The Tea Stall

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Mission Mountains! Accomplished beyond expectations!

Nov01
2009 14 Comments Written by Chaiwala
Our affair started way back in 1999 when I had gone to Shimla for the first time… I was preparing for MCA and Shimla University offered one of the nicer courses at that time! Tough exam! I knew we would meet, but I never knew how much of affection would develop in this first visit… Looks like something magical happened, and I have been in Love with mountains since!

My love for mountains has taken me places, all around the north of India from small hills to the world’s highest pass at 18380 ft… from short weekend trips to 4 day long roadtrip all around Uttaranchal, from short hikes to day long treks in the lap of mountains, to the highlands in Scotland, to Smokey Mountains in USA and finally to the famous Rockies!!!

I flew to Calgary, Alberta on the 27th of August and headed out to the Rockies on 28th morning. Jas had planned the trip and all I had asked her for was that I want to see the mountains; the rest she could plan the way she’d like!

We were to drive on the TransCanada highway#1 mostly and have nightstops in Jasper and Banff, two lovely towns in the hearts of Jasper and Banff National Parks.


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We were in no rush to reach anywhere, and because it was summer time, the days were longer with the sunsetting somewhere around 9 in the evening so even if we left late, we would have enough sunlight to drive around in!


The morning was chilly, and had that sweet wintery feel to it! I like that! And the photograph above is my first photograph of the trip! To Canada and the Rockies!

We were to drive approximately 400kms on the first day with a few pit stops and the few unscheduled ones… Driving around in the US and Canada can be very boring, however this drive was very different! I was at awe looking at the mountains, the sheer size and beauty of them! Though they really do not compare to the Himalayas, the ability to drive smoothly without worrying too much about the hairping bends and sharp turns (The max speed for most of the highway was marked at 90 or 100 kmph). Jas was to drive through the first hour or two in the plains and then hand over the steering to me!

This is from our second unscheduled stop! Jas suddenly realised that we wanted to stop and took a sharp right to move to the parking area! We must have surprised the RV guy next to us for sure, but not enough to be honked at! good for us! The turquoise color that you see in the background is a small river.

Our first scheduled stop was the guest center for Athabasca Glacier! I have seen and been on snow capped mountains, I have walked on small glaciers too, but this was something beyond my imagination. Athabasca Glacier is one of the 6 tongues of the Columbia Ice Fields, and after a short bus drive, and then a drive in the Ice-explorer later, I was standing on the Athabasca Glacier… Length 6 kms, Width 1 kms, and the place where I was standing was close to about 300 meters thick ICE !!! Unimaginable!!!

One of the first few buses that used to take visitors to the Glacier!

This is the surface of the glacier!

The area in which visitors can walk around is marked, and it is strongly advised not to go beyond that area!!! The Vehicle in the picture is a limited edition Ice Explorer custom made for these tours by a company in Calgary. The only other place where you see these vehicles is Antarctica! 6 wheel drive with a top speed of 10 kmph, tires about 5ft in diameter, with an air pressure of 6psi

The blue arrow in the above picture is the another Ice Explorer. This should give you a faint idea of how large this glacier is!

Our next stop was supposed to be a fall, but we somehow missed the turn, and moved on towards Athabasca Falls… This was not too big a waterfall, but the flow and color of water is what made this special for me! The fall, over the years, has carved a deep canyon in the area before the water moved to a much calmer river!

Our final destination for the day was Jasper, a small town some 400kms from where we had started! What a day it was for me! I had driven through one of the most scenic highways in Canada, experienced the might of nature in Glaciers, and Ice Fields, witnessed marvels of machines, and enjoyed the painting like views throughout the drive!

Late evening in Jasper

We checked into our hotel Tonquin Inn, at Jasper, and moved out for a walk and dinner soon after… A decent Italian restaurant is what we chose for dinner, and walked back. The very relaxed town and the vibes in it were really helpful in relaxing the mind and body that evening!!!

The next morning started with ease… and more importantly with TEA :)

Yeah yea! it says Mr. Coffee but look carefully, it has a tea bag inside!

A family out on bikes and cycling around the area!!!

We did not really have a plan for the day, except that we were to drive back to Banff, and go to two lakes in that area! Jas asked the reception and got directions to a not so long hike. So we drove to the Old Fort Point and started out hike! It turned out to be a 2 hour hike instead of what we were told, but once we reached the top, we saw some breathtaking views of the surrounding area! Also a reminder of the fact that being fit is important! Enjoy some pictures from the hike below.

The map that we were following for the hike :P

This is from the highest point of the trail 1 that we followed! You could walk straight down with extreme care and reach down fast, or take the longer route from around the hills! We chose to take the safer way down!

We drove back to Jasper and towards the Pyramid Lake, where we hiked for a few kilometers again…

Pyramid Lake, a few kilometres away from Jasper

And after having our to-go Subway Subs, we started driving back towards Banff

We drove straight to Lake Moraine near Banff. The drive to Lake Moraine was the steepest so far and I simply loved that stretch!!! I think if I had rate where I love driving, it would be driving uphill that comes on the top spot!!! there is a thrill that I get out of driving up! The color of Lake Moraine is something worth noticing because of all the Rock Salt deposits!!! It can go from blue to turquoise to dark green! beautiful!!!!


