Start Date: -2nd October 209
Start Location: Dwarka, New Delhi
Start Time: 20:15 hrs
Route: Delhi to Haldwani by train followed by a cab to Ranikhet
Ranikhet
Day 1
The train departs at 2215 hrs from Old Delhi railway station; however, for Ranikhet express that is not the originating station. The originating station is Sarai Rohilla in Delhi. The trip to Ranikhet was a rushed one since it was not a part of our original itinerary. Initially, we were looking at covering Nainital and Kausani alone, however, a late realization paved way for the change of plans and we hurriedly included Ranikhet in our plan.
So we booked tickets by Ranikhet Express and started for the Old delhi railway station to board the train. Our preparations for Journey were again rushed and we missed out on picking up some important but not vital things. Nevertheless, we continued our travel to station. We were given to understand that the Train shall arrive on Platform no. 7 and hence, we parked ourselves with our entire luggage at the said platform. As luck would have it, the train took time to arrive and to add to the confusion it arrived on platform no. 9 instead of 7. Melee ensued at the station as many of us rushed to figure out the details. We ran helter-skelter to figure out the location of coach A1 even as we lugged our luggage along. My wife was quite anxious by now and she was running up and down to figure out the coach. I was myself a bit worried by now because of the huge rush coupled with the general chaos around. Finally, with some effort we managed to locate the coach and helped ourselves aboard the train. There was nothing much to do but to hit the sac for the overnight journey. I set the alarm on my mobile phone and went off to sleep. My wife was sleeping happily too after the tiring adventure of locating the coach which somehow never arrived on the expected platform.
We had the option to get off at Kathgodam and then take a cab from there, however, a day prior to the visit I called up the hotel guy and he suggested getting off at haldwani and taking a cab from there instead. I also checked for the cab fares with him. From Haldwani to Ranikhet, typically they charge you about 700 bucks. Before I began my journey, I also visited a couple of websites to check for these cab fares and realized that travelers had quoted cabbies asking for fares as high as 1500 bucks. With fair bit of prior information, I bargained with the cabbie at Haldwani station and sealed the deal at 800 bucks. By the way, I am all praise for Haldwani station. Its far far better looking and much more cleaner than many of those train station in our metros. It did not take me long to strike the bargain and we set off for Ranikhet.Part reason could also be the fact that this season probably aint the most popular tourist season here.
We were a bit sleepy from our overnight nap and hence, could not really appreciate much of the scenic and picturesque views that lined up the way to Ranikhet. The good part was that for all those who like my wife tend to vomit or at least develop that vomiting sensation on the long winding hilly roads that go round and round , a better part of this stretch of road journey could really be covered in sleep. Finally we reached Ranikhet where we paid about 9 /- as toll to enter the landscape. Going past the landscape it took us all of 10 minutes to hit the place which is chevron Rosemount. The time now was 8:10. it took us about two hours and a half to travel from haldwani to Ranikhet. Rosemount is away from the main market and as per information from the hotel it is located somewhere midway between the market and Chaubatia garden. It is situated on mall road. The last stretch to the hotel i.e., about 1 km looks a bit deserted as you travel down the very silent hilly roads but all said and done it has its own charm in the quietude it has on offer for the visitors. As you enter the hotel, you immediately notice the lush green belt circumscribing the entire hotel. The hotel, I believe, is maintaining a great variety of flora and employs a set of gardeners who work diligently on maintaining it round the day. The staff is friendly, warm, receptive and responsive to the needs of the tourists.
We checked into our room and were offered tea on arrival. After our morning tea we unpacked our stuff. We were tired and wanted to catch up on our sleep, however, the breakfast wont await us beyond 10:00 in the morning and hence, we quickly freshened up and trudged on to the dining hall. The lawn adjoining the dining hall was inviting by its very looks. More so on account of the panorama it offered to an unhindered view of himalyas. The snow clad peaks appeared to be standing too tall to even imagine their heights. The peaks stood still and rock solid which only spoke further about their ability to have remained long unconquered by the mankind. A highly treacherous and difficult trek they have been for even the most adventurous and ardent trekkers world wide. We chose to sit out at the lawns and enjoyed our sumptuous breakfast. The hospitable staff served us well. It only challenged our appetite and we gorged on the breakfast.
While on any usual day we would have gone and hit the sac post our heavy breakfast, the natural beauty around us enticed us to serenade its own self and we felt this urge to go for a walk along the line of pines. The walk proved to be highly refreshing. We went crazy capturing in our digital camera, the natural beauty which was all around us . Before that, on the breakfast table I did manage to leverage the zoom function of my camera as much as possible to capture the top of the snow covered Himalayan peaks. Anyway, we continued our ascent and descent on foot and clicked a whole lot of pictures of the place. The strips of road look deserted but actually they offer all the peace to appreciate the beauty of the nature. We then came back to the hotel and tired as we were we simply crashed on the bed and slept for a good few hours.
By the time we got up, it was time for lunch. My wife had gotton up a bit earlier than me and I only woke up to the tapping sound of rains on the roof. Rain has barely started when I woke up but it did not take it long to take over full time. Soon it turned into heavy downpour from the mild drizzle. We stepped out of the room and eased us onto the resting chairs placed right outside our rooms. We enjoyed the rains as much as we had enjoyed the meals and the walk through the forest. Wife sounded a bit more adventurous as she prodded me to run to the dining hall even as it rained outside. It took me sometime and finally I took up the gauntlet. We then rushed down to the dining halls only to realize that the lunch wasn't any buffet and it must be ordered. The phone in the room was out of order and hence we could not have done it over phone. We asked them to set the phone right and went back to our room. Soon the room service guy walked in to take our order. We wanted to order for our kumaoni dishes such as Bhat ki Chidkuni and Aloo ke Gutke but realized that Bhat ki Chidkuni would take about 45 minutes for its preparation. We decided to skip it for then. We, however, did settle for the aloo ke gutke and Dal with rice and chapatti. We also ordered for a large bowlful of Kumaoni raita. We ate to our heart’s content and realized that another round of walks up and down the hills wont be a bad idea at all.
We therefore, started for yet another round of walk and this time we went much further than the point we had reached during our walk in the morning. We went on and came across a few private properties in the area besides some of the establishments set up by the Cantonment folks in Ranikhet. It goes without saying that we once again went crazy clicking pictures of the beautiful landscape surrounding us. My wife apparently, turned out to be a much bigger photography freak that am I though with a bit of a difference. While I go crazy clicking snaps she would want to be in the every picture that I clicked. Wife got me thinking after sometime when she raised a possible concern of monkeys presence in the area. We were no new to monkey menace as we had witnessed multiple adventures involving monkeys during our visits to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in the past. The memories from past brought the chill back After all, it was just the two of us walking through the forest. At this point we decided to catch hold of the first stick that we found on our way back. So that was the point from where decided to retreat. We started on our way back to the hotel. On our way up we had come across “Adhikari Logde” and we were quite amused to see our namesake holding the rights to the lodge there. We clicked a few pictures around that as well. Anyway, we realized that we had walked up quite a bit and should now pace down to reach the hotel. We came across a kid monkey on our way back and wife got scared of a possible presence of bigger monkeys around. Pacing down we soon reached closer to the hotel and it was pretty much in sight when we decided to relax. Clicked a few more pictures and reached the hotel.
This is where the fun started. We went down to play table tennis and for the first time I realized that my wife is quite good at it. It felt awesome to play her on the table and we had a challenging match where I finally managed to beat her 20 to 16. We stepped out of the table tennis room only to proceed to the badminton court and once again to my pleasant surprise, wife turned out to be quite good at badminton as well. Throughout she would boast of how her dad taught it all to her. It is needless to say that whenever she spoke of her dad she also dropped a mention of her brother who is one and the only one in this world as per her. Every sister I believe has such words of praise for her brother(s). We slogged it out at the badminton court following which spent time hanging from the structures erected for kids. It was great fun and we also clicked some pictures there. After this, we went to the lawns and ordered for the evening tea. It was quite an experience sipping from the cup of tea while sitting in the lap of nature. It was time to skim through the daily newspaper to catch up on the news and we did it near perfect while enjoying our cup of tea. Having finished our tea, we went to the room where my wife switched on the TV and I sat down to jot down the blog. The blog continues….
