Visit to Murud - Janjira - Alibag

Location: Murud/Alibag, Maharashtra, India

Attractions: Fort, Beaches
Best time to visit: Any time (Janjira fort remains closed during rainy days) 

After lot of delays and discussions four of us (me and my office friends) finally agreed to go out for a break. 11^th October 2014 was a day planned to have that awaiting break.

11^th Oct 2014, It was 9 am by the time we finished with breakfast, picked up our friends and left Kothrud, Pune. Plan was to visit Murud-Janjira and spend night at Alibag at my friend’s place. 

Route:

Kothrud -> Paud road -> Mulshi lake -> Roha -> Murud/Janjira -> Alibag

We took Paud road and drove via Mulshi lake. We had a tea break at Quick bite. From the backyard of Quick Bite restaurant we could get down along the edge of the Mulshi lake. We spent some 15 minutes taking pictures of blue water and then left the place.

View of Mulshi lake from the Quick Bite restaurant

We continued driving through the ghats of Tahmini and discussing stories of Mughals and Maratha warriors. My friend said that these route becomes really scenic and full of water falls during monsoon. We crossed Roha and drove through the green forest to reach Murud.

It was 2.15 pm by the time we reached Murud and our stomach started praying for food. My friend suggested to have a lunch at place called Patil Brothers. We quickly reached that restaurant and ordered food, two of my friends were really disappointed because that day being the Sankashti (fasting day to praise lord Ganesha) hotel did not serve non-veg food. But at the end all were happy with that awesome, tasteful and colorful veg food. I absolutely recommend Patil Brothers for food and ambience.

Our lunch at Patil Brothers

After lunch we took rest for some 15-20 minutes and by 3.45 pm we left for Janjira fort which was our main point of interest for the day.

My friend enjoying ice-golas after lunch

Janjira fort seen from the boat

Boat sailing towards fort

It took 10 minutes of drive to reach the point from where the boats take people to the fort. Fort Janjira is on the island in Arabian sea. We parked our car and took boat ticket from the ticket counter near the parking area. Boat fare was Rs. 20/- per person for return journey.

It was a simple sailing boat with two guards and  around 40 passengers. I got to sit along the edge of the boat. Excitement was rising up looking at that big black mysterious mansion far in the middle of the ocean.

All of sudden, there was a loud sound giving instructions to all the passengers in the boat. Actually it was a guard who started telling about the history of Janjira. He talked about many historical things related to the fort but at the end he created suspense and said we must hire him to know more and quickly finish the tour of the fort. He said that we will have just 45 minutes to spend in the fort and will have to get back in the boat before low tide starts. I was not bothered at all as one of my friend had visited this fort before and he knew the places inside the fort. 

Janjira Fort:
This architectural marvel spread over 22 acres of land in the middle of the ocean was initially just a wooden fortress constructed by a local fisherman of Murud. It was later captured by Siddis and refortified in 15th century to the massive mansion. The name Janjira got derived from Arabic word Jazeera which means island.

Janjira fort main entrance

This amazing piece of engineering standing firm against the salty waves of Arabian sea has witnessed many attacks from Portuguese, British and Marathas but remained unconquered in the history.

I was not able to guess where this fort will have the main entrance until our boat really got close to the fort. Guide in the boat said that placement of the entrance was tactfully done so that enemies can not enter the fort easily. After 5-10 minutes of boat ride we reached the entrance of Janjira fort.

We started our tour in the fort with my friend as our dummy guide. There were no astonishing intact structures inside. All I could see was the ruins of huge buildings, mosques and ponds. We decided to go to the top of the fort to have a complete view of this fort.

View from the top of the fort showing bastions on the periphery, ruins of palace with ponds on either sides.

From the top, fort looked like an oval shaped structure with strong bastions on the periphery. Once there stood a seven floored palace with shish-mahal (palace of glass) but now only the ruins of it are seen inside the fort. There are two ponds which were the source of water for the residents of the fort. Nature does miracles, sweet water ponds right in the middle of the ocean.

