Tag Archives: travelogue
The Dutch Village, a few Indians went to, in America
1. This is a very very very long post (45+ photographs, loads of text) so have a good amount of time on hand when you start reading it
2. This is dedicated to two very important parts of my life… Bindiya and Tushar who started new chapters in their lives in April and May respectively
3. This trip was a celebration of the “sincerely hoped for, unexpected” success of 30on30 initiative… and to share the joy, I would do a random draw of lots of all the people who comment on this post and will send them a print (which they can select from this post) if they are in India or US. If the comments are too less for a decent lot, I would randomly add some random comments from friends and include them !
Now that the conditions are laid out well, lets start….
So it was finalized that I am going to Holland to see the Tulips… Gaurav agreed, Deepali agreed, Pritam, Lakhan, Golu, Sapna agreed, and Jyoti agreed ( she was visiting me that week on her way from the West Coast of the Amreeka to the East Coast of Amreeka)
They left from Minneapolis early evening and I left Milwaukee around 1830 hrs… it was a long drive ahead and I was so looking forward to it… a fantastic car good music system and a nice weather was all that I could ask for… and I had some Samosa’s and Kachauri’s with me for the drive too 🙂 what fun !!!!
As expected driving was a breeze through without any issues at all…Reached the Super 8 Motel around midnight and Pritam and the gang reached soon after ! We did not spend much time talking then, and called it a day with a promise to leave the motel by 0930 hrs the next morning !
Pritam was driving a JEEP and there was no way I would have let anyone else drive that now that I was around… He knew that, and asked Sunil to handover the keys to me before I created any fuss ! He like a gentleman took the navigator seat and Pritam, Jyoti and Golu happily acquired the passenger seats !!! Just about 20 minutes away was our first destination of the day…
The Veldheer’s Tulip Garden….
I would be lying if I tell you that I was very excited to see what I saw… My bad! I was expecting miles of tulips of various colors and variety, but this turned out to be a relatively smaller than what I had painted in my head… It was not entirely my mistake actually, it was the advertising that got the better of me here ! But nevertheless it was a sight to see… I had never seen so many tulips together, so in a way this was a happy moment !
Enjoy the pictures below for a while, before getting back to reading more 🙂
Just before getting out of the Tulips Garden, we decided to take a few pictures of each other 🙂
There was a small factory inside the shop itself where the shoes were being made(below)…
Seen below is the 1970 Dodge truck we went around for a drive in….
I really wanted to see the sun set, and really wanted to see it… so we waited… it was not the most comfortable evening as it was pretty chilly, but my dear friends decided to hang around till sunset and then move back….
Now was time to go back to the Motel and call it a day… Jyoti had left something at Papa Romano’s in the afternoon so we decided to go back and see we could find it there… We could not and the guys decided to get themselves the infamous Smirnoff Vodka Mojito (will write about why its infamous separately) While Pritam, Golu and Jyoti were inside the Wine Shop, me and Sunil discussed the dinner options and realized that Indian Food was the best option… now at 2130 hrs, it was not going to be an easy task to first find an Indian Restaurant and that too an open one !!! but we tried… the GPS ( called Billo Rani by Pritam) helped and after about 5 unsuccessful attempts we found an Indian Restaurant called Bombay Cuisine in Grand Rapids about 20 miles away…
So after this loooooooooooooong touristy day and a heavy Indian dinner, we called it a day around midnight !!!!
It was a nice place to just sit and chat as well… I did not care much for the wines, and came out to just sit in the field and take pictures, while Pritam, Golu, and Jyoti were enjoying the wine tasting experience….
Sunil also decided to come out and relax for a while before he started the long drive back to Minneapolis…
The pit-stop was at Fenneville somewhere between somewhere, where we enjoyed some Pizzas at a Pizza hut before saying the final good byes to each other, promising to meet again soon !!! Post that, Sunil drove a bit faster towards their destination and I enjoyed the music and the amazingly smooth Nissan Altima to Milwaukee….
All in all, this trip ended up with me having a nice big smile on my face, exactly like the road-map between Milwaukee and Holland 🙂
I am already looking forward to my next trip !!! Are you?
Oh and congratulations for reaching the end of this post 😛
जय बद्री विशाल (Jai Badri Vishaal)
Before the US trip, my travel plans were getting changed every week and I just could not go! When I was in the US, mom dad for some reason did not go either! So we decided that we could go as soon as I am back!
We did!
I reached Noida on Saturday and left for Badrinath on Monday afternoon. We took a long break in Meerut where I met Naani after a while. She is not doing well at all these days. Not even able to speak 🙁 I hope she recovers soon! The improvement in her voice and movement was seen after we were back from our trip, so that makes me feel good and better!
The drive was very long and mostly uneventful except the extremely bad roads at a lot of places, 4 pit stops and a forced break at Rishikesh. We had reached Rishikesh at 0300 hrs and there is a restriction on driving ahead on the hilly area between 2030 hrs and 0500 hrs, hence we had to wait before we could move ahead! This forced break was kind of good as it gave our cabbie, Kamal a couple of hours to catch his nap and prepare him for the long 12-14 hour drive ahead!
I have always respected the hill drivers for their discipline and decent driving, but this time it was very different. All the local cabs seems to be in a rush to catch a train which they had already missed, and were almost breathing down our necks with continuous honking and idiotic over takes ! This was the first time that I have seen such reckless driving on the hills. And I could not help but notice the laaaarge number of cabs as well on the route… The last time when I went to Govindghat with Arobindo, we did not find many cabs on the way, but this time around there was one every five minutes!!!
Thankfully on the way there were no fresh landslides to stop the traffic and we kept moving slowly but with ease. The road condition really got worse after Chamoli, and after Joshimath till Badrinath, it was practically no roads for at least 80% of the 44 kms. This was the toughest part of the entire drive, for us and I am sure for Kamal as well, because even at on single lane paths, we had the assoholotic local cabbies making our lives tough with constant honking and overtaking. We had to stop for the gate system at Joshimath and then there was another forced stop at Pandukeshwar (another gate system for the same reasons as Joshimath)
Our second forced pit stop was at Joshimath, where you have to pass through a gate system. The traffic ahead of Joshimath usually travels one way, because of the narrow roads and the tough and dangerous terrain. We waited there for about 90 minutes before the last gate for the day open at 1630 hrs. This is when I finally took my camera out and made an effort to take a few pictures. Rest of the time I was more than happy just enjoying the views and breathing deep, with a few clicks here and there!
It took us a good 2.5 hours before we reached the holy town of Shri Badrinath. It was freaking cold already, and I had to brave the chill in my shorts and a shawl (was just too lazy to take out my lowers). We checked into a cheap hotel with the bare minimum facilities. Changed and rushed to the temple for darshan before the doors were closed for the night. It had started drizzling, and it just made it colder! Brrrrr!!!
Papa was the last and lucky one to enter the main temple door after much requests to the priest, while the rest of us (ME, Mom, my two cousins) waiting outside in the compound. The priest then closed the main door of the temple giving Pa and Uncle God some decent time together! He came out after a few minutes and we rushed back to our hotel with wet and freezing feet. The next action item was to have dinner. Shops close early in the small town; however we did manage to eat well at a restaurant nearby. I was very tired and sleepy with the long day and almost slept on the dinner table itself: P I was not even sure of the menu the next morning!!! : P We rushed back to our rooms after dinner and it took me two quilts, my shawl, and 2 minutes to take off to my dreamland.
I was the first one to get up the next morning and this was around 0230 hrs, only to sleep again and wake up around 0500 hrs. I got up and went out of the hotel only to see one of the best views I had seen in my entire life! A majestic mountain with snow all around, overlooking the town in that dark blue morning sky!!! I just could not take my eyes off it. Went back in, took the camera out and just waited for the light to be good enough to take a few pictures. I roaming around in that freezing temperature loving the entire feel of the Indian cold, and the view of the majestic Mt. Neelkanth in front of me. The town was also getting up with people walking around the streets, the tea stalls warming up milk and preparing vegetables, the cabbies trying to start, jump start and fire start (See one of the pictures in the Badrinath set on Flickr) their vehicles.
Mount Neelkanth after a while with the sun shining bright on it !
Bhagwan Singh, our hotel attendent. Very prompt and quick!
One of the many segregated dustbins for organic/ inorganic waste in the town !
