Pune ("Poo-nah," not "Peewn")
For my junior year at Notre Dame, my friend Christy and I took a cross country road trip from San Diego to South Bend. As we neared Amarillo, Texas, we talked excitedly about eating dinner at "the restaurant shaped like a boot" that we had heard so much about. (And by "heard so much about," I mean "my dad told me that there was a restaurant shaped like a boot in Amarillo, Texas.") Though we should have figured that something was amiss when the Motel 6 front desk clerk gave us a puzzled expression after we asked about the restaurant shaped like a boot - it wasn't until we got to there that we discovered that the restaurant is not, in fact, shaped like a boot, but has a picture of a boot on it's sign. Nevertheless, we had great time at dinner and the night was just as memorable as had it of occurred in a restaurant shaped like a boot.
My trip to Pune was sort of like my trip to Amarillo, Texas.
When planning my trip to the Osho Meditation Resort, I had a backup plan to check out and stay at one of the regular hotels in town and see the sights of Pune in case I didn't like Osho. Well, that's exactly what happened.
I'm going to describe all of the little things that sort of annoyed/confused/creeped me out about the experience before I tell the main reason that I checked out and went to a regular hotel in town.
I arrived at the resort on Sunday morning and was pleasantly surprised by the entrance. Sleek, modern silver paneling with trickling wall fountains, a Buddha statue, and other meditative type things adorned the waiting area. I told them that I would be staying at the hotel, but they said that I had to do the registration process first. The registration process was supposed to take about 15 minutes. When I arrived at the resort, I was so excited and charged up with anticipation. However, 15 minutes turned into 25 minutes, which turned into 35 minutes. I was pretty hungry and starting to get a bit annoyed. At which point I thought - THIS IS A TEST! They're testing me to see if I freak out when I have to wait longer than the foretold time. To which I thought, "Ooh - good one Osho. You almost had me!" So I took a deep breath and chilled out. 35 minutes turned to 45, which turned to an hour. Finally, I found out that it wasn't a test, and that they had lost my registration form somewhere. They profusely apologized, finished signing me in and then sent me off with a bell hop to take me to the hotel. The hotel, while sleek and modern, was very cold. I decided that I wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the hotel room anyways, so it wasn't a big deal. I also found out that I was supposed to have come directly to the hotel, where they would have taken care of my registration process. They gave me my maroon robe (which everyone has to wear in the daytime, white robes at night) and told me that all I needed was my robe and my meditation pass. So, I set off to get meditating.
Due to the delay of registration, I missed the dancing as meditation class, which made me really sad. Fortunately, there was a "sitting still" meditation class which was to start in about ten minutes. The hotel is in a remote part of the compound, so I had to walk a ways to get to the where the class was held. I arrived and noticed that everyone was taking off their shoes and putting on white socks. Well, I didn't bring any white socks, so I asked where I could buy some. The lady told me that I could buy them at the information desk, but that the information desk was closed for the next two hours (I'm guessing one hour for the information desk workers to eat lunch, one hour to meditate?). I'd have to wait...and I couldn't join the class unless I had white socks. I was pretty bummed, but decided that this would be a good opportunity to explore the "multi-acre Zen garden"!
Now, here is where I don't want to give the wrong impression - the Zen garden was nice. Nice foliage. Nice Buddha statues placed in flower beds. Nice, nice, nice. But, to be honest, there was not a single place in the Zen garden where I would have wanted to meditate. I was expecting dozens of little hidden nooks where you could wile away the hours, developing inner peace while trickling rivers cleansed your mental turmoil. Not so. A few benches placed along the paths, Buddha statue here, Buddha statue there, small little pond. That's it. The more I explored, the more I realized that I wouldn't be meditating outside, I'd be meditating inside these drab, black buildings...wearing socks. So, I re-read my map.
