Posts in category Roadtrips

Scottish Christmas

Apr14
2012 2 Comments

Written by Chaiwala

Memories from a Scottish Christmas back in 2007… Took a bus from London to Glasgow, and then was on a roadtrip for a couple of days….

[Show as slideshow]

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Posted in Photography, Travel, UK - Tagged 2007, Christmas, Glasgow, Scotland

Radha @ 98765

Apr09
2012 1 Comment

Written by Chaiwala

The countdown has begun!!!

Was the best! stays that way!

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Posted in Personal, Travel - Tagged 2012, 98765, radha

Pushkar, Rajasthan

Dec25
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by Chaiwala

I have written about this trip earlier here, and some pictures were also posted in Flickr, however after my FlickrPro account expired and I decided to continue with the free one, these photographs are no longer available on Flickr.

Some photographs from a trip to the Holy Towns of Pushkar and Ajmer…

pushkar-2206

A quote stressing the fact that effort has to work with luck! It translates to “luck can give you flour but not make bread for you…“

pushkar-2258

An interesting arrangement here… An empty chair, however the man in the picture chooses to let it be and sit on the pavement!

pushkar-2361

This is the Ajmer Sharif Dargah! What I love about Mosques and Gurudwaras is that you cannot enter them (or atleast the instructions say so) without washing your hands and feet.

pushkar-2365

Getting three generations in one single photograph is always a pleasure!

pushkar-2376

There was something very intriguing about this little girl. So engrossed in her own world!

Here is the entire album for you….

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Posted in India, India, Photography, Rajasthan, Rajasthan, Travel - Tagged 2007, Aditya Raizada, Ankur Gupta, photography, Pushkar, Rajasthan, roadtrips, Shubhika Raheja

Dev Anand is here to stay!

Dec04
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by Chaiwala

He might have died yesterday, however he is going to be around for as long as time stays! For as long as people would be

going on long drives
playing Antakshri
participating in singing competitions
singing to feel good
watching classic India Cinema
enjoying listening to oldies by Hemant Kumar, Kishor Kumar, Mohd. Rafi and such

Dev Anand is not going to sign any new autographs for sure, but what he did is going to remain!

Forever!

And if I talk about myself, Dev Anand’s golden collection from HMV is going to be playing in my car every single time I drive back home from long drives! I call it the “driving home” music! I would not even know where to start from when it comes to selecting a favorite, however here is one that seems apt today!!

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Posted in Music and Movies, Travel - Tagged 2011, Dev Anand, driving, music, People, RIP

Rajasthan Road Trip

Nov17
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by Chaiwala

Some images from a roadtrip to Rajasthan covering Pushkar, Bhilwara and Chittaurgarh.
Clink on the photograph below to browse through the gallery!

Our routemap for the trip :

View Larger Map

An important thing to note is
If you are going straight to Bhilwara or beyond, and Pushkar is not one of your pit-stops, make sure that you take a left turn about 8 kms before Kishangarh… A flyover is your landmark… If you were to go to Kishangarh, you would have to go under it, and if you are going towards Bhilwara, you are to take left!

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Posted in History, India, India, Photography, Rajasthan, Rajasthan, Travel - Tagged Bhilwara, Chittaurgarh, India, kishangarh, photographs, photography, Pushkar, Rajasthan, Travel

Panipat to Jalandhar (NH1)

May22
2011 2 Comments

Written by Chaiwala

If you are planning to take a roadtrip which involves NH1, and the stretch after Panipat, plan it with some buffer time on your hands… 6 laning of the highway between Panipat and Jalandhar is on full swing, and the good news is that once its complete you would be crossing over a 100 flyovers on this stretch with state of the art roads gently massaging your cars tires throughout!

The bad news, however, is that most of the time you would be driving in service lanes (which are at times 2 lanes wide, but mostly just about 1.5) along with the local traffic and highway traffic! The situation is bad while going towards Jalandhar though, its a little better while coming back!

