We almost reached Kausani, when our driver figured out that the fuel in the car is in its last few litres. Luckily, we found a gas station, but, unfortunately, there was no power there, and his generator had gone kaput. The gas station owner mentioned that there was no possibility of power till 4 pm, and it was barely noon at that time. Our driver mentioned that there was enough fuel to drop us to our hotel and get back to the same station for refueling. So, off we went. We reached a place from where we could see Kausani. Kausani is an enchanting little hamlet, which could be crossed on foot within half an hour, and is devoid of any commercialization whatsoever. No one accepts a credit card, no hawks around to show you the place. All that later on, once we manage to reach there. We almost reach Kausani, when on an upward climb, the car flutters, and gives up. Cranking it up does not really crank it up. Then our driver says that it could be due to the upward climb, as the fuel mark has gone pretty low, and it does not reach the fuel pipe and the fuel pump anymore. So, the car does not crank. The driver rolls it backward, just enough where he could find a relatively flat surface, and then makes another attempt at cranking the engine. He is successful.
This happens a couple of times, and we finally make it to the place. A little bit of asking around points us to our hotel. This is not a confusing town where you could loose your way anyways. This is one place where we could not find a KMVN guest house, because it was full, and we had to book a private accommodation. So was the case with Jim Corbett National park (Dhikuli).
The moment we arrived at Kausani, the rains arrived too. There was a thunderous roar everywhere, which kept on echoing around us, thanks to the generous spread of mountains all around. All you need to do is to close your eyes, and listen to the roar. You can feel it in all possible directions, akin to you listening to this on some Bose or Harman Kardon surround system.
It rained, and stopped, and rained again. And stopped. Then, this happened.
It has been quite some time since I saw a hail storm. Those little pebbles of ice were all over the garden opposite to our room, and I and my daughter had a good time collecting them, and devouring some of them too.
We went to a place nearby to check if we can see sunset there, but clouds played spoilsport. But, on the other hand, clouds now would be great, since the rain could clear out all the smog due to forest fire, and we have a better chance of seeing Himalayas from there.
There is a Gandhi Ashram, which is about a kilometre from our hotel. This is supposedly the place where Gandhi had advocated a particular yoga called Anasakti Yoga, or something to that affect. Anyway, that did not interest me. What interested me is the place itself, which is located at the best location to watch the sunrise and sunset, and on a clear day, we can see some Himalayan peaks. Unfortunately, that day was not it, so was the next morning.
The next day, we decided to travel to two nearby places called Bageshwar and Baijnath. Little did we know that we would get much more than what we had thought.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Saturday, 29 May 2010
The beautiful Binsar
The third day began with another round of boating, and by coincidence, the same boatman offered his services to row the boat.
We then started our journey to Binsar. We passed Bowali and Almora en-route to Binsar forest area. The forest entry check-post at Binsar forest area charges about Rs. 150 per person for entry. The car is charged Rs. 250. In my opinion, it is pretty steep.
But, all that was forgotten once we entered the Binsar forest area. Those huge oak and pine trees were omnipresent. We could see them pretty much everywhere. One more thing we noticed there was there were lots of forest fires. It came to our notice that this area was declared protected somewhere in the mid-eighties, and since then, lot of people who were at that time residing in the forest were moved out by the Govt. The people who got impacted were not happy about that, since they were enjoying the rich forest bounty, and that ceased immediately. That is one reason why they are not too co-operative with the forest department. Guides over there mentioned that some forest fires could actually be ignited by these people too.
Anyway, we reached KMVN rest house at Binsar. This is one of the only two rest houses in that area. There is another forest rest house, about half a kilometer away from KMVN rest house. The forest rest house is the place where they have a sunset point.
After lunch, we hired a guide, who took us to a 2 km one way trek inside the forest. The guide was good enough to explain us the vegetation around that area. That is vastly different from what we see in South India. Forests in south are denser than that in Binsar. Binsar is about 1700m above sea level, and as mentioned, there are huge oaks and pines, with deodars here and there. Animals that live here are different from what we see in South too. Barking deer lives here. Leopard thrives in this environment. In fact, we were also shown a Leopard footprint. It was more like the Leopard had marked its territory. It seems like Leopard needs 5 sq km of area for its existence, on an average. Also, the terrain is so steep that only animals who are nimble can stay here. For example, you will not find a tiger here.
