Roads

Dodital – The Trek

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Another motivating factor was the leeches. They wouldn’t let us stop anywhere. Every stop we had to check for them on the path first and then on our shoes and then take off the ones which had had some luck with our blood.Balloo kept us occupied with his “jokes” all along.

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Delhi Nainital Road Review

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NH 24 – Delhi, Ghazibad, Hapur, Garh Mukteshwar (NHAI)
NH 24 – Simbhavli, Gajraula, Moradabad, Rampur (NHAI)
NH 87 – Rampur, Bilaspur, Rudrapur (mostly UP)
NH 87 – Rudrapur, Haldwani, Nainital/Bhimtal (Uttrakhand)

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अन्नू भाई चला चकराता – पम्म पम्म पम्म – लाखामंडल

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कभी गाडी से इधर झांक, कभी उधर झांक | देखते के कुछ समझ आ जाए , क्यूंकि आगे तो हम लगातार देखे ही रहें थे आख्ने फाड़ें ,    हा हा हा …वहां गाड़ी की हेड लाइट की रोशनी में जो कुछ एक दो मीटर तक दिख रहा था बस समझो उस समय वही हमारी दुनिया थी बाकी तो कुछ दिख ही नहीं रहा था,थोड़ी देर बाद हमें खुद मालुम नहीं की कब कहाँ दो चार मकानो के बीच से होकर हमारी वो पथरीली सड़क गुजर रही थी (अँधेरा होने के कारण ) तब गाड़ी रोकी … वहीँ एक दो आदमी मिले। एक सज्जन से परिचय होने पर उन्होने बताया के वो रहने वाले तो बड़ोत (UP) के ही हैं।   यहाँ उनकी  पुरानी जमींन है, सो यहाँ भी रहते हैं।  वहीँ एक घर में भी बनी छोटी सी दूकान से दर्जनों  “पारले जी ” की बिस्कुट के पैकेट खरीद अन्नू और प्रवीण बाबू तो बिजी हो गए …..मै  वैसे भी भी बिस्कुट नहीं खाता और गाडी भी चला रहा था।  सो उन साहब से बातचीत कर आगे का हाल चाल और रास्ते का ब्यौरा ले चल पड़ा।

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Yuksom – a peaceful abode in the laps of Eastern Himalayas

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Yuksom is still regarded as the base camp of Kanchenjungha, although ascent from Sikkim side has stopped over a decade ago. The mountains are revered as God by localites and stepping foot on the sacred slopes amounts to desecration of the divine forces. Kanchenjungha is abode of the Gods. We came across camps of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. Their basic and advanced mountaineering courses are conducted at Rathong Glacier, the starting point of which also happens to be Yuksom.

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A weekend trip to digha. The Journey.

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When in Doubt, ask again. Ask someone else if you feel that the shmuck you just asked for directions was an inebriated nincompoop. I believe that even now, in the age of GPS and other bond gadgetry, the ultimate GPS is still the roadside paan wallah. Such is the level of accuracy & dependability, that i think they should be hired to proofread the local Google maps data.

You stop by a tapri/ khokha (as referred to in mumbai), light up a smoke, order a sweet paan, strike up a light conversation about how good or bad the weather is, and that’s it. Camaraderie set. The paan wallah will now easily divulge even the most complex info about the routes to take, routes to avoid, probable shortcuts & other awesome places to see in between. Screw you, GMaps !! I got my own local wiki/GPS/navigator/tour-guide.

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