Day 2
Day 2 started only at about 8:30 when we got up. The morning tea was enjoyed outside the room on the resting chairs and we clicked a few pictures around that area. It provides for a small, cozy and beautiful place to enjoy your cup of tea in morning and evening alike. Since we had already planned our day in advance it did not take us long to get ready. We quickly freshened up and headed for the breakfast. It was a treat to eyes to see a different menu on the second day and a treat to our tongue and stomach to eat it. We gorged on Aloo paranthas, Curd, Porridge, pickles, Upma, Fruit Juices, Corn Flakes and eggs not necessarily in that order though
Soon after we finished our breakfast we ordered for our cab. While the cabbie was on his way we tried to catch up on some news on TV. The cabbie had agreed to take us around the town for a total of 600 bucks. This included visit to various placed like Chaubatia garden, Jhula Devi Temple, Kalika Devi Temple, Kumaon Regiment’s Golf course, Ranikhet’s local market and finally tweed factory before retreating to the hotel for lunch.
The cab was maruti Zen and the driver from his experience looked like a seasoned driver who would not compromise on the safety bit no matter what and hence, he would drive at moderate speeds which were much enjoyed by my wife. She advocated availing of his services for our impending travel to Kausani from Ranikhet. We started at about 10:44 (thanks to the time piece installed in the car since I preferred not to carry my invaluable watch from the wedding time). We first headed for the Chaubatia garden. Wife was a bit concerned about the weather. It was fine when we started out however, no sooner we reached chaubatia than it started drizzling a bit. At the entrance one is supposed to make an entry into the register kept there jotting down the personal details including number of persons, place and phone number etc. The guy with the register would also prompt you to hire the services of a guide who I am sure would be an authority on the variety of flora existing in the garden. With little interest in botany, we planned to go on our own as many other also did. We waked down the track even as we clicked pictures of the beautiful surroundings.
On our way down we kept wondering as to what the garden is about with no flowers or other fauna in sight. It was only when we reached the lowest point that we noticed a track curving to the right which led people onto an ascent that would take them to the core of the garden. We started our ascent and soon found us in the middle of the garden. We could see the gardeners working actively on the different species of plants / saplings. On any other day I would have taken active interest in engaging the gardeners to figure out more about the plants but owing to the presence of about two “all unruly boys” groups we chose to tread on. Nevertheless, that did not dampen our spirits since there was plenty of good sight to enjoy and click the pictures. That kept us engaged as we continued our ascent all the way to the last bit of the garden and finally to the exit which is precisely the same place where you first enter the garden. Its kind of a circular trip around the garden. As per the man sitting at the entrance, besides garden, the place also provides opportunity to venture into forests protected by electric fencing and a visit to a dam close by. Due to paucity of time we chose to give it a slip.
At the exit of the garden there is a small shop which sells a variety of juices. These include apricot, Jamun, Lichi and juice from a pahari flower. We decided to try the last one. It was quite refreshing and in taste felt like a mix of roohafza, cough syrup and one more thing which I fail to recollect at this point of time. While it may not sound too appealing to try it from that way I have described it I stand by it and strongly recommend people to try it once. I believe it does add to your vigour while you are out to explore the place. We wasted little time and moved on to see Jhula Devi Temple.
Jhula Devi Temple is quite close to Chaubatia garden and in fact, you see it first on your way to chaubatia garden. On our way back we offered prayers at Jhula Devi temple. It’s a temple which will touch the depth of your hearts with its serenity and divinity. It’s a small temple which reflects the strong faith reposed in it by people from the number of bells offered to the temple by devotees. The saying goes that you can tie a bell there and seek the blessings of Jhula Devi who fulfills your wishes as you seek them. Following the Darshan of Jhula Devi it was time to move on to Kalika devi. Way to Kalika devi temple goes through the heart of the cantonment. It is closer golf course. We crossed the golf course to reach kalika devi temple. It is actually two temples and you need to take this flight of stairs to reach one after another. The temple houses statues of Goddess Kali as the name suggests. We offered our prayers at Kalika Devi temple and started back to have a view of the golf course. As luck would have it, it was past 1:00 in the afternoon and by then the army guys had come out on the field flaunting their golf sticks. You could also see a couple of caddies walking up and down the field. It was then that our driver told us that the scenic views of the golf course are open for public access only up to 1:00 in the afternoon post which the guys take the field and the access is curtailed. Nevertheless, we had an overall view of the golf course. It is a nine holes golf course made in two parts each of it lying on the either side of the road which tourists / others take to cross the area. Though the attempt has been to lay it out on a relatively plain area yet given the overall geography of the place the terrain remains undulating, however, the greens on the field is a refreshing sight and am sure it’s a high privilege to be getting an opportunity to try your hand at golf there. This does inspire me to learn golf at some stage of my life so that may be at a later time I could also enjoy playing it shoulders to shoulders with the rest on a field like this.
Having skipped the golf course, it was now time for us to visit ranikhet market. The one good thing that I will always remember about market is that it was one place where my cellphone’s network started showing some signs of life. Airtel network is a big problem in this area. Wife has a Vodafone connection and true to their punchline, the network indeed followed us wherever we went. Hats off to Vodafone and piece of advice to Airtel. At least try and be the one amongst top three players in terms of network availability. It was quite an inconvenience and embarrassment going out with an Airtel network. We walked through the market and looked at stuff that could be purchased and taken back home as “memories to keep”. Due to paucity of time, we could not settle down for much except for a piece of binoculars for a kid at Kausani which was our next destination being my wife’s native.
After this, we started for the tweed factory. It is said that the Shawls, Stoles and other stuff at tweed factory is woven by Army widows. A word of appreciation for the guys managing it and providing a source of livelihood to those who probably deserve much more than just a handful of money from selling the produce at Tweed Factory. We went through the array of display there and settled for a shawl for mom and a stole for wife. Wife as ever was adamant on having her pictures clicked and I did manage to capture a couple of them inside and outside of the Tweed Factory. Tweed factory’s collection is nice and the experience could have been nicer but for the power cut that cut short our time at Tweed Factory. The place has a high ceiling and hence, a power cut can render the complete set up dark. We could not spend much time even as the power cut persisted. Tweed Factory also houses an ATM from Punjab National Bank. We withdrew some money from the ATM and also clicked a few pictures of the scenic views around this area which also includes Nar Singh Stadium.
Finally we started back for our abode set up in the hills, Chevron Rosemount. We were on time for lunch and hogged, hogged and hogged after the sight seeing. The day 2 ended with an evening stroll down the hills. We could now appreciate the natural beauty around us much better than when we started.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Kausani!!!
Kausani
Day 3
Day 3 started with our morning tea. We enjoyed the tea and started gearing up for the later part of the day. The agenda for us was to finish our breakfast first and then set out for Kausani. We had struck an agreement with our driver from yesterday to take us down to Kausani. Following our breakfast, we settled our outstanding with the Hotel. Meanwhile the driver was out at the gate waiting for us to start. It had rained heavily last night and we were a bit concerned about our impending trip to Kausani. While the heavy rains had subsided in the morning the drizzle had continued. Their was not any let up in the drizzling and we had to start amidst the rains and the winds. We started for Kausani at about 10:30. As a preventive measure, wife had taken a tablet of vomistop post breakfast to preempt any vomiting sensation while maneuvering the merry go round roads of the hills. Rains continued and so did we on our way to Kausani. It took us all of two hours to reach my wife’s native. It’s a place which is a couple of Kms short of the hilltop at Kausani.