It was getting dark by the time we had reached Lake Moraine, so we dropped the idea of going to Lake Louise and drove to Banff!!!

The drive was pretty uneventful except that the GPS decided to take us to an incorrect location in Banff, and we were almost stranded in the middle of nowhere because it was not ready to take us where we wanted to go! We tried a couple of tricks and finally reached our hotel, after tricking the GPS into taking us to a wrong address and following our instincts and some help from there :)


The next morning we drove straight to Lake Louise from Banff…

Lake Louise Photographs!

This trip was something that made me realize how incorrectly I have been using the term backpacking so far! Also found a tea-shop :)

This is Lake Moraine!

Isn’t the image second from the top on this board of a man drinking? and kid referring to something else? I named this sign “Bevda Baap”! In reality this is the sign of a view-point!
We drove back to Banff, and then took the Banff Gondola up to the Sulphur Mountain! This day was particularly crowded because of students from some international convention were also there…

After we reached the top, Jas insisted that we hike to a mountain top nearby because of the amazing views it had! We did! what you see in the picture above if the visitor center for the Gondolas on the top of Sulpher Mountain.

The weather observatory

The Mount Randle from the observatory!

Banff, a golf course near Banff, Athabasca River, and the Tunnel Mountain.


We started back towards Calgary after a quick lunch at a Greek Restaurant in downtown Banff, and reached back in good time! We thought that we got a ticket as well on this trip, but looks like we did! Maybe the cop uncle could not get a picture of the license plate :P

And the trip ended with another wire-frame shot, this time of a setting sun!!!!


Ta Ta Canada… looking forward to be there again soon!

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The drive that drives me sane !

Jul08
2009 21 Comments Written by Chaiwala
It was a simple plan… lets leave when we can after we get up when we can and get ready in whatever time it takes… so we wake up at 9ish, get ready in 4 hours :D (there was a lot of catching up to do) and finally managed to leave around 1… the beauty of the entire plan being that we knew it was a day dedicated to driving and food and conversations and we did not really have a place to reach ! truly a journey being more important than the destination…

Atlanta airport on the evening I reached

the GPS has been giving me some trouble lately (I guess needs and update or something) though it brought us back home alright after the movies on Friday… It decided not to work for the first half hour or so, and then was kind enough to give us directions to the mountains just right!


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This part of the drive was not so hilly, but green… full of it…

We were headed towards the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and drove through 3 states, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee to reach the Clingmans Dome which is the highest peak in the Great Smokies at 6643 ft above sea level. To add an icing on the cake, there is an observatory which is build at the peak to get a 360 degree view from the top… very beautiful view, but makes it very artificial in my opinion.

This was by far one of the greenest drives I have been on… Tall trees both sides of the road all the way, mountains full of greens and shades of it… beautiful!

We took just one pitstop on this 4 hour drive, and I cannot express in words how it felt to drive on the mountains, especially when the roads were wide, and very smooth.

It would be a shame to drive around in the US and not see Harley all around… The owner of this one was kind enough to let me take a picture at the Gas Station…


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This part was all hills and curves…

The drive was especially very rejuvenating after we turned from Cherokee. Its a small town in North Carolina, and can be compared to a Katra before Vaishno Devi or Parmanu before Shimla or Bhowali before Nainital… has a lot of motels, restaurants, gift shops and a small river runs through it, which seemed to be a very popular picnic spot.. there were families enjoying the water, playing around in the stream, tubing, grilling and just being there !!! Nice…

Like I said… Harley and more of it…

Randomly stopped a few miles after Cherokee to enjoy the view… Dense forest, the sound of water flowing, lush green trees, couldn’t be more beautiful

The Pontiac GT enjoying her break…

Mamu ki gaadi passing by while I was taking pictures…Mamus get the most powerful cars in the US… India learn !

Like I said before, green and more green… And these leaves would turn into paintings in fall!

A glimpse of where I was driving…

Another hour or so took us to the Clingmans Dome. There is something that happens to me when I drive uphill on curvy roads… I don’t really know what, but there is something that happens.. I feel at ease, and am very comfortable… Good for another few months before I have to get out of my base again!

And some more bikes… men and women… on bikes… Jai ho Harley ki… there are more brands, but HD is by far the MOST Popular!

Count the concentric circle and know the age of the tree this block came from.. What is your answer?

Smoky mountains = thick forest all around… What fun it would be to camp and hike around in this area… There are many options and you can spend days walking around the trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park….

