Roads

The Great Himachal Circuit – Part 4 : Kaza to Manali

By Anupam

Chattru at a height of around 13000 ft, around 17 KM from Gramphu, 32 KM from Rohtang top, and we started around 4:30 from there. Next was Gramphu on way and because of the pebbled roads another 1 hour to reach Gramphu. And lots of small as well as big waterfalls. And lots of nullahs. As we approach towards Rohtang top, greenery starts to appear and the dryness starts to disappear. Lovely view of small waterfalls in distant mountains on the opposite side, makes the journey lovely. In one such waterfall, Lekhram stopped the cab and washed it, while we enjoyed the view of the waterfall, the chilled water and the amazing view.

Once Gramphu is crossed, then starts the steep rise to Rohtang Pass. And oh man, the view is something one can never forget. Just before getting up, there is a route that joins the route we were into. This route is coming directly from Ladakh, the well know Leh-Manali highway. As one rise up, there may be numerous landslide clearances. And stoppages and long traffic snarls can eat up few hours. But all these clearances are very enjoyable.

The Great Himachal Circuit – Part 3 : Kalpa to Kaza

By Anupam

It’s a lovely monastery with the monks all around at a height of 12774 ft. specially the view of the spiti valley and the amazing spiti river from that height. The monks are always available to explain you everything about the monasteries. Since the number of tourists in Spiti is always few, you always meet up the same people again and again, and mainly foreigners.
Taking snaps inside the monk is prohibited, so I did not waste the opportunities to take pics from outside and the valley. Spent around half an hour in the monastery, before getting back into the cab.
It took us around another 20-25 minutes to cover this monastery and around 1 PM we got back into the cab. From Dhankar Monastery it took another hour or so to reach Kaza via the Kaza bridge at Shitlong village as I mentioned early in the write-up. Kaza is a lovely small city in the Spiti valley and is the district headquarter at a height of around 11500 ft. By 2PM, we checked in into a hotel after some searching. It was a beautiful hotel, located at a nice location right beside the Kaza monastery. Time was stretching, as we had to cover Kibber also the same day.

The Great Himachal Circuit – Part 3 : Kalpa to Tabo

By Anupam

Time to get up early in the morning to get a view of the awesome Himalayas from the balcony. It was so cloudy all around at 6AM, that hardly anything was visible. With a cup of tea, we started waiting for the fog and cloud to clear up. After that it was cloud moving around with occasional clearances of the mountains. Believe me, its one of the most awesome views as the clouds play around with the kailash range. And with the sun occasionally coming out in between the clouds with clear lights, another lovely worth seeing site.

While we were able to see the Kinnaur kailash easily, we were not able to spot the shiv ling. The hotel staff said, because of the fog we might not be able to view it. It was hidden behind the clouds. But then suddenly, one of the hotel staff said, its visible now. As we saw, the 69 ft height shiv ling was clear visible from that distance not more than 1 inch. But a very beautiful view.

Char Dham Yatra – Gangotri

By Prakash

Water started to flow down the hill crossing road (damaging it) from multiple points. The turns were muddier and appeared slippery. All of a sudden a silenced atmosphere appeared in the car, everybody was quite including our music player. I could able to sense their tension but said nothing or not even reacted, just concentrated on road. By 6 pm, we started to look for a good place to spend night, as it was too much for the day. We stopped in small village, Dharali, some 18 km before Gangotri and so did the rain. There were around max 20-25 houses, all lodges, I guess and couple of restaurants. After taking 15-20 minutes rest, we came out for sightseeing, as the river Bhagirathi and mountains behind her were marvelous. After roaming for an hour we came back to the village and had our dinner. At the start of the trip only we have decided that we will have dinner no later than 8 pm and will sleep (try to) by 9 or 9:30 max. This will give us enough sleep before getting up again early next morning. I made it very clear that by any means we should be on road by 6 am, keeping IST in mind.

Stats:
From Haridwar to Dharali – 265 km; time taken – 12 hrs; breaks – 3 (15+30+60 mins)
Road condition – Excellent/ Good (occasionally bad patches 2-3 km each)
Tip:
1. There were two roads from Chamba for uttarkashi, I believe I took the long one, but in google maps the another one, which is also the NH seems around 20 km less.
2. Do not rely on mapmyindia GPS device in these parts, they are not properly updated. And the coordinates will always confuse the device as you will be rotating up/down the hills.

