Parvati Hill

View of the city from Parvati Hill

On Sunday we drove to Mumbai to pick up friends who were staying with us for a few days. They're about 30 days into a 180-day adventure through Asia and Europe (read their travel blog HERE) and had just gotten into Mumbai via Rajasthan. We met them in Colaba, a neighborhood in the south of the city, and after hitting almost zero traffic we were pleased to have time for a quick lunch at Mahesh Lunch Room before having to head out for the 3.5 hour drive back. I must admit, seeing friends from home made me a little more misty eyed than I thought it would :-)  

We had a few fun days before they had to grab their train to Mumbai and I was able to share some of my favorite things in Pune with them, the last of which was Parvati Hill. Since summer temps are exceeding 100º, we went in the early morning around 9:30am to avoid getting too hot, especially since there are 103 stairs that lead to the site. It's is a pretty neat place to spend an hour or two, and though everything is brown right now I'm told that monsoon brings rains which turn the brown to bright green, a sight I'm eager to see. 

At the top of the hill there is a bunch of stuff to do and see. There's a two-story museum which has a lot of Peshwa artifacts; it costs Rs. 10 to enter and although most of the signage is in Hindi, the artifacts themselves are pretty self explanatory. There are also several temples on the grounds, all near one another, which house different idols, and a big temple at the very top of the hill, Devdeveshwar Temple, where for Rs. 5 one can climb the stairs that lead to a 360º view of Pune! You can read about the temples, idols, and the site HERE.