I figured that there had to be some hidden part of the compound I'd missed. And there was! WAY on the other side of the the compound (about a mile and a half from the hotel), was a place called Teerth Gardens. It was part of the meditation resort, but sort of not because you had to walk so far to get there. So, I trucked it out there in my maroon robe and started along the path. And it was also nice. But, the more I walked, the more muddy it got. So, I thought, "Ooh, I'll be so zen and take off my sandals...become one with the mud." So, I walked along like that for a bit, mud squishing through my toes...super naturey, super gross. Eventually, I came to a part of the path that was VERY muddy. I stopped. Still, muddy water was everywhere - about 6" to a foot deep. The mosquitos gathered together in the air to spell out the word "Malaria" and I decided that I was over the mud walk. So, I turned around. But then I thought, how am I going to wash my feet off? Well, I found a little clearing that led to the side of the river and started to walk down...when I saw a sign that said "Beware Of Snakes!" I turned around, walked back to my hotel, washed off my feet, and checked out.
None of these things on their own (or combined for that matter) made me want to check out. The main reason why I checked out was the vibe that I got. For those of you who know me well, I am all about my gut. And my gut just didn't feel right. Perhaps it was the whole, everyone wearing the same thing thing. Or perhaps it was the "if you don't attend the evening meeting, you have to be in your hotel room with the door locked" thing. Regardless, it just didn't feel right to me. So, I left. It was quite the kafuffle though. They freaked (in a non-scary way). They really tried to make me stay, but by that point, I was really ready to leave. So I packed it up and took a taxi over to the Le Meridien.
So begins Part 2 of my Pune weekend...
The Le Meridien, as all Starwood Hotels are, was beautiful. Because I'm a Starwood Gold member (Hey, Timmy!), they upgraded me to their club level. So I had a super sweet room and access to high tea, the cocktail hour, and breakfast. Very nice. I went to the gym, swam in the rooftop pool, and then showered before heading down to the cocktail hour. I met a really nice guy from Australia who is involved in engineering something or other, so we chatted for awhile about everything but engineering before I headed into town for dinner at a place called Bombay Brasserie. Good food, horrible ambiance (it sorted of reminded me of a Coco's or something...and it was recommended as one of the nicest restaurants in town). As it was a Sunday, the club scene was supposed to be dead, so I went to bed early.
I woke up fairy early as well, ate breakfast, and started my exploration of Pune. The first place I went was Shaniwar Wada, a royal residence that burned down a long, long time ago. However, the ruins are all overgrown with greenery now, so it's really quite a site. As I walked along the stubble of walls, it was so fun to try to imagine what used to be what. For example, there was a huge shaft that went 40 yards into the ground or so, and was connected to a smaller, more shallow hole. Though there were little signs everywhere that were meant to be informative, they would often display such interesting factoids as "During the Peshwai era, there was much greed and corruption."...and not a word about the giant hole! Here are some pictures...
Next, I went to The Parvati Temple, by far, the highlight of my trip to Pune. The temple houses a shrine to Peshwa Bajirao (not exactly sure who he is, but I'm sure he was involved in greed and corruption of some sort), as well as various Hindu gods. The temple is atop a hill that overlooks the entire city. To get to the temple, you have to walk up 108 steps - only, these aren't regular steps. They are more like long, sloping "levels." It's sort of like the steep side of Runyon Canyon times three (in terms of duration, not degree). Now, I'm in pretty good shape these days, but this was one tough climb. The rewards was worth it though: the view was spectacular, the shrines were colorful and joyous, and the air was the most pure thing my lungs have been filled with since I arrived in India. Some snaps...
Next I wanted to see The University of Pune. Though Lonely Planet didn't mention it, the magazine in my hotel room touted it as "magnificent." It took forever to get there, and just as we did, it started to rain really hard. The University was very spread out, and the main building was sort of lackluster. (Maybe I was hoping for a giant dome with Ganesh on top, plated in gold...who knows.) Back to the hotel for lunch and a massage and then it was time to go to the airport (As the sights of Pune can be done in a day, I decided to come home early).
I actually had a really great time on the trip - though it wasn't the trip that I thought I was going to have. I'm discovering that one of the best parts of traveling is making it up as you go along, and being flexible enough to completely change your plans so that you have a good time no matter what happens along the way.
And there was lots of blue sky.