We finally got ready to go to the temple around 0700 hrs. The skies were clear and the temperature was getting better every minute. Had a lovely walk around the temple with the sun shining all nice and bright. I took a few pictures and we were ready to head back home by 0900 hrs.
We left the town around 0930 hrs (There is a gate system for vehicles going back as well and we had missed the gate by some 30 minutes and the next gate was at 1130 hrs). We were still allowed to pass through I guess because the traffic from the other side would take sometime before they bump into us. The rest of the drive was pretty bumpy as expected till Chamoli and got slightly better post that.
We visited another temple called the Dhara Devi Mandir just before RudraPrayag on our way back, and were at my Mama’s place near Meerut around 0300 hrs after a long drive of approximately 18 hours. Kudos to our driver Kamal who managed to drive for this long, and saved us at least two night halts which I had earlier planned. All in all a wonderful trip.
Time for some objective information:
Route : New Delhi – Meerut – Haridwar – Rishikesh(No traffic allowed before 0500 hrs or after 2030 hrs) – DevPrayag (Another check post for night traffic) – Srinagar – RudraPrayag – KarnaPrayag – Chamoli – Nand Prayag – Joshimath(Gate System; Last Gate 1603 hrs) – (Govindghat/Vishnu Prayag/Pandukeshwar) – Badrinath
Distance to Badrinath from Haridwar: Approx 350 kms
Time: Minimum 12 hrs ex. Haridwar (Add buffer for landslides and pit stops and the total off-road experience after Joshimath)
Transport: Many buses from Haridwar around 0400 hrs/ Local taxies run at 11.50-12.50 Rs/Km (plains/hills)
Food on the way: Carry your own biscuits and snacks and water. Decent road side stalls and small restaurants at all major towns enroute
Route very prone to Landslides to plan your journey in non-rainy times
Link to : Badrinath Set on Flickr
Hope you enjoyed ! Please excuse any grammer or other silly english mistakes. The small blogger editing window takes a lot more patience than I have to ensure everything is good in the post ! Relook at a picture you like, when you find an english mistake and let me know of it too, so that I can correct it 😛
Long(er) weekend in Logan, Utah !
However at times after I have started traveling out of the country, I do feel that Uncle God has been kind enough to me and given me some luck to cruise on ! One such thing is having a home outside home !!!
When I was in London, my homes were at Abhishek’s place or Bharti’s hostel… where I could just go anytime and be ! Abhishek even gave me the key to his house and was kind enough never to disturb me if I had reached home early and was sleeping… or when I was busy taking pictures inside the room and he was locked out !!! Bharti knew that I eat packed food, and was more than keen to cook for me, irrespective of the time I landed !
Luck it is to have people like this in your life… I must have done some efforts I am sure, but not that I remember in this life time to earn them !!!
So back to why I started this post… I went home in the US as well a few weeks back when I landed in the Salt Lake City and was driven to Logan… A small town of Mormons and Aggies located in a valley and home to the Utah State University where Tanu is doing her Ph.D.
Both of us know each other for about 3 years now, and have been talking off and on over various mediums, with the first phone conversation happening in July this year when I arrived in the US… Before I was coming here, she wanted to know if I would come to Utah for a trip… I said of course, and she said, ya right !!! and later when we made the plan, the “ya right” changed to “I don’t Believe it” and it still says that way 🙂
I had an amazing 3 day vacation in Logan a few weeks back, thanks to Tanu who managed to take some time off from the research and made sure I was comfortable… and I was surprised to see her apartment too… She had shifted just a couple of weeks back in that house, and it was perfect !!! I guess the vibes of where you are and who you are with play a very very important role in how comfortable you feel. And I was feeling at home.. I don’t think there is any other word to describe that place !!!
Rest let me leave to the pictures below and talk in between !!!
Still taken at the Gardner’s Market… My first experience of a local market in the US and I must say I loved it… Thanks Tanu for that impromptu plan ! Or you had thought of it already?
It was a nice bright day with the sun playing hide and seek with clouds while I was sitting on the cool grass and watching people roam around the market…
There were some kids who were having a competition of sorts with their handmade boats… this young man was trying to make sure that his boat does not capsize and finishes the race…
We were back in a couple of hours from the market and decided to move out again in the evening… seen above is a flower against the setting sun…
We did not have much time before the sunset, and we tried to reach a view point but could not… We then went to a place where we just parked the car, switched on the music and sat without talking to each other much… I think we must have spent some couple of hours there before we decided to get back home… my favorite and requested Aalu Gobhi was waiting after all 🙂
The next day we decided to go out for a drive… and here is Tanu modeling away to glory… nice car too eh!
I was pretty happy too with how relaxing the last two days had been… Seen above is me trying to step on a few clouds 🙂
This is Bear Lake in the Garden City… some 50 odd miles away from Logan…
I have always liked tread marked in sand… could not resist taking this picture either…
We were back in Logan in good time (another driving experience that I managed) and took a few pictures of the sunflowers before we settled down to see the setting sun !
While I was busy figuring out how to take pictures of flowers like above, Tanu was busy climbing up a huge Ford truck parked nearby (seen below)… One crazy girl she is…
And the sun on my final evening in Logan finally set… and gave me a good view too… Thank you uncle God for the instructions you gave to Sun Unkil…
This was a small half court at one of the houses… what temptation it was to play !!! but no basketball :/
So we were back to the apartment… What you are going to see next is kinda eeeky… so enjoy !!!
This is the RAT that was kepy on my shoulder to freak me out by my dear friend Tanu before she clicked a picture of me trying to remove him from there…. ugh !!!
And she is a Frog Queen or should I say the princess… She keeps kissing frogs and because most of them don’t turn into princes, she brings them home and they stay happily after… So here are the lucky kissed Princes of Tanu’s world…
This was was the most real one… ugh !!! I did try touching it, but the feeling was too slimy…
Oh, and another one of the Princes…
And here is the Frog Princess herself !!! hidden behind her loved ones…
And she seems to be better than average painter too.. seen below are three of her water colors !!! lovely stuff…
Go to a Bengali’s place and not find Ma… impossible I guess !!! Aro? Do you have one? Anyway… here is another picture…
On our drive back to the Salt Lake Airport, we found this cloud maker truck !!! See how the clouds are coming out of its back container…
And so my trip finished…. I have skipped the following parts from the travellogue above…
1. The smallest ever plane that I have sat in…
2. No food and half a glass of soft drink served on a 3 hour flight…
3. Tanu trying to but not being able to find me at the airport while I knew where she was 😀 it was super funn !!!
3a. Getting lost in Salt Lake City
4. The lovely food at her place
5. How I irritated her to the core when she was cooking food one of the two evenings and how much we both loved it 😀
6. One of the cutest ever girls I met, Amrita, at Tanu’s place… she was a real darling !
7. The Frog curtain in the bathroom…
8. Dabur Lal Toothpaste ( loooooooooved it)
9. Tweaking Tanu’s car deck to deliver the right kind of bass and treble !!! Now the music sounds much better…
10. and loads of moments and go down as wonderful memories !!!
Oh, and I am on Tanu’s Blog too… Model and all 😉 check THIS out !
The US that I would like to remember….
