A Ghost Hotel. Review on Baron Lakeside Resort, Pune

Baron Lakeside Resort(erstwhile Panshet MTDC Resort) is located on a hill between the Panshet and Varasgaon dams 50 KMs from Pune. Its location is good and there's plenty to see and do around this place. The Panshet dam is within walking distance and the boating centre is hardly a kilometer away. Varasgaon dam and its boating centre is a bit far, but not too much on a vehicle. The whole place is scenic whichever season you choose to visit it.

But, the hotel is like a ghost town. Its spread over a big area with a garden, a pool and some fruit bearing trees. The garden is in shambles with leaves and flowers decaying all over the place. The swimming pool is dirty and not maintained at all. And the trees are either rotting or growing hapazardly in all directions.

The buildings, which are scattered around the area, are old and dilapatated. They look like haunted houses straight out of some Ramsay movie with walls blackening with dripping water, trees growing out of cracks, furniture rotting in empty rooms, broken windows, curtains eaten by termites and waste of ages strewn around the corridors.

The AC rooms are in the building that has the reception(or something like it). They are in very bad shape. The walls have moss, algae and fungus growing all over it. The beds are creaking and smelly. The AC leaks water all over the place and makes so much noise that you are forced to turn it off for the night. The TV doesn't work. The bathrooms are dirty, the flushes don't work and so they smell like hell. The tap water also smells and you can see bits and pieces(of donno what) floating in it. The standard rooms are in a building up on a hillock and hence have a good view of the lake. But they are also in a state similar to the AC rooms, except they lack the AC and the TV.

At night the place feels creepy. There are no lights on the paths to

the rooms and you have ferns and tree branches sticking out which could

potentially blind you or rip your skin in the darkness. Although the darkness in a way could be adventurous and fun - the sky is full of stars and theres not a single sound.

The restaurant(and the bar) in the main building are forever closed and you either have to

walk down to the canteen at the boating centre to eat or order it in

your room for an extra charge. The food at the canteen is average and is a bit costly for the place(e.g. Rs 5 for

a Chapati, Rs 15 for water/cold drink, Rs 60 for Baingan Masala and Rs 120 for a half Chicken Handi). The service is also not very

good if you are not part of a big group.

Typically there's no one at the reception, and even if there's someone

• they are sleeping. The men who were loittering around the place took

money from us and did not give a receipt. When we chatted with them for

a while they told us that the owners of the resort(Atur Group) did not

care about the place and had stoped maintaining it for months. They

told us that the resort manager never visited and even if he did he

just had tea and left. No one stayed in the resort on weekdays and even

on weekends hardly 2 or 3 rooms were occupied at a time(even in the

peak season of monsoon). So they were free to keep all the money

without informing the management.

All this crapiness comes at a big price - Rs 1200 for a standard

room(a fan and a double bed) and Rs 2000 for a deluxe room(AC, bed

and a non-working TV). Even the attendants at the hotel admit that the

rates are "hi-fi" and that nobody goes there because of that reason.

The only good thing about this place is the surroundings. It feels so good and refreshing to just take a stroll through the hilly jungle in the morning or walk over the dam in the evening or just look at the numerous stars in the night.