Our guide also explained various plants and trees, and how each one of them helps the other. For example, there are some algae which grow on oaks and pines, which actually help maintain the moisture level on the tree. Nature at its best!
We reached a view point called Zero Point. This is a small shelter which is situated at a strategic point from where you can see a very beautiful view of the mountains and the vegetation around.
We came back from the trek, only to go to another place for a sunset. This is the sunset point, and it is a part of the forest rest house I was referring to. This is about half a kilometer from KMVN rest house.
We did this distance in our cab. We were all decked to take some photographs, when we met a couple from Bangalore. They live about a km or two from where we live. It is like going all the way to California and meeting Indians :-). They had come from Jim Corbett National park, and they had sighted the big striped cat, the one we would consider lucky to sight. I saw those photos in his Nikon something, and I loved them. After drooling at the sight of the big one, we got ready to take some photos of the sunset. He setup his Nikon expensive something on his expensive tripod, and she had another Nikon expensive something else. I had my Canon S3IS, and the moment the sun started setting down, all of us started clicking our cameras. Please pardon my photography skills, and trust me, the places are much better than what my camera says they are. Here are some shots of the sunset taken from the sunset point.
Some shots later, the sun set, and we retired for the day. The rest house has a terrace from where we can watch sunrise. So, I got up early in the morning to see if we can get a good view of the Himalayas. Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day, and there was no view of the Himalayas. But, we spotted two barking deer, and a bunch of monkeys.
We then started our journey to Kausani, via Almora again.
We then started our journey to Binsar. We passed Bowali and Almora en-route to Binsar forest area. The forest entry check-post at Binsar forest area charges about Rs. 150 per person for entry. The car is charged Rs. 250. In my opinion, it is pretty steep.
But, all that was forgotten once we entered the Binsar forest area. Those huge oak and pine trees were omnipresent. We could see them pretty much everywhere. One more thing we noticed there was there were lots of forest fires. It came to our notice that this area was declared protected somewhere in the mid-eighties, and since then, lot of people who were at that time residing in the forest were moved out by the Govt. The people who got impacted were not happy about that, since they were enjoying the rich forest bounty, and that ceased immediately. That is one reason why they are not too co-operative with the forest department. Guides over there mentioned that some forest fires could actually be ignited by these people too.
Anyway, we reached KMVN rest house at Binsar. This is one of the only two rest houses in that area. There is another forest rest house, about half a kilometer away from KMVN rest house. The forest rest house is the place where they have a sunset point.
After lunch, we hired a guide, who took us to a 2 km one way trek inside the forest. The guide was good enough to explain us the vegetation around that area. That is vastly different from what we see in South India. Forests in south are denser than that in Binsar. Binsar is about 1700m above sea level, and as mentioned, there are huge oaks and pines, with deodars here and there. Animals that live here are different from what we see in South too. Barking deer lives here. Leopard thrives in this environment. In fact, we were also shown a Leopard footprint. It was more like the Leopard had marked its territory. It seems like Leopard needs 5 sq km of area for its existence, on an average. Also, the terrain is so steep that only animals who are nimble can stay here. For example, you will not find a tiger here.
Our guide also explained various plants and trees, and how each one of them helps the other. For example, there are some algae which grow on oaks and pines, which actually help maintain the moisture level on the tree. Nature at its best!
We reached a view point called Zero Point. This is a small shelter which is situated at a strategic point from where you can see a very beautiful view of the mountains and the vegetation around.
We came back from the trek, only to go to another place for a sunset. This is the sunset point, and it is a part of the forest rest house I was referring to. This is about half a kilometer from KMVN rest house.