The planning for the camping and the drive had started a couple of days back, with me trying to find out where to rent the tents from and the car from… I booked and canceled and booked and canceled the car booking a number of times, before we finalized the Enterprise Rentals for a compact car…
Pritam had already made the bookings for the camping site and the rafting and this was going to be an exciting weekend for sure… for two reasons, 1 that I was going to drive and second I was going to a place that I had never been to before, oh and 3 because I was camping which I had never done, and 4 because I would not have accompalished the not so common Rafting in two continents tag 😛 (Aro, Tushar, Subbu, Deepu… guys are you jealous 😀)
The initial plan was that these guys would pick me up from my apartment saturday morning but we figured that its going to waste time so I packed my bags and went along on friday itself to Pritam’s place… we had a list of things to do and the one on the top of the list was to get the rental car… The girl at enterprise happily upgraded us to a larger car and gave us a weekend deal which basically saved us atleast $40 per day for the 3 days we were renting the car for…
We were just sitting when one of the group said that we should leave friday night itself, there was no reason to wait till morning to drive to Wisconsin… The idea sounded better than trying to wake up at 4 in the morning… so i quickly went to bed (This was around 7 that we decided this and I had 3-4 hours to catch a nap)… Pritam woke me up at 11 and we were ready to move by 0100 hrs…
Next I know is that we drove and we drove and drove… The guy at the camp said that we should throw our GPS out of the window because its not going to take us to the camp, rather might just make us loose our way 😀 however I had the google map for the nearest town and then a smaller map for the way from Lakewood to the Kosir’s camp site next to river Peshtigo… so partly the map helped and the rest we managed with the GPS… also did manage to sleep for a couple of hours when Pritam took over the driving bit from me…
These are when we took a photography break on the Highway 32… the light was great and the weather wonderful… and we could not resist stopping for a while and just admiring the country side… The gentleman in the picture below came out of his barn and gave us company for a while and talked about the town etc… It was not very common for him to find strangers parked near his place and roaming around… and that too Indians 😀
We reached lakewood without getting much lost, but had to call the camp to find some directions to the site… was not too tough and we were at the camp in another 45 minutes…
Now came the challenge… none of us had ever put up a tent before and the instructions did not seem to be enough for the entire thing to be building up from that bag… we still tried and after a hardship of about 30 minutes and misunderstanding the instructions, we were able to put the tent up exactly the way it was supposed to be… the second tent took less time and the third one was done up in 10 minutes flat !!! Meanwhile the ipod and the speakers were also set up and soft hindi music had started playing in our camp site…
Mornings are time for breakfast, and because we had a lot of bread and strawberry jam and haldiram namkeens and biscuits… the first meal at the camp was not a problem at all… infact it was nice eating in the (almost) wild like that… None of us except one had mobile signals on their cell and it was a good feeling to be honest 🙂
When we finally decided to move away from the camp and explore the area, we realised that there was an annual parade going on…. a small one but a nice one where a lot of people from the town participated… I think it had to do something with the fire department of the county as a lot of fire engines were a part of it….
It had some things that can cause fire too, as you see in the picture below 🙂
We decided to turn back and explore the place on foot before we take the cars out and go to the waterfall that we were supposed to go to… and below is what I clicked on the small 45 minute walk around the camp….
We finally managed to get out of the camp, also managed to get lost and find our way back towards the camp and then towards the waterfall that we were trying to go to…
But this was not a waterfall but a small park with some bridges on the river… I was happy to be there, took my camera out and went shooting again, while the rest of the gang was happy exploring the place in the other direction too…
And when there is water and there are boys, it does not take much to get in and have a ball !!! so there were we enjoying the warm water stream and being the kids we always miss in ourselves….
We were then told that we were not too far away from the waterfall either, and we decided that the second part of the fun was going to be at the waterfall… so the guys just hopped on in the cars… in watever form they were and we drove to the waterfall some 5 miles away 🙂
While the rest of the gang jumped into the water rightaway to have their second half of taking a fun bath, i decided to call it quits and just walked around taking some pictures…. check out the place like I did below 🙂
We left the Goodman park in about an hours time and I was very very happy to see this part of the US… typically one would associate US with tall buildings and busy downtowns and here we were in the middle of nowhere, with our phones not working and cars being seen at the rate of 1 every 30-45 minutes….
Back at the camp in the evening, we did not have much to do so we decided to just walk around the camp… there were 26 camp sites in the camp and most of them were occupied…. small tents, big tents, family tents, campers and jeeps, everything was there….
The bus that Kosir’s use to ferry rafters in the Peshtigo river camp…
We were just hanging out at our camping site not doing anything… the picture below is our camp site (#10)… you can see our 3 tents and the two cars parked…
No camping is complete without a campfire and we had made all arrangements for it too… got some extra firewood to ensure that the fire stays till we manage to stay awake… I was pretty tired from my day so I decided to call it a day around 2200 and the rest of the guys I guess were awake till midnight before they decided to sleep off too…
I woke up at 0400 hrs to pee, and when I got out of my sleeping bag ( man it was tough or tough to get out of it in pitch dark) and the tent I saw one of the most spectacular sights ever… Second to Pangong Tso I must say… the sky was studded with stars and no two stars were more than 1 mm away from each other… absolutely brightly lit sky this was… I forgot to pee too 😀 and kept looking at it for a while before I realised that nature was calling for something else other than just stars as well 🙂
We all woke up around 0900 hrs in the morning and lazyly just sat around not doing anything… we had to read the rafting campsite around 1400 hrs and had a lot of time on hand so there was no hurry of any sort…
These two girls in the picture below were roaming all around the camp on their miniature bike… very cute girls they were…
I decided to pick up my lenses and take pictures around the camp again… here is what I clicked…
And then there was time to take pictures of the gang I was travelling with… so here we go 🙂
We finally drove out around 12 and reached the other site in abot 45 minutes… did not have much to do except just hang around the laaaaaaaaaaaaarge open spaces and I could not think of anything but to take out my camera and take more pictures…
We went out for rafting around 1430 hrs and well.. what can I say except that I love Rishikesh and I love the Ganges… there was just one rapid ( grade IV) and we did that twice… thats it !!! lets just forget it !!! ( so guys, don’t be jealous ! this was more of a water park ride that I did )
Suman dislocated his shoulder while he was being pulled up on the raft… now this was some stupid thing which I must mention here… the guys were pulled up with their hands, which increased the probability of an injury for obvious reasons… our guides in Rishikesh always say that pull a guy up holding the life jacket and not anything else…
The instructor arranged for Suman to be taken to the hospital where he was taken care of just fine… the picture below is in the hospital parking lot…
And this is Suman, who looks more treated than he was actually… not sure why all these wires were fixed to him…. he slept most of his way back home though… I drove half the distance and then Pritam took over….
Got back only by 0300 hrs and managed to sleep for 4 hours before we returned the car, and then the tents and reached office… All in all a wonderful weekend… something that I would like to remember for a long time 🙂
God bless !!!
2nd August, the day of Firsts !!!
So Far So Good…
I was desperately looking forward to getting out of Minneapolis, its too dull and dry for me… Even though the weather is great for evening walks, I am not a guy who likes too much peace in his life, and here in my apartment I can actually sit and look at the sky for hours, with no activity happening… So the Chicago trip was something that I was really really looking forward to… Had planned it within the second week of arrival to US…
Friday evening, instead of coming back home, I went to the Minneapolis Downtown to a colleague’s place… I had to take my bus from there, and it only made sense to go to downtown, see some people around, and then take my bus to Chicago, which by the way means, a smelly onion (I wonder why).. Walked around the downtown with colleagues from work and finally took the bus at 2230 hrs on Friday night…
I reached Chicago ( I kinda like the sound of this name) at 0630 hrs as scheduled, went to Kshitiz’s place before we left for the activity of the day… We took a bus to the Train station and then a train to O’Hare Airport…
After a little struggle with the car rental shuttle pickup, we finally reached Thrifty Car Rental’s office where a nice white Dodge Calibre was waiting for us… While I was kinda nervous about driving with all the mirrored roads and everything… But never mind, it cannot be too tough, just some focus right? !!!! but hey, I don’t even know how to take the car away from the parking mode to a normal drive mode… most of the cars I have seen have a small lever just next to the gear lever to do that, but this one was different… so we got out, got some inputs on how to drive that kinetic Honda of a car and moved from there… surprisingly it was easier than I thought, and I am happy to have driven those 100+ miles… this was an interesting experience, with we missing a turn and then finding our way back to the correct road quickly too…
We reached our destination in a li’il more than an hour, and the day being a nice bright, sunny day was perfect for our aeroplane ride… yes, we had planned to take a flight ride in the country side for a change… I felt it was the best way to see things from a different level !!!
We just kept waiting for our turn almost the entire day, being a nice day there were far too many people which were going up on the flights…
anyway after a looooooooooong wait our turn came too, and we boarded the flight for a completely different view of the world !!!
So there was I, leaving on a not so jet plane to reach 14500 ft, and then do something that I will probably rate as the craziest thing that I can EVER do in my life time… which basically translates into Skydiving from 14500 ft, you body falling towards the ground at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, the parachute ride for a few minutes before you finally hit the ground !!!
I was going to jump out of the damn aircraft and rush towards the ground at 120 miles per hour !!! sounds scrary? Well… You have to be there to really know what the fkk it means to JUMP… there was not much going on in my mind when it was happening, except that what the fkk is happening !!!