We joined my mother – in –law and brother – in – law there and it was a good get together. A small place like this offers a good opportunity to interact with the members of the family and also to unwind. We enjoyed our ginger tea as we reached there and it tasted quite different from the ginger tea back in Delhi. This ginger carried a special flavour which was quite refreshing. We would continue to enjoy this flavour for another couple of days. God of rains showed no mercy and the downpour continued. This would sure impact our plans to trek up to the hilltop of kausani to catch a glimpse of Himalyan range. The weather remained cloudy mitigating all our prospects to enjoy the view of himalyan range. The good thing about this was the endless gorging on our pahari food which included Jholi, Buduk, Bhat ki Chikuni and seasoned vegetables. We clicked a few pictures of the cloud clad mountain tops. Though the rains had played spoilsport it did add to the beauty of the scenic views in the vicinity. We finished our dinner at about 8:00 and were off to bed by half past 8:00. This was by any means too early for us to hit the bed. The TV here was out of order though we did have Tata Sky connection available here. We played antakshari for sometime before we fell asleep.
Day 4
Next day’s agenda included visit to Kot ki Devi to offer our prayers. The route ot Kot ki Devi temple goes via Kausani, Kausani Tea Estate, Teet Bazar , Garur and finally Kot Ki devi temple. One of the interesting things to observe was a point at Kausani where the district changeover happens between Almora and Bageshwar. I clicked snap of the sign board mentioning the district handover. From this point on we entered district Bageshwar. We moved on to visit the point at Kausani which offers unhindered view of the Himalayan ranges. Owing to the bad weather and cloudy conditions we could not catch any glimpse of it here. We moved on to reach the Kausani Tea Estate and decided to stop by on our way back home. We then continued our descent and after sometime reached a place called Teet Bazaar. Teet Bazaar is situated in the valley region and boasts of availability of schools, inter college and dispensaries etc. Teet Bazaar has branches of State Bank of India and some others. The SBI ATM here was quite a respite. Low on cash this would be utilized to withdraw some cash on our way back. The place is also believed to have highly fertile land and hence, the land in this area fetches a much higher premium as is claimed by the local people. Since this is situated at a valley it was time for us to end our descent into the valley and start the ascent instead.
We started our ascent and in sometime crossed Garur. After this we reached a fork where one of the ways would lead us to Gwaldam while the other would continue into Bageshwar District. Gwaldam route is the route to the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. A few paces away was located the temple of Kot ki Devi. The folklore goes that this was the place where Goddess incarnated as a bunch of Bhramars with five strings to kill the evil called Arun. The Goddess is also called as “Bhraamari” on account of the incarnation. It is situated at a hilltop. We offered prayers to the Goddess and received Prasad from the Pujari ji. We also met there with a team of adventurers who were on the trail to explore Kumaoni region. They were covering the temples, rivers and other important landscapes across the region. Their party was also spoilt by the rains. After offering prayers, we had tea at the temple. We went around clicking pictures and sought pujari ji’s permission to check if the pictures of Goddess could also be clicked. He answered in the affirmative and my wife happily captured a few pictures.
Then started our trip back to Kausani. We stopped by at Baijnath Temple. For anyone visiting Kausani and nearby areas it’s a must watch / must visit place. The temple holds significance because, according to Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva and Parvati were married at the confluence of River Gomati and Garur Ganga. Dedicated to SivaVaidyanatha, the Lord of Physicians, the Baijnath temple is actually a temples’ complex built by the Katyuri kings with the idols of Shiva, Ganesh, Parvati, Chandika, Kuber, Surya and Brahma. Also the town of Baijnath draws its name from the temple. Situated on the left bank of the Gomti River at an elevation of 1126 mts, the temples are constructed in stone. The main temple that houses a beautiful idol of Parvati is chiseled in black stone. The temple is approached from the riverside by a flight of steps made of stones constructed by the orders of a Katyuri queen. On the way to the main temple, just below the house of the Mahanta, is the temple of Bamani. Legend goes that the temple was built by a Brahmin woman and dedicated to Lord Shiva.
After this we started back for Kausani. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and gorging on our pahari delicacies. Even as we gorged we planned out our next day for which the agenda was essentially to go to the Kausani Hilltop and have an unhindered view of Himalayas in addition to visiting the local sights such as anasakti asharam, state bungalow etc. The agenda also included offering our prayers to Golu Devta in the first half of the following day.
Day 5
Day 5 started a bit early as we prepared to get ready for our trek up to the temple of Golu Dev. It is situated on the way up to Kausani hilltop. By the time we got up, we realized that my wife’s maternal grand dad had already scaled the route up to the hilltop and back once. We wondered if we would be able to match his vigour when it came to trekking up the slope. Anyway, we were eager to offer our prayers to the deity who is considered to be one of the strongest deities of our region. I was particulary happy to have got this opportunity because till date I had only heard or read about Him but today was the day when I would offer my sincere prayers to the powerful deity.
We collected the necessary items from home and started our trek. It was not too far in terms of the distance and hence, did not take us long to reach the temple. The temple is surrounded by picturesque landscape. The region is marked by strong air currents. We struggled to light up the havan kund the fire from which would be used to light the stove nearby on which the Prasad for the puja shall be prepared. It took exercising of some grey cells on the part of my wife to light the havan kund. She was absolutely delighted to see it working for us and of course so were all of us! While mom-in-law got busy beautifying up the temple premises, I went away with my wife to fetch water from a natural stream nearby. The water would be used for puja and allied activities. The stream was tapped using an artifact, cast in stone, identical to the face of a lion and the water poured out of the mouth of the lion. It is said that the artifact has been existing for a very long time. The story goes that once a local fellow stole the artifact, however, the same night he was sensitized by Golu Dev in his dream to restore the artifact unless he cared little of the continued well being of self and family. The artifact was restored in no time and since then it has been there serving those who visit the temple to serve the mighty Golu Dev.
In fact, Golu Devta is considered to be the strongest in the entire Kumaon region. Recently, there was a piece of news flashed on STAR News which covered the Golu Temple located at Chitai region in Almora district of uttaranchal. The temple is known to have delivered justice to those who lost their cases in the courts. Such people turn to Golu dev and offer “Bells” with stamp paper / papers with their request penned on the same.
One of the members prepared the Prasad on the stove while the rest of us offered prayers to the devta in presence of the family priest. Following the puja we accepted the Prasad and started our descent back to the grand dad’s home. As I mentioned earlier, the temple is marked by picturesque landscapes surrounding it. We, hence, clicked a good number of pictures in the sprawling greens.
The descent was quicker than expected and we were soon home. This reminds me that we had been fasting since morning to offer our prayers to the devta. Having done that and being home again, it was time for us to address our hunger pangs which by now were mellowing out not because we had been hungry for too long but because each one of us had had the Prasad to our heart’s content. Nonetheless, there was some room to eat more and we decided to fill the remaining room. Since it was time for lunch by the time we got back so we had our lunch and went off to enjoy our forty winks.
Even before we decided to go for the catnap, we had planned out the second half. After we get up, we would take a cab to go to the Kausani top, meet some relative there and cover some other tourist places there. This also included our visit to the tea estate managed by a private company which is located over the top to the other side of the hill. After we got up, we headed straight to meet one of the relatives at Kausani. Apparently, grand dad has entrusted these relatives with the responsibility to run his hotel as it was becoming too demanding for him to pursue active business. We met them and discussed the ynamics of the region and the tourist season at kausani. That left us with some interesting insights about the tourist cycles of the region. We learnt that this was the Bengali tourist season. Beginning dussera till diwali is a period of vacation in Bengal and hence, a lot of Bengali tourists head off to the hill which is further facilitated by good connectivity between Howrah and Kathgodam. So much has been the rush of Bengali tourists during this season that some of the restaurants have started seasonal hiring of benagli cooks and have also started displaying the menu in Bengali. An enterprising Indian lives everywhere, as much in the Bharat as in India.