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The Great Himachal Circuit – Part 2 : Shimla to Sangla via Sarahan
By Anupam

A very important thing about Himachal, is that people are very cooperative and they are very happy with what they are and have. I am writing this because I tour as well as I interact with people over various places, trying to find the differences in the cultures, way of living etc. This is what travelling is all about. I found Himachal people in the remote of the areas to be very well educated (better than what we are in cities) and well behaved. They are clean by heart and they educate their child to be as clean as them.

Soon it was getting dark and we entered the temple which normally opens up after 7PM. Not everywhere inside the temple are cameras and accessories allowed, but there are lockers where they can be kept. So we put our accessories in the lockers and entered the temple. The Bhimakali Temple at Sarahan is quite big and unique in its own way and own beauty. It looks more like a monastery rather than a temple.
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Uttarakhand Sojourn – Ride in to the Wilderness (Camping in Deoban)
By Anandarup Nandi

Sitting there on the green patch overlooking Spider Colony, we felt exactly how a falcon would feel when flying high. For as far as we could see, there were just waves of misty mountains. Paahji and I felt lucky to be living our lives exactly the way we wanted to. On our back was an intimidating rocky wall, behind which lay Deoban.
A kilometer or so up from that place, we started spotting snow on the road side and then, all hell broke loose. The first 20-foot stretch of snow on the road made me really nervous. There were paths through the snow made by what must have been army vehicles, but those paths were strewn with treacherous black ice. Paahji looked nervously at me as I struggled through that stretch. He was slightly better off with his long legs working as outriggers. There was another such stretch in the next corner and then there was another. After a number of snowed stretches, we got to a Y point where the road on the right went to Mundali and the one on the left went to Deoban. We took the left one and as we got closer to Deoban, the quantity of snow on the road kept increasing. Fortunately, the road was not too steep and it was somewhat manageable. Suddenly, Paahji took a left turn and stopped. He asked me where we were heading. The road ahead had two feet of snow for as far as we could see and we definitely couldn’t take our bikes through that. Paahji looked at me with a huge question mark on his face. We got off the bikes and looked around. Wow! What a sight! The place was about 4 kilometers short of Deoban. There was a shallow gorge that slid down to a frozen pond. The slopes were heavily snowed on all sides except for the areas that were getting direct sunlight. There was a nice and flat green patch on the right of the pond where tree-cutting work must have been on till recently. Loads of firewood lay abandoned alongside freshly cut logs.
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My experience – Road trip from HYD to NDLS and Back
By Esteem2007

Day 2 : Kamptee to Jhansi

Start early morning at 5.00 AM and head toward Chhindwara. This section is mix of good and bad stretches. Reached Chhindwara around 7.00 AM, stopped for a fuel refill and headed toward Narsinghpur. At Chhindwara ask for Narsighpur direction, I remember as soon as we cross the railway crossing within Chhindwara town took Left road and head toward Narsinghpur(a small direction board for Narsinghpur is placed at railway crossing which is not visible). I loved this section after Chhindwara. Like good road even single lane road, ghats section, Jungle, a lot of villages on road side. Be careful at Ghats section as usually people drive fast on these types of ghats section. Please check out your speed and same time be very careful from vehicle which is coming from other end. Ghats road end before entering Narsinghpur. Road from Narsinghpur to Babina is good. Careful with diversion, cases where need to drive on wrong direction. Full of heavy trucks. Bypass Sagar and Lalitpur. Keep following Jhansi. Road from Babina to Jhansi is horrible, Need to enter Babina town which is really horrible. Road condition is very bad till Jhansi. A lot of local traffic between Babina and Jhansi. Stretch of around 25 KM. Reached Jhansi around 5.30 PM and took night halt. During night while roaming in Jhansi got the route map to exist Jhansi and follow Gwalior. Total drive time = 12 Hrs. KM drive = Approx 640 KM, toll around = Rs 200
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लेह लद्दाख – मनाली – केलोंग – दार्चा – बरालाचा ला – लाचुलुंग ला – पैंग – 3
By Anoop Gusain