We drove back to Chicago, and spent the rest of the evening walking around the Cloud Gate, the Navy Pier etc etc etc… actuallly I don’t want to write more and want to think about the jump again…
enjoy the pictures of the walk and fireworks below…
Oh, and before I go, here is a visual account of what I did !!!
This is Kshitiz’s video… the second around minute and a half in this video have me jumping out of the plane !!!
The 28 hour Recharge
Just around midnight on Saturday, me and Tushar leave home for somewhere… During our walk on the road, while looking for an auto to ISBT, we discussed our options to go in all possible directions, but froze on Rishikesh … His responses to a 24 hour trip to Bharatpur, Agra, Jaipur were funny, keeping in mind the Gujjar agitations happening around these areas 🙂
Just then, an auto stopped, we hopped on, reached the ISBT and took the bus after a few difficult choices of a bad bus, a not so bad bus, a not so good bus, the UP Roadways or Uttarakhand Roadways bus stared at us in the face… We finally took a decision and took the UK (Read UttaraKhand) Roadways for Rishikesh 🙂
Tushar did overhear a small issue when we boarded the bus, but too bad that we did not take it seriously… We realized after 15 minutes that one of the twin tyres at the back of the bus had a puncture and we could not move at more than 30 kmph till the time it gets fixed…. Which was a major disappointment as this clearly meant that our plan of reaching Rishikesh around 0600 hrs was fukked up pretty bad !!!
Li’il that we could do, but laugh at the situation 🙂 for some reason we did enjoy the slowness on the road… Every vehicle honked and passed us while we were cruising at a top speed of 30-40 kmph on the HIGHWAY !!!
The first pit stop was at some Nataraj Restaurant, in front of the Cheetal Grand, Khatoli ( some 40 odd kms ahead of Meerut)… This is where the driver found a Puncture Shop and decided to give the tyre for a repair… It was around 0415 hours that the guy removed the tyre, and though the conductor said we should be good to go in some 30 minutes, I had a feeling it was not going to take anywhere less than 60 minutes, maybe more !!!
Me and Tushar walked around the place, discussing the entrepreneur skills of the guy at the tyre shop, who was managing the operations, the finances, and infrastructure etc etc all by himself !!! I had a cup of warm sugar with bits of coffee in it !!! We also discussed taking a different bus to Haridwar just to save sometime, but did not do it thinking that it would make a difference of about 30 odd minutes only… the slower part of the journey was already over… We finally moved at 0545 hrs ( as expected ) and dozed off almost immediately.. All I remember was that the driver suddenly had changed the entire tempo of the journey… It was his turn now to honk and pass !!! and he made a full generous use of the pressure horn in the otherwise not so quiet bus 🙂
We reached Haridwar around 0800 hrs and had to wait for another 20 odd minutes before we got another bus to Rishikesh… We reached Rishikesh, and then took a Tempo to Ram Jhoola… Breakfast was planned at Govindji’s Prasadam (one of our favorite eating places in Rishikesh, for its hygiene and tasty food at decent prices, but extremely slow service and a strange combo of Tea, Lassi, and Curd in the same combo breakfast)… Unfortunately the quality has deteriorated over the last 3 years… Anyway… this is where Uncle God decided to start playing a few games 🙂 and it started raining… Our entire plan could have been washed out, had it not stopped raining in a while… It thankfully did, and we were now ready to move too… A long walk and we were on the other side of the Ganges at the taxi stand for Neelkanth Mahadev Temple…
Neelkanth is about 25 kms (drive) and 14 kms (Trek) away from Rishikesh… The taxis are available near the Ram Jhula and Laxman Jhula, near the Choti wala Restaurant and Trayambkeshwar Temple respectively… It’s a little tricky to get a taxi here, because the drivers/operators are not keen on any empty seats and because a lot of people travel in groups, it’s tough to get the exact number of seats in a cab… We were lucky and an operator helped us get an Amby shared between the two of us and family of 3… The travel time to and back from Neelkanth was not much thanks to the good quality car and very efficient driver…
We however were stunned to see the amount of people who were there at the temple… We took the pooja thalis and moved towards the end of the queue, walked for about 10 minutes before we saw the last person in the queue… And this meant that there were at-least 200 people in the queue ahead of us…
It was already pretty hot by then, and I was in no mood to stand there… Tushar did not either, and we turned back towards the temple where we offered our prayers at a different Shivling, lucky us that we realized there was a view of the main temple and Shivling… and offered our prayers through that window 🙂 smart US 🙂
We moved back from Neelkanth, got down at the Laxman Jhoola, took a few pictures and walked for about a km or more in the heat looking for a Tempo towards Ram Jhoola… we finally got to enjoy the best ride of the trip with our bags inside the tempo and we standing outside with the cool breeze whooshing past our faces drying up all the sweat and fatigue 🙂
We reached the Ram Jhoola, and spent sometime trying to figure out which beach/Ghat we could go to take a bath… It was not a very difficult decision, however once we were there, getting inside the water which seemed freezing cold was tough !!! took us a while before we decided to give up all our fear of the current, and cold water and just jumped in !!! spent some gooood 45 odd minutes before we decided to leave…
Had good food at the Chotiwala… waiting for a bus at the bus stand… thought of coming via Dehradoon for the charm of AC buses running between Delhi-Dehradoon, but finally took a decent Pawan Gold to Delhi… slept most of the way in awkward positions on the seat 🙂 just to wake up at times with a painful lower back, or a pulled musled in the neck, or legs 🙂 change the position and sleep again 🙂 This time as well the journey took much longer than usual, thanks to the freaking jam at the border near Dilshad Garden… must be about 2 kms long and it took about 100 odd minutes to pass !!! We managed to reach the ISBT, Kashmiri Gate around 0400 hrs and then home around 0445 hrs….
What a trip it was !!! just the perfect 24 hour recharge that my mind required… I can now wait for some 10 days before I start getting itchy about another travel 🙂 hehehe…
Some more information, not necessarily about this trip but for the Delhi- Haridwar- Rishikesh Route:
1. Distance
Delhi – Haridwar : 208 kms; Delhi- Rishikesh : 230 kms
2. Approximate Time :
Delhi – Haridwar : 4-5 hours, Depending on the time of the day you are driving
3. Best way to travel:
Hire a cab or drive yourself…I would say hire a cab, its better to be driving around on the bad roads instead of punishing your own vehicle… The 4 lane highway is under progress for good on the stretch, however it would take a good couple of years before it can get fully operational..
4. Eating options enroute and on location:
Cheetal near Khatoli, Moolchand just before the Muzaffarnagar bypass; Mohanji Poori wale near Har Ki Paudi, Chotiwala Restaurant near Ram Jhoola, Govindji’s Prasadam near the parking in Rishikesh
5. Bus Tickets and other fare : Rs. 150 per person (Delhi Rishikesh in the UP Roadways bus); Rs. 5 for the boatride one way near the Ram Jhula; Rs. 5 for Tempo per person from the bus stand to Ram Jhula in Rishikesh; Rs. 600 for the Amby ( Seats 5) for Rishikesh-Neelkanth and back
6. Staying options: Many hotels ranging from Rs. 500 per night for a double occupancy to Rs. 2500 double occupancy
The Land of Gita – Kurukshetra
Papa had been asking me about Kurukshetra for a while now, and we just could not make a plan… We thought about taking the bus, and then the train, and finally decided to drive !
The initial plan was to go early morning and return in the night, but I thought if we are going, we might as well stay back for the night and relax… so decided that we will leave late morning around 1000 hrs, reach whenever, roam around in the evening and the next day before heading back home…
So we did… This was the second long drive with parents… no wait ! third… The first and second being Agra and Bharatpur respectively…
It was a smooth drive with one pit stop at my favorite parantha party place, Murthaland the second at Zilmil Restaurant Complex, just after Karnal and finally Brahmn Sarovar in Kurukshetra…
The belief is that Brahm Sarovar is the place where Lord Brahma (The Creator) conceived the Earth… A dip in this huge 1800*1400 feet Sarovar is said to bring salvation from all your sins especially during Amavasya (No Moon night) or Surya Grahan (Solar Eclipse)…
The day was still young, and I was not getting any good pictures, and there were a few more places that we wanted to visit… so we decided that we would go to Jyotisar, and come back to Brahm Sarovar once again in the morning…
About 9 kms away from Thanesar (Kurukshetra) is Jyotisar, which is said to be the place where Lord Krishna gave the message of Gita to Arjun….