I drove to Kurukshetra this weekend, and what takes just about 1.25 hours from Panipat, took me well over 2 hours! And the worst part being that I missed a beautiful sunflower field on the way for some reason! I really would have loved to take a few pictures there!

Posted in Haryana, India, Travel - Tagged jalandhar, kurukshetra, panipat, road tip, road trip, Travel

Delhi – Jim Corbett – Nainital – Delhi

Mar10
2011 10 Comments

Written by Chaiwala

Warning : Its a long post with a lot of detail! Have some 15-20 minutes spare to read it please…

They say matches are made in heaven, I say Travel Plans are also made in heaven and executed on earth by the lesser mortals!

There is no other explanation of how I have landed up in Nainital 3 times without the name being a part of my plan when I start from home? That statement kind of gave away a bit of the information that ideally would have made sense when I finish the first 10% of this travelogue! but whatever!

Let’s Travel!

The first cup of tea being made for us at BailParao

Back into time first!

Early 2010, I had taken this club membership which entitled me to be a guest for some 15 odd parties in and around delhi throughout the year, not a single of which I attended! AND, it gave me a couple of nights free stay by Country Club Resorts! Honestly what I was interested in the free stay, which was not really so free, as I realised later!

Back to the future now…

So we had to send a Rs. 500 draft along with three preferences with different dates to Country Club Resorts before they could pick one (read the cheapest) and book us there! What we got was the Tiger Den Resort! For some reason I thought it was on the NH121 (banks of River Kosi), however we realised that it was about 13 kms away towards Kaladhungi only when we reached Ramnagar and called the resort for directions.

The drive from NOIDA was very comfortable except the “work in progress” flyovers on NH24! I can’t believe that the status seems to be exactly what it was a couple of years ago at 3 places… And the road near Garh Mukteshwar is still a buffet of potholes with pieces of road on top! Don’t understand it!

The 99 kms stretch between Moradabad bypass and Kashipur (via Thakhurdwara) is still bad! The last I had driven on it was when I was coming back to Ranikhet via Ramnagar, and it did not feel as bad because I was driving a Safari… It did not feel too bad in the Palio either, but it was bad! A lot of strain the arms and eyes! The road quality miraculously changes as soon as you reach Kashipur.. While I could barely touch 60 kmph at times in the last 90 minutes or so, I was driving at around 100kmph as soon as I crossed Kashipur…

The question is WHY? And the answer is that I was now driving in Uttarakhand! Drive to Ramnagar was a breeze and it was just 15 more minutes to drive the 14 odds kms after Ramnagar to BailPadao (Resting place for Bulls – if translated in English)

The wooden stove for making Tea… TASTY TEA

Radha made for a good backdrop for this cycle in the rain!

We reached the resort only around mid-night it was funny to see the guard room boys struggle with opening the gate!! the lock had jammed, and it took them about 5 minutes before I could drive in! We checked into a room towards the back-side of the resort and figured out a few things we could do the next day.. Safari was not on the plan for Saturday, however we wanted to go to Corbett Falls and plan for a Safari on Sunday… The additional information we got from the resort guy did not really lift our spirits as it included mood-dampners like the grasslands were still under water, most paths inside the jungle were still broken, and there were extremely low sightings so far! Except that he could arrange for a jeep for us to drive around the reserve area (outside the main forest) where there were chances of tiger-sighting! Now personally, I am not a fan of animal sighting! I love the jungle, and I hated the fact that I am not going to be able to enjoy the ride like I would have liked it!

We also had to change the room almost immediately after we checked it, as the bed was a spring-bed, and a broken one at that! The shift was prompt, and we called it a day (or night or midnight) after a quick cup of tea!

On our way to Nainital via Kaladhungi

Saturday Morning!

We woke up to an thick overcast sky, and did not realise that it was raining too till we opened our room door! It did not make much of a difference at that time as Pooja and myself both were not too keen on staying in that resort or waste our day driving around for nothing! We did not really know what we wanted to do, but we knew that we were checking out of the resort! We did, and decided our next milestone with a cup of tea outside the resort!

