09 Sep

Kausani and Ranikhet – Mighty Himalayan View

By Patrick Jones

Kausani: The absence of crowds was a welcome change in this place as well. No mall road to boast about but the available accommodation was good enough. The ‘wow’ factor is the spectacular view of the mighty Himalayas – 300 kilometers of unhindered and unmatched majestic view. Peaks Nandadevi, Nandaghunti, Trishul etc. glistening in the morning sunshine, gives lovely viewing pleasure. On a clear morning as you open your bedside window, the sight of these snow-capped mountains which sometimes seem to be bending towards you, simply take your breath away.

Gandhiji spent a few days here in the Anashakti ashram – which is right in the middle of the town and displays some photographs from his life – and called this place ‘the Switzerland of India’. Hindi poet Sumitra Nandan Pant was born in this place.

Baijnath, 19 km downhill from Kausani, boasts of a 1000 year old temple complex situated on the banks of river Gomti. Children enjoyed feeding the fish here.

The first leg of the drive to Manali: Delhi to Chandigarh

By Nitish Kumar

Thing with us tech savvy people is, we overload ourselves with information on the routes, places etc months, weeks before the actual date comes and I wasn’t different either. It was just two years before, when I started learning to drive the car for the first time and bought one for self.

Khecheopalri – The Holy Lake of West Sikkim

By Col Mani K Gahatraj

Siliguri to Pelling in West Sikkim is 131 kms and takes approximately 3 hours for straight drive. Needless to mention that the drive is subjected to imponderables like traffic snarl, road repairs and broadening work, tea and meal breaks. As such it is safe to plan approx 4 hours for the drive. Pelling to Khecheopalri is 32 kms and takes about an hour‘s drive along a graveled road. As usual the condition of road from Siliguri to the lake can best be described as “the good, the bad and the ugly”. Last year at a chance meeting a MLA from Jorthang told me that this West Sikkim road is being turned into a four lane highway, insallah.

Road from Siliguri to Sevoke is a smooth broad 2 lane highway (NH 31) that knifes through the neat sevoke Military Cantonment and Sevoke Forest. From Sevoke Bazaar to Coronation Bridge (3 kms) is another smooth, well carpeted road snaking along he mountain curves runing almost parallel to Teesta River. This road is adorned with good highway signs; however, unfortunately this stretch is marred by delays due to railway gate blockage and heavy traffic from/to North East, Dooars, Sikkim and Kalimpong. From Coronation Bridge to Teesta Bridge near Teesta bazar (37km) NH 31is forever in the making and subject to traffic jams & delays caused by repairs and expansion; as such, it can be dusty and slushy depending on the season.

Ride to Kibber

By Vas

ad astra per aspera
which literally means, “a rough road leads to the stars” and this pretty much came true for us when we started our ride from recong peo to tabo. recong peo was a let down. i am being honest in my criticism…it was a disappointing place and the only thing that was worth remembering is the sight of the mighty kinnr kailash. I am feeling blessed to have seen it.
post recong peo, we were heading towards Tabo. en route we stoppd at nako and we were simpy bowled over by the place… the place was so quite and peacful…
we had a sumptuou tibetan meal followed by a hot cup of tea. here we also fulfilled one of our long pending wishes- tieing prayer flags on our bikes..so each one of us picked up a prayer flag and tied it to our bikes. the old lady at the shop told us to write our names in the flag. we also met this vry nice kid by the name of Ajay who ofered to take us on a guided tour of the nako lake and the monastery..

घुमक्कड़ की दिल्ली : गुरुद्वारा श्री बंगला साहिब

By MUNESH MISHRA

भवन के बाहर आकर पंक्ति में हलुवा का प्रशादा लिया. प्रांगण में कुछ देर शांतचित्त होकर बैठे रहने के बाद प्रशादा ग्रहण किया. गुरुद्वारों में मिलने वाले प्रशाद रूपी हलुवे की विशेषता है कि यह शुद्ध देशी घी से बना होता है और पूरी तरह से घी में तर होता है. हाथ में प्रशादा लेकर खाने के बाद हाथों में देशी घी की सुगंध और चिकनाहट बानी रहती है और स्वाद की तो बात ही क्या ‘गुरु-प्रसाद’ जो है. बच्चों ने भी प्रशादा ग्रहण किया और मेरी बड़ी बेटी भूमिका को इतना पसंद आया कि प्रशादा की लिए दोबारा से लाइन में लग गयी. प्रशादा वितरण करने वाले भगतजी ने सर पर रुमाला न होने की कारण थोड़ा डांटते हुए प्रशादा देने से मना कर दिया और हम दूर से दृश्य देखते रहे.