At the top of Clingmans Dome, there is a cement structure which takes you to a high platform so that you can get a 360 degree view from the peak!
This is the eastern side view…Can only imagine how this would look at sunrise…

This is the North View…

And the western view, just on the border of North Caroline and Tennessee…
On our way down we wanted to take this trail, but did not because it looked too deserted and we were afraid that there would be bears waiting for us :P
A picture from behind the glass door of the rest room :)

After a .5 mile hike up to the peak from the parking lot, and back, we were understandably hungry and we had home made Gobhi Aalu, and Shahi Tofu with brown bread for our dinner ! Yumm!

Read more about the Smokies on this board… that half a mile of climb is good enough to remind you of the fact that you have not been working out :P
A few other not so high peaks…

The view from the parking lot after were returned…

We left the dome peak around 1930 hours and this time around the GPS decide to give up on us, the good part, however, was that we remembered the roads we had taken and were ok without driving the entire distance without directions from the GPS and we did! sweet !

Took two breaks, one in Cherokee where we went to a shop to see if there was some memoir that I could carry… I like this name Cherokee, probably because this Jeep brand has been something that I have been admiring for a very long time… I have said this to myself many times in the past, I am going to be in a Cherokee one day… did not realize that it was going to be, Cherokee the town, and not the jeep :)

The man on the left is ready for a small performance near the shop in Cherokee that sells Indian memorabilia… Indian has a different meaning here… not us Indians :) Moccasins if you were wondering are shoes made of leather which were originally worn by hunters. They are super soft and super quiet and helped the hunters walk long distances very quietly…

Our second stop was around 2130 hours, when we were passing through a town and realised that the Independence Day fireworks had started… just parked the car at the curb and enjoyed the fireworks for about 30 minutes before we took the road again… and reached Alpharetta around 2330 hours… 5 hours from Clingmans Dome to Alpharetta with two 30 minute breaks, a distance of about 180 miles, and atleast 60 miles in the hills… Not bad at all… oh, and not getting lost :) The Pontiac GT ran very very well on the entire trip as well, though I felt that the breaking was not as smooth as it should be downhill.

Fireworks in a small town on our way back!!! I can only imagine how the fireworks would have been in large cities around the US if they were so grand in a small town…


Total distance about 360 miles, total trip time about 11 hours, driving time close to about 8 hours, good car, good weather… what a day!

Today is another day and its already about 1030 hours, no plans nothing. And looks like its going to be another journey that matters!

Like I said, Sunday was a lazy day…The first half of the day was spent watching RF struggle against Andy Roddick… Poor Andy was playing to keep RF from winning the match and was not playing to win it.
The view from the flight window… This is Chicago! Did I mention that I upgraded my ticket to a Business Class… enjoyed the seat and the view both…

p.s. this post was written on Sunday, 5th of July.

And one highlight of the trip was this video… I think this is very funny… Have heard it many times now, and I am still laughing about it…

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The Dutch Village, a few Indians went to, in America

May08
2009 41 Comments Written by Chaiwala
Here are a few important pointers before you go ahead and scroll down, happily reading this post..

1. This is a very very very long post (45+ photographs, loads of text) so have a good amount of time on hand when you start reading it

2. This is dedicated to two very important parts of my life… Bindiya and Tushar who started new chapters in their lives in April and May respectively

3. This trip was a celebration of the “sincerely hoped for, unexpected” success of 30on30 initiative… and to share the joy, I would do a random draw of lots of all the people who comment on this post and will send them a print (which they can select from this post) if they are in India or US. If the comments are too less for a decent lot, I would randomly add some random comments from friends and include them !

Now that the conditions are laid out well, lets start….

I had started planning for a trip months back, even without knowing where I was going… All I knew was that I am going to rent a car and just get out of Milwaukee… the winters and the cold had enough of me and I had enough of them in the last 4-5 months !!! Plans were made and shelved, places identified and rejected before a colleague told me about the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan (yes, I did go to Holland, but I drove and it is the Holland in Michigan)

So it was finalized that I am going to Holland to see the Tulips… Gaurav agreed, Deepali agreed, Pritam, Lakhan, Golu, Sapna agreed, and Jyoti agreed ( she was visiting me that week on her way from the West Coast of the Amreeka to the East Coast of Amreeka)

By the time 1st May came, things had changed… Gaurav and Deepali could not go along as his Mausaji was coming over, Sapna and Lakhan opted out as Sapna was to shift apartments and Lakhan decided to stay back and help her out…. Pritam and Deepak dropped and came back on and dropped and back on a couple of times before they finally decided to come along and bring Sunil with them !!!

They left from Minneapolis early evening and I left Milwaukee around 1830 hrs… it was a long drive ahead and I was so looking forward to it… a fantastic car good music system and a nice weather was all that I could ask for… and I had some Samosa’s and Kachauri’s with me for the drive too :) what fun !!!!

As expected driving was a breeze through without any issues at all…Reached the Super 8 Motel around midnight and Pritam and the gang reached soon after ! We did not spend much time talking then, and called it a day with a promise to leave the motel by 0930 hrs the next morning !

We were on time for our estimated time of departure from the Motel for a long day ahead… managed to get ready in quick time and have breakfast, which had muffins (multiple helpings :P ), some cereal, milk (like a good boy I had my cereal and milk there too).