We started walking down, and reached the broken walls of palace. I was happy to see that initiative is taken by authority to do cleanup work to maintain the remains of that palace.

Ruins of the palace

Ruins of civilized rooms

Kalal Bangadi

We kept walking towards the big pond which was full of water with algae. We walked further towards the periphery and came across the area which was used by soldiers to rest and store their weapons and explosives. There exists back door to escape from enemies. There is a tunnel from the fort to the shore which is not accessible now and remains closed. There exists a section with lots of small broken rooms covered by weeds, which once were in use by the residents of this fort.

We further walked towards the nagar-khana (the top of main entrance). There were three cannons lying there pointing towards the shore area. The middle one which was really huge is known as 'Kalal Bangadi'. As per our guide in the boat Kalal Bangadi is made up of alloy and weighs nearly 22 tons and had a approximate range of 6 km. This range was good enough to target the fort 'Padma Durga' which was constructed in the near vicinity of Janjira by Sambhaji ( son of Maratha king Shivaji ) to keep an eye on the Janjira to conquer it. I wanted to walk along the periphery of entire fort but I started hearing screams of our boat man and my friends for me because it was almost an hour in the fort. I quickly got down and walked towards the boat and was the last person to get in the boat. Boat departed but my mind was still there in the fort trying to visualize this fort during its heydays.

my friend lost in the thoughts while returning from the fort

By 5 pm we were at the shore. We headed back towards our parking area. We left Murud to reach Alibag which is approximately 1 hr drive from the Murud. On the way we took a sunset-tea break at the Kashid beach.

Sunset at Kashid beach

After tea we quickly left Kashid and headed towards Alibag. On the way we visited Ganesh Birala temple near Alibag. We took early dinner at Alibag and then left for my friend's place. But at the last moment my friend's home got occupied by some guests so he arranged a stay at local known friend's place. By 10 pm we reached the place and after getting fresh we left for the night walk to Alibag beach. As my friend had spent his childhood days there in Alibag he entertained us with some funny incidents of those days. We spent more than an hour at beach talking and walking and finally returned to have a nice sleep.

Next day morning we again came for a walk to beach. After spending an hour at beach we returned to get fresh and leave for Pune. We left by 2.30 pm after lunch and reached Pune by 6 pm.

Alibag beach

my companions of the trip

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Visit to Kanheri Caves, Mumbai

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Attractions: Buddhist caves
Entry fees: Rs. 36/- for National Park, Rs. 5/- for Kanheri Caves
Visiting time: 9 am to 6 pm
Best time to visit: Monsoon

Route: 
Kanheri caves are in Sanjay Gandhi National Park. This national park is situated right at the Borivali junction beside the National Highway (NH-8). It takes 10-15 minutes of walk to reach the national park entrance from Borivali railway station.

Once you get in the national park you can opt for sharing vans which will take you to the base of the hill, which is at the approximate distance of 8-9 Km. Van fare was Rs. 36/- per person for one way. There was a bus service which had the same fare but had very limited frequency. Personal vehicles are allowed inside national park after paying additional fees.

Kanheri Caves:

It was 26^th July 2014, Saturday when me and my wife thought of spending day at Sanjay Gandhi National Park, more famous as Borivali National Park. We left late from home but Borivali being near to Mira road we reached there in less than an hour. We reached base of the caves by 12.45 pm.  

After having few slices of raw green mango, we started climbing steps towards Kanheri through the bright green trees.

Steps to Kanheri caves

School kids on picnic

This place seemed to be a popular picnic spot for the school kids, I saw school kids enjoying in group around the rocks and they were least bothered to listen to their teachers :) . Also the groups of wandering monkeys were adding more fun to the overall scene.  

We got our entry pass and stopped by a small canteen just before the ramp to caves starts. While having the tea I could see the huge rocks on the hill with cutouts in them. Those were the basalt rocks which are believed to be formed thousands of years ago from the lava. The entire black hill of basalt was formerly known as "Kanha-giri" (Kanha means black and giri means hill) from which the current name "Kanheri" got derived. These caves have witnessed the time since 1st century B.C. and got gradually developed and shaped to marvelous architecture till 11th century A.D. These ancient caves are protected by the Archaeological survey of India.