While walking around the temple complex me and Aro heard a lovely sound of someone singing a bhajan or something… though the sound was very clear, there were no loud speakers around or anyone who was singing could be heard… Some more attention to the source of the sound made us realize that it was coming from under the bridge over one corner of the pond in the temple compound…
There was this man singing at the corner of the pond and his voice was heard crystal clear all around the temple compound… My pa was already there talking to him and called me as well… Goga Singh (his name) has been singing at the Jyotisar Temple complex since 2001 and is a well recognized person around the area… Infact there are people who come to the temple only to hear him sing… Pa requested him to sing and he did oblige with a lovely Bhajan, while I was taking pictures of him…
After a while, we moved to a village called Narkatari… this village gets its name from the fact that it was a part of Pataal Lok and was brought to the earth by Lord Krishna ( thats was a local priest told us)…
The other and more important significance of this place is that this is where Bhishm Pitamah lied on the bed of Arrows and eventually died.
The night was now reaching close and we decided to move back to Kurukshetra and call it a day… finding a place to spend the night was not a very difficult thing to do with the Haryana Tourism Guest house being there on the main road itself…
Some quick talks, a light dinner and a plan to wake up at 0500 hrs, later we finally called it a day…
Choosing to have only one day in this post because of the number of pictures !!! Some more from second day in a post later…
Time for a few statistics and other factual information now:
Distance from Delhi : 170 kms
Approximate driving time : 3-4 hours (Thanks to the construction at Murthal and Panipat). Once the flyover at Panipat is complete this should reduce by at-least 30 minutes
Night Stay options : A number of Dharamshaalas, a few hotels, all on the main road
MP Diaries : Bhopal to Ujjain
but at the back of our minds we knew there was much to see, and much to go to… so we kinda picked up some pace and go ready around 1130 hrs and had our breakfast at a Haldiram types restaurant just outside our hotel !!!
Oh, yes ! I am back to finishing off my MP travelogue 🙂
Here are the first few parts if you have missed them :
Delhi – Kanha
Kanha and around
Kanha to Bhopal
We wanted to go to Bhojpur, had heard nice things about it, a 1000 year old incomplete temple, world’s tallest Shivling etc etc and we also wanted to go to Ujjain… ok I wanted to go to Ujjain (I feel some connection with Shiva and hence all the Jyotirlings come into the list of places I feel good about; and the Shivling @ Ujjain happens to be called MahaKaal too)
Talked to a few people and found out that there was an intercity express to Ujjain from Bhopal at 1700 hrs and will take 4 hours to reach Ujjain…
Now this made perfect sense, we could take an auto, go to Bhojpur come back, pack our bags and leave for Ujjain… come back to Bhopal tomorrow and take it from there… super..
So after talking to a few Autowallahs, and doing some bit of not to successfull bargaining we agreed to give the guy 270 bucks to take us to Bhojpur ( around 25 kms away from Bhopal) and bring us back…
The drive was fine, the sun not too strong and once we were out of the city between the farms it actually became must pleasent !!! I realised how much Wheat MP must be producing looking at the wast span of the golden fields all around !!! lovely view it was… Did stop at a few places to enjoy the calm and finally reached Bhojpur…
The temple is massive, and was my second stop next to the river Betwa (The first being Orccha), and we were surprised at the size of the Shivling too… no wonder !
We spent a good couple of hours at the temple before we decided to move back to Bhopal and catch the train !!!
The return journey was equally nice and we did manage to reach the station on time too, rather before time… I remember buying the tickets and then coming out of the station to eat something… how could we not…
So this time… we had rasmalai, some other local mithai, some tea, and some cold drinks, not in this order though 🙂
Soon enough the train journey started again, this time a different flavor… General Coach, Wooden Benches, not too crowded though 🙂
did take us close to about 4 hours, but enjoyed every minute of it… talked to people, took pictures, got a small lesson on gun management from a Railway Policeman too 🙂
We reached Ujjain around 2100 hrs and checked into a hotel near the station only… Learnt that the Bhasm Aarti starts at 0500 hrs in the morning and we should be in the temple by 0400 hrs to get a decent view !!!
Now this meant a quick dinner and sleeping without much talking !!! And that happened too !!!
More to follow…
Some Data now..
Bhopal – Bhojpur : 25 kms
Auto fare : about 250-350 bucks depending on how you bargain…
What to do in Bhojpur : Nothing 🙂 just sit back and relax
Train for Ujjain from Bhopal : Intercity Express @ 1700 hrs everyday
Fare : 50 rs. for the General Class, You can take that ticket and enter the reserved compartment too where the ticket can be upgraded for about Rs. 17 for that coach… the difference is better seats only !!!
The Day of Plans and Decisions
Oh.. but I think before I start the story, I need to remind you of what we were doing so far…
Read HERE, for our trip from Delhi to Kanha…
and HERE for Kanha to Piparia…
Ok, now back to the morning in Piparia…
The foot was better now, thankfully yesterday night’s sprain was not there… there was not much thinking to do today… it was just getting up and moving to Pachmadi, which was to be our bunker for the next two days with us intending to walk around the place and explore as much as we can…
The station was not too far, and the buses/jeeps for Pachmadi were on the other side of the station… so we walked up the over-bridge and crossed to see many jeeps, one of which was to take us to our destination…
We hired one, and had to now wait for more passengers to join the jeep before we could move…
Meanwhile, the taxi guy suggested having some food at a nearby restaurant called Naivedya… We ordered a parantha and chole poori there, and manh were they tasty or what !!!
I think we then ate atleast 7 plates of chole poori… paid the bill to Mr Hansmukh Jaiswal who runs and co-owns the place…
The taxi was not still full.. rather we were the only two passengers yet… what followed was a wait of about 1.5 hours before we finally moved…
People come people went… people stayed people waited and came and went in those 90 minutes… basically I don’t remember getting bored at all…
The Tempo Gama finally moved… and about 54 kms and and another 90 minutes later we were in Pachmadi… It was interesting to see Deepak, the helper of the taxi, to use the tyre at the back of the car as his seat for these 54 kms… Infact thats where the helpers sit… there is no space for them in the taxi after a total of 14+1 passengers sit in that 8 seater vehicle…
Spend about an hour roaming around with the taxi wallah to find a decent hotel for ourselves, but did not really find anything interesting… so we moved up hill to see if there was something away from the town… though the taxi guy strongly opposed the idea, we still wanted to check a few places out, which we did and after a while, we asked him to drop us and leave…
I guess me and Aro were not comfortable with the way he was trying to guide our thought process of taking up a room etc… so there we were.. about 3 kms from the main town, and looking for a place for ourselves… checked two hotels and on our way to the third, we stopped to take some rest… i was sitting on the road and i suddenly turned towards Aro and said, lets go back… I don’t like this place !!!! And Aro almost freaked out !!! he told me he would have said it in a minute, if I had not…
so a quick decision later we were laughing and moving back to the taxi stand making the next best plan… where to go now… Indore, Ujjain or Bhopal? or maybe back to Jabalpur and stay put there…
Walked a while, took a lift from a gypsy fellow and reached the Taxi Stand… Some people recognised us from the taxi stand in Piparia, and wondered why the hell were we going back… did not have a convincing answer for them anyway 🙂 However we got talking to a few local there and made a new plan !!! the first leg of which was to reach Piparia and then take a bus to Bhopal !!!
The drive back to Piparia was not the best of all, as there were six people in the last two seats facing each other in that Mahindra, and I almost suffocated myself to death… thanks to two people who stopped the car to puke, I was able to stand outside for a couple of minutes each !!! We finally managed Piparia and rushed to the bus stand only to realize that the last bus to Bhopal leaves at 1730 hrs, and it was already 1800 hrs…the alternative was to take a bus to Hoshangabad and then to Bhopal from there… I was not feeling too well because of the taxi ride back from Pachmadi, and Aro was kind enough to get me some limca while I got the bags loaded and found a decent seat for us !!!
About 2.5 hours and loads of amazing small conversations later we were in Hoshangabad… Could have taken a bus to Bhopal right away, but decided to take a break, eat something and then go from there… There were regular buses to Bhopal till midnight anyway !!!