Pritam was driving a JEEP and there was no way I would have let anyone else drive that now that I was around… He knew that, and asked Sunil to handover the keys to me before I created any fuss ! He like a gentleman took the navigator seat and Pritam, Jyoti and Golu happily acquired the passenger seats !!! Just about 20 minutes away was our first destination of the day…

The Veldheer’s Tulip Garden….

I would be lying if I tell you that I was very excited to see what I saw… My bad! I was expecting miles of tulips of various colors and variety, but this turned out to be a relatively smaller than what I had painted in my head… It was not entirely my mistake actually, it was the advertising that got the better of me here ! But nevertheless it was a sight to see… I had never seen so many tulips together, so in a way this was a happy moment !

Enjoy the pictures below for a while, before getting back to reading more :)




Did I mention that for most of the time I was confused if I was in Holland or America or India? The proportion of Indians vs Foreigners was as good as India Gate in Delhi or some tourist spot near Pondicherry or Madras or Bangalore… This was the largest number of Indian public I have seen together outside India so far !!!












Just before getting out of the Tulips Garden, we decided to take a few pictures of each other :)

We then went to a small shop selling memorabilia (no points for guessing that)… This was a very nice place to roam around in… Beautiful small artifacts and at very very reasonable prices… what added to the charm of this shop was that the artists were also working in the shop only… unfortunately they were having their lunch when we went so I could not take a picture of them working, however did manage to click on the paint-desks (see below)… Really liked the wide array of paint brushes and colors on the desk…

Another very interesting thing about the Dutch is the Wooden Shoes… NO they are not just fancy looking show pieces… you can wear them like regular shoes, walk, run, attend a costume party, look cool and so on and so forth :)

There was a small factory inside the shop itself where the shoes were being made(below)…

We left the Tulip’s garden and then moved towards downtown Holland (this is the place where there was a board with Holland written, and I posted in my previous post). We decided to skip the dutch village tour as no one was too keen on getting disappointed again, so we moved towards another tourist attraction called the Windmill Island Gardens.

When we reached there, we realized that it was something very similar to what we had already seen and decided to not waste any time or money on it… I guess by this time, though we had not done much, we guys were not too keen doing any more touristy stuff ! or maybe just some more ! In one of the handouts, which disappeared mysteriously from the car, we had read about this sand-dune safari in the Saugatuck Dunes State Park…

None of us remembered the name Saugatuck, and we were very keen to see how sand dunes look next to a lake, and what could be the Sand Dunes Safari, so we decided to find out more… Me and Sunil went to a shop nearby and asked if they had the hand-out or the brochure for the “attractions” in Holland… the lady at the counter did not have any, but she knew exactly what we were talking about and gave us directions to the Dunes Safari place…

No one had eaten anything after the breakfast, infact none of us had a decent dinner the last night either… and were very hungry…. so we decided to first find a place to eat before going anywhere… after a few discussions while driving towards our next pit-stop we ended up having lunch at Papa Romano’s… This was a very good decision as the Pizza’s were really really good there!

It was a fun filled drive that we had on the Sand Dunes Safari… a 1970 oversized Dodge Truck, speeds more than 40 mph on sand, sudden turns and sharp curves, highs and lows, sand dunes, small lake, the huge Lake Michigan, funny driver guide, forest, trees, sand, and our spirit made that 35 minute drive worth it !




Seen below is the 1970 Dodge truck we went around for a drive in….

We were tired by now, and wanted to just rest the rest of the day off and decided to go to the beach and spend the day there… It was already around 4ish but because the days are much longer, it was another 4 hours before the sun was to set… We now went to the “Big Red” which is actually a “small” red light house located at the channel that connects the Lake Macatawa with the Lake Michican… We spent the rest of the day near the Big Red, partially south of the channel and the rest on the north of the channel… No we did not just walk up north, but drove all the way back to downtown Holland, crossed the nearest bridge and drive back to the beach :)



I really wanted to see the sun set, and really wanted to see it… so we waited… it was not the most comfortable evening as it was pretty chilly, but my dear friends decided to hang around till sunset and then move back….


Now was time to go back to the Motel and call it a day… Jyoti had left something at Papa Romano’s in the afternoon so we decided to go back and see we could find it there… We could not and the guys decided to get themselves the infamous Smirnoff Vodka Mojito (will write about why its infamous separately) While Pritam, Golu and Jyoti were inside the Wine Shop, me and Sunil discussed the dinner options and realized that Indian Food was the best option… now at 2130 hrs, it was not going to be an easy task to first find an Indian Restaurant and that too an open one !!! but we tried… the GPS ( called Billo Rani by Pritam) helped and after about 5 unsuccessful attempts we found an Indian Restaurant called Bombay Cuisine in Grand Rapids about 20 miles away…

We had close to about 30 minutes left before the restaurant was closing for the day, so we decided to order over phone and let them know that we were about 20 miles away and counting… Reached the restaurant with about 10 minutes to spare and picked up our order for food… Indian Dinner !!! Wow !!! Though it was surprising that this restaurant did not have Dal Fry or Dal Makhni in their menu.. they had something called Dal Subzi which was essentially Dal Makhni with vegetables in it… It was still good, and the Gobi was lovely, and the brown naans were tasty too… The non-veggies also liked their Chicken something…

So after this loooooooooooooong touristy day and a heavy Indian dinner, we called it a day around midnight !!!!