We kept our visit to the relatives brief and chose to move on to the tea estate since we wanted to cover it much before sunset. The road to this tea estate makes for a refreshing drive down the hill. Panoramic views line the roads providing a soothing experience to the senses. From Kausani top, it would be about half an hour drive down to the tea estate. The tea estate is set up at a nice location and has a couple of outlets right opposite it selling a variety of tea. Entry to the tea estate can be secured at the payment of Rs. 5 a person following which one is required to enter the personal details in the register kept at the entrance of the estate. We noticed that the place attracts tourists from places like Italy! This couple from Italy had just emerged from the estate when we walked in. We went down to the estate and were ushered in by one of their staff personnel. He took us through the entire cycle of tea in making. The set up was marked by huge installations capable of handling large volumes of tea leaves at a time. The processed tea was actually in the form of pruned down dried tea leaves which looked a bit golden in colour. Sooner than later we realized that the estate was churning out high grades of tea which were quite expensive. To quote an example, one of the grades of this processed tea was priced at as much as 22k a kg while another grade was pegged at 15k a Kg. On the terrace was spread the different grades of tea being processed in the estate. Here they allow you to taste the different grades of tea at a nominal cost. We tried two different grades of tea here and must I say that it tasted simply delicious. Of course, you taste the pure tea with no milk added in. Without milk it’s the degree of bitterness which defines the quality of tea to me. I maintain that both grades had almost no bitterness and even without milk it tasted awesome.
Having understood the process and having tasted the tea, it was time for us to go out to have a look at the actual tea plantations which spread across the stairs of fields staggered around us. It was a beautiful sight and our first brush with any tea estate. Before this, I had either only heard of it from those who have been to Darjeeling / other relevant places or watched some of those ladies plucking the tea leaf in some movie or commercial. We clicked a couple of pictures of the scenic views all around us before we left the scene for others to appreciate the beauty of it.
We started our ascent back to the Kausani hilltop soon after and within half an hour we were approaching the Anasakti Ashram where Gandhiji is said to have spent some time meditating. I am sure he would have enjoyed the break . Anasakti Ashram has a pedestal created a couple of paces away from the entrance and next to it is a large statue of Gandhiji. The pedestal is meant to be mounted in order to have unhindered view of the Himalayas. Since the weather had turned a day before and the clouds crowded the horizon we had little chances of having that unhindered views. The view was no doubt obscured by the clouds at the horizon. We went around and enjoyed the other scenic views at the site. The place was a bit crowded as a lot of tourists could be seen squatting there. Many of them, I am sure, would have come to have a look of the Himalayas but as luck would have it, it was not to be.
Nevertheless, we moved on and started for State Bunglow. The state bungalow is at quite a height and enables you to have a look of the valley from a high point. Even the state bungalow was under renovation and the admission to the same was limited. Besides,
we were anyway late for the occasion as they do not let tourists in after about 3 in the afternoon. We tried to go around the state bungalow to check out any other entry point but met with little success. Finally we drove further up to have a look at Kumaon Vikas Mandal Guest House and I found it quite a set up to stay there and spend sometime there. In terms of advantage it improves your reach to certain other places down the hill on the other side of it. We then started back for home. Day 5 was concluded by dinner at home following which we retired to our beds.
Day 3
Day 3 started with our morning tea. We enjoyed the tea and started gearing up for the later part of the day. The agenda for us was to finish our breakfast first and then set out for Kausani. We had struck an agreement with our driver from yesterday to take us down to Kausani. Following our breakfast, we settled our outstanding with the Hotel. Meanwhile the driver was out at the gate waiting for us to start. It had rained heavily last night and we were a bit concerned about our impending trip to Kausani. While the heavy rains had subsided in the morning the drizzle had continued. Their was not any let up in the drizzling and we had to start amidst the rains and the winds. We started for Kausani at about 10:30. As a preventive measure, wife had taken a tablet of vomistop post breakfast to preempt any vomiting sensation while maneuvering the merry go round roads of the hills. Rains continued and so did we on our way to Kausani. It took us all of two hours to reach my wife’s native. It’s a place which is a couple of Kms short of the hilltop at Kausani.
We joined my mother – in –law and brother – in – law there and it was a good get together. A small place like this offers a good opportunity to interact with the members of the family and also to unwind. We enjoyed our ginger tea as we reached there and it tasted quite different from the ginger tea back in Delhi. This ginger carried a special flavour which was quite refreshing. We would continue to enjoy this flavour for another couple of days. God of rains showed no mercy and the downpour continued. This would sure impact our plans to trek up to the hilltop of kausani to catch a glimpse of Himalyan range. The weather remained cloudy mitigating all our prospects to enjoy the view of himalyan range. The good thing about this was the endless gorging on our pahari food which included Jholi, Buduk, Bhat ki Chikuni and seasoned vegetables. We clicked a few pictures of the cloud clad mountain tops. Though the rains had played spoilsport it did add to the beauty of the scenic views in the vicinity. We finished our dinner at about 8:00 and were off to bed by half past 8:00. This was by any means too early for us to hit the bed. The TV here was out of order though we did have Tata Sky connection available here. We played antakshari for sometime before we fell asleep.
Day 4
Next day’s agenda included visit to Kot ki Devi to offer our prayers. The route ot Kot ki Devi temple goes via Kausani, Kausani Tea Estate, Teet Bazar , Garur and finally Kot Ki devi temple. One of the interesting things to observe was a point at Kausani where the district changeover happens between Almora and Bageshwar. I clicked snap of the sign board mentioning the district handover. From this point on we entered district Bageshwar. We moved on to visit the point at Kausani which offers unhindered view of the Himalayan ranges. Owing to the bad weather and cloudy conditions we could not catch any glimpse of it here. We moved on to reach the Kausani Tea Estate and decided to stop by on our way back home. We then continued our descent and after sometime reached a place called Teet Bazaar. Teet Bazaar is situated in the valley region and boasts of availability of schools, inter college and dispensaries etc. Teet Bazaar has branches of State Bank of India and some others. The SBI ATM here was quite a respite. Low on cash this would be utilized to withdraw some cash on our way back. The place is also believed to have highly fertile land and hence, the land in this area fetches a much higher premium as is claimed by the local people. Since this is situated at a valley it was time for us to end our descent into the valley and start the ascent instead.
We started our ascent and in sometime crossed Garur. After this we reached a fork where one of the ways would lead us to Gwaldam while the other would continue into Bageshwar District. Gwaldam route is the route to the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. A few paces away was located the temple of Kot ki Devi. The folklore goes that this was the place where Goddess incarnated as a bunch of Bhramars with five strings to kill the evil called Arun. The Goddess is also called as “Bhraamari” on account of the incarnation. It is situated at a hilltop. We offered prayers to the Goddess and received Prasad from the Pujari ji. We also met there with a team of adventurers who were on the trail to explore Kumaoni region. They were covering the temples, rivers and other important landscapes across the region. Their party was also spoilt by the rains. After offering prayers, we had tea at the temple. We went around clicking pictures and sought pujari ji’s permission to check if the pictures of Goddess could also be clicked. He answered in the affirmative and my wife happily captured a few pictures.
Then started our trip back to Kausani. We stopped by at Baijnath Temple. For anyone visiting Kausani and nearby areas it’s a must watch / must visit place. The temple holds significance because, according to Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva and Parvati were married at the confluence of River Gomati and Garur Ganga. Dedicated to SivaVaidyanatha, the Lord of Physicians, the Baijnath temple is actually a temples’ complex built by the Katyuri kings with the idols of Shiva, Ganesh, Parvati, Chandika, Kuber, Surya and Brahma. Also the town of Baijnath draws its name from the temple. Situated on the left bank of the Gomti River at an elevation of 1126 mts, the temples are constructed in stone. The main temple that houses a beautiful idol of Parvati is chiseled in black stone. The temple is approached from the riverside by a flight of steps made of stones constructed by the orders of a Katyuri queen. On the way to the main temple, just below the house of the Mahanta, is the temple of Bamani. Legend goes that the temple was built by a Brahmin woman and dedicated to Lord Shiva.
After this we started back for Kausani. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and gorging on our pahari delicacies. Even as we gorged we planned out our next day for which the agenda was essentially to go to the Kausani Hilltop and have an unhindered view of Himalayas in addition to visiting the local sights such as anasakti asharam, state bungalow etc. The agenda also included offering our prayers to Golu Devta in the first half of the following day.
Day 5
Day 5 started a bit early as we prepared to get ready for our trek up to the temple of Golu Dev. It is situated on the way up to Kausani hilltop. By the time we got up, we realized that my wife’s maternal grand dad had already scaled the route up to the hilltop and back once. We wondered if we would be able to match his vigour when it came to trekking up the slope. Anyway, we were eager to offer our prayers to the deity who is considered to be one of the strongest deities of our region. I was particulary happy to have got this opportunity because till date I had only heard or read about Him but today was the day when I would offer my sincere prayers to the powerful deity.