We did this distance in our cab. We were all decked to take some photographs, when we met a couple from Bangalore. They live about a km or two from where we live. It is like going all the way to California and meeting Indians :-). They had come from Jim Corbett National park, and they had sighted the big striped cat, the one we would consider lucky to sight. I saw those photos in his Nikon something, and I loved them. After drooling at the sight of the big one, we got ready to take some photos of the sunset. He setup his Nikon expensive something on his expensive tripod, and she had another Nikon expensive something else. I had my Canon S3IS, and the moment the sun started setting down, all of us started clicking our cameras. Please pardon my photography skills, and trust me, the places are much better than what my camera says they are. Here are some shots of the sunset taken from the sunset point.
Some shots later, the sun set, and we retired for the day. The rest house has a terrace from where we can watch sunrise. So, I got up early in the morning to see if we can get a good view of the Himalayas. Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day, and there was no view of the Himalayas. But, we spotted two barking deer, and a bunch of monkeys.
We then started our journey to Kausani, via Almora again.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Nainital
Day 2 began with a quick breakfast. We then went to the Naini lake for a boat ride.
This lake is a huge one, much bigger than what we get in Ooty or Kodai, down south. According to the boatman, it is about 4.5 sqkm in area. I have not verified it though.
The boat ride was very pleasant. Little Smriti enjoyed it quite a lot. We got to know from the boatman the possible places we can visit during the course of the day.
The crux of the town is one road called Mall road. This road seems to be pretty famous there, much like our MG road down south. Every other town seems to have a road with that name. Mall road is about 1.5 km in length, and it extends across the length of the lake. Our hotel was to one end of the road, and to the other end, there is a temple called Naini temple. Nainital apparently got its name from this temple. This is the main commercial area of Nainital. They have many shops selling woolen items. They have many hotels and restaurants along the entire stretch. An interesting thing is that the entrance to this road from our hotel side has a check post, and the cars are charged Rs. 50 as an entrance ticket per trip on this road. This is pretty steep. But the best part of this road is the "rikshaw"s. Rikshaw can be thought of as a 3 wheeled cycle, which will be pedaled by a person. It has an enclosure which can seat 2 people. Seating 3 is quite an intimate affair. To pedal the length of the road, they charge Rs.10.
We wanted to go to the rope way which will take us to a place on the hills where we get a panoramic view of the town. Interestingly, this hill top houses another of KMVN's guest house called Snow View, which was full when we tried to book. We took a rikshaw and reached the place where the rope way starts. Then we fell for a pestering travel agent who suggested that we take a 2 hour horse ride, which will take us to many view points that can provide better views than the rope way. Well, the mention of "horse" excited my daughter, so, we had two people to contend with. Finally, we gave in.
This 2 hour ride was an interesting one. We 3 were on separate horses, and there were 2 people manning the 3 of us. One of them was controlling the horse that I was riding, and the one that my daughter was riding. There was another person manning the horse that my wife was riding. This ride took us to view points like "suicide point" and "lovers' point". I wonder why these two points are always tied to each other. I remember seeing something like this at Kodaikkanal too. Maybe, this is one way to make love immortal :-).
After some time, the person manning my horse asked me to take the reins of my horse. This was pretty tricky and scary. This horse always had the propensity go to the edge of the road, and the deep valley was quite scary to see from there. Apparently, I was supposed to "steer" the horse in the opposite direction. But, it is not like my car's direct steering I am so used to. This horse seemed to have a mind of its own. However well I tried to apply the "opposite lock", the horse, with all its power, used to resist. Talk about "horse power"! It took me about 3-4 minutes to realise that the horse walks that way. Then, I aligned myself to its "living-on-the-edge" behaviour. Another scary part is the steep downward climb, after visiting one of those view points. I could not rein in my horse at that point, and there was one person manning my horse and my daughter's. I think he did a good job of controlling both the horses.
With horses out of our way, we had lunch at a restaurant called Shiva restaurant. The lunch was great. We then took the local transport and went to the zoo. This is an interesting zoo, in the sense that apart from seeing the animals, we also get to see the panoramic view of the town. The zoo is at the top of a hill. And, you need to climb those steep paths to see each captive animal or bird. We do get to see some rare animals like barking deer, etc, which are specific to the region. There was a white peacock too.