“There is something about tea made on burning wood.. something different… something that energises me differently”

Its very pleasing to click Radha and see that she stills good great… MUAH!

Did not know something like Choti Haldwani existed… nice find!

We decided to drive towards Nainital, which was just about 50 kms (75 minutes) away and started our drive in light rain, with slow speeds enjoying the weather! The rain had stopped, and we drove via Kaladhungi, Choti Haldwani, to reach the foothills, and by the time were reach Tallital, it was raining heavily again! This time it was not rain, but a hailstorm… and both of us were wondering as to why the Rain Gods seem to be too pleased or angry with us.. It had rained like crazy in almost all of our trips together!

1. Indonesia… We did not see the Kintamani Volcano and had a rainy walk to Monkey Forest

2. Ranikhet… It was a trip with falling rocks, landslides, and overflowing rivers

3. Goa… Wasted about half a day waiting for the rain to stop… made us move to hiring a car from a bike too (but that turned out to be good)

4. Singapore… Well, there are just two types of days there as Aseem puts it… with rain, and with heavy rain!

5. Jim Corbett.. Rains again!

But we were commited to having a good time, with rain or without

So we found a nice cozy room with a lovely view at the Lake Side Inn and spent an hour waiting for the rain to stop! It converted into a light drizzle giving us enough time to walk around without an umbrella! And the waiting time did give us an opportunity to enjoy Maggi while looking out of huge glass windows! Bliss!

What is interesting in this photograph is that OM is opposite in all of them due to air-flow

We just walked around the Mall eating snacks and had a few glasses of tea again while it rained and almost snowed, and we had a lovely view of the hailstorm from under a canopy next to the Naini Lake! The number of people was low in Nainital that evening, and the roads were empty, and it stopped raining too after a bit, giving us a few more hours to walk around on the mall road and the local markets!

Chaat, Shopping, Chai, Talking, Walking, Shooting were what we did that evening!

Finally called it a day after having some delicious Vegetable Biryani

Langurs enjoying the rainy evening

Wire cycle-rickshaws at a roadside shop.. They are made from a single piece of wire(just the frame)

Sunday Morning

Looked like the Rain Gods had finally made peace with the fact that Pooja and me would travel, come whatever may, and we were welcomed with a lovely bright sunny morning! It was a long drive back home, and we dediced to start driving back by 1100 hrs to reach NOIDA by 2000 hrs. With the kind of roads and distance, it would take about 8 hours for sure, specially the Sunday traffic back to Delhi!

Shikaras in the Naini Lake

Empty Tea Glasses at a road-side Tea-Shop

The drive back via Kathgodam – Haldwani – Udham Singh Nagar (Rudrapur) – Rampur – Moradabad Bypass – Hapur was mostly uneventful except a deroute forced because of Behenji as she likes to be called, or for others, Ms. Mayawati, Chief Minister of UP. Rampur was sealed because of her visit, and we were forced to look around for options which involved driving through the town, trusting our direction instincts, and drive through a village with mud roads, and lanes just wide enough for the Palio to move through!

Rest is mostly history! with Future looking very bright with a few good trips on the cards! Enjoy some more photographs below….

Steamy Tea…

People at the T-Shop

Like I said… it was a hail-storm

One of the two Tea-Shops we had Tea at… this guy was selling everything from Tea t0 Bread-Omlette, Bun-Omlette, Boiled Eggs, Pakodas, Cream Rolls...

Corn-cobs (Bhutte)… They taste different on a rainy evening…

Nothing warms cold fingers better than a wood fire…

Eggs were plenty around the Mall Road…

Another view from the same Chai ki Dukaan…

This guy was really happy to have his photograph clicked…I think this is one of the biggest satisfactions of being a photographer… an opportunity to make people smile!

