Haridwar

शिव और सावन – एक मनोरम स्मृति।

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सावन के महीने का आगमन दिल्ली में हो गया था किन्तु बारिश की बूंदो का इंतजार अब भी बाकि था, लग ही नहीं रहा था की इस बार दिल्ली में बारिश होगी भी या नहीं। आख़िरकार है तो यह दिल्ली ही न, रोजाना यहाँ वहां की खबरों को सुनते हुए यह पता चल जाता था की सलमान की एक-एक फिल्म 100 करोड़ कमा रही है किन्तु पूरी दिल्ली में 100 लीटर भी पानी बरस जाये तो गनीमत होगी।

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Summer Road Trip – Kakdagaad Haridwar

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Dinner is at a small Rajasthani Dhaba with really yummy food. One thing we have experienced throughout the trip is that the food has been consistently good in the small places and not once have we had any tummy upsets. It just reinforces my belief that one must have what the locals have in the places that they patronise… one really can’t go wrong then.

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Family Trip to Mussoorie and Rishikesh (Part II)

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We also took tickets for a round trip in boat. These tickets were valid for one hour for return journey. It means we had sufficient time to bath and roam at another side of Ganga Ji. The boat took us to another bank in just few minutes. As it was Baisakhi day, a lot of people were taking bath on Eastern Ghats. We also took bath in Holy Ganga ji.

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हरिद्वार – अम्बाला – अमरनाथ यात्रा (भाग 8)

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इधर पिछ्ले कई सालों से मेरी पत्नी मेरे साथ अमरनाथ यात्रा पर जाने के लिये कह रही थी लेकिन बच्चे छोटे होने के कारण कभी जा नहीं पाई थी। बच्चे तो अभी भी छोटे ही थे और मेरी छोटी बिटिया उस समय सिर्फ़ चार साल की ही थी। मेरी पत्नी मुझे इस वर्ष अकेला जाते देख मेरे साथ चलने की जिद्द करने लगी, लेकिन मेरी पत्नी के मेरे साथ अमरनाथ यात्रा पर जाने में कुछ दिक्कतें थी। पहली, आज तक बच्चे कभी भी,कहीं भी मेरी पत्नी से अलग, अकेले नहीं रुके थे और दुसरी, हमारा उनके स्कूल खुलने से पहले लौटना भी जरुरी था। इसके अलावा एक दिक़्क़त मुझे थी्।

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Char Dham Yatra – Gangotri

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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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ऋषिकेश – देवपर्याग – रुद्रप्रयाग – गौरीकुंड (भाग 2)

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ऋषिकेश से लेकर रुद्रप्रयाग तक के रास्ते में पहाडो पर काफ़ी कम हरियाली है और ये काफ़ी रेतीले लगते हैं लेकिन रुद्रप्रयाग से केदारनाथ की तरफ़ मुडते ही दृश्य एकदम बदल जाता है। चारों तरफ़ हरियाली ही हरियाली है ,घाटियॉ बहुत खुबसुरत हैं। हम इन खुबसुरत वादियों का आनंद लेते हुए अगस्त्यमुनि से होते हुए गुप्‍तकाशी पहुँच गये ।वहाँ गाड़ी रुकवा कर चाय पी और आस पास के सुन्दर नजारों को निहारने लगे। गुप्‍तकाशी से घाटी के दूसरी तरफ़ ऊखीमठ साफ़ दिखाई देता है।

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