The next day was now planned to be relaxing as we were in no mood to do any touristy stuff… Infact the only place on the agenda was a Winery on our way back home… We decided to go via the downtown and walked around in a small crafts fair before we said bye bye to Holland and drove towards the Winery… Enjoy the pictures from the fair….





About 30 minutes after leaving Holland, we reached the America that I love to see… Calm, and warm, with open skies, green trees, and with the voice of birds or a distant vehicle occasionally breaking the otherwise very comfortable silence…


It was a nice place to just sit and chat as well… I did not care much for the wines, and came out to just sit in the field and take pictures, while Pritam, Golu, and Jyoti were enjoying the wine tasting experience….



Sunil also decided to come out and relax for a while before he started the long drive back to Minneapolis…


We enjoyed some nice chit-chat with a bottle of wine at the Winery before we started the second but final leg of our journey…. The next pit-stop and the last one for this trip was to be taken at a eatery somewhere in between the Winery and Chicago…


The pit-stop was at Fenneville somewhere between somewhere, where we enjoyed some Pizzas at a Pizza hut before saying the final good byes to each other, promising to meet again soon !!! Post that, Sunil drove a bit faster towards their destination and I enjoyed the music and the amazingly smooth Nissan Altima to Milwaukee….


All in all, this trip ended up with me having a nice big smile on my face, exactly like the road-map between Milwaukee and Holland :)


I am already looking forward to my next trip !!! Are you?

Oh and congratulations for reaching the end of this post :P

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जय बद्री विशाल (Jai Badri Vishaal)

Oct14
2008 29 Comments Written by Chaiwala
Have been planning the Badrinath trip for a very long time now… more than 6 months, but just could not go for some reason or the other!

Before the US trip, my travel plans were getting changed every week and I just could not go! When I was in the US, mom dad for some reason did not go either! So we decided that we could go as soon as I am back!

We did!

I reached Noida on Saturday and left for Badrinath on Monday afternoon. We took a long break in Meerut where I met Naani after a while. She is not doing well at all these days. Not even able to speak :( I hope she recovers soon! The improvement in her voice and movement was seen after we were back from our trip, so that makes me feel good and better!

The drive was very long and mostly uneventful except the extremely bad roads at a lot of places, 4 pit stops and a forced break at Rishikesh. We had reached Rishikesh at 0300 hrs and there is a restriction on driving ahead on the hilly area between 2030 hrs and 0500 hrs, hence we had to wait before we could move ahead! This forced break was kind of good as it gave our cabbie, Kamal a couple of hours to catch his nap and prepare him for the long 12-14 hour drive ahead!

Pa never stops getting surprised at what all I keep clicking :P

Some flowers on the one of our pit stops

Just after his bath, praying !

I have always respected the hill drivers for their discipline and decent driving, but this time it was very different. All the local cabs seems to be in a rush to catch a train which they had already missed, and were almost breathing down our necks with continuous honking and idiotic over takes ! This was the first time that I have seen such reckless driving on the hills. And I could not help but notice the laaaarge number of cabs as well on the route… The last time when I went to Govindghat with Arobindo, we did not find many cabs on the way, but this time around there was one every five minutes!!!

Thankfully on the way there were no fresh landslides to stop the traffic and we kept moving slowly but with ease. The road condition really got worse after Chamoli, and after Joshimath till Badrinath, it was practically no roads for at least 80% of the 44 kms. This was the toughest part of the entire drive, for us and I am sure for Kamal as well, because even at on single lane paths, we had the assoholotic local cabbies making our lives tough with constant honking and overtaking. We had to stop for the gate system at Joshimath and then there was another forced stop at Pandukeshwar (another gate system for the same reasons as Joshimath)

The Gate time-table at Joshimath

This is from the Panasonic I mentioned in the last post about Badrinath. I like the amount of things in this picture, the boards, the punjabi, the hindi, the jeep, the walking man, the clothes !

One of the chat-wallas at Joshimath gate ! The yummy matar chaat ( very typical of UP)

Our second forced pit stop was at Joshimath, where you have to pass through a gate system. The traffic ahead of Joshimath usually travels one way, because of the narrow roads and the tough and dangerous terrain. We waited there for about 90 minutes before the last gate for the day open at 1630 hrs. This is when I finally took my camera out and made an effort to take a few pictures. Rest of the time I was more than happy just enjoying the views and breathing deep, with a few clicks here and there!