Loved the steam coming out of the pressure cooker… the 10 min wait was worth it…

Nainital Post Office

Ripe Red tomatoes for the Omlettes

Now for some objective information

1a. Distance from NOIDA to RamNagar : Approximately 250 kms

1b. Driving time : about 6 hours in the night with low traffic… Add another hour if driving in the day because of local traffic

2a. Distance from Ramnagar to Nainital : Approx. 65 kms

2b. Driving time : About 2 hours (Do take a break to enjoy the view somewhere)

3a. Distance from Nainital to NOIDA : Approx. 310 kms

3b. Driving time in the day : Approx. 8 hours with local traffic and bad roads and work in progress flyovers

Recommended eating joints on the way :

1. McDonalds just after Gajraula on the road towards Moradabad

2. Meriton just before Gajraula towards Delhi… Its almost opposite McDonalds and serves decent food

3. There are many dhabas near the Garhmukteshwar and Gajraula, however I am not sure if I would stop there to have food… snacks and tea would be my choice there

I drove a total of about 660 kilometers over that weekend, and loved every second of it! Pooja is an amazing addition to my co-traveler list, and there is not much other than that a man can ask for! isn’t it?

Posted in Chai (चाय), Hills, India, India, Photography, Travel, Uttarakhand, Uttarakhand - Tagged fiat, India, nainital, palio, photography, rain, road tip, tea, Travel, travel photography, UP, uttarakhand

Moments from Ranikhet!

Sep16
2010 2 Comments

Written by Chaiwala

Posted in History, India, India, Photography, Travel, Uttarakhand, Uttarakhand - Tagged Travel

Good ways to spend an evening – 1

Feb11
2010 9 Comments

Written by Chaiwala

1. Leave office on time (ok, a li’il late works too)
2. Get a tank full of gas (short for gasoline, and referred to as petrol and diesel in India) [abe firangi]
3. Find a direction to drive in…
4. Set a countdown timer (e.g. I will drive for 90 minutes, and look for the first nice place to have tea)
5. DRIVE
6. Stop…
7. Eat and have Chai
8. Come back!

I managed to do a 100km drive last night with a couple of friends and went till Dharampur… about 40 kms before Solan and 13 kms before Kasauli!!!! the hills are suddenly a lot closer than they were for the last 18 months!

I love it! Life is uber cool!

Posted in Hills, Himachal Pradesh, India, Travel - Tagged Dharampur, driving, Himachal Pradesh, Kasauli, radha, Solan

Visit to the Memory Stick Town!

Nov13
2009 17 Comments

Written by Chaiwala

Kingston is a name that I have heard only in reference to memory sticks or thumb drives, or USB drives or Pen drives as the janta calls them… an opportunity to visit the place with that name had a different sort of excitement for me… I was feeling very similar when I went to Cherokee too!!!

An evening flight to Detroit and a connection to Syracuse and a 2.5 hours drive to Kingston later I was in the city last saturday! Thankfully the weather was bright and sunny throughout and was warm enough to roam around in a sweatshirt!!!

Kingston has nothing to do with the brand, I guess, and there is not much you can do in the town… You can be in Jail, it has a biiiig correction centre, or you could be in the Queens University, or you could be working in one of the local market places in the city! Pretty laid back, and a relaxed place to be in, with its own set of excitements too I am sure!

The rest below, along with the pictures…

The change of driver pit-stop some 20 miles before the US-Canadian Border. I was driving Jas’s Shwanda so far!!! I love that white car… it is so similar to my palio!

We reached Jas’s new apartment late afternoon, and after some amazing Chai, with chips and Bananabread Cake, went to the downtown to walk around the place…

There is something very very attractive about old stone buildings with veins all over them. In summers the entire walls can be hidden behind the leaves, but because of this being fall time, there were only veins and some last few leaves… and the red of the leaves against the grey of the walls made a very beautiful sight!

And then we walked towards the downtown…

Being a Saturday here was a farmer’s market. Most farmer’s markets in the US and Canada sell fresh produce from the farms, Jewelery, Handmade Soaps and other handmade stuff… We bought some dry flowers from Diane (the picture below). Mostly I was attracted to the Dodge Van she had and then noticed the flowers too! It was a 1978 Dodge rescue van, and Diane did mention her fondness for the vehicle in the few minutes of conversation we had with her.