यहाँ पर बहुत से सरकारी दफ्तर और सेवाएँ है। एक बड़ा बाज़ार और सड़क से दाएं ओर नीचे बस स्टैंड भी है। यहाँ पर रुकने का पूरा इंतजाम है कई रेस्ट हाउस, सरकारी बंगलो और होटल भी है। केलोंग मे गाड़ी का हवा-पानी टिप-टॉप करने के बाद हम बिना रुके “जिस्पा”, “दार्च” होते हुए “zingzingbar” पहुँच गए। एक बात बता दूं की “zingzingbar” मे भी रात को रुकने का इंतजाम है। अभी दोपहर का समय था तो हमने रुकना ठीक नहीं समझा। ये हमारी बहुत बड़ी भूल थी। इसका ज़िक्र आगे चल कर दूंगा। “zingzingbar” से आगे खड़ी चढाई पार करने के बाद हमने “बारालाचा ला दर्रा” दर्रा पार कर लिया था। इस दर्रे की ऊंचाई 5030 मीटर या 16500 फीट है। यहाँ से लगातार उतरने के बाद हम लोग “भरतपुर” होते हुए “सार्चू” पहुँच गए।

“सार्चू” मे हिमाचल प्रदेश की सीमा समाप्त हो जाती है और जम्मू-कश्मीर की लाद्द्खी सीमा शुरू हो जाती है। यहाँ पर भारतीय सेना का बेस कैंप है और एक पुलिस चेक पोस्ट भी है। चेक पोस्ट पर गाड़ी सड़क के किनारे रोक दी गई। हमारा परमिट चेक किया और रजिस्टर मे दर्ज कर लिया गया। “सार्चू” मे सड़क एक दम सीधी है और गाड़ी की रफ़्तार आराम से 100-120km/h तक पहुँच जाती है। यहाँ पर गाड़ियाँ फर्राटे से दौड़ रहीं थी। तभी क्या देखा एक फिरंगी महिला साइकिल(आजकल तो bike बोलते हैं) पर सवार होते हुए चली आ रही थी। मुझे सड़क पर लेटा हुआ देख वो साइकिल से नीचे उतर गई और पैदल चलने लगी।

हम सब उसको देख कर हैरान हो गए। शायद हरी ने उससे पुछा की अकेले जा रही हो तो risk है। उसने बताया की उसके साथ के और लोग भी पीछे आ रहे हैं। वो और उसके साथी मनाली से लेह साइकिल से ही जाने वाले थे। और उसको आज “सार्चू” मे ही रुकना था। इतने दुर्गम, पथरीले, टूटे-फूटे, चढाई-उतराई, अनिश्चिताओ से भरपूर इलाके मे जहाँ 2.6L की Xylo का भी दम निकल जाता था ये फिरंगी इसको साइकिल से ही पार करने वाले थे। इनके जज़्बे और हिम्मत की तारीफ़ की गई और इनको सलाम बोल कर भोजन की तलाश मे चल दिए।

ठीक से याद नहीं है पर दोपहर के करीब 3 बज रहे थे और भूख लग चुकी थी। यह जगह एक बहुत बड़े समतल मैदान जैसी है। यहाँ पर भी रुकने के लिए बहुत सारे टेंट लगे हुए थे। ये सब देख कर समझ आ गया था की यहाँ के लोग काफी मेहनती है। साल के 6 महीने ही मनाली-लेह हाईवे खुलता है। इन्ही 6 महीनों मे इनकी कमाई होती है और बाकि के 6 महीने तो बर्फ पड़ी रहती है। यहाँ पर लगे एक टेंट खाने का इंतजाम था। हमसे पहले और लोग भी थे तो हमको 10-15 मिनट बाद का टाइम दे दिया गया। इस टाइम का हमने पूरा उपयोग करके फोटो session कर डाला। “सार्चू” मे ली गई कुछ फोटो। जानकारी के लिए बता दूँ यहाँ पर ली गई सारी फोटो मैंने नहीं बल्कि मनोज, हरी और राहुल ने खीचीं हैं।
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Delhi to Hyderabad By Road – Road trip – Part 2 – Final
By IronButt

Once you cross the MP border and enter Maharashtra, the real pain begins. The border was a stretch of non existent roads with craters all over it. To add more to misery, there was a RTO checkpost which was checking the trucks and had created a huge Jam at this place.

After crossing the border, roads were bad, though there was tar on top but sudden potholes do surprise you and take a hit on your suspension.