So we walked out of the bus stand, roamed around a bit and saw one of the most interesting boards in a long long time !!! Ghamandi Lassi !!! this was interesting and called for a drink or two !!! So we were there after a quick steps and feasted on the lovely Lassi!!! nothing special about the brand name here, except that this was a name that was given to the Lassi some 30 odd years ago to attract customers…
Times had changed, and the brothers who set up the juice and lassi shop had split, but the name Ghamandi Lassi remained… The highlight of this pit stop was the Badam Milk though, something that was to be eaten and not fit for drinking… never had badam milk so full of Badam in my life !!! Calls for a celebration, and we did celebrate with 2 glasses each of the Lassi and Badam Milk each !!!!
This is where we met a few locals who suggested that we could stay back in Hoshangabad itself instead of going to Bhopal… visit a local temple there in the morning and then move to Bhopal… get down at Bhojpur to see the Shivling and then proceed to Bhopal… They even recommended a nice hotel nearby called the Vatika to eat and stay… this looked like a decent plan, and we decided to stay back !!!
Walked to the hotel to realize that it was full ( yes… surprising) and because we were in no mood to look for hotels there, we came back to our original plan of going to Bhopal !!! Took a bus from the bus stand, and we were in Bhopal around 2330 hrs…. checked into a hotel near the railway station… moved out to have some food… Ate, came back and crash landed on the bed…
No plans next nothing !!! knew a few places that we wanted to go to !!! but still no plans…
Lets see what happens next morning !!! Looks like its more fun this way 🙂
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Some Information now..
Taxi Fare : 40 bucks per person if you are ok with a total of 15 people in the taxi… if you want more space, be ready to shell out some extra money… We paid 200 bucks on our way to Pachmadi for the two of us as we practically took 4 seats ( Fat guys we are) and 40 bucks were the “you are new to this place” charge… The taxi has to earn Rs. 600 per trip, and that gets divided…
Hotel Tariff in Piparia in Alka Lodge : Rs. 400 for an AC room… no electricity backup though…
Hotel Tariff in Pachmadi : Anything between Rs. 350 to Rs. 2000. Try and not roam around with Taxi walas to save 50-200 bucks on your tariff… The high end hotels are outside the town, further uphill…
Roaming around in Pachmadi : The only option is Taxis, which can be hired exclusively for about 1000 bucks a day or shared with someone… There are tickets to enter the common interest points as well, and be prepared to see a lot of honeymooners around the area…
Piparia to Hoshangabad bus fare : Rs. 50 per head; Travel time around 2 hours…
Hoshangabad to Bhopal bus fare : Rs. 40 per head; Travel time around 2 hours…
The Jungle Kilometres and back to Jabalpur….
We had filled in the forms the previous night to enter the park so did not have much to do in the morning except wake up on time, have a quick cup of tea, and rush to the gypsy which was ready to rock and roll… Manoj was our driver, and he looked like a pretty quiet fella, and he turned out to be one lost character too… too bad, but never mind…
So we were at the Kisli Gate around 0600 hrs, the main gate had already opened, and we were let in quickly… 3 kms later was the main gate of the park, which is where a route and an essential guide is assigned to the gypsy…. Our park guide for the day was Dinesh Kumar Soni… a young but enthusiastic fella… was ok with admitting that he was in the second layer of the guides, but this enthu and nature made up more than enough for some lack of knowledge… not that we were taking notes anyway…
Kanha is full of Saal Trees… and here is a small point of view about Saal..
Sau Saal Khada
Sau Saal Pada
Sau Saal Sada
Stands for 100 yrs, lies does for another 100 and takes 100 more to decay…
This is the same tree, wood from which was used to make a base for the railway lines sometime back, which is now replaced by concrete and iron…
So we moved around the park on the route number 10 looking at animals, trees, dust, listening to many birds stopping and moving and stopping and moving…
In the center of the park (The Kanha Side) we took a break, had breakfast and also registered for the Tiger Show… At a fee of 100 rs. per head you are taken to a spot where tiger is seen, and then you climb the elephant back and go into the bushes to have a face to face with the jungle CAT….
We did too… and when I saw the tiger, I was hoping that he does not look at me, because I could sense the attitude in his eyes and I was having mixed feelings of excitement, fear, nervousness etc etc… but it was really sad to see how the Elephants were made to chase the tiger to make sure people who have paid get to see the tiger… and this poor animal only kept running around to avoid the crowd.. but then how can we step back… we are known to bully when the other person is backing off… so all the gypsy drivers, the 4 mahauts were after this poor guys life… I only wonder what would happen if the TIGER decides to charge… on second thoughts, this tiger show is generating a lot of revenue for the park which I feel is essential, and is also helping the park give employment to loads of local people around…. I feel a balance is what needs to be made though, these wild cats needs their space and independence and should not be bothered like I saw… it hurts…
Our Safari finished by 1200 hrs, and we were back in the resort by 1230 hrs… all covered in dust, the first thing I noticed when I entered the resort was the swimming pool… and I knew what I was going to do next… so a rushed walk to the room, and a even more rushed walk to the pool… and 45 minutes of fun… Even managed to have the hippo who walks like an elephant to take a bath in the pool… And Aro loved it too 😀
Had some real good lunch and slept but not before we planned to get up around 1600 hrs to take a hike into the jungle to a few nearby villages… but we managed to wake up only by 1530 hrs and obviously the plans to walk around were to be canceled…
At tea, we met Mr. Pramod Singh who manages Foreign traffic to Kanha and is a active member of loads of wildlife clubs and has been an avid trekker himself… He also suggested that he could join us for the safari next morning, which did sound like a good idea…
We had tea and got talking to a few people around the resort, one of which was a driver called Dilip, the elder brother of Manoj… Dilip had been around for a while, and that small 30 minute conversation with him was full of many interesting stories about the tigers and other wild cats making rounds of places… it was a very very interesting half hour of the trip… and then he suddenly decided to give us a night safari, and we left the resort around 1900 hrs… and kept driving around till 2130 hrs in the dark… did not see many animals but the sky was obviously wonderful, and the dark interesting…
Were finally back and decided to eat quickly and call it a day, to wake up early and be the first in the queue. Told Mr. Singh that we would be ready by 0515 hrs…
So next morning we indeed were ready by 0515 hrs, and left only to realized that we were a li’il too early for the gates to open… We still were the 3rd gypsy in the queue, filled the forms and managed to reach the main Kisli gate around 0545 hrs… I think the route number today was 14… Manoj was at his lost best, and the guide even though knew a lot, was put off by a few remarks made by Mr. Pramod when we started the safari…
Highlights of the day were Bisons, some spotted deer, the barking deer, and some foreigners with loads of 1Ds and L Series lenses… I think that group of 4 had 2 EOS 1D each loaded with L series lenses of different focal lengths… phew !!!