We collected the necessary items from home and started our trek. It was not too far in terms of the distance and hence, did not take us long to reach the temple. The temple is surrounded by picturesque landscape. The region is marked by strong air currents. We struggled to light up the havan kund the fire from which would be used to light the stove nearby on which the Prasad for the puja shall be prepared. It took exercising of some grey cells on the part of my wife to light the havan kund. She was absolutely delighted to see it working for us and of course so were all of us! While mom-in-law got busy beautifying up the temple premises, I went away with my wife to fetch water from a natural stream nearby. The water would be used for puja and allied activities. The stream was tapped using an artifact, cast in stone, identical to the face of a lion and the water poured out of the mouth of the lion. It is said that the artifact has been existing for a very long time. The story goes that once a local fellow stole the artifact, however, the same night he was sensitized by Golu Dev in his dream to restore the artifact unless he cared little of the continued well being of self and family. The artifact was restored in no time and since then it has been there serving those who visit the temple to serve the mighty Golu Dev.
In fact, Golu Devta is considered to be the strongest in the entire Kumaon region. Recently, there was a piece of news flashed on STAR News which covered the Golu Temple located at Chitai region in Almora district of uttaranchal. The temple is known to have delivered justice to those who lost their cases in the courts. Such people turn to Golu dev and offer “Bells” with stamp paper / papers with their request penned on the same.
One of the members prepared the Prasad on the stove while the rest of us offered prayers to the devta in presence of the family priest. Following the puja we accepted the Prasad and started our descent back to the grand dad’s home. As I mentioned earlier, the temple is marked by picturesque landscapes surrounding it. We, hence, clicked a good number of pictures in the sprawling greens.
The descent was quicker than expected and we were soon home. This reminds me that we had been fasting since morning to offer our prayers to the devta. Having done that and being home again, it was time for us to address our hunger pangs which by now were mellowing out not because we had been hungry for too long but because each one of us had had the Prasad to our heart’s content. Nonetheless, there was some room to eat more and we decided to fill the remaining room. Since it was time for lunch by the time we got back so we had our lunch and went off to enjoy our forty winks.
Even before we decided to go for the catnap, we had planned out the second half. After we get up, we would take a cab to go to the Kausani top, meet some relative there and cover some other tourist places there. This also included our visit to the tea estate managed by a private company which is located over the top to the other side of the hill. After we got up, we headed straight to meet one of the relatives at Kausani. Apparently, grand dad has entrusted these relatives with the responsibility to run his hotel as it was becoming too demanding for him to pursue active business. We met them and discussed the ynamics of the region and the tourist season at kausani. That left us with some interesting insights about the tourist cycles of the region. We learnt that this was the Bengali tourist season. Beginning dussera till diwali is a period of vacation in Bengal and hence, a lot of Bengali tourists head off to the hill which is further facilitated by good connectivity between Howrah and Kathgodam. So much has been the rush of Bengali tourists during this season that some of the restaurants have started seasonal hiring of benagli cooks and have also started displaying the menu in Bengali. An enterprising Indian lives everywhere, as much in the Bharat as in India.
We kept our visit to the relatives brief and chose to move on to the tea estate since we wanted to cover it much before sunset. The road to this tea estate makes for a refreshing drive down the hill. Panoramic views line the roads providing a soothing experience to the senses. From Kausani top, it would be about half an hour drive down to the tea estate. The tea estate is set up at a nice location and has a couple of outlets right opposite it selling a variety of tea. Entry to the tea estate can be secured at the payment of Rs. 5 a person following which one is required to enter the personal details in the register kept at the entrance of the estate. We noticed that the place attracts tourists from places like Italy! This couple from Italy had just emerged from the estate when we walked in. We went down to the estate and were ushered in by one of their staff personnel. He took us through the entire cycle of tea in making. The set up was marked by huge installations capable of handling large volumes of tea leaves at a time. The processed tea was actually in the form of pruned down dried tea leaves which looked a bit golden in colour. Sooner than later we realized that the estate was churning out high grades of tea which were quite expensive. To quote an example, one of the grades of this processed tea was priced at as much as 22k a kg while another grade was pegged at 15k a Kg. On the terrace was spread the different grades of tea being processed in the estate. Here they allow you to taste the different grades of tea at a nominal cost. We tried two different grades of tea here and must I say that it tasted simply delicious. Of course, you taste the pure tea with no milk added in. Without milk it’s the degree of bitterness which defines the quality of tea to me. I maintain that both grades had almost no bitterness and even without milk it tasted awesome.
Having understood the process and having tasted the tea, it was time for us to go out to have a look at the actual tea plantations which spread across the stairs of fields staggered around us. It was a beautiful sight and our first brush with any tea estate. Before this, I had either only heard of it from those who have been to Darjeeling / other relevant places or watched some of those ladies plucking the tea leaf in some movie or commercial. We clicked a couple of pictures of the scenic views all around us before we left the scene for others to appreciate the beauty of it.
We started our ascent back to the Kausani hilltop soon after and within half an hour we were approaching the Anasakti Ashram where Gandhiji is said to have spent some time meditating. I am sure he would have enjoyed the break . Anasakti Ashram has a pedestal created a couple of paces away from the entrance and next to it is a large statue of Gandhiji. The pedestal is meant to be mounted in order to have unhindered view of the Himalayas. Since the weather had turned a day before and the clouds crowded the horizon we had little chances of having that unhindered views. The view was no doubt obscured by the clouds at the horizon. We went around and enjoyed the other scenic views at the site. The place was a bit crowded as a lot of tourists could be seen squatting there. Many of them, I am sure, would have come to have a look of the Himalayas but as luck would have it, it was not to be.
Nevertheless, we moved on and started for State Bunglow. The state bungalow is at quite a height and enables you to have a look of the valley from a high point. Even the state bungalow was under renovation and the admission to the same was limited. Besides,
we were anyway late for the occasion as they do not let tourists in after about 3 in the afternoon. We tried to go around the state bungalow to check out any other entry point but met with little success. Finally we drove further up to have a look at Kumaon Vikas Mandal Guest House and I found it quite a set up to stay there and spend sometime there. In terms of advantage it improves your reach to certain other places down the hill on the other side of it. We then started back for home. Day 5 was concluded by dinner at home following which we retired to our beds.
Nainital!!!
Nainital
Day 6
The plan for day 6 was to start for Nainital. We started at about 10 in the morning and soon reached the market where a fork can take you to Nanital through two different routes. While on of the routes goes via Ranikhet (the one that we took to reach Kausani from Ranikhet) the other would go via Almora. The road through Almora is in much much better shape, in fact, it is quite a road to travel on. It was for this reason that we took the road via Almora. On our way up we came across the central school of Almora located at a very peculiar place. Quite a watch I must say! We then reached the top from where we could see the valley down below. From this point we could easily feel the height of the place. The Kosi River down below appeared no thicker than a fine line drawn on a piece of canvas. The journey took us through multiple landscapes and picturesque sites and I kept busy most of the time capturing this amazing beauty of mother earth in my camera. Almora seems to have seen immense development lately as was evident in the quality of ride down to Nainital and also from the look at the infrastructure all the way down.
Finally we reached a point where we had covered about 60 kms down the slope and were now running almost parallel to Kosi River. It felt awesome to be running parallel to a river which until a few hours ago appeared only to be a thin line on a canvas. We continued our journey and crossed Bhimtal in sometime. Finally at about 2:45 in the afternoon we reached Nainital. We checked into the Guest house the balcony of which only turned out to be a panorama to the Naini Lake right in front. Soon after, we left for the market to ease our hunger pangs. We located a good joint by the Mall road and settled down for lunch. After we finished our meal, we went further up the Mall road to check out the various shops and the stuff at display there. My wife is especially fond of the candles in different colours, shapes and designs and wanted to carry a bunch of it home. Before she got carried away, I reined her passion in and suggested her to spend some more time looking at other stuff parked in various shops that line the Mall road.