The Joshimath gate make a good sales opportunities for a lot of people there. This lady was selling sphatik malas, rudraksh malas and what not…

One of the old boards of the Mount View HOTel


It took us a good 2.5 hours before we reached the holy town of Shri Badrinath. It was freaking cold already, and I had to brave the chill in my shorts and a shawl (was just too lazy to take out my lowers). We checked into a cheap hotel with the bare minimum facilities. Changed and rushed to the temple for darshan before the doors were closed for the night. It had started drizzling, and it just made it colder! Brrrrr!!!

Papa was the last and lucky one to enter the main temple door after much requests to the priest, while the rest of us (ME, Mom, my two cousins) waiting outside in the compound. The priest then closed the main door of the temple giving Pa and Uncle God some decent time together! He came out after a few minutes and we rushed back to our hotel with wet and freezing feet. The next action item was to have dinner. Shops close early in the small town; however we did manage to eat well at a restaurant nearby. I was very tired and sleepy with the long day and almost slept on the dinner table itself: P I was not even sure of the menu the next morning!!! : P We rushed back to our rooms after dinner and it took me two quilts, my shawl, and 2 minutes to take off to my dreamland.

I was the first one to get up the next morning and this was around 0230 hrs, only to sleep again and wake up around 0500 hrs. I got up and went out of the hotel only to see one of the best views I had seen in my entire life! A majestic mountain with snow all around, overlooking the town in that dark blue morning sky!!! I just could not take my eyes off it. Went back in, took the camera out and just waited for the light to be good enough to take a few pictures. I roaming around in that freezing temperature loving the entire feel of the Indian cold, and the view of the majestic Mt. Neelkanth in front of me. The town was also getting up with people walking around the streets, the tea stalls warming up milk and preparing vegetables, the cabbies trying to start, jump start and fire start (See one of the pictures in the Badrinath set on Flickr) their vehicles.

The first view of the Mount Neelkanth ! It does not look half as good in the picture, as it was in real ! Grand, Majestic, Royal, Larger than Life !

Dew converted to frost and ice over car tops!

Mount Neelkanth after a while with the sun shining bright on it !

Bhagwan Singh, our hotel attendent. Very prompt and quick!

One of the many segregated dustbins for organic/ inorganic waste in the town !

We finally got ready to go to the temple around 0700 hrs. The skies were clear and the temperature was getting better every minute. Had a lovely walk around the temple with the sun shining all nice and bright. I took a few pictures and we were ready to head back home by 0900 hrs.

Way to the temple !

Shri Badrinath Temple
Uttarakhand Police on duty (They were not too keen on getting a picture clicked, but agreed when I told them that I was not from the media but just a photographer)
Another view of the temple!


Natural hot water springs (Tapt Kund) are another attractions of the town. While there must exist a perfect scientific explaination to it, most people are happy believing that its an act of God that hot boiling water comes from within the surface of earth at this high altitude ( over 3000 mtrs from sea level)

Pa again :)

Some another temple not too far away ! not sure about its name or relevance!
The usual daily life of any small town. Road side salons for that perfect hair-cut!
One of the many tea stalls; and the tea essentials, Ginger and Cardomom (Elaichi)

We left the town around 0930 hrs (There is a gate system for vehicles going back as well and we had missed the gate by some 30 minutes and the next gate was at 1130 hrs). We were still allowed to pass through I guess because the traffic from the other side would take sometime before they bump into us. The rest of the drive was pretty bumpy as expected till Chamoli and got slightly better post that.

Mt. Neelkanth once again with some clouds visiting for breakfast !
The beginning of the long road back home!

View of the National Highway 58 towards Badrinath from Joshimath. The driving distance between the point where picture was taken from and the road below is approx 6 kms. Its the Govindghat ( 22 kms) that is the first town on this road, from where you can trek to Ghangria and consequenty to Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib. Then Pandukeshwar and then Badrinath. The highway ends in the Mana Village which is the last village on this route and is the end of road for civilian traffic.

We visited another temple called the Dhara Devi Mandir just before RudraPrayag on our way back, and were at my Mama’s place near Meerut around 0300 hrs after a long drive of approximately 18 hours. Kudos to our driver Kamal who managed to drive for this long, and saved us at least two night halts which I had earlier planned. All in all a wonderful trip.

Bells at the Dhara Devi Mandir

Time for some objective information:

Route : New Delhi – Meerut – Haridwar – Rishikesh(No traffic allowed before 0500 hrs or after 2030 hrs) – DevPrayag (Another check post for night traffic) – Srinagar – RudraPrayag – KarnaPrayag – Chamoli – Nand Prayag – Joshimath(Gate System; Last Gate 1603 hrs) – (Govindghat/Vishnu Prayag/Pandukeshwar) – Badrinath
Distance to Badrinath from Haridwar: Approx 350 kms
Time: Minimum 12 hrs ex. Haridwar (Add buffer for landslides and pit stops and the total off-road experience after Joshimath)
Transport: Many buses from Haridwar around 0400 hrs/ Local taxies run at 11.50-12.50 Rs/Km (plains/hills)
Food on the way: Carry your own biscuits and snacks and water. Decent road side stalls and small restaurants at all major towns enroute
Route very prone to Landslides to plan your journey in non-rainy times

Link to : Badrinath Set on Flickr

Hope you enjoyed ! Please excuse any grammer or other silly english mistakes. The small blogger editing window takes a lot more patience than I have to ensure everything is good in the post ! Relook at a picture you like, when you find an english mistake and let me know of it too, so that I can correct it :P

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Long(er) weekend in Logan, Utah !

