decent picture so far. However this blog entry is going to change that.

When we went to dinner tonight, we spotted this beautiful elephant on the street. Luckily I had my small camera ready and although it was dark, I managed to get this stunning picture of it:



I admit that the picture is not absolutely perfect (you have to consider that it was dark). So once again for your support: THERE is the elephant:




When we passed it I unfortunately was sitting on the wrong side of the rickshaw and only got this one shot. Maybe the picture will not win a photography contest, but you have to admit: It clearly is an elephant! ;-)



Anyway, there is more tell and show! This day was actually full of encounters with huge grey animals on the streets of Pune. In the afternoon we took a rickshaw to a shopping mall and on the way back we saw a cute elephant, standing in the shade next to the road.

I didn't have my camera ready right away and we already were quite a bit away from it when I finally managed to take a picture. But I think this time I got a nice and clear portrait of it.




... but somehow I fear that some of you might not be convinced by it AGAIN and might be too lazy to look for the elephant (although it is prominently placed right in the middle of the picture). Therefore to make it once more really simple. Here is the elephant:


Herewith I assume that there are no doubts left about the credibility of my pictures and the existence of elephants on Pune's streets. (But since I will be here for a few more weeks, there is still the chance to get the "perfect" picture.) ;-)

Karla Caves Lonavala

Sorry to everyone who was begging for new pictures. ;-) Here you go:

We were told by our colleagues that we should not go to Lonavala before the monsoon rain starts, because it is so much nicer when everything turns green. That's probably right, but it applies to all trips around Pune and since we did not want to sit at home and wait 4 more weeks until the monsoon starts, we went nevertheless.

40 km from Pune is the small town Lonavala, which is famous for several buddhist caves. The oldest one dates back to 160 B.C.
Right in front of the caves was built a modern temple (I wonder why), as you can see on the picture below.


The cave itself is not comparable to the Ellora Caves, being much smaller and with less variety of carvings. But it was still a nice place to see and definitely also impressive, given that the whole caves where carved from solid stone.


On top of the pillars you can see people riding on elephants. I hope the ones who constantly demand elephants appreciate this!



And to spoil those people, there are even more and bigger elephants in front of the cave! ;-)


Our guide gave us the opportunity to climb up the hill behind the caves (after yelling for 5 minutes at the man with the big gun who didn't want to open the gate for us). I assume that we were not supposed to climb up there (and we actually had to climb), but it was a nice view over the valley and definitely worth it.


Imagine everything that is brown in green... and you know what the pictures would have been like if we had waited for the monsoon.





This is our guide. Strangely we were all alone up there on the hill, while lots of people were around the caves.
Maybe they didn't get behind the guy with the gun. Or they were concerned about the cobras that our guide talked about. But most likely they just thought it is incredible stupid and pointless to climb up there.


However I enjoyed the view and the refreshing wind.


There were not many flowers up on the hill, but some.
Okay, actually that was the only one. Maybe we should have waited for the monsoon rain?


For the first time we took the luxury to have a car driving us to our goal, this guy below was our driver.



We had to walk up to the caves and back, but luckily our driver and the guide were walking so fast that we didn't have the time to buy anything.


While we were walking down my half empty bottle of cold Pepsi was taken out of my hands. I am just not sure if the boy who took it and ran away wanted to drink it or if he will replace the missing Pepsi with water and sell it again.



Right at the bottom of the hill we had the opportunity to buy toys or living hens (left in the picture). But once again we could resist the temptation.



Of the different gods Ganesha is the one that people pray to asking for luck and he is also known as the "remover of obstacles". This is the reason why you will find a Ganesha figure in most rickshaws and cars.
With the help of this little Ganesha in our car we got back home safely.