VGP Amusement park in Chennai

I moved to Chennai with my husband. Every weekend we find new places in Chennai to spend some good time together. We had been to Marina Beach, Besant Nagar Beach, Express Avenue and Ascendas. We heard that on ECR road VGP amusement park which is worth spending whole day with family. Today fortunately Weather was good. We decided to visit the park. We were excited. We enquired about the park timings & details to reach park. We started from our house at 11am so that we can spend whole day.

We reached there, unfortunately sun was showing his presence & scorching heat was unbearable to us. But we did not lost the hope we thought inside we will enjoy. The ticket of park is 175/-per head which included 13 free rides.

We were three people including my mother in law. The Entrance was very attractive. Some children rides were available at the starting point. The park is near beach so we can go to beach as well. But we did not have the excitement for Beach because we already seen the Marina & Besant Nagar beach.

There are old sculptures standing since decades. We came to know that it is made up of historical place. I did not find anywhere written what exactly it was. There is a Statue Man standing in yellow cloths. We thought it’s statue but it was fat, giant man standing in yellow robe. I found it very hilarious because why there is need of calling him as a statue. Anyways our frustration started increasing & we were searching for some excitement or some kind of fun. Then we saw different boards giving us direction. We selected one ride when we reach there we came to know that this ride will charge us 20/- per head. I was wondering which 13 rides are free.

It was disappointing. We did not take it. We started searching a ride which is free. Actually they should not write as ‘FREE’ because anyways I paid 175/- for all those 13 rides.

Somehow we found Giant Wheel. I was excited but my husband & mummy were quite frustrated. We sat in Giant wheel, when started we thought we will have blast. Giant wheel started we could see the top view, we could see the beach. The views were amazing but another disappointment was Giant wheel did not have anything so called ‘SPEED’. All my excitement was gone. Now I also got frustrated. I felt I wasted time & money. I still trying to tell them that we are already in so we should not think other options, we should enjoy it but I failed to find anything so called amusement.

We hardly had 3 rides but lack of speed we did not enjoy any ride. Rest everything was under maintenance & other rides were chargeable. Even Water Park has 150/- ticket.

Food courts were as if they don’t know what cleanliness is.

I would not recommend VGP amusement park to anyone because it is waste of time & money. I hope near future they will be sincere with their customer & give amusement to worth of the amount chargeable.

Diveagar-Shrivardhan-Harihareshwar

Destination – Dive agar

Distance From Pune – 160 KM

Vehicle – Qualis  (Rs 6.50/KM)

No. Of people – 6 (Including driver)

Accommodation – Mr. Sahastrabudhe (Rs 600/room)

Route – Pune-Paud-Tamhini-Nizampur-Mangoan-Mhasla-Srivardhan-Harihareshawr.

Stay – Two days one night

My sister Charusheela visited Dive Agar three years back. She always used to describe the beauty of the place and the fun they had. For me it was pending. Only the  blogger meet brought me to this place.

Initially everyone was ready for the trip but many cancelled because of unavoidable reasons. I was sure if not blogger friend then I will go with my family. Fortunately Sanket and Hashir did not drop the plan and I was happy.

All Rearing to go – Outside Shaf’s Place

Saturday morning Hash and Sanky reached at Shafs home in Pune. We started our journey at 11:30AM to Dive Agar. Till Tamhini ghat road was good after that driver slowed down the speed. I had been to Tamhini ghat in rainy season and it looks awesome. Both side of the road occupied with green trees, water fall somewhere, deep valley and hills make that journey exciting. And that narrow road without concrete road is fun to drive.

The hills on both sides welcomed us

We crossed Mulshi lake and stopped at one small restaurant for tea. My sisters wanted to go to Mulshi lake but that road was closed long back. Hashir went up and took some photos of natural beauty. I would say he was holding camera all the time, landscape photo lover. I enjoyed beauty around ghat.

A Panormic view

We were above to reach Dive Agar the smell of air changes and gives freshness. We were excited to see the sea. We reached Dive Agar around 3:30PM @ Sahstrabudhe’s house. It was beautiful village, narrow roads, coconut trees and greenery around. I liked the houses which are unique in design.

The greenery of Diveagar enchants you

The allocated rooms were awesome. It was on first floor with beautiful balcony. I liked the window and balcony view because it was full of trees. It was simply superb place to be relaxed. We got refreshed with tea.

Chai time

Around 4:30PM we were at the amazing, beautiful and mind blowing beach of Dive Agar. It was unforgettable, mesmerizing moment. After long time I saw beach and first time tasted the salty water.

Devagar Beach – First View

The experience of walking on sand was like walking on soft carpet, looking at endless sea, listening to the waves and wind made me to forget the world and just be there experiencing nature.

It was dark when we return back to our rooms with wet and muddy cloths. Dinner was ready by that time. It was simple veg homemade food provided by owner. It was delicious and had full of stomach. By that time it was 9:00PM now what next?

We decided to eat Masala Pan. We went out in search of Masala Pan. The roads were empty, calm and quite. Somewhere it was TV sound, some music but not disturbing. One or two men were standing in front of their houses, watching us and talking to each other, few women with their children in the passage, few houses were quite.

Me and Hashir were taking photos of houses because they were looking very attractive. We found out Pan Shop, actually it was a restaurant. After having pan, we reached our rooms by 10:00PM.

Masala Pan

Now everyone was feeling sleepy except me, Hashir and Sayali(my younger sister). She played some music on Sanket’s laptop. I and Hashir kept on discussing what not as if God has given last chance to talk and we discussed on number of topics. Sanket was in dreams and Sayali also slept after some time.

Sleepy Sanks

I think we were chatting till 3:30AM though we don’t want to waste time but I thought next day also we have to roam around so we should sleep.

I got up at 5:30AM next morning and woke up everyone. It was dark till 7:00AM. My sister wanted to go to beach in the morning so we again went over there.

Not easy to wake this guy

Or him!!

What a lovely morning music (took Hashir’s walkman), cool breeze, sunrise and beach. I was alone walking on beach waves were touching my feet and leaving my foot impression on sand. Group of Birds were playing with the waves. It was eye soothing sight. I was listening to my fav. Song from film Rang de Bansant “Luka chupi bahot hui” and the line “Yahan udane ko khula asama” sung by A R Rahman touched my heart. I was in to that state for long time then everyone joined me and we together had lot of fun. Everyone was experimented with Hash’s camera and captured good moments in picture.

Early Morning Sun

We had breakfast and left for Harihareshwar by 9:00AM. We climbed hill to get down other side of the temple. I did not realize till we reach the sight what was stored for us to view. It was wild sea from close distance. It was dangerous and extremely awful, rocks were slippery. In spite of the fact I reached near to sea but all sudden one man was shouting at me warned not to go too close to sea. I immediately moved from that rock. Hashir liked that place because rocks were in different shapes. It was 12:30PM when we left that place.

Harihareshwar – way to the beach

Rock formations at Harihareshwar

We had in mind to visit Murud Zanzira fort but it would have taken another 4-5 hours and we had time constraint because we had to catch 8 o’clock Bus for Hash n Sanky and so we had to return from Harihareshwar with mixed feeling. While coming we stopped at Mulshi Lake.

Mulshi Lake

We reached Pune by 4:30PM. Then we decided to get fresh at my home and from there we went to Pune Camp the one of good place for shopping. We all had wonderful time till 8:00PM in the night, when said tata to Hashir and Sanky. And finally I was sleeping in local bus while returning home 🙂