Amidst all the running up and down the road, checking out stuff, we both quickly agreed upon trying boating in the Naini Lake. To begin with we went out on a shikara kind of thing which was being navigated through the waters by an usher. He took us around the entire Naini Lake and we enjoyed the sight of installations all around the lake. These included, a Shani temple, Temple of Lord Hanuman on one side and on the other side it overlooked Naina Devi temple and a trailing line of a mosque and a Gurudwara. I captured some pictures of the lake and also cut a video covering the scenic views around, my wife and myself. Other important installations by the lake include two pumping / compressor station which force oxygen through the water of Naini Lake. This oxygen is carried to various points within the lake through a mesh of pipelines which originate from the compressor station and end up at certain identified locations / points within the lake. This has been done in keeping with the orders of the appropriate authority to sustain the fauna of the lake. You could see a lot of fishes in the see and as per the usher these can be as big as about 10 to 12 Kgs in weight. As the boat approaches these fishes disappear but at the same time they can be seen at couple of paces ahead of the boat almost always.
Boating in Naini Lake was an absolute delight and quite refreshing as well especially after a long and winding road journey. After boating we went back to the guest house and slept for sometime. Post this we ordered for some tea and went around to breathe in some fresh air. We restricted ourselves to the guest house for the rest of the part of the day and decided to continue our sight seeing adventure the following day. Earlier in the day, we managed to strike a deal with one of the horsemen to show us around a couple of local sights on horse-back the next day.
Day 7
Following morning we got up a bit earlier than usual and were ready to take on the horses by about 9. We were expected to take a cab till the point where the terrain is better described as the one that befits a horse ride. The horseman took us to a point closeby and introduced the point to us a lover’s point. I don’t know as to why it is called so. It more looked like a suicide point to me. Only later would I learn from another guide that there indeed exists another point called by this name. We captured a few pictures of the point and headed back to point where we were supposed to mount the horses. The guide gave us some instructions and we followed the same religiously to ensure that no goof ups happened for this part of the sight seeing. It can be really risky to negotiate such a tough terrain with little regard to these rules. The terrain is rocky, bumpy and steep enough for only a horse to climb it properly. After the ride we were much better placed to understand as to why the scientists would use “horsepower” as a unit to measure energy. A horse with sturdy built can scale the steepest of the slopes and also negotiate an utterly rough and disturbing terrain with much ease. The horseman was a bluff as he quickly rushed us past these locations until we reached a point from where you get an unhindered view of Himalayas. We came across a bunch of kids there who were looking through a telescope installed at this point, probably to have a look at the Himalayan ranges. We also paid about 10 bucks to use the telescope to have a look at the vast range of Himalayan peaks. An adept camera man was all we needed to have our pictures captured with the Himalayan ranges in the background and there we saw one standing next to the telescope. We engaged the services of the cameraman to have those fabulous pictures captured and he assured us that the pictures would reach us in the guest house the same evening. From this point, through the telescope, we also observed the china point which has a white coloured flag hoisted at the top of it. Locals say that from that point English could have had a look at the Great Wall of China, a statement which was summarily rejected and dismissed by my learned brother later. After this, we dismounted the point and continued our horse ride. Till now we had been moving up the slope and here was a point which called for the descent. From this point below we would witness sharp descent. The trained horse trod with much ease until we reached relatively plain ground and were told by the horseman that the market was just 5 minutes walk from that point on. We took his word and alighted from the horses. We walked down the road and realized that the walk only got longer and longer in time. On asking others around, we were told that market was nearby and we soon reached the market but definitely not in 5 minutes as was promised by the horseman. At the end of this descent on foot we found ourselves at a point which was very close to the Naina Devi temple. It could not have been better than this and we continued the walk down to the temple. The temple is beautiful and well maintained by the priests. We offered prayers to the various deities in the temple and proceeded to the guest house. On our way to the guest house we walked through an array of shops which were selling all kind of stuff but primarily clothes. We also came across a head massage instrument which incidentally, a few days ago, we had seen in Noida. We had planned to purchase it but the vendor had quoted a cost of about 350 a piece for such a simple instrument as that. Here we got two for hundred bucks! We continued our march down to the guest house where we had our lunch and retired to bed for the forty winks! We got up in the evening and went down the Mall Road to do some of the boating again only that this time it was with a twist! We took the peddle boat and decided to venture out to the lake all on our own. We peddled the boat along with the wind once and against it the other time. I would strongly recommend the peddle boat to all those who desire to do boating in the Naini Lake. You can peddle it at your own pace and at your will. It’s quite easy to maneuver and hence, very convenient to navigate through the waters. The breeze that wafts past your hair is highly refreshing and it feels like a unique therapy to the tired body and soul! We had about 40 minutes left for the boating deadline to expire and we made good of these 40 minutes to heartily enjoy our “Lake Voyage” . After this, we went to the Mall road and explored the roadside shops and stalls. We picked up quite a handful of stuff to carry back home. With Diwali approaching, it was not a bad idea to carry some diwali stuff home from Nainital. Before this, I was always told that Nainital has got quite crowded lately but thanks to the season, we did not come across much rush except for the scores of Bengali tourists who flock the place during this time of the year. It was a pleasant sight throughout. We clicked some pictures by the Mall road even as we continued shopping for a variety of stuff. I would recommend the Honey seller by the Mall road. I don’t remember the name of the shop but it sells variety of honey and squashes. I picked up about a Kg of it from this shop at a very reasonable rate. The shopping ended only at a point which was quite close to the guest house and hence, it did not take us long to get there. We ordered for the dinner and were served the same on time. We had our dinner and retired to bed with plans for tomorrow which would serenade us in our dreams. We had decided to prolong our local sight seeing the next day and also longed to cover places around like Bhimtal, Saattal, Naukuchiatal etc.
Day 8
We again got up in time and prepared ourselves for the day ahead. We had struck a deal with cabbie a day before as per which he would reach the guest house at about 9:00 in the morning and would take us to some local sights which we could not cover the day before. We decided that we would finish our local sight seeing before deciding on further to venture out to Bhimtal and other places nearby.
We started out for a place which would once again provide us with an opportunity to view Himalayas. It is advised to reach such spots early in the morning when the sun is still low. Once it rises to a relatively higher point the bright sunlight may hinder the view of Himalayas. We reached the point and saw a lot of people parked there already. Wife was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of getting her pictures clicked by a professional photograph while she sported the pahari outfit which were kept handy by the local entrepreneurs who make money from renting out these outfits. Many other tourists also did the same. For the first time ever I saw outfits of dacoits with a horse tied nearby. You can rent these outfits and get yourself clicked holding rifle in one arm while the other firmly gripping the reins of the horse. Some enthusiasts were seen getting such pictures clicked. This sure was not the primary agenda of visiting this point but it did get sidetracked at the sight of an alternate opportunity like this. Nevertheless, we matured out of it soon and reached the point where we could get good glimpse of Himalayas. We did manage a good look at it. By now we had had quite a few opportunities to manage a look at the Himalayas and hence, we did not invest any more of our time at this spot. The photographer promised delivery of pictures in the evening at the guesthouse and we started for the next location.
The cabbie also took us to the lovers point and guided us to a place which we had not explored the day before. We were also ushered to the “suicide point” from where you could have a view of almost the entire Nainital. You need to trek a bit up to reach the suicide point which many of them don’t do. I chose to trek up and maneuver the narrow passage to reach the top. It was quite an experience to witness such great height and the view of the valley from there.
Following this we proceeded for the next location which is better known as Sadiatal. The name is quite strange and we wondered as to why it was named this way! Later we were told by the guide that this used to be a dump earlier which was recently revamped, renovated and presented to the visiting tourists as a lake. It indeed looked in good condition as projected. We stopped by to click a few pictures and then moved on to the next spot which was “Sadiataal Waterfall”. This probably originated from sadiataal and made for a great sight. We positioned ourselves at different points around the fall and clicked pictures with the waterfall in the background. More adventurous people would have liked to venture into the waterfall, however, due to paucity of time and our desire to cover many more points we chose to move on. There are a few shops located right across the waterfall and you can have snacks there. A common feature across these snacks joints would be “Pakodas” which look quite appetizing.
