Traveling is good
There was a long array of steps towards the entrance of the temple. Since it was rainy season, heavy cloud was intermittently covering the temple top. Even in cloudy atmosphere the white marbled temple was glowing. Like other Jain temples it was also clean. No dirt, no flower or leaf residues were visible.
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Koilababa is then brought to Jagmohan Ghar (a special house) after Meji Puoa and on a sacred moment in the night Koilababa is brought to Doul Ghar in a special walk of seven steps (Sapta Thak)
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The first question I asked, whether any tiger tried to embark into our launch. Our crew members confirmed that no untoward incident happened in the night. So the tension, which was running in the background of my mind, had gone. We moved to the gate of Bonnie Camp, which was near to the place where we anchored our vessel last night.
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While coming to Sunderbans I thought that we would see only water everywhere and the trip would be boring. But scenery and surrounding were ever changing. Nobody felt monotonous. While crossing the confluence we did not feel any turbulence. During rainy season, these areas become dangerous. For safety purpose, it is better to avoid Sunderbans during rainy season.
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By the time, we found a momo corner nearby and grabbed few of them to fill the stomach before our two hours ride, the toy train arrived at the station. DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO as it was the first, and still the most outstanding example of a hill passenger Railway. There are various types of rides available on this track, so you can book ride based on your preferences and time availability.
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This travelogue is about my tour to the Sunderbans. Myself with some of my friends visited the Sunderban National Park in January 2015. Since…
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Pelling is a small place, which offers an exceptional view of snow-covered Kanchenjunga mountain range from almost everywhere, from your hotel room to the small street you are walking on. After having breakfast, we started our journey from pelling to Darjeeling, as our night halt for that day was in Darjeeling, but we were to cover good places in between.
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We walked down to MG Road, and found it is such a nice open place with no-vehicle movement and lots of good eating and shopping options. Such large area for pedestrian and kids were just so happy in running here and there. We should also have something like this in Delhi NCR too; all we have here are malls or congested markets with no place to walk. I found Gangtok a very safe place for girls too.
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Further ahead, the scenery again changed. We were drawn more deep into the actual jungle. The forest cover got dense and our excitement jumped higher. Under the shade of the trees and some swamps, we found a herd of the world renowned one-horn Rhinos. It was not the first time in my life that I encountered them but still, they being the pride of my State, rakes up my pride too.
Our Gypsy driver suddenly had a rush of adrenaline and after few minutes of some sway-and-swanky driving, he brought us into this clearing, which was clearly bang in the middle of the forest. With a few words of prayers, we de-boarded our vehicle for a photo-shoot!!
Now, you must be wondering, why we were having a photo-shoot when we had prayers in our lips. Well, that’s because inspite of the heavy forest cover, the view and the vibes took our breath away.
Read MoreLater when I Googled, I found that it is indeed a reservoir and an artificial lake and was created by damming the Umium river and covers about 220 square km. This is first hydro-power project in this part of the country. Barapani is a major tourist attraction. Plenty of photos are available on the web.
We reached Shillong late afternoon. I was very excited, keen to find Shillong of my dreams: hills, fern, orchid and low cloud. Unfortunately, the sights and sound of the city did not match my imagination.
We drove past the crowded Police Bazaar area, the assembly and the polo ground and reached a quieter part of the town called Upper Lamthumai. Our hotel, Roseville Hotel, is located there.
Roseville Guest House: The hotel, more like a home stay, has cottages for guests and a well maintained garden. I identified Pine and Birch trees and some flowers. It has an old world charm. The property is famous for beautiful rooms and heritage rooms and was earlier managed by ITC Welcom. The tariff: Rs 3,000+25% tax per day.
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Despite sweaty and humid weather, people thronged the pandals in large numbers once again this year. From rock themes to the traditional, Durgapur’s Durga Puja, were designed using different metals, jute, glasses, papers, balls.
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A few were really very nice. Having spent our time at Kalijai we hopped back into the boat and returned to panthanivas. After lunch we took a Tata Iris van and moved on to take a llok at some local places of interest. First we went to Nirmaljhar temple 11 kms away. Inside the small gate there is a small pond in the centre, a small temple on the left and the main temple on the right. A stream flowing from the Easter Ghats has been directed here into a small kund, The sweet sound of flowing water was the only one that could be heard. There was no other living being inside. At the rear, there are small deities of ‘Dashabatara’. Though the temple has immense significance we hardly saw any signs of maintenance. We moved on to Narayani Mata temple 10 kms away. This temple is situated atop Valerry hill. After ascending the loopy road our car came to an abrupt halt. There were several cars and busses ahead of us caught in a fierce jam. Each was having its free run with restless crowd of people don’t know from where created a ruckus. The lone traffic police stood helplessly. After failed attempts by our driver to make a way through, he asked us to make the rest of the journey on foot and parked the car. We started walking past the vehicles and crowd and made our way up the steep road.
I could not understand what we so many people doing here. The area was surrounded by jungle with ‘saal’ and other trees. As we climbed further up the road we saw groups of people cooking food on giant pots. That’s it! These local people are having a picnic, and what a place to choose – a jungle. Never before I had seen so many people (thousands) picnicking in a forest. After walking further we came into a clearing with several steps. There were few shops selling puja items. Manu devotees were buying these for offering to the goddess. After climbing one more flight of stairs we reached the temple sitting amidst the forest with trees and boulders hanging over it. There were lots of monkeys prancing around and I had to be very careful with my cameras. My son was however very amused. The temple complex had a small ‘kund’ and one side there were a few fallen tree trunks (courtesy phailin).
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