All these caves were mainly used by buddhist monks as residence or place to worship. Also the traders used to halt here during their journey.
 

Cave-1

We came across the first cave which looked like a two floored construction. I did not see any great thing inside but it was just a huge cell with two massive pillars standing like guards.

Cave-2 Chaityagriha with Stupa

Cave-2 Chaityagriha with Stupa and wall carvings

Wall carvings in Cave-2

As we moved further, we could see a cave-2 which had four separate sections. First section with a structure called Stupa. This place was used by monks for worshiping hence called as Chaityagriha. There was a broken stupa in the second section and third section had a stupa and walls with beautiful carvings on them.

Carvings of Buddha on the walls of Cave-2

Fourth section was like an open cave with wall having door to cells. This section was used as residences by monks and called as Vihara. We too had to take shelter there in the Vihara for sometime until it stopped raining outside.

Cave-2 Vihara, seen from the extreme end of cave

We moved further towards the next cave, Cave-3. It looked amazing with giant pillars and steps to enter the courtyard protected by the guards. The guards must have lost their heads fighting and standing against the flow of time.

Cave-3

We entered the courtyard and were looking at the carvings made all around us on the walls. I got pleasant surprise when saw the huge statue of Buddha on the right wall just before the main door to the cave. When I turned back to see the opposite wall, one more huge statue of Buddha surprised me. They were really huge and must be somewhere around close to 7m in height. Everybody who passed from there definitely got stuck for few seconds to check these huge master pieces.

Cave-3, huge statues of Budhhas on side walls before main door

Cave-3 was a Chaitya (worshiping/prayer hall used by monks). It had a huge stupa and several pillars with carvings on them. It reminded me of the Bhaje caves just near Lohgadh fort which I visited in June 2013. Bhaje caves had a wooden arcs on the ceiling, There was no wooden structure here in this cave-3 but traces of such structures were clearly visible on the ceiling.

Cave-3, Chaitya with stupa and pillars

Inscription

Cave-4

We spent some 15 to 20 minutes in cave-3 taking pictures and finally came out. There was a pillar in courtyard which showed some inscriptions on it which was missed by me when I was entering.

Just adjacent to the huge Cav-3 there existed a smaller cave with steps going inside the cave. Inside a cave there was a stupa with carvings on it. This must be some private chaitya.

These first four caves were at the same level. And now we were going up towards the ramp. There were a steps carved on the hills to climb up. While walking up the green view of forest was really refreshing.

View of green forest while climbing up further after cave-4

Steps carved on hill

After Cave-4, the caves were dispersed all over the hills. There were steps carved in hills itself to climb up the hill. The long trail of steps on hill surface looked amazing. There were boards guiding towards different caves. We reached the cave which looked different from all the caves that we had seen. It was a large hall with bench like structures in the middle area. This must have been used by monks for their meetings.

We later came across couple of caves which had some carvings of Buddhas and other creatures. I was not familiar with all those sculptures but after googaling about Kanheri caves, I came to know that each sculpture can be categorized (one such known sculpture is of Avlokiteshvara). It needs lot of knowledge about Buddhism and its history to understand these sculptures.

Sculptures carved in caves.

Water tank

Small water fall

We walked further and there seemed to be an interesting structure with stored water and small canals ending in the tank. This must be some system used by monks for storing water. 

It was a rainy season so came across water falls as well while walking towards the top. The view of beautiful tree and small water fall between two hills looked amazing.

We did not have time to explore all the caves. So instead of goin on the other side of hill we decided to walk on the same side and reach the top of the hill. On the way we came across many similar looking caves which looked very simple in structure. Most of them had a small courtyard with pillars and a door to enter the cave.