For my junior year at Notre Dame, my friend Christy and I took a cross country road trip from San Diego to South Bend. As we neared Amarillo, Texas, we talked excitedly about eating dinner at "the restaurant shaped like a boot" that we had heard so much about. (And by "heard so much about," I mean "my dad told me that there was a restaurant shaped like a boot in Amarillo, Texas.") Though we should have figured that something was amiss when the Motel 6 front desk clerk gave us a puzzled expression after we asked about the restaurant shaped like a boot - it wasn't until we got to there that we discovered that the restaurant is not, in fact, shaped like a boot, but has a picture of a boot on it's sign. Nevertheless, we had great time at dinner and the night was just as memorable as had it of occurred in a restaurant shaped like a boot.
My trip to Pune was sort of like my trip to Amarillo, Texas.
When planning my trip to the Osho Meditation Resort, I had a backup plan to check out and stay at one of the regular hotels in town and see the sights of Pune in case I didn't like Osho. Well, that's exactly what happened.
I'm going to describe all of the little things that sort of annoyed/confused/creeped me out about the experience before I tell the main reason that I checked out and went to a regular hotel in town.
I arrived at the resort on Sunday morning and was pleasantly surprised by the entrance. Sleek, modern silver paneling with trickling wall fountains, a Buddha statue, and other meditative type things adorned the waiting area. I told them that I would be staying at the hotel, but they said that I had to do the registration process first. The registration process was supposed to take about 15 minutes. When I arrived at the resort, I was so excited and charged up with anticipation. However, 15 minutes turned into 25 minutes, which turned into 35 minutes. I was pretty hungry and starting to get a bit annoyed. At which point I thought - THIS IS A TEST! They're testing me to see if I freak out when I have to wait longer than the foretold time. To which I thought, "Ooh - good one Osho. You almost had me!" So I took a deep breath and chilled out. 35 minutes turned to 45, which turned to an hour. Finally, I found out that it wasn't a test, and that they had lost my registration form somewhere. They profusely apologized, finished signing me in and then sent me off with a bell hop to take me to the hotel. The hotel, while sleek and modern, was very cold. I decided that I wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the hotel room anyways, so it wasn't a big deal. I also found out that I was supposed to have come directly to the hotel, where they would have taken care of my registration process. They gave me my maroon robe (which everyone has to wear in the daytime, white robes at night) and told me that all I needed was my robe and my meditation pass. So, I set off to get meditating.
Due to the delay of registration, I missed the dancing as meditation class, which made me really sad. Fortunately, there was a "sitting still" meditation class which was to start in about ten minutes. The hotel is in a remote part of the compound, so I had to walk a ways to get to the where the class was held. I arrived and noticed that everyone was taking off their shoes and putting on white socks. Well, I didn't bring any white socks, so I asked where I could buy some. The lady told me that I could buy them at the information desk, but that the information desk was closed for the next two hours (I'm guessing one hour for the information desk workers to eat lunch, one hour to meditate?). I'd have to wait...and I couldn't join the class unless I had white socks. I was pretty bummed, but decided that this would be a good opportunity to explore the "multi-acre Zen garden"!
Now, here is where I don't want to give the wrong impression - the Zen garden was nice. Nice foliage. Nice Buddha statues placed in flower beds. Nice, nice, nice. But, to be honest, there was not a single place in the Zen garden where I would have wanted to meditate. I was expecting dozens of little hidden nooks where you could wile away the hours, developing inner peace while trickling rivers cleansed your mental turmoil. Not so. A few benches placed along the paths, Buddha statue here, Buddha statue there, small little pond. That's it. The more I explored, the more I realized that I wouldn't be meditating outside, I'd be meditating inside these drab, black buildings...wearing socks. So, I re-read my map.