We finally took the rope way and reached the top of the hill. This rope way connects the Mall road, which is just above the lake to the top of the hill. They have some small rides there on the top. My daughter was content with jumping on a trampoline like ride. The place was too noisy for me. We returned to Mall road, had our dinner, and retired to the hotel.
We should have stayed another day here, and we could have visited some other lakes in and around Nainital.
This lake is a huge one, much bigger than what we get in Ooty or Kodai, down south. According to the boatman, it is about 4.5 sqkm in area. I have not verified it though.
The boat ride was very pleasant. Little Smriti enjoyed it quite a lot. We got to know from the boatman the possible places we can visit during the course of the day.
The crux of the town is one road called Mall road. This road seems to be pretty famous there, much like our MG road down south. Every other town seems to have a road with that name. Mall road is about 1.5 km in length, and it extends across the length of the lake. Our hotel was to one end of the road, and to the other end, there is a temple called Naini temple. Nainital apparently got its name from this temple. This is the main commercial area of Nainital. They have many shops selling woolen items. They have many hotels and restaurants along the entire stretch. An interesting thing is that the entrance to this road from our hotel side has a check post, and the cars are charged Rs. 50 as an entrance ticket per trip on this road. This is pretty steep. But the best part of this road is the "rikshaw"s. Rikshaw can be thought of as a 3 wheeled cycle, which will be pedaled by a person. It has an enclosure which can seat 2 people. Seating 3 is quite an intimate affair. To pedal the length of the road, they charge Rs.10.
We wanted to go to the rope way which will take us to a place on the hills where we get a panoramic view of the town. Interestingly, this hill top houses another of KMVN's guest house called Snow View, which was full when we tried to book. We took a rikshaw and reached the place where the rope way starts. Then we fell for a pestering travel agent who suggested that we take a 2 hour horse ride, which will take us to many view points that can provide better views than the rope way. Well, the mention of "horse" excited my daughter, so, we had two people to contend with. Finally, we gave in.
This 2 hour ride was an interesting one. We 3 were on separate horses, and there were 2 people manning the 3 of us. One of them was controlling the horse that I was riding, and the one that my daughter was riding. There was another person manning the horse that my wife was riding. This ride took us to view points like "suicide point" and "lovers' point". I wonder why these two points are always tied to each other. I remember seeing something like this at Kodaikkanal too. Maybe, this is one way to make love immortal :-).
After some time, the person manning my horse asked me to take the reins of my horse. This was pretty tricky and scary. This horse always had the propensity go to the edge of the road, and the deep valley was quite scary to see from there. Apparently, I was supposed to "steer" the horse in the opposite direction. But, it is not like my car's direct steering I am so used to. This horse seemed to have a mind of its own. However well I tried to apply the "opposite lock", the horse, with all its power, used to resist. Talk about "horse power"! It took me about 3-4 minutes to realise that the horse walks that way. Then, I aligned myself to its "living-on-the-edge" behaviour. Another scary part is the steep downward climb, after visiting one of those view points. I could not rein in my horse at that point, and there was one person manning my horse and my daughter's. I think he did a good job of controlling both the horses.
With horses out of our way, we had lunch at a restaurant called Shiva restaurant. The lunch was great. We then took the local transport and went to the zoo. This is an interesting zoo, in the sense that apart from seeing the animals, we also get to see the panoramic view of the town. The zoo is at the top of a hill. And, you need to climb those steep paths to see each captive animal or bird. We do get to see some rare animals like barking deer, etc, which are specific to the region. There was a white peacock too.
We finally took the rope way and reached the top of the hill. This rope way connects the Mall road, which is just above the lake to the top of the hill. They have some small rides there on the top. My daughter was content with jumping on a trampoline like ride. The place was too noisy for me. We returned to Mall road, had our dinner, and retired to the hotel.
