Lansdowne

A quick tour toTarkeshwar – तारकेश्वर महादेव

A quick tour toTarkeshwar – तारकेश्वर महादेव

By

I always have two sets of Ghummakari. One is with my family, where we book good accommodation and with all gears ready and behaving like “अच्छा बच्चा” (or rather achha buddha now LOL). The other set of trip is with group of my childhood friends (Laxman, Awasthi, Vijay & Pradeep).

With friends, our trip is quick, without any hotel bookings or preparations for the way and with minimum budget . It is so quick that sometimes we decide at night that tomorrow morning we are going. I keep a small tent, purchased from Scotland, in the boot of car, , which houses two and can be fitted in 20 minutes… but like our trains we can 3 or 4 slip into that in emergency.

Our trip to Tarkeshwar Mahadev was such a quickie. A day before we decided to dash and lo…next morning 4 am we were on the road with petrol tank full. all five of us packed well in the car and crossed Meerut in one hour. Road from Meerut towards Kotdwar is not easily recognised during traffic hours as it looks like a small bazar, but in the wee hours it welcomed us with open lanes.

Read More

Rising Above the Clouds

By

I could see why people rated Lansdowne so highly as a monsoon abode. Not everywhere do clouds come down so low and create an aura as if you were up somewhere in the 10,000 ft ASL range. Truly amazing experience it was. It was what I had made this trip for. To see it rain buckets full in unexplored and unexploited mountains. I had got more than what I wished for. I was in a state of pure euphoria. Riding no longer was a conscious effort on my part. My Bull and I were one with the surroundings.

Read More

Oak Grove Inn, Lansdowne – Review

By

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.

Read More

Visit to Lansdowne – A journey unforgettable

By

I don’t know why but it stuck to me like super glue and the first thing on reaching office was to google Lansdowne. Within 10 minutes I had decided that our weekend destination would be Lansdowne and not Rishikesh as they are at the same distance from Delhi.

Read More

Sojourn in the Misty Lansdowne

By

They joyously agreed on my Lansdowne suggestion and persuaded me to arrange for some good accommodation. I must thank our family friend Gen Mohan Bhandari, who graciously agreed to do the needful. . On instructions from my daughter from New York, I had given a bath to ‘Happy’ 0n 1 Oct- a day before our impending holiday.

Read More

Gurgaon-Lansdowne Weekend Road Trip

By

I will finish the story with few words about the Oak Grove Inn. The hotel is running for past one year and after an initial slow take off it remains full on most of week ends now. The normal rooms are small but very clean. I would recommend the family room as it is huge in size but there is only one available. Next time I go there I will ask for the top floor rooms which have a wide balcony (ideal for playing cards or chatting in a group) in front

Read More

Lansdowne – A Relaxing Weekend Getaway

By

Finally the day came when we had to get back to Delhi. We went out for an early morning walk again. It was quite sunny although there was nice breeze so really did not feel the harsh effect of sunlight. I was just observing around myself and could not help but admire the charm of this place over and over again.

Read More