Hills

Cool Coorg

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The return journeys, as always, make the heart heavy. This time my heart did put on a lot of weight. We decided to leave for Bangalore via a detour of ‘Talacauvery’. So we started very early on the next morning. Talacauvery, the source of the river Cauvery in the south was draped in a mystical legend.

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The land of monasteries and mysteries of God……

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I entered the ‘Spiti Valley – The Middle Land’ realizing that i have lost all the contact with the world outside. If everything goes according to the plan, it would be after 3 days i.e. on 7th Oct evening when I’ll get the network back upon reaching Manali. But for now let me enjoy the beauty of the Spiti Valley for the final 27 kms left to cover from Sumdo to Tabo. As the valley now divided into two parts ‘Light & Shade’ looked magnificent in the setting sun….

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Manikaran Sahib, Kullu – A short visit

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As heat in Delhi became unbearable, as we gave up on staying alive in the huge bar-be-que that seemed to follow us wherever one would go, and finally as our frustration psyched us out since we could not find an appropriate, worthy, exciting place for our holiday – along came Kasol. To make the deal more lucrative, it came across that Gurudwara Manikaran Saheb was close-by, hence a visit was warranted.

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Mussoorie – The Queen of Hill Stations

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After our stroll we left for Dehradun, we boarded a shared cab from the Gandhi chowk and reached Gandhi road, as we had our reservation in Nanda Devi express which leaves at 2300 hours we had lots of time to spend so we went for a quick window shopping at the Market on the main Gandhi road, after wandering in the market we went to Ali’s Non-veg restraint at the Gandhi Road, it is a famous non veg eatery and it has two outlets one at EC road and the other one at Gandhi Road. This food joint offer good non veg food and that too at very affordable prices. By this, the trip that started with food we wrapped the trip with food only.

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Delhi to Ramgarh, Mukteshwar

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Incidentally, when we left our home for hills, there was sadly red alert on one TV channel announcing heavy rains and land slides in Uttrakhand in the next 48 hours. While my wife wanted to cancel the trip, I and Neerja pursuaded her to take a chance. Throughout our stay, the sky remained heavely overcasted with high probability of rains. Though I love rains and more than that the smell of hot pakoras and steaming mugs of tea, along with refreshing breeze and lurking fears of land slides. Luckily there were no rains till we arrived back home with renewed synergy.

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Kolkata to Kumaon – Patal Bhubaneswar and Mukteswar

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Apart from mythology the limestone creation is thrill fully unique, the cave is still building from crystallization. The many forms resembles the tail of Gods, one unique formation described as the spine of “Sesh Nag” and one ice like formation is called “Jyota” of Mahadeva, a mushroom like formation holds four stalactites called the four ‘Yug”. It is said that when a specific stalagmite would touch the stalactite hence the “Satya with Kali”, the earth may end. For both the believers and non-believers the place gives a life time experience.

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Coffee, Hills, Foliage and Beaches – Part 2

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There are two basic varieties of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. On asking how does one distinguish between two varieties and which variety is popular brands nescafe and bru made of he told us that instant coffee in India contains a mix of whatever coffee beans remain after sorting. To a connoisseur, instant coffee is blasphemy as the taste is nowehere near good coffee. We left after 20 minutes promising to return back some other time.

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Lucknow to Nainital – Road Review

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During Ramzan Eid , we had a long week end holiday which I wanted to encash through visiting the nearby place and spend some quality time with family. Hence, we decided to visit Nainital which is a hill station and around 400 Kms from Lucknow. To reach to Nainital we have 4 options 1) By Train Journey till Kathgodam and from Kathgodam to Nainital by hiring taxi 2) Through UPSRTC Volvo Bus 3) Hiring a taxi 4) Hiring a Driver for own Car 5) Self Drive.  All the options except 5 were not working favorable to us due to Ramzan holiday and there was no availability of train ticket, and engaging taxi and driver is very very costly affair. Hence, I made up my mind to let me try self-driving.  

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