Solo Travel, Himachal Tribal Circuit – Lahaul Valley

By Anil Sharma

During this stretch, a car had a flat tyre in the middle of a stream. The traffic had halted and the passengers of our bus, helped in changing the wheel. We started crawling forward, for being blocked once again by the same car, which was ahead of us. This time the car got stuck in a stream having big boulders. Again the passengers and staff of the bus came to the rescue of the car. Stones were planted strategically in front of the car tyres to provide some friction and the car was literally lifted out of the stream by the passengers.
We descended to the valley at Batal and from there we moved in the valley, literally on the river bed up to Chatru, which was our mid-day meal stop. Trekkers going to Chandratal from Manali or Keylong can stay here overnight. Chatru was the smallest village I have seen in terms of population, with a population of just 20 people. In fact there are no houses here, just 3-4 eateries catering to needs of the entire spectrum of passengers.

Exploring AP – Nagarjun – Suryalanka – Vijaywada

By Pronil

My favorite, never take the route back which you take to reach a destination, thus maximizing the opportunity to explore and know more. There are so many places in AP to Visit, so it was a week long plan to make a trip. I had 3 days in spare and almost 700-800km or budget based on my car’s milage. We were longing for Suryalanka beach from long, its the nearest beach from Hyderabad, not much advised in summer but still a beach is my attraction. We listed down, bora caves, bellum caves, warrangal, vijaywada, srisailam, nagarjun sagar, suryalanka, vishakhapatnam and many more. Finally, friday afternoon I decided for Srisailam, a piligrimage with just 200 odd km away from my home in Hyderabad. So, I texted my wife and my brother in law (he was on a short visit to our place) that pack your bags we are going to “Suryalanka”… that was an inadvertent mistake. Which I did not realize until I reached home from office. I was surprised to know that my family was apparently happy to know that we are going ot Suryalanka. I spoiled their excitement admitting the mistake.

Solo Travel, Himachal Tribal Circuit – Spiti Valley

By Anil Sharma

Next morning brought a very pleasant surprise. In the morning, I was having tea in the hotel balcony, clicking pictures of the serenity of Spiti valley. One youngster arrived in the compound of the hotel on a bike. It took me a while to recognize that he was one of the two boys from Mumbai whom I had met three days ago at the time of land slide traffic hold up near Karcham. Thus far, I was thinking that the bikers must have turned back from Nako village, where the road was totally destroyed. I was curious to know, how they had crossed that stretch. He [Alok} informed me that when they reached Nako village, being a Sunday, there was no BRO labor at Nako. So, they took a night halt in Nako village and next morning, with the help of BRO labor, they lifted their bikes across the steel girder. Hats off to these adventurous souls.

In Kaza also, I had to hire a car for visiting Key monastery and Kibber village [highest altitude village in the world- accessible by road}. In these valleys, government buses to remote villages go in the evening and return early next morning. Thus, 4-5 hour trip by car would take two days by public transport. We went about 7 kms. on the highway towards Manali and then took a right turn uphill for Kye monastery. It is an old monastery some 15 kms. from Kaza and the uphill road is good. But this monastery is not considered as important as Tabo and Dhankar monasteries by the Buddhists. The monastery is in much better shape, compared to the Dhankar monastery.

Go Goa Gone !

By ron_v

Places to eat:
Viva Panjim: The best Goan food ever. Period
Brittos: Amazing desserts.
Nick’s Place: Baga
Curlies: Anjuna: Sea food wood fired pizza, Hookah’s and Grilled Fish.
Suaza Loboz: Calangute: Good sea and Goan food.
Infantaria: Baga: For breakfast. Sandwitches and Pan cakes are worth the money spent.
A small desi joint just before Baga beach: For breakfast of stuffed paratha’s, masala omellete and tea/coffee.
Food court near calangute: For 24*7 Multicuisine food. Not bad, not good.

Places to Visit/Things to do:
Beaches:
Baga for a touristy feel, and watersports. Watersports are quite affordable here, and you can get a package deal of Parasailing, Jet ski, bumper, banana rides for rougly Rs 12-1500 per person.
Mandrem: For calm, quite and relaxation.
Curlies: Tip, go post lunch as by evening theres a lot of rush which everyone might not like.
Arambol/Ashwem: For a firang goan feel.

Places:
Old Goa: Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old portuguese colonies.
Chapora/Dil Chahta hai Fort.
Any of the casinos in Panjim.
LPK @Candolim or Club Cubana @Arpora for discs.
Manchester United Cafe @Baga if you are into sports and follow the team.