Caves with small courtyard and pillars, seen on the way while climbing up the hill

Finally we reached the point were there was a flat area and no more steps to climb up. The people were sitting on the small rocks and enjoying the cool breeze. We too decided to sit and relax for sometime. Green forest and tall building were contradicting to each other in the view from the top. After staring for couple of minutes I found that even the Pagoda was visible from the top. We spent some 15 minutes there at the top and decided to start down journey.

People enjoying the contradicting view of city and forest

During monsoon this is a very popular place for people staying around Borivali and Dahisar. There were many families enjoying under water fall along with their kids. People were busy and desperate to click their solo and group pictures around the caves and water falls. We enjoyed all these views and in no time we reached the main entrance of the cave, where we took a halt to have some tea and snacks. By 5.30 pm we were at the base and got our van which took us to the entrance of National park from where we caught bus to our home.

At the end my wife could not resist staying away from the water fall

I had a wonderful day clicking ancient caves and sculptures. There were more than 100 caves (110) carved on the hills. We could not see all the caves but hats off to the people who took lot of efforts ages ago to construct such a magnificent structure.

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Visit to "The Global Pagoda", Mumbai

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Attractions: Monuments

Visiting time: 9am to 7pm

Best time to visit: Anytime

The Global Pagoda:

It was saturday noon 31^st June 2014, when I with my wife decided to go out, to some place not far from our home (Mira road). The place that came to my mind was Pagoda. The only bright structure, shining and standing tall in the dark bushes between Dahisar and Mira road railway station. It is visible on the west side while traveling by train between Mira road and Dahisar. It can be seen from railway crossing bridge at Mira road station.

Route:
From Bhayander: by bus (number-4), auto or own vehicle. 
From Borivali: reach Gorai and from Gorai take ferry.

We took train to Borivali from Mira road, from Borivali took an auto to Gorai. From Gorai there were common ferries going to Pagoda & Esselworld at every 15-20 minutes. Fare for ferry ride was 50Rs. per head for return journey.

It was a beautiful day with blue sky and dispersed clouds. 

Borivali-Gorai line seen from boat

Ferry returning from Pagoda

10 minutes ferry ride was really pleasant, enjoyed the beautiful view of creek, clouds and golden pagoda shining bright on the other end.

There was a common path to Pagoda and Esselworld entrance after we got down from the ferry. At the junction there were sign boards which guided us towards Pagoda.

Path going to Pagoda

The golden giant was getting bigger and brighter. And with each step towards it my curiosity was continuously rising up. After walking for 5-10 minutes, finally we reached the main entrance.

Main entrance - Myanmar Vipassana Gate

The grand entrance was a real piece of art, It looked as if a big piece of gold was carved to make this pyramidal structure and two huge lions were appointed to protect it. Right in the middle there was a wheel like design which was similar to “Ashok chakra (wheel)” seen in our Indian national flag. The name of entrance “Myanmar Vipassana Gate” related that piece of art to Myanmar (Burma). The symbol similar to the one on Indian flag and name of entrance relating to Myanmar added more to my curiosity.

I was then just few steps away from that mysterious golden tower. The bright tower looked amazing with the blue sky in the background and white clouds adding contrast to the overall view. 

Once we reached up, It looked that this giant structure was supported by big pillars along the entire circular edge. We kept walking along the perimeter, there were nice frames fixed on the walls having wise messages written on them. I read most of them while walking along. I was looking for a door to enter that massive structure to end my curiosity.

The wheel of Dhamma at the top of the dome

We reached the door from where we were allowed to enter inside this structure. Once entered, we were behind the glass wall through which we could see the massive dome up with the wheel design right in the middle. All the doors were closed so it was bit dark inside. There were few people there but not everybody was allowed without special permission.

Until that point I was under the impression that this place was significant because of its architecture. But I was shocked when I read the sign board which said “Lord Budhha’s corporeal relics are enshrined above the wheel of Dhamma on top of the first dome”. Yes, you got it right. The bone relics of the great Gautam Budhha were there at the top of this dome right above that wheel -“The wheel of Dhamma”, and yes that was the wheel that I could find in most of the structures and designs around.

