Hills

Peacefully Loud & Violently Quiet тАУ Renukaji, H.P.

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Renukaji in Himachal Pradesh is a tourist destination with religious significance. The place is a scenic combination of a lake, a temple, an HPTDC hotel, a wildlife sanctuary, and all these are surrounded by high mountains. One can spend a few peaceful days watching the mahseer swimming in the lake or the leopards, bears and lions (got to be lucky to see them) in the sanctuary. We were four guys on two Royal Enfields on a fun trip and we found Renukji to our liking.

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On the trail of Nilgiri TAHR

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I wanted to see and photograph the elusive mountain goat known as Nilgiri Tahr for some time, and grabbed the opportunity three years ago when I traveled to Kerala with my brother. It was a long flight from Canada, via London and Dubai and landed in Cochin. After a brief rest we went to Kottayam, some 45 miles south and from there drove four hours east to Munnar, a hill station famous for its tea plantations. It was late September and the climate was perfect. Surrounded by huge mountains and lush forest interlaced with streams, this area is ideal for wildlife habitat.

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Contemplation and Khangchendzonga

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Khangchendzonga at 8586m is the third highest peak in the world. It is not a calm and serene mountain as it appears to be when viewed from Darjeeling or Sikkim. Both ice and rock avalanches of incredible dimensions are frequent occurences.Hurricanes of incredible force are one of the deadliest of Kanchenjunga’s weapons which plays havoc with any intruder who ventures “to walk the heights of gods.” This is an article which I wrote sometime ago but Kanchenjuga remains ageless.

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Oak Grove Inn, Lansdowne – Review

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There aren’t too many options to stay and most of them offer very basic amenities. After a lot of research on the internet, we realized that all the hotels with decent reviews (Blue Pine Resort, FairyDale Resort, GMVN Tourist Guest House etc) were booked for the weekend. I was trying to get in touch with anyone who’d give us a room to stay so that we could escape the city and accidentally found just one review of Oak Grove Inn on one of the hotel review websites. That gave me a lead, I googled further and got to the hotel’s website with contact information and called Colonel Rawat (the owner) to check if they had any space left. To my surprise, he plainly said that all the rooms were available and we’re welcome to stay over the weekend.

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Darjeeling – The Himalayan Queen

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intersection point of Nehru Road and Mall Road and is an ideal location for enjoying an uninterrupted view of the snow capped peaks of Kanchenjunga. There are benches laid down where one can sit for a romantic chit chat

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