We closed our assignation with the waterfall soon and started for the next point which was the “Cave Garden”. Cave garden is quite an adventure for those who would love to negotiate congested spaces and like to maneuver constricted passages up and down a cave. There is about 6 types of caves in this garden each one related to a different type of animal for instance; I remember having moved through tiger, bat, leopard and one more cave. As you move further the caves get narrower and narrower. It is advisable to go wearing dark colored clothes if you are considering doing all of them seriously. They passage can get very narrow and the dust and sometimes mud may spoil the clothes. The fun was when we clicked pictures while we were inside these caves. It takes some effort to find a stable foothold before you could keep yourself steady for clicking pictures and of course don’t forget to put the flash of your camera on. These pictures turn out quite nice and would serve as “great memories to keep”. In one of the caves, I asked my wife to sport that fierce tiger looks so as to let me capture a picture of her in that pose. She did it only to be captured in camera as a cute cat . For cave garden you have to pay entry fees of about Rs. 30 /- each.
After Cave garden it was time for us to move to much sought after electronic trolley that takes you all way to a high point from where you can have a look at entire Nainital as well as the Himalayan ranges. The charge for this is about 150/- per head. At the top they have set up a lot of shops selling different kind of items, miniature amusement parks etc. We could not enjoy this part as much as we would have otherwise for certain reasons which would not spoil fun for others contemplating to try this .
Left with little time we had to dump the idea of going out to cover other locations such as saattal and naukuchital etc. We decided to cover it during our next visit to Nainital. We, therefore, came back to the guest house after this and tried to sleep for a while. However, it was not to me since shortly after we would be starting for Kathgodam station to commence our trip back to Delhi. We were waiting for the photographer to deliver the pictures but at the same time we knew that we were left with little time before starting for Kathgodam. Good thing was that we had factored in the contingency aspect and paid extra bucks to the photographer to courier it to our Delhi address just incase the timings did not match at Nainital.
I went around and caught hold of a cabbie to take us down to Kathgodam in the evening. The cabbie agreed for 300 bucks. That’s the kind of money it takes for them to drop you at kathgodam. Do not be fooled by some others who tell you that the usual charges are 500 bucks but for you they would beat it down to 300. They get good pick ups back from Kathgodam to various other tourist places in Uttaranchal. Anyway, thus commenced our journey back to Delhi. We boarded the cab which took us all of an hour and a half to reach kathgodam. We left our luggage at the cloak room since we still had time before the train arrived. In the meantime, we went around the local market to purchase our typical pahari sweets which is balmithai. Must I say that I did not enjoy it as much as the ones we purchase from places deeper into Uttaranchal? We then came back to the station and had a light meal at the Indian railways restaurant before moving to the cloak room to reclaim our luggage. Following this we boarded the train and reached Delhi on time the next day. A couple of days later we received our courier with the pictures clicked on the Himalayan view point in the pahari attire. We were only too glad to run through them.
All in all it was a mesmerizing trip to the beautiful heart of uttaranchal and I would strongly recommend the fellow travelers to spent more time and energy to explore the wonderful and picturesque sights of Devbhoomi Uttaranchal!
Day 6
The plan for day 6 was to start for Nainital. We started at about 10 in the morning and soon reached the market where a fork can take you to Nanital through two different routes. While on of the routes goes via Ranikhet (the one that we took to reach Kausani from Ranikhet) the other would go via Almora. The road through Almora is in much much better shape, in fact, it is quite a road to travel on. It was for this reason that we took the road via Almora. On our way up we came across the central school of Almora located at a very peculiar place. Quite a watch I must say! We then reached the top from where we could see the valley down below. From this point we could easily feel the height of the place. The Kosi River down below appeared no thicker than a fine line drawn on a piece of canvas. The journey took us through multiple landscapes and picturesque sites and I kept busy most of the time capturing this amazing beauty of mother earth in my camera. Almora seems to have seen immense development lately as was evident in the quality of ride down to Nainital and also from the look at the infrastructure all the way down.
Finally we reached a point where we had covered about 60 kms down the slope and were now running almost parallel to Kosi River. It felt awesome to be running parallel to a river which until a few hours ago appeared only to be a thin line on a canvas. We continued our journey and crossed Bhimtal in sometime. Finally at about 2:45 in the afternoon we reached Nainital. We checked into the Guest house the balcony of which only turned out to be a panorama to the Naini Lake right in front. Soon after, we left for the market to ease our hunger pangs. We located a good joint by the Mall road and settled down for lunch. After we finished our meal, we went further up the Mall road to check out the various shops and the stuff at display there. My wife is especially fond of the candles in different colours, shapes and designs and wanted to carry a bunch of it home. Before she got carried away, I reined her passion in and suggested her to spend some more time looking at other stuff parked in various shops that line the Mall road.
Amidst all the running up and down the road, checking out stuff, we both quickly agreed upon trying boating in the Naini Lake. To begin with we went out on a shikara kind of thing which was being navigated through the waters by an usher. He took us around the entire Naini Lake and we enjoyed the sight of installations all around the lake. These included, a Shani temple, Temple of Lord Hanuman on one side and on the other side it overlooked Naina Devi temple and a trailing line of a mosque and a Gurudwara. I captured some pictures of the lake and also cut a video covering the scenic views around, my wife and myself. Other important installations by the lake include two pumping / compressor station which force oxygen through the water of Naini Lake. This oxygen is carried to various points within the lake through a mesh of pipelines which originate from the compressor station and end up at certain identified locations / points within the lake. This has been done in keeping with the orders of the appropriate authority to sustain the fauna of the lake. You could see a lot of fishes in the see and as per the usher these can be as big as about 10 to 12 Kgs in weight. As the boat approaches these fishes disappear but at the same time they can be seen at couple of paces ahead of the boat almost always.
Boating in Naini Lake was an absolute delight and quite refreshing as well especially after a long and winding road journey. After boating we went back to the guest house and slept for sometime. Post this we ordered for some tea and went around to breathe in some fresh air. We restricted ourselves to the guest house for the rest of the part of the day and decided to continue our sight seeing adventure the following day. Earlier in the day, we managed to strike a deal with one of the horsemen to show us around a couple of local sights on horse-back the next day.