We should have stayed another day here, and we could have visited some other lakes in and around Nainital.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Uttaranchal trip - Day 1
15th of May 2010 was when it all started. Meru cab reached our home at 3:30 am, dot on time. We were pretty much ready by then. Little Smriti (will turn 5 by July end) was very exited too, as it would be her longest flight.
By the time we stacked ourselves at the end of the long Kingfisher Airlines check-in queue, it was about 4:30 am. Luckily, around that time, Smriti felt a little sleepy and she asked us to lift her up. A Kingfisher staff noticed this, and he short-circuited our wait. We were asked to cut the queue, and we landed up right in front of the check-in counter immediately, much to the dismay of all the waiting passengers.
With all the formalities done, we had enough time, thanks to our waiting time being cut short. We had some coffee, and waited for the boarding announcement. We finally were seated, with the little one taking the window.
The flight took off on time (5:55 am), and soon, Smriti started enjoying "Tom and Jerry" on that little LCD. About 2 and a half hours later, we were at New Delhi.
We met our cab guy, albeit with a little drama. There was a guy holding a placard bearing my first name. We identified him, and soon, he started walking off with our luggage. We followed him for about 50 m, when we realized that there was another placard which bore my full name. We were wondering why they were holding two of them just for me. Just out of curiosity, we asked the second guy whether he knew the first one. He mentioned that he had come all alone. We had to run behind the first one and get our luggage back.
Once we got out of the airport, we were put into the actual cab, which would be our chief mode of transport for the next week. That turned out to be a Tata Indica, a bruised and a battered one. This had about a lakh and a 20 thousand km (120,000) on its odo, and it did not need a horn. Every part in the car would scream at the top of its voice. Luckily, the rear suspension was good as ever, and so was the leg room. And the AC was working. Otherwise, Delhi heat could have given us some scare.
At about 11:30 am, we started our journey from New Delhi to Nainital. We took the following route - New Delhi Indira Gandhi International airport - New Delhi city - NOIDA extension - Gaziabad - Moradabad - Haldwani - Nainital.
The road conditions were pretty nice, except the traffic. There is some construction going on between Gaziabad and Moradabad, and it is quite a drain on our time and patience; approximately 30 km of such bad road. The rest seemed to be pretty motorable. Special mention should be made of roads in Uttaranchal. The roads in the hills were pretty good.
By the time we reached our Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) Sarovar guest house, we saw the clock show 6 pm.
Our balcony overlooked Naini lake, and is in an area called Tallital. Naini lake and Naini temple are the reasons why Nainital is so called.
All this beautiful view can be had right from your room balcony, provided you climb those umpteen steps. From the lake, you climb a steep inclination, and reach the place where the steps begin. I bet there could have been around 100 steps before we found our room. Did I mention that the restaurant is way below, and there were no elevators?
Well, by the time we settled down in our room, it was about 7 pm. So, nothing much to do that day, except idle down on the balcony, enjoying the beautiful view. Good thing about North India is that the sun sets pretty late in the night, between 7 to 7:30 pm during summer. And, it rises at about 5:15 am. So, you have a long day.
Someone is actually canoing in the lake, at about 7 pm.
BTW, throughout our journey, we stayed at KMVN rest houses, except at Kausani and Jim Corbett. Thanks to Shweta for review on the guest houses, and also for the books on Uttaranchal. All these helped us a lot.
KMVN accommodation can be booked from kmvn.gov.in. There is a PRO at Gandhinagar, Bangalore. But fortunately for us, GMVN (Gadhwal) has an office pretty close to our office, and GMVN PRO Mr. Anurag helped me by co-ordinating with KMVN for all the bookings.
Also, prior to making this trip, both I and my wife read the famous book, "Man eaters of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett, just to get an idea of the geography and culture of the area we would visit.
Just to give you an idea, Uttaranchal or Uttarakhand is a newly carved state out of Uttar Pradesh. Uttaranchal is divided into two regions, Ga[rd]hwal, and Kumaon. Jim Corbett national park separates the two regions. The one north-west of the park is Gadhwal, and the one south-east is Kumaon. We toured Kumaon region and the national park.
