This year we decided to celebrate new year at a quiet place with birds. Hence, we went to Bhigwan on the 30th December. We stayed at City Inn at Baramati.
About stay :
City Inn is a very nice hotel in Baramati. It is a little away from the main road, so a little away from the city buzz. The hotel has a good parking area, with nice lounge. People in City Inn are very courteous and service-oriented. I spoke to Somnath ji at the reception. He has booked 2 rooms for us without any hassles.
There are 2 restaurants - out of which Street cafe is an open air restaurant, especially great for dinner. They serve delicious sandwiches, chat, Mastani, south Indian dishes, pizzas, etc. The service is really good and quick.
One more speciality of the hotel is that they have a bake and cake shop. All the bakery items served and sold are prepared by home chef at City Inn. It is great to have fresh breads and cakes for breakfast.
Overall, this is a great place to stay when in Baramati.
About Baramati :
This is the first time that we went to Baramati. Had heard about this place a lot. As heard, Baramati is a neatly planned city. The roads are very good [in fact, they are like runways in some places]. The traffic rules re followed by locals. There are gardens in the city. Also, many trees are planted alongside roads. This makes it greener. The lanes are very neatly made. The last lane is separated from the main traffic due to which the traffic of residential area and shops doesnot mix with the main flow. One can find many outlets selling Jaggery tea, 'Gulacha chaha' on Pune-Solapur highway and Baramati. Also, Baramati being close to Bhigwan, you can spot a few migratory birds too....
About Bhigwan :
People say that Bhigwan has a bird sanctuary. But, according to me, the whole village alongwith the neighbouring ones make a bird sanctuary. Here we could see various migratory birds. I can recollect a few names like Grey heron, Indian pond heron, Black headed ibis, Black necked stilt, Pied bushchat, Coot, Kingfisher, Purple moorhen, Flamingo, Purple moorhen, Wooden duck and Painted stork. I had spoken to Swapnil in Bhigwan who is known for boat rides in Ujani backwaters. However, he went out-of-the-way to guide me with good place to stay and that is how we stayed at City Inn. Swapnil was very helpful and knowledgeable. His colleague Akshay took us for the boat ride. He took us to places where there were many birds. He also gave us information about the names of birds, their country of origin and a few characteristics. We enjoyed a lot as we never get to see such birds so close.
Bhigwan, Baramati is rich with agriculture - main crop being sugarcane, secondary being groundnuts. We could see a lot of tractors carrying loads of cut sugarcane crop. These tractors play local and Bollywood songs loudly and ply the roads. This was a different thing that we saw.
Also, the Ujani dam backwaters is rich with river-water fish like Tilapia. Many hotels sell this fish - curry and fried [Kadak as they call it].
To sum it up, people earn their living through various sources here like agriculture, boat rides, fish sale, jaggery tea, etc.