While walking past the city hall, we heard some nice music and thought was it was coming from some speakers in a restaurant, but later realised that it was band of 3 young boys who were playing their songs in a small arrangement. We also picked up a few maple leaves of different colors to make some artwork at Jas’s apartment with the leaves!

While walking back, I noticed this shop selling interesting stuff and had a very interesting board outside… They had a shower gel dispenser in the shape of a nose

, and fart candies, and masks, and puzzles, and riddles and what not… I also bought a small puzzle myself and have been trying to figure out what to do with it for a while now :/

Leaves in Kingston had these strange black dots on them… and only those leaves which had the fall colors. Not sure why, but it was both spooky and interesting to notice! Like the mark of death, as Jas’s colleague Al says!

I also saw one of the best beautiful sunsets in a very long time at the Lake Ontario that evening!!!

We finally called it a day as it was dark and getting real cold! Came back home, had some mind blowing dinner (Thanks Jas!!!!), saw Step Brothers and crashed! It was a nice day!

The next day we had to leave Kingston by 1 to catch my flight back… and because I woke up pretty late, there was not much we could do… So we hung around the apartment, while I took a few photographs…

The drive between Kingston and Syracuse has two interesting things, the border, and two very beautiful bridges over Lake Ontario through a place called 1000 Islands! yes… I was excited to be passing through this place, after knowing the 1000 Islands dressing for a long time! Its like I am seeing things which I have known only as objects so far! Its a feeling that I cannot express…

My flight from Syracuse was delayed by an hour, and that made me miss my connection to Milwaukee. I enjoyed my complimentary stay in Holiday Inn, Newark that night, and took the first flight out on Monday. Though I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, I was still ok.

In short, this weekend turned out to be very relaxed, de-stressing and refreshing.

One more to the list of memorable trips I have made! Thank you Jas! thank you Uncle!

And I almost forgot… last weekend was the first time, I signed some of my work! A huge moment of satisfaction for me as a photographer!!!!

and today, Jas gave Diane two prints as well!!! I am glad!

Life is Good!!!!

Posted in Canada, Canada, Photography, Travel - Tagged 1000 Islands, canada, diane, Drive, flowers, jaspreet, Kingston, red dodge, Syracuse, Travel, travel photography

धीरे-धीरे रे मना, धीरे सब कुछ होय । माली सींचे सौ घड़ा, ॠतु आए फल होय ॥

मेरा गाँव मेरा देस
आई एम् फिरोम पश्चिमी उत्तर प्रदेश

नदी किनारे साँप है; अकेले अकेले चाय पीना पाप है
काली माता आएगी, उठा के ले जायेगी !!!

दूध चीनी रोक के ! चाय पत्ती ठोक के !

Posts in category Roadtrips

Scottish Christmas

Radha @ 98765

Pushkar, Rajasthan

Dev Anand is here to stay!

Rajasthan Road Trip

Panipat to Jalandhar (NH1)

Delhi – Jim Corbett – Nainital – Delhi

Moments from Ranikhet!

Good ways to spend an evening – 1

Visit to the Memory Stick Town!

Chai Time

चाय की दुकान

Chai ki Dukaan’s Resolution for 2012

Chai Numbers

Feedcount

www.AndPictures.net (Prashant Bhardwaj Photography)

Clicking the world, one picture at a time!

Chai Patti

PB And Pictures

Chai Calendar

Popular Posts

Tea Tweets

CKD's Fav Movies

Chai Bol!

Chabhi

Stay up to date!

Chai Khata

May 2012
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Posts in category Roadtrips

Chai Time

चाय की दुकान

Chai ki Dukaan’s Resolution for 2012

Chai Numbers

Feedcount

www.AndPictures.net (Prashant Bhardwaj Photography)

Clicking the world, one picture at a time!

Tea Bags

Chai Patti

PB And Pictures

Chai Calendar

Popular Posts

Tea Tweets

CKD's Fav Movies

Chai Bol!

Chabhi

Stay up to date!

Chai Khata