After around 30 Kms from there, 4 lane road started which took me straight to Nagpur byepass. Paid my toll @ Mansar, and drove down the Nagpur byepass. I had initial plan of taking a stoppage at Nagpur and then start afresh from there, but never found any boards inviting me inside Nagpur, and I reached the next toll gate which was outside Nagpur. Now I had covered more than 250 Kms and wanted to have some rest but there were no dhabas or motels available.
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लद्दाख यात्रा – > नोएडा – बिलासपुर – मंडी – मनाली
By Anoop Gusain

खेर बहुत बड़ी बला टली और 5 मिनट चलने के बाद “Haveli” आ गयी और हमने गाड़ी पार्किंग में लगा दी। अंकल के साथ गाड़ी का बाहरी निरक्षण किया गया एक भी खरोंच नहीं थी, ऐसा लगा की सारा झटका Xylo के शौकर और कमानियों ने झेल लिया था। अंकल ने कहा की अगर इंजन मे कोई लीकेज होगी तो पता चल जाएगा क्योंकि हम वहां पर 30 मिनट के लिए रुकने वाले थे। हम चारों “Haveli” के अंदर चल दिए, पर अंकल अभी भी गाड़ी के निरक्षण मे लगे हुए थे। इस घटना को याद करते तो पहले तो हम सहम से जाते पर कुछ समय के बाद ये एक मज़ाक का विषय बन चुका था। इसका जिक्र आते ही ज़ोरों की हंसी आती थी क्योंकि अभी तो ट्रिप शुरू ही हुई थी और अंकल तो इसका अंत करने ही वाले थे। आगे के पूरे रास्ते हम यही सोच कर बहुत हँसे थे। हमने यहाँ पर कुछ नहीं खाया। सब फ्रेश होकर गाड़ी के ओर चल पड़े और अंकल से कहा कि अब सीधे रात्री मे भोजन ही करेंगे।

यह सोच कर हम आगे निकल पड़े। अम्बाला से कुछ दूर पहले ही नज़र “Liquor” शॉप पर जा पड़ी। गाड़ी को रुकने का आदेश दिया गया और “Haveli” से पहले हुए कांड का अफ़सोस मनाते हुए मूड बनाया गया। यहीं पर अंकल की एक खासियत का पता चला, ट्रांसपोर्ट लाइन मे होने के बावजूद वो मदिरा का सेवन नहीं करते थे और सुद्ध साकाहारी थे। ये सुनकर हम लोगों की खुशी दुगनी हो गई और हम अपनी बाकि बची हुई यात्रा को लेकर निश्चिंत हो गए थे। आजकल ऐसे ड्राईवर कम ही मिला करते हैं। यहाँ पर थोड़ा टाइम बिताने के बाद हम लोग अम्बाला से पहले ही अंकल ने एक U-Turn ले लिया और बोले की हम जाटवर, बरवाला, रामगढ़ होते हुए पिंजौर पहुँच जाएँगे। हम सबने कहा जैसी आपकी इच्छा “अंकल”। रात के 10 बज चुके थे हमने पिंजौर में रुक कर खाना खाया, अंकल को बोला की गाड़ी मे जो pizza पड़ा है वो ले आओ। अंकल बोले बेटा वो तो मैंने खा लिया है। अंकल के सामने किसी ने कोई आपत्ती नहीं जताई। लेकिन बाद में ये भी एक joke बनके रह गया क्यूंकि अंकल ने बड़े शान से कहा था “में pizza नहीं खाता, हम तो सादी रोटी खाने वाले इंसान हैं”। हम आगे बद्दी, बिलासपुर, सुंदरनगर, मंडी, कुल्लू होते हुए मनाली जाने वाले थे और अंदाजन दोपहर के 12 या 1 बजे तक पहुँचने वाले थे। खाने के सबने सोचा की यहीं रूम लेकर सो जाते हैं। दो-दो का ग्रुप बना कर हम लोग रूम देखने चले गए। रूम रेंट यहाँ पर बहुत ज्यादा था। सिर्फ 5-6 घंटे की ही तो बात थी। क्यूंकि हम अगली सुबह जल्दी ही निकलने वाले थे। होता वही है जो होना होता है, सबने बिना रुके आगे चलने का फ़ैसला किया। यहाँ से थोड़ी देर बाद हम बद्दी पहुँच गए। नालागढ़ के आस-पास ही गाड़ी रुकवा कर चाय पी। अभी भी हमे 255km आगे मनाली तक जा कर 10-सितम्बर की रात वहीं बितानी थी। बद्दी के बाद हम चारों गहरी नींद मे चले गए।
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A trip to Mewar, Raj – Jaipur Once again
By Rakesh