Sep11
2008 27 Comments Written by Chaiwala
I always hate the comment “Oh, you are so lucky.” partially because I put in a lot of effort in things that otherwise might seem to be just fate… frankly speaking nothing, and i mean nothing works for me if there is no sweat !

However at times after I have started traveling out of the country, I do feel that Uncle God has been kind enough to me and given me some luck to cruise on ! One such thing is having a home outside home !!!

When I was in London, my homes were at Abhishek’s place or Bharti’s hostel… where I could just go anytime and be ! Abhishek even gave me the key to his house and was kind enough never to disturb me if I had reached home early and was sleeping… or when I was busy taking pictures inside the room and he was locked out !!! Bharti knew that I eat packed food, and was more than keen to cook for me, irrespective of the time I landed !

Luck it is to have people like this in your life… I must have done some efforts I am sure, but not that I remember in this life time to earn them !!!

So back to why I started this post… I went home in the US as well a few weeks back when I landed in the Salt Lake City and was driven to Logan… A small town of Mormons and Aggies located in a valley and home to the Utah State University where Tanu is doing her Ph.D.

Both of us know each other for about 3 years now, and have been talking off and on over various mediums, with the first phone conversation happening in July this year when I arrived in the US… Before I was coming here, she wanted to know if I would come to Utah for a trip… I said of course, and she said, ya right !!! and later when we made the plan, the “ya right” changed to “I don’t Believe it” and it still says that way :)

I had an amazing 3 day vacation in Logan a few weeks back, thanks to Tanu who managed to take some time off from the research and made sure I was comfortable… and I was surprised to see her apartment too… She had shifted just a couple of weeks back in that house, and it was perfect !!! I guess the vibes of where you are and who you are with play a very very important role in how comfortable you feel. And I was feeling at home.. I don’t think there is any other word to describe that place !!!

Rest let me leave to the pictures below and talk in between !!!

Still taken at the Gardner’s Market… My first experience of a local market in the US and I must say I loved it… Thanks Tanu for that impromptu plan ! Or you had thought of it already?

It was a nice bright day with the sun playing hide and seek with clouds while I was sitting on the cool grass and watching people roam around the market…

There were some kids who were having a competition of sorts with their handmade boats… this young man was trying to make sure that his boat does not capsize and finishes the race…

We were back in a couple of hours from the market and decided to move out again in the evening… seen above is a flower against the setting sun…
We did not have much time before the sunset, and we tried to reach a view point but could not… We then went to a place where we just parked the car, switched on the music and sat without talking to each other much… I think we must have spent some couple of hours there before we decided to get back home… my favorite and requested Aalu Gobhi was waiting after all :)

The next day we decided to go out for a drive… and here is Tanu modeling away to glory… nice car too eh!

I was pretty happy too with how relaxing the last two days had been… Seen above is me trying to step on a few clouds :)

This is Bear Lake in the Garden City… some 50 odd miles away from Logan…
I have always liked tread marked in sand… could not resist taking this picture either…

We were back in Logan in good time (another driving experience that I managed) and took a few pictures of the sunflowers before we settled down to see the setting sun !

While I was busy figuring out how to take pictures of flowers like above, Tanu was busy climbing up a huge Ford truck parked nearby (seen below)… One crazy girl she is…

And the sun on my final evening in Logan finally set… and gave me a good view too… Thank you uncle God for the instructions you gave to Sun Unkil…

This was a small half court at one of the houses… what temptation it was to play !!! but no basketball :/

So we were back to the apartment… What you are going to see next is kinda eeeky… so enjoy !!!

This is the RAT that was kepy on my shoulder to freak me out by my dear friend Tanu before she clicked a picture of me trying to remove him from there…. ugh !!!

And she is a Frog Queen or should I say the princess… She keeps kissing frogs and because most of them don’t turn into princes, she brings them home and they stay happily after… So here are the lucky kissed Princes of Tanu’s world…

This was was the most real one… ugh !!! I did try touching it, but the feeling was too slimy…

Oh, and another one of the Princes…


And here is the Frog Princess herself !!! hidden behind her loved ones…


And she seems to be better than average painter too.. seen below are three of her water colors !!! lovely stuff…


Go to a Bengali’s place and not find Ma… impossible I guess !!! Aro? Do you have one? Anyway… here is another picture…

On our drive back to the Salt Lake Airport, we found this cloud maker truck !!! See how the clouds are coming out of its back container…


And so my trip finished…. I have skipped the following parts from the travellogue above…

1. The smallest ever plane that I have sat in…
2. No food and half a glass of soft drink served on a 3 hour flight…
3. Tanu trying to but not being able to find me at the airport while I knew where she was :D it was super funn !!!
3a. Getting lost in Salt Lake City
4. The lovely food at her place
5. How I irritated her to the core when she was cooking food one of the two evenings and how much we both loved it :D
6. One of the cutest ever girls I met, Amrita, at Tanu’s place… she was a real darling !
7. The Frog curtain in the bathroom…
8. Dabur Lal Toothpaste ( loooooooooved it)
9. Tweaking Tanu’s car deck to deliver the right kind of bass and treble !!! Now the music sounds much better…
10. and loads of moments and go down as wonderful memories !!!