The second day, Aro and me agreed was more or less of a waste in the jungle… and I guess to compensate we ate like wild animals at lunch… whoever said that eat light when you are traveling may please go to HELL 😀
so a stomach full as full is, and a body not ready to move, we checked out of the Mogli Resorts and rushed to catch the 1330 hrs bus, but only to realize that it had already left… and the next bus was about an hour later…
This bus ride was also very interesting as expected…
We changed the bus at Mandla again, which reach Jabalpur around 2000 hrs with one pitstop at Narainkunj…
So here we were in Jabalpur, with an open plan… we could stay back in Jabalpur and go to Duandhar the next morning and then move to Piparia and to Pachmadi (where we planned to stay for the next two days) or we could go to Piparia straightaway and go to Pachmadi the next morning… we knew that Piparia was about 4 hours away by train and decided to take the Overnight express (Jabalpur to Bhopal; leaves Jabalpur @ 2300 hrs and reaches Bhopal at 0615 hrs)…
We check the availability and then moved to the booking clerk (with the train number this time) who suggested that we could take the ticket from the counter at the station itself in about an hours time… This is when Aro realized that he had dropped his mobile and we rushed to the bus stand only to search the bus without any success… not too good an incident, but we could not really do much about it… so we let it be…
Came back to the station, took the tickets for the overnight, and then asked one of the guys at the counter about a decent place to have dinner and he was kind enough to walk us to the restaurant… We had our food without much talking as we were pretty tired and were only waiting for the clock to strike 11…
We finally boarded the train, and found out that the train leaves Piparia at 0230 hrs which was definitely not a convenient time to reach any new station… but the thought of doing something of that sort was exciting enough for us to change our minds anyway… and so we slept… only to be woken up by the kind hearted TC at 0130 hrs ( so about an hour and half of sleep) because the train had already reached Piparia…
We quickly walked out of the coach thinking that the stoppage was quick there, but looks like the train reached there well before time and was only waiting to leave at its scheduled time… so we sat on the platform bench, thinking if we should sleep on the platform itself ( which honestly did NOT seem to be a bad idea) or walk around and find a hotel… after a lousy cup of tea, some odomos rubbing on the arms to avoid the killer mosquitoes, and some serious thinking later we decided to walk around the town to find a hotel for ourselves 🙂
It did turn out to be a very good idea because it did not take us much hardships to find a decent, rather more than decent Alka Hotel with an AC room for 400 bucks a night… its a different story that i twisted my ankle bad enough to almost scream in pain in the middle of a desert lane in a town which was sleeping silently at that hour 🙂
So here we were… Piparia, Hotel Alka, Room number 203, AC on.. and a TV and we talking again.. God when would these conversations finish… I don’t know when I slept and when Aro did, or who slept first… all I remember is waking up the next morning, all fresh and happy happy…
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Now some travel information
Safari Costs:
900 per gypsy (Morning Safari; 0600 hrs to 1200 hrs)
700 per gypsy( Evening Safari; 1600 hrs to Sunset about 2 hours usually)
Entry per gypsy : Rs. 650 (500 entry charges + 150 guide fees)
Gates open 0600 hrs in the morning
Approximate per night expenditure in Kanha : Rs. 1200 per head to 1800 per head depending on the place you are staying in…
Kanha to Mandla : Rs. 36
Mandle to Jabalpur : Rs. 50
Jabalpur to Piparia ( 3rd AC ) : Rs. 300 something…
To Do:
Carry water
Carry Dust Brush
Cover Your Camera to save it from the dust when you are not using it
Enjoy the jungle and the sounds ( They are more then enough to make you fall in love with the place)
Ask questions (thats what the guide is there for)
Do Nots
Avoid Changing lenses ( Carry two cameras instead)
Avoid throwing stuff on the road or walking on the road except the designated areas
And blah and blah and blah…
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What happens the day we wake up in Piparia is pretty interesting… and I am happy it happened the way it happened… so watch this page for more…
Till then… ROAR !!!!
3000 kms of India : Finally it started
A few trips are exciting even before they start, and more often then not thats how it happens with me…
He happens to me one of my best co travelers… for reasons which are strange… We usually argue a lot when we talk, and most of the time we are not talking as we have different agendas when we travel together ( can’t really say what though)… his walk pace is very different then me and that helps with some space too… the bottom line is he is one of the best people to travel with and I can find 100 best most stupid reasons as well to prove that point…
So back to the trip…
We finally decided that we were going to Kanha from Delhi and thats all we knew… rest was going to Fluid… I got the tickets on Friday, and made the bookings the same day in Mogli Resorts, Kanha on Friday….
Saturday… in the afternoon, my dear friend Aro calls me and tells me that he and Sanjit were lost in Delhi and did not know how to reach NOIDA… it was just about 90 minutes before our train was to leave… fantastic… the excitement starts a li’il earlier than expected…
and India saw the introduction of a new GPS device that day… Prashant Bhardwaj… I was with him on the phone for about 35 odd minutes guiding the ways and turns before they finally managed to reach NOIDA…
A quick lunch and 20 minutes to the departure, we rushed… thanks to the DND we were at the platform number 4, to catch the Gondwana Express well in time…
now this was one long train, 20 coaches to be exact. The reason, the train splits into 2 somewhere in MP and half of it goes to Bilaspur and the rest to Jabalpur…
Our seats 1, and 2 were in the Coach B1 which was I think third to the last coach on the looooooong train which we managed to reach after walking for a mile I guess… but we did 🙂
Being in a train coach is a great feeling.. specially the ones in which you can sleep 🙂 After spending sometime, I was dying to be in the train in India.. and here I was… lovely… put our bags in place… and settled…
The train moved at the right time, and we were off… yippieeeeeeeee….
Travelling in a train is no fun if you cannot stand at the door watching the world being left behind 🙂 so after about 30 minutes I was out talking to our coach attendents Vinod and Vinod and sitting on the wooden plank which was there for the attendants next to the doors…
I think I must have spent a good 3 hours in all on that plank in the evening, and then again in the night just staring into space and not doing anything else…
Even managed some sleep on it the next morning with the early morning sunrays kissing my face, and the colder than cool breeze reminding me of the presence of the cold weather…
As expected, conversations started and did not stop during our entire journey to Jabalpur… we got a number of tips from our co passengers on what do and when… we even tried making some amendments to our plan, but managed to stick to the original which was to go to Kanha straight after getting off the train…
Oh and if you are traveling on that route, then instead of eating the food in the train, you can order food from Comesum @ Agra Cantt… the numbers are : 0562-3296410/11.. just call them about 30 odd minutes before you are reaching and tell them your train name, coach and seat numbers. The food would be delivered at your seat… Also make sure that you ask for the bill amount and arrange for exact change to pay because more often than not the person who comes with your packet would not come with any change, or less than what you should get back so that he can make some money…
I woke up at 0530 hrs to realize that the train was not moving… We were at the Katni Station (The place to get down it you are going to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, which is about 40 kms away) Had some tea and an interesting conversation with the Tea wallah there… He was a PGDCA, however did not have steady job and decided to sell tea at the station instead of sitting idle at home… he also mentioned that the rest of the boys at the station were graduates with no jobs… not a happy situation, but what helps is that fact that they decided to work hard for a living instead of not doing anything else… Another interesting comment that he made was that put an idiot on the railway station for 3 months and he would transform into an Insaan ( read Smart Ass) in that time… giving his own example he said that he did not have a clue on how to survive there about 2 months back, but had matured and knew people by the sheer looks, and body language much better now…
We reached Jabalpur around 0800 hrs Saturday.. and our agenda was now to get a ticket for our return journey (Bhopal to Delhi)… Aro filled the form and stood in the line and was thrown out of it after 35 minutes because the lady refused to give him a ticket… well because we did not know the train numbers that will go from Bhopal to Delhi, and we were supposed to know it before we ask her for a ticket… I am wondering if there are 10 trains, do I need to fill in 10 forms and then try or once she tells us that there is no space, we find a different train number and stand in the line again.. Anyway, we decided that we go the safe IRCTC way and took a rickshaw to Russel Chawk to find an internet cafe…
Decided to eat first, and had some nice Idli Dosa at a roadside thela before we found an internet cafe and booked our tickets from Bhopal to Delhi for the next Saturday…
Now the next stop was the City Bus Stop and we were to find a bus to Mandla, and then take a bus to Kanha from there…
The distance we were to travel was about 156 kms with one change of bus… the bus left @ 1030 hrs and reached Mandla ( about 96 kms) at 1330 hrs, which is where we realized that the bus to Kanha was the bus which was coming from Jabalpur only… But this was a welcome break after sitting in the bus for about 3 hours already… so some tea, cold drinks, tea later the bus to Kanha arrived… A smaller but more comfortable bus, and was to move to Kanha at 1400 hrs… I got talking to the conductor and realised that we were still a good 2.5 hours away from Kanha… He was also kind enough to force me to eat a parantha from his lunch, and it was the yummiest thing I had eaten in the last 18 hours…
The bus moved and thanks to a seat at the back, I was able to observe much more than our previous bus in which I was sitting on the first seat… What follows are some pictures from my seat in the bus… People standing, People sitting, people looking for a seat, and people just looking, relaxing or listening to radio… loved every bit of it…
On one of our pit stops in Mocha ( not pronounced Moka, but Mocha like in Locha) I had tea with sugar and Salt… needless to say it tasted pretty different and nice… I am looking forward to having that again sometime… one of the reasons why Tiwariji liked to drink the sweet-salted tea is because it helped clean the throat after inhaling a lot of smoke and dust over the day on that route…
I was both surprised and happy at the condition of the roads in MP so far, and also was glad to see a lot of boards, signs, hoardings demonstrating a lot of work happening on the ground level in the state related to employment, child education, girl education and insurance, personal sanitation (something similar to the project I clicked in Chattisgarh)…
Many pictures, conversations, and long/short stops later, the bus managed by Mr. Srikant Tiwari reached Kanha where a gypsy from our resort picked us up…
Approximately 27 hours later, we were finally in a room.. a huge one and in the middle of almost nowhere… Mogli Resort is in the buffer area of Kanha and for all practical purpose, is a part of the forest itself… so I have to mention that walking around in the dark was pretty scary with all those freaky sounds… Aro somehow was enjoying my fear and was laughing his ass out for nothing !!!