painting section: Second floor of this magnificent museum consisted of some rare books on display and a series of Raagmala paintings on display.These paintings are based upon different Ragas and Raginis of Indian classical music system. Different types of Raagmala series have been painted in different parts. Pahari style, Deccan style, Rajputana style. Each Raga is personified by a specific color, mood , time of its singing is mentioned on the painting and a story is told about a Nayak and a Nayika. I had read about tese paintings but was seeing these for the first time. I also had the privilege to see the paintings based upon stories from Hitopdesha and Panchtantra. Just beautiful. Another surprise for me was the the presence of classic book JANGNAMA by Shah Muhammad(original).

Overall we spent about 2 hours in the museum and were tired. The big walls of this museum are adorned by the life like portraits of erstwhile kings of Jaipur state. Now was the time to have some snacks for the evening and visit the famous zoo of Jaipur, if not so big then not too small also. Dear Pavani’s desire was to have a look at the lion and the tiger which was duly fulfilled here.

THE ZOO: The desire was of Pavani was duly fulfilled as the first cage in the zoo was that of Leopard and next to it lay the cage of Tiger (wish double fulfilled).
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आग़ाज़ लद्दाख का ………….. – भाग1
By Anoop Gusain

Rs. 2000/day के हिसाब से तेय हो गया, जिसमे की डीजल का खर्चा अलग से हमे ही देना था। अंदाजे से 10 दिन का 20000 + 15000(डीजल) = 35000 का खर्चा होने का अनुमान लगाया गया। इसके अलावा अतिरिक्त 5000/- हर एक आदमी को रखना था अपने दस दिन के खाने-पीने, रुकना, इत्यादि। सब कुछ जोड़ दिया गया और 70000/- का अनुमानित बजट तैयार हो गया।

इसको सात हिस्सों में बाँट दिया जाये तो प्रतेक आदमी का योगदान मात्र 10000/- आ रहा था जो की लद्दाख जाने के हिसाब से ठीक ही था। सब ये जान कर खुश थे। गाड़ी को फाइनल करने के बाद लद्दाख जाने का सफ़र 9-सितम्बर से 18-सितम्बर का तय हो गया था। हमारे साउथ इंडियन बंधुओं ने झट-पट दिल्ली तक की एयर टिकट बुक करा ली थी। सेंट्रल वाले भाई लोग भी दिल्ली तक आने के लिए रेलवे की टिकट बुक करने मे जुट गए थे। बाकी बचे हम तीनों को तो नोएडा से ही जाना था तो बस 9-सितम्बर के इंतज़ार मे लग गए थे। बहुत ही मुश्किल से बीत रहा था एक-एक दिन। सब लोग शांत थे ऐसा लग रहा था जैसे किसी आने वाले तूफ़ान का इंतज़ार कर रहे हों। और ऐसा ही हुआ जाने से एक सप्ताह पहले तीन लोगों ने आलतू-फालतू बहाने लगा कर मना कर दिया। अब सात नहीं केवल चार लोग जाने वाले थे। फिर भी हम खुश थे की अब तो और आराम से जाएंगे। एक बात समझ मे आ गई थी की दूर के ट्रिप मे ज्यादा लोगों की भसड नहीं पालनी चाहिये। वैसे ये बात तो पहले से ही मालूम थी पर और लोगों से पूछना भी जरूरी था अन्यथा बाद मे ये सुनने को मिलता की “लद्दाख से हो आये, एक बार हमें भी पूछ लिया होता”। एसा अक्सर हुआ है मेरे साथ। एक बात थी की अब बजट 10000/- से बढ़ कर 17500/- प्रतेक वक्ति हो गया था। लेकिन किसी को इस बात से कोई फरक नहीं पड़ा, बस जाने की धुन सवार थी। ट्रिप मे जाने वाले चार लोग थे मैं(अनूप), राहुल, हरी और मनोज। माफ़ कीजियेगा दरअसल पांच थे एक ड्राईवर अंकल भी थे। परिचय के लिए एक फोटो लगा रहा हूँ। इसमें राहुल नहीं है क्यूंकि फोटो उसी ने ली है।
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