For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttarakhand
We did nothing much on day 1. Went down to the restaurant, had our dinner, and climbed up those stairs again, and signed the day off.
By the time we stacked ourselves at the end of the long Kingfisher Airlines check-in queue, it was about 4:30 am. Luckily, around that time, Smriti felt a little sleepy and she asked us to lift her up. A Kingfisher staff noticed this, and he short-circuited our wait. We were asked to cut the queue, and we landed up right in front of the check-in counter immediately, much to the dismay of all the waiting passengers.
With all the formalities done, we had enough time, thanks to our waiting time being cut short. We had some coffee, and waited for the boarding announcement. We finally were seated, with the little one taking the window.
The flight took off on time (5:55 am), and soon, Smriti started enjoying "Tom and Jerry" on that little LCD. About 2 and a half hours later, we were at New Delhi.
We met our cab guy, albeit with a little drama. There was a guy holding a placard bearing my first name. We identified him, and soon, he started walking off with our luggage. We followed him for about 50 m, when we realized that there was another placard which bore my full name. We were wondering why they were holding two of them just for me. Just out of curiosity, we asked the second guy whether he knew the first one. He mentioned that he had come all alone. We had to run behind the first one and get our luggage back.
Once we got out of the airport, we were put into the actual cab, which would be our chief mode of transport for the next week. That turned out to be a Tata Indica, a bruised and a battered one. This had about a lakh and a 20 thousand km (120,000) on its odo, and it did not need a horn. Every part in the car would scream at the top of its voice. Luckily, the rear suspension was good as ever, and so was the leg room. And the AC was working. Otherwise, Delhi heat could have given us some scare.
At about 11:30 am, we started our journey from New Delhi to Nainital. We took the following route - New Delhi Indira Gandhi International airport - New Delhi city - NOIDA extension - Gaziabad - Moradabad - Haldwani - Nainital.
The road conditions were pretty nice, except the traffic. There is some construction going on between Gaziabad and Moradabad, and it is quite a drain on our time and patience; approximately 30 km of such bad road. The rest seemed to be pretty motorable. Special mention should be made of roads in Uttaranchal. The roads in the hills were pretty good.
By the time we reached our Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) Sarovar guest house, we saw the clock show 6 pm.
Our balcony overlooked Naini lake, and is in an area called Tallital. Naini lake and Naini temple are the reasons why Nainital is so called.All this beautiful view can be had right from your room balcony, provided you climb those umpteen steps. From the lake, you climb a steep inclination, and reach the place where the steps begin. I bet there could have been around 100 steps before we found our room. Did I mention that the restaurant is way below, and there were no elevators?
Well, by the time we settled down in our room, it was about 7 pm. So, nothing much to do that day, except idle down on the balcony, enjoying the beautiful view. Good thing about North India is that the sun sets pretty late in the night, between 7 to 7:30 pm during summer. And, it rises at about 5:15 am. So, you have a long day.
Someone is actually canoing in the lake, at about 7 pm.BTW, throughout our journey, we stayed at KMVN rest houses, except at Kausani and Jim Corbett. Thanks to Shweta for review on the guest houses, and also for the books on Uttaranchal. All these helped us a lot.
KMVN accommodation can be booked from kmvn.gov.in. There is a PRO at Gandhinagar, Bangalore. But fortunately for us, GMVN (Gadhwal) has an office pretty close to our office, and GMVN PRO Mr. Anurag helped me by co-ordinating with KMVN for all the bookings.
Also, prior to making this trip, both I and my wife read the famous book, "Man eaters of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett, just to get an idea of the geography and culture of the area we would visit.
Just to give you an idea, Uttaranchal or Uttarakhand is a newly carved state out of Uttar Pradesh. Uttaranchal is divided into two regions, Ga[rd]hwal, and Kumaon. Jim Corbett national park separates the two regions. The one north-west of the park is Gadhwal, and the one south-east is Kumaon. We toured Kumaon region and the national park.
For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttarakhand
We did nothing much on day 1. Went down to the restaurant, had our dinner, and climbed up those stairs again, and signed the day off.
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