Doing nothing in Fagu, beyond Shimla

By Jatinder Sethi

I must tell you readers about Fagu-which is 23km away from Shimla (and 3km from Kufree) is a great place for doing nothing and morning walks among apple and potato fields. Fagu is ,situated on the Hindustan Tibet Road at a height of about 2500 mts. We drove through Chhotta Shimla,and other crowed parts on to the road to Wildflower Hall and Kufri, stopping on the way to enjoy the fantastic views. You go thro the Victory Tunnel to CHHOTA SHIMLA- part of Kannaur Shimla, through Sanjauli,,cross another tunnel, through wooded forest toward KUFRI which is about 19 km from Shimla ,thro KUFRI by-pass and Fagu is 3km from Kufri on the Hindustan -Tibet road. It took us about 90 minutes, in our Skoda to reach the hotel of HP Tourism — Peach Blossom. Its a small village with only few small typical shops selling essential, nothing else. But the place is dotted with Apple gardens, terraced fields, potato fields etc . There was another group of People from Mumbai–all senior citizens, enjoying the place. We went down the hill though the apple gardens and fields. you can literally walk for hours- surrounded by Himalyan range so close,you could almost touch it. We were lucky that during our stay from 3rd April to 5th April, it became very very cold and we could see fresh snow falling on the peaks, and the whole area was totally covered by low clouds for hours.

घुमक्कड़ की दिल्ली : तीन मूर्ति भवन

By MUNESH MISHRA

तारामंडल के बीचो-बीच एक विशेष प्रकार के प्रोजेक्टर ने धीरे-धीरे क्रियाशील होकर गोलाकार छत रुपी परदे को अपने प्रकाश से ढक दिया. आकाशगंगा, तारामंडल, ग्रह-नक्षत्र आदि ब्रह्मांडीय आकृतियों ने प्रकट होकर तारामंडल की छत को वास्तविक आकाश के रूप में परिवर्तित कर दिया. ब्रह्मांडीय खगोल की क्रियाओं जैसे ब्रह्माण्ड की उत्पत्ति, तारों के बनने नष्ट होने की प्रक्रिया, आकाशगंगा का बनना, ग्रह नक्षत्र, सौर परिवार के ग्रहों के आपसी सम्बन्ध और उनकी गति, भ्रमण, परिक्रमा आदि अनेक जानकारियों को बिखेरता हुआ तारामंडल का शो प्रगति पर था. ब्रह्माण्ड के नक्षत्र, आकाशगंगा, सौर परिवार और ग्रहों आदि को अच्छी प्रकार से समझने हेतु तारामंडल विशेष उपयोगी है.

केदारनाथ यात्रा 2014 – सोनप्रयाग से केदारनाथ।

By Anoop Gusain

रामबाड़ा पहुँच तो होश उड़ गए। सिर्फ रामबाड़ा नाम के अलावा पर सही माने मे कुछ नहीं बचा था। अभी मैं मंदाकनी नदी के बाएँ ओर चल रहा था लेकिन रामबाड़ा बाद आगे का पूरा रास्ता जिस पहाड़ पर बना था वो पहाड़ पिछले साल ढह गया था। सीधा बोलूँ तो रामबाड़ा बाद प्रशाशन नया रास्ता बनाया था। नए रास्ते पर जाने लिए बाएँ ओर से मंदाकनी को एक पुल के जरिए पार करके दाएँ ओर जाना था। और अभी तक इस पुल पर काम चल रहा था।

कितने भयानक रूप से जलजला आया होगा। रामबाड़ा का नामोनिशान मिटा दिया। मेरी पिछली यात्राओं मे मैं और मेरा साथी यहीं पर विश्राम किया करते थे और पेट भर पराँठे खाया करते थे। यहाँ पर रात को सोने का इंतज़ाम भी हुआ करता था। ऐसी ही मेरी एक यात्रा मे केदारनाथ के दर्शन से लौटते वक़्त हमने रात के 2 बजे यहीं रामबाड़ा पर एक दूकान वाले से विनती करके कुछ खाने की पेशकश की थी। उस वक़्त उसके पास सिर्फ आलू की सब्ज़ी थी। हम उस साल 6 दोस्त गए थे। सभी भूखे थे हमारी हालत पर दुकानदार को तरस आया और बोला कि चलो ठीक है अंदर आ जाओ और पहले चाय पी लो तबतक मैं आटा गूँद देता हूँ। गर्म-गर्म रोटी और आलू की सब्ज़ी खाकर मज़ा आ गया था। तो मेरा ये वाक्य सुनाने का तात्पर्य यह है कि रामबाड़ा अपने आप मे एक सम्पूर्ण कसबे की तरह था। जहाँ पर यात्रा सीजन मे लोग हजारों की संख्या मे होते थे। यहीं पर खच्चर स्टैंड भी हुआ करता था। लेकिन इस बार सब खत्म। जो पहली बार गया होगा वो कल्पना और यकीन अभी नहीं कर सकता कि रामबाड़ा पर कैसा कहर टूटा था।

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