Day 7
Following morning we got up a bit earlier than usual and were ready to take on the horses by about 9. We were expected to take a cab till the point where the terrain is better described as the one that befits a horse ride. The horseman took us to a point closeby and introduced the point to us a lover’s point. I don’t know as to why it is called so. It more looked like a suicide point to me. Only later would I learn from another guide that there indeed exists another point called by this name. We captured a few pictures of the point and headed back to point where we were supposed to mount the horses. The guide gave us some instructions and we followed the same religiously to ensure that no goof ups happened for this part of the sight seeing. It can be really risky to negotiate such a tough terrain with little regard to these rules. The terrain is rocky, bumpy and steep enough for only a horse to climb it properly. After the ride we were much better placed to understand as to why the scientists would use “horsepower” as a unit to measure energy. A horse with sturdy built can scale the steepest of the slopes and also negotiate an utterly rough and disturbing terrain with much ease. The horseman was a bluff as he quickly rushed us past these locations until we reached a point from where you get an unhindered view of Himalayas. We came across a bunch of kids there who were looking through a telescope installed at this point, probably to have a look at the Himalayan ranges. We also paid about 10 bucks to use the telescope to have a look at the vast range of Himalayan peaks. An adept camera man was all we needed to have our pictures captured with the Himalayan ranges in the background and there we saw one standing next to the telescope. We engaged the services of the cameraman to have those fabulous pictures captured and he assured us that the pictures would reach us in the guest house the same evening. From this point, through the telescope, we also observed the china point which has a white coloured flag hoisted at the top of it. Locals say that from that point English could have had a look at the Great Wall of China, a statement which was summarily rejected and dismissed by my learned brother later. After this, we dismounted the point and continued our horse ride. Till now we had been moving up the slope and here was a point which called for the descent. From this point below we would witness sharp descent. The trained horse trod with much ease until we reached relatively plain ground and were told by the horseman that the market was just 5 minutes walk from that point on. We took his word and alighted from the horses. We walked down the road and realized that the walk only got longer and longer in time. On asking others around, we were told that market was nearby and we soon reached the market but definitely not in 5 minutes as was promised by the horseman. At the end of this descent on foot we found ourselves at a point which was very close to the Naina Devi temple. It could not have been better than this and we continued the walk down to the temple. The temple is beautiful and well maintained by the priests. We offered prayers to the various deities in the temple and proceeded to the guest house. On our way to the guest house we walked through an array of shops which were selling all kind of stuff but primarily clothes. We also came across a head massage instrument which incidentally, a few days ago, we had seen in Noida. We had planned to purchase it but the vendor had quoted a cost of about 350 a piece for such a simple instrument as that. Here we got two for hundred bucks! We continued our march down to the guest house where we had our lunch and retired to bed for the forty winks! We got up in the evening and went down the Mall Road to do some of the boating again only that this time it was with a twist! We took the peddle boat and decided to venture out to the lake all on our own. We peddled the boat along with the wind once and against it the other time. I would strongly recommend the peddle boat to all those who desire to do boating in the Naini Lake. You can peddle it at your own pace and at your will. It’s quite easy to maneuver and hence, very convenient to navigate through the waters. The breeze that wafts past your hair is highly refreshing and it feels like a unique therapy to the tired body and soul! We had about 40 minutes left for the boating deadline to expire and we made good of these 40 minutes to heartily enjoy our “Lake Voyage” . After this, we went to the Mall road and explored the roadside shops and stalls. We picked up quite a handful of stuff to carry back home. With Diwali approaching, it was not a bad idea to carry some diwali stuff home from Nainital. Before this, I was always told that Nainital has got quite crowded lately but thanks to the season, we did not come across much rush except for the scores of Bengali tourists who flock the place during this time of the year. It was a pleasant sight throughout. We clicked some pictures by the Mall road even as we continued shopping for a variety of stuff. I would recommend the Honey seller by the Mall road. I don’t remember the name of the shop but it sells variety of honey and squashes. I picked up about a Kg of it from this shop at a very reasonable rate. The shopping ended only at a point which was quite close to the guest house and hence, it did not take us long to get there. We ordered for the dinner and were served the same on time. We had our dinner and retired to bed with plans for tomorrow which would serenade us in our dreams. We had decided to prolong our local sight seeing the next day and also longed to cover places around like Bhimtal, Saattal, Naukuchiatal etc.
Day 8
We again got up in time and prepared ourselves for the day ahead. We had struck a deal with cabbie a day before as per which he would reach the guest house at about 9:00 in the morning and would take us to some local sights which we could not cover the day before. We decided that we would finish our local sight seeing before deciding on further to venture out to Bhimtal and other places nearby.
We started out for a place which would once again provide us with an opportunity to view Himalayas. It is advised to reach such spots early in the morning when the sun is still low. Once it rises to a relatively higher point the bright sunlight may hinder the view of Himalayas. We reached the point and saw a lot of people parked there already. Wife was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of getting her pictures clicked by a professional photograph while she sported the pahari outfit which were kept handy by the local entrepreneurs who make money from renting out these outfits. Many other tourists also did the same. For the first time ever I saw outfits of dacoits with a horse tied nearby. You can rent these outfits and get yourself clicked holding rifle in one arm while the other firmly gripping the reins of the horse. Some enthusiasts were seen getting such pictures clicked. This sure was not the primary agenda of visiting this point but it did get sidetracked at the sight of an alternate opportunity like this. Nevertheless, we matured out of it soon and reached the point where we could get good glimpse of Himalayas. We did manage a good look at it. By now we had had quite a few opportunities to manage a look at the Himalayas and hence, we did not invest any more of our time at this spot. The photographer promised delivery of pictures in the evening at the guesthouse and we started for the next location.
The cabbie also took us to the lovers point and guided us to a place which we had not explored the day before. We were also ushered to the “suicide point” from where you could have a view of almost the entire Nainital. You need to trek a bit up to reach the suicide point which many of them don’t do. I chose to trek up and maneuver the narrow passage to reach the top. It was quite an experience to witness such great height and the view of the valley from there.
Following this we proceeded for the next location which is better known as Sadiatal. The name is quite strange and we wondered as to why it was named this way! Later we were told by the guide that this used to be a dump earlier which was recently revamped, renovated and presented to the visiting tourists as a lake. It indeed looked in good condition as projected. We stopped by to click a few pictures and then moved on to the next spot which was “Sadiataal Waterfall”. This probably originated from sadiataal and made for a great sight. We positioned ourselves at different points around the fall and clicked pictures with the waterfall in the background. More adventurous people would have liked to venture into the waterfall, however, due to paucity of time and our desire to cover many more points we chose to move on. There are a few shops located right across the waterfall and you can have snacks there. A common feature across these snacks joints would be “Pakodas” which look quite appetizing.
We closed our assignation with the waterfall soon and started for the next point which was the “Cave Garden”. Cave garden is quite an adventure for those who would love to negotiate congested spaces and like to maneuver constricted passages up and down a cave. There is about 6 types of caves in this garden each one related to a different type of animal for instance; I remember having moved through tiger, bat, leopard and one more cave. As you move further the caves get narrower and narrower. It is advisable to go wearing dark colored clothes if you are considering doing all of them seriously. They passage can get very narrow and the dust and sometimes mud may spoil the clothes. The fun was when we clicked pictures while we were inside these caves. It takes some effort to find a stable foothold before you could keep yourself steady for clicking pictures and of course don’t forget to put the flash of your camera on. These pictures turn out quite nice and would serve as “great memories to keep”. In one of the caves, I asked my wife to sport that fierce tiger looks so as to let me capture a picture of her in that pose. She did it only to be captured in camera as a cute cat . For cave garden you have to pay entry fees of about Rs. 30 /- each.
After Cave garden it was time for us to move to much sought after electronic trolley that takes you all way to a high point from where you can have a look at entire Nainital as well as the Himalayan ranges. The charge for this is about 150/- per head. At the top they have set up a lot of shops selling different kind of items, miniature amusement parks etc. We could not enjoy this part as much as we would have otherwise for certain reasons which would not spoil fun for others contemplating to try this .
Left with little time we had to dump the idea of going out to cover other locations such as saattal and naukuchital etc. We decided to cover it during our next visit to Nainital. We, therefore, came back to the guest house after this and tried to sleep for a while. However, it was not to me since shortly after we would be starting for Kathgodam station to commence our trip back to Delhi. We were waiting for the photographer to deliver the pictures but at the same time we knew that we were left with little time before starting for Kathgodam. Good thing was that we had factored in the contingency aspect and paid extra bucks to the photographer to courier it to our Delhi address just incase the timings did not match at Nainital.
I went around and caught hold of a cabbie to take us down to Kathgodam in the evening. The cabbie agreed for 300 bucks. That’s the kind of money it takes for them to drop you at kathgodam. Do not be fooled by some others who tell you that the usual charges are 500 bucks but for you they would beat it down to 300. They get good pick ups back from Kathgodam to various other tourist places in Uttaranchal. Anyway, thus commenced our journey back to Delhi. We boarded the cab which took us all of an hour and a half to reach kathgodam. We left our luggage at the cloak room since we still had time before the train arrived. In the meantime, we went around the local market to purchase our typical pahari sweets which is balmithai. Must I say that I did not enjoy it as much as the ones we purchase from places deeper into Uttaranchal? We then came back to the station and had a light meal at the Indian railways restaurant before moving to the cloak room to reclaim our luggage. Following this we boarded the train and reached Delhi on time the next day. A couple of days later we received our courier with the pictures clicked on the Himalayan view point in the pahari attire. We were only too glad to run through them.
All in all it was a mesmerizing trip to the beautiful heart of uttaranchal and I would strongly recommend the fellow travelers to spent more time and energy to explore the wonderful and picturesque sights of Devbhoomi Uttaranchal!
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