I figured that there had to be some hidden part of the compound I'd missed. And there was! WAY on the other side of the the compound (about a mile and a half from the hotel), was a place called Teerth Gardens. It was part of the meditation resort, but sort of not because you had to walk so far to get there. So, I trucked it out there in my maroon robe and started along the path. And it was also nice. But, the more I walked, the more muddy it got. So, I thought, "Ooh, I'll be so zen and take off my sandals...become one with the mud." So, I walked along like that for a bit, mud squishing through my toes...super naturey, super gross. Eventually, I came to a part of the path that was VERY muddy. I stopped. Still, muddy water was everywhere - about 6" to a foot deep. The mosquitos gathered together in the air to spell out the word "Malaria" and I decided that I was over the mud walk. So, I turned around. But then I thought, how am I going to wash my feet off? Well, I found a little clearing that led to the side of the river and started to walk down...when I saw a sign that said "Beware Of Snakes!" I turned around, walked back to my hotel, washed off my feet, and checked out.
None of these things on their own (or combined for that matter) made me want to check out. The main reason why I checked out was the vibe that I got. For those of you who know me well, I am all about my gut. And my gut just didn't feel right. Perhaps it was the whole, everyone wearing the same thing thing. Or perhaps it was the "if you don't attend the evening meeting, you have to be in your hotel room with the door locked" thing. Regardless, it just didn't feel right to me. So, I left. It was quite the kafuffle though. They freaked (in a non-scary way). They really tried to make me stay, but by that point, I was really ready to leave. So I packed it up and took a taxi over to the Le Meridien.
So begins Part 2 of my Pune weekend...
The Le Meridien, as all Starwood Hotels are, was beautiful. Because I'm a Starwood Gold member (Hey, Timmy!), they upgraded me to their club level. So I had a super sweet room and access to high tea, the cocktail hour, and breakfast. Very nice. I went to the gym, swam in the rooftop pool, and then showered before heading down to the cocktail hour. I met a really nice guy from Australia who is involved in engineering something or other, so we chatted for awhile about everything but engineering before I headed into town for dinner at a place called Bombay Brasserie. Good food, horrible ambiance (it sorted of reminded me of a Coco's or something...and it was recommended as one of the nicest restaurants in town). As it was a Sunday, the club scene was supposed to be dead, so I went to bed early.
I woke up fairy early as well, ate breakfast, and started my exploration of Pune. The first place I went was Shaniwar Wada, a royal residence that burned down a long, long time ago. However, the ruins are all overgrown with greenery now, so it's really quite a site. As I walked along the stubble of walls, it was so fun to try to imagine what used to be what. For example, there was a huge shaft that went 40 yards into the ground or so, and was connected to a smaller, more shallow hole. Though there were little signs everywhere that were meant to be informative, they would often display such interesting factoids as "During the Peshwai era, there was much greed and corruption."...and not a word about the giant hole! Here are some pictures...
Next, I went to The Parvati Temple, by far, the highlight of my trip to Pune. The temple houses a shrine to Peshwa Bajirao (not exactly sure who he is, but I'm sure he was involved in greed and corruption of some sort), as well as various Hindu gods. The temple is atop a hill that overlooks the entire city. To get to the temple, you have to walk up 108 steps - only, these aren't regular steps. They are more like long, sloping "levels." It's sort of like the steep side of Runyon Canyon times three (in terms of duration, not degree). Now, I'm in pretty good shape these days, but this was one tough climb. The rewards was worth it though: the view was spectacular, the shrines were colorful and joyous, and the air was the most pure thing my lungs have been filled with since I arrived in India. Some snaps...
Next I wanted to see The University of Pune. Though Lonely Planet didn't mention it, the magazine in my hotel room touted it as "magnificent." It took forever to get there, and just as we did, it started to rain really hard. The University was very spread out, and the main building was sort of lackluster. (Maybe I was hoping for a giant dome with Ganesh on top, plated in gold...who knows.) Back to the hotel for lunch and a massage and then it was time to go to the airport (As the sights of Pune can be done in a day, I decided to come home early).
I actually had a really great time on the trip - though it wasn't the trip that I thought I was going to have. I'm discovering that one of the best parts of traveling is making it up as you go along, and being flexible enough to completely change your plans so that you have a good time no matter what happens along the way.
And there was lots of blue sky.
posted by Steven | 11:12 PM
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