We were to leave for the safari at 0530 hrs in the morning and we finally called it a day @ 2200 hrs… pretty long and satisfying journey this was…
Now some objective information…
How to Reach Kanha:
Take a train to Jabalpur and then a bus/taxi from there to Kanha… Delhi Kanha in a train would take about 17-18 hours and a 3rd Tier AC ticket would cost about Rs. 900.
Jabalpur station to City Bus Stand:
Can take a Metro Bus Service ( Rs. 5 per head)
Shared Auto ( Rs. 5 per head again)
Cycle Rickshaw ( Rs. 15) Auto (Rs. 20)
Jabalpur to Mandla:
Rs. 50 per head
Distance : 96 kms
Time : 3 hours approx
Mandla to Kanha:
Rs. 38 per head
Distance : 60 kms
Time : 3 hours approx
There are just about 4 buses that run between Mandla and Kanha which makes the travel time higher because they move slow and pick up as many passengers as they can…
Another alternative is to take the fast bus from Jabalpur @ 0700 hrs which reaches Kanha @ 1330 hrs.
The Best Christmas EVER !!!
The Plan B was take the road to Paris… Neha is there… she could have helped plan it, and the move on to Brussels, where Ravi is… and come back… but again… Visa required me to go to London and get the visa… did not have the time to do that… plus for some reason, Paris did not really sound like the most exciting thing I could do… had reasons… anyway…
So Abhishek calls one day and says that he has the week of Christmas off, and what could we do? I said… lets go to Glasgow or did he say that? Don’t remember exactly, but the plan was made and he took care of the coach bookings from London to Glasgow and back… We were not sure of where we could stay rather would stay, because staying with James’ (Abhishek’s boss) parents was an option, but we were not sure… about a week before we were to travel.. he talked to James and we knew that we were staying at his parents’ place on the 24th…
So the plan was now… Reach Glasgow on the 24th morning… rent a car, roam around… see places… stay over in Balloch with James’s parents and move up north on 25th morning to come back to Glasgow by 26th evening and take the coach back to London that night… perrfect… it took some effort to find a place to stay on the 25th night, but I managed to find a decent place called the Hotel Ballachulish near Fort William towards the west coast of Scotland…
The Saturday before I was leaving I asked Soumitro if he wanted to join too, he and his wife were keen on joining and got their bookings done too, and were to join us in Glasgow on the 25th morning…
Reaching Glasgow was ok… we took the Megabus, which is really mega… a double decker bus packed to capacity… I think there were many people going to Glasgow and thats why there were two double deckers going to Glasgow that night…
Slept most of the my way through.. woke up in Glasgow around 0730 hrs… finding a bus to the airport was a no brainer, bus number 500 from the Buchanan Bus stand will take you to the Glasgow airport in about 20 minutes and its a 10 minute service… so we reach the airport, collect the papers of the car from the airport, freshen up and take the car 🙂 this is where the NICE part starts… it was a nice navy blue VolksWagon Polo… I think a 1600 cc some 100 odd bhp car which it felt like by the sound of it, and I just got too happy when I heard the music system.. it was bloody goooood… I knew it would have a CD player and had cut a cd for the trip like always, and it turned out to be the best thing…
James had given us his SATNAV, which made driving around very very very easy… so I knew in how many yards I had to take a turn and Julie, or Chammo like we called her kept speaking all the time about which roundabout, which exit, when is the left turn, when is the right etc etc all the time… It was a li’il strange to start with, but I got used to her speaking alright in a while…
Reached Mr. and Mrs. Campbell’s house in about 30 minutes only to meet two of the most loving and charming people I have met in the UK so far rather why only UK, in a very long time… I guess parents are always nice and warm EVERYWHERE in the world…
It was nice house, with a breathtaking view in the front..
We had breakfast and then after a while we left to explore the area on our own… Abhishek had been to Lomond Shores, and thats where we went too… walking around the area and kept clicking… Sun Uncle seemed to be having a good mood and came out of hiding too for a couple of hours before it got dark around 1500 hrs or so…
Pictures, walking and talking, and we were back home by 1630 odd hours after a small drive up into the country on roads away from the main roads… it was nice… worth every second we spent… and having the car seemed like the best thing we did on this trip…
The evening was spent at home, talking to them, hearing them tell stories, and more talking followed by some dinner and more talking… Finally call it a day around 2300 hrs… Oh and I had asked them to get us Santa Caps… they could not find them in the market but got us some very very nice Christmas Hats instead 🙂
Also had some white wine, and could not help but remember the new year’s eve at Deepak’s place in Chennai two years ago when I just took a sip from the glass and could not take another… this Christmas eve, however I had to finish that glass of wine… Did not want to do anything that would look rude… Afterall they had been so very nice to me and Abhishek… so managed it somehow 🙂
Soumitro called me @ 0630 hrs in the morning the next day and told me that he had reached Glasgow and there was NOTHING open.. no buses, no shops… this was expected, however I was hoping that the bus service to the airport would be on…nope it was not.. so as planned I was to pick them up and then drive up north… Got up, got ready… had some amazing breakfast and rushed to the airport to pick them up.. they had managed to take a taxi and reach the airport…
Picked them up from a near empty airport.. could not believe that International Airports could look like that.. I did not see more than 30 people at the entire airport that morning.. including the four of us…
And our drive to Fort William started… I decided to go via OBAN to Fort William instead of the direct way and enjoy the drive… so we kept stopping where we felt like and parking was allowed and kept breathing in the place…
I could not have asked for more… A lovely car to drive, just the right kind of music with amazing quality, wonderful roads and breathtaking views… Just how I like it… this is what takes me away from everything and I reach my Solace.. the state which I love and a lot of other things stop mattering or bothering me…
Below is the Route that I took… Oban was our first major pit stop, needless to say everything except one pub was closed here too… and we had not managed any food or coffee in the entire day so far… however there was food in the car and we did have some food in the car.. it was like Picnic… total funn…
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So from Oban we moved to Ballachulish and reached there in about an hour only to reach the BEST hotel that I have stayed so far… beautiful place, very well kept and had that typical Age to it… loved it…
Had tea, just relaxed, went out for a walk, came back when it started raining… Abhishek’s hat was stolen by wind and he had run a good 100 mtrs before he could manage his hands back on it 😀 that episode was fun for sure…
The evening was spend in the lounge over a few drinks, dinner followed by some live music… Live music is always nice, irrespective of you understanding the lyrics or not…
The hotel decided for some reason to not charge us for the dinner, call it a Christmas Gift from them, and that saved us about 40 pounds each… that was a lovely gesture from the Manager on duty there… Thank you Ma’am !!!
Went off to sleep only at 0100 hrs and woke up around 0800… got ready and checked out of the hotel around 1100 hrs.. not before taking a walk and a few pictures outside and even managing to slipping on the stairs with wet leaves on them and hurting my back 🙂 I saved the camera though, and I am happy for it 😛
The Route today was Ballachulish to Fort William to Glasgow… It kept raining the entire day on 26th, though that did not stop me from going inside this place called Inverlochy Castle and take a few pictures.. there were only a few walls standing there now, but it was beautiful nevertheless…
Drove back to Glasgow via a different route that day..
Stopped at a few places and reached well in time for the bus…
Decided to kill some time and saw “I am Legend” in Cineworld in Glasgow.., don’t ask me about the movie.. its ridiculous… waste of time !!! this is when I was not well and started feeling the fever…
Abhishek managed to find a vending machine and got us some hot chocolate when most of the shops around we already closed for the day and that really helped beat the cold before we took the bus and got back to London…
I drove for about 300 miles in these two days and I could not have asked for more… Loved every second of it, rather should say every mile of it… Its pretty obvious from the picture isn’t it?
🙂