After reading about the Budhha’s relics, I was more curious about that place. I asked for guide and they said that in some time there will be a common guide who will brief about this place. After waiting for some 10 minutes, there came a guide, who explained the significance of this place and talked about many facts related to this place. 

The global pagoda is an effort to preach and preserve the lost teachings of Budhha. Since last many centuries the teachings of Budhha are followed and practiced in neighbor country Myanmar, so as an expression of gratitude, this structure was constructed to replicate “The Shwedagon Pagdoda of Myanmar”.

Main door to enter the dome

Carvings on the door

The pagoda is constructed using red stone and lime stone to make it last for centuries. It’s world’s biggest dome without any supporting pillars. It is constructed using stones which are interlocked to each other. There is a 3 feet tall crystal kept at the top of canopy which shines by sunlight during daytime and by light via optic fiber during nighttime. There are eight entry points, each of which has wooden doors with beautiful carvings on them. 

Main Pagoda

      Some digits related to Pagoda:

• Total height of Pagoda: 325 feet (99 m)
• Height of the pillar-less main dome: 90 feet (27.5 m)
• Diameter of the pillar-less main dome: 280 feet (85 m) 
• Seating capacity: 8000 persons 
• Stone used: 2.5 million tonnes of Jodhpur red sandstone 
• Cost of construction: 135 crores INR (about 30 million USD) 
• Time spent: 90 million man hours

 

The South Pagoda

The North Pagoda

Pagoda serves as a meditation center, that dome is a place where people gather to do meditation. Pagoda offers a course to teach Vipassana, which involves teaching meditation based on the teachings of Budhha. It’s a free course for which you have to stay there for ten days. For registered candidates there are no fees for accommodation & food for ten days. On every sunday people gather in this hall to practice meditation. 

Apart from the main Pagoda, there were two more small pagodas with height of 60 feet (18 m). The one in north was a prototype built to test the principles of construction on which the main pagoda was constructed. The one in south is used by meditators during their course of vipassana.

The Vipassana Centre

There was a small garden with a pond having beautiful lotus flowers.

There were some wonderful Burmese architectural art pieces constructed in the premises.

The Burmese architecture

The replica of Ashoka pillar

In the nearby garden there was a replica of the famous Ashoka pillar. The four lions on pillar (India’s national emblem), depicts how Budhha’s teaching of Dhammas reaches out in all four directions of the world. The wheel in Ashoka emblem, and in the heart of Indian national flag, depicts the wheel of Dhamma rotating to liberate suffering beings from the wheel of misery.

Very recently they have planted a sapling of a historical tree known as a “Bodhi tree”. Bodhi tree was the one under which the great Gautama had attained enlightenment.

The bell donated by Myanmar

After spending some 2 hours around Pagoda we decided to get down. Down stair there was an auditorium showing the short film about history of Pagoda (some 15-20 minutes), there was an art gallery which had 122 pictures related to Budhha’s life, each with audio explanation.

The gong donated by Myanmar

As an expression of gratitude towards Pagoda, Myanmar has made good contribution. The bright golden paint that we saw on almost all the constructions, the beautifully carved wooden doors, the flooring of pagoda, the huge idol of lord Budhha, the big gong and bell near the entrance are remarkable contributions by Myanmar. 

The Budhha statue donated by Myanmar

waiting point for the ferry

We finished all the places and then had some snacks and tea at café.

Finally by 7pm we decided to make a move and headed back towards the ferry pickup point. 

I absolutely recommend this place to all the people who want some peaceful time without really going far away from the busy city.

 

The last view of Pagoda before getting in to the ferry

           “Twenty five centuries ago in India, a young man set out to investigate the basic truths of existence. That time and place seem infinitely far away from us today. But despite all the differences, we face the same questions to which he sought answers: 
What is the right way to live? 
Why is there suffering in the world? 
How can we find real understanding?
How can we find real happiness? “

Mentioned above are the first few introductory lines about Vipassana course. It sounds appealing to me.

If time permits, I will definitely get ten days out to learn Vipassana.


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