Oh, and I am on Tanu’s Blog too… Model and all ;) check THIS out !

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The US that I would like to remember….

Aug14
2008 20 Comments Written by Chaiwala
Let me write this post differently… so far I have been fitting photos between texts, and this time I am going to fit in some text between the photographs…. This is about the two days of being in the US that I did not know about…

The planning for the camping and the drive had started a couple of days back, with me trying to find out where to rent the tents from and the car from… I booked and canceled and booked and canceled the car booking a number of times, before we finalized the Enterprise Rentals for a compact car…

Pritam had already made the bookings for the camping site and the rafting and this was going to be an exciting weekend for sure… for two reasons, 1 that I was going to drive and second I was going to a place that I had never been to before, oh and 3 because I was camping which I had never done, and 4 because I would not have accompalished the not so common Rafting in two continents tag :P (Aro, Tushar, Subbu, Deepu… guys are you jealous :D )

The initial plan was that these guys would pick me up from my apartment saturday morning but we figured that its going to waste time so I packed my bags and went along on friday itself to Pritam’s place… we had a list of things to do and the one on the top of the list was to get the rental car… The girl at enterprise happily upgraded us to a larger car and gave us a weekend deal which basically saved us atleast $40 per day for the 3 days we were renting the car for…

We were just sitting when one of the group said that we should leave friday night itself, there was no reason to wait till morning to drive to Wisconsin… The idea sounded better than trying to wake up at 4 in the morning… so i quickly went to bed (This was around 7 that we decided this and I had 3-4 hours to catch a nap)… Pritam woke me up at 11 and we were ready to move by 0100 hrs…

Next I know is that we drove and we drove and drove… The guy at the camp said that we should throw our GPS out of the window because its not going to take us to the camp, rather might just make us loose our way :D however I had the google map for the nearest town and then a smaller map for the way from Lakewood to the Kosir’s camp site next to river Peshtigo… so partly the map helped and the rest we managed with the GPS… also did manage to sleep for a couple of hours when Pritam took over the driving bit from me…


These are when we took a photography break on the Highway 32… the light was great and the weather wonderful… and we could not resist stopping for a while and just admiring the country side… The gentleman in the picture below came out of his barn and gave us company for a while and talked about the town etc… It was not very common for him to find strangers parked near his place and roaming around… and that too Indians :D


We reached lakewood without getting much lost, but had to call the camp to find some directions to the site… was not too tough and we were at the camp in another 45 minutes…
Now came the challenge… none of us had ever put up a tent before and the instructions did not seem to be enough for the entire thing to be building up from that bag… we still tried and after a hardship of about 30 minutes and misunderstanding the instructions, we were able to put the tent up exactly the way it was supposed to be… the second tent took less time and the third one was done up in 10 minutes flat !!! Meanwhile the ipod and the speakers were also set up and soft hindi music had started playing in our camp site…

Mornings are time for breakfast, and because we had a lot of bread and strawberry jam and haldiram namkeens and biscuits… the first meal at the camp was not a problem at all… infact it was nice eating in the (almost) wild like that… None of us except one had mobile signals on their cell and it was a good feeling to be honest :)

When we finally decided to move away from the camp and explore the area, we realised that there was an annual parade going on…. a small one but a nice one where a lot of people from the town participated… I think it had to do something with the fire department of the county as a lot of fire engines were a part of it….

It had some things that can cause fire too, as you see in the picture below :)


We decided to turn back and explore the place on foot before we take the cars out and go to the waterfall that we were supposed to go to… and below is what I clicked on the small 45 minute walk around the camp….








We finally managed to get out of the camp, also managed to get lost and find our way back towards the camp and then towards the waterfall that we were trying to go to…

But this was not a waterfall but a small park with some bridges on the river… I was happy to be there, took my camera out and went shooting again, while the rest of the gang was happy exploring the place in the other direction too…

And when there is water and there are boys, it does not take much to get in and have a ball !!! so there were we enjoying the warm water stream and being the kids we always miss in ourselves….



We were then told that we were not too far away from the waterfall either, and we decided that the second part of the fun was going to be at the waterfall… so the guys just hopped on in the cars… in watever form they were and we drove to the waterfall some 5 miles away :)

While the rest of the gang jumped into the water rightaway to have their second half of taking a fun bath, i decided to call it quits and just walked around taking some pictures…. check out the place like I did below :)







We left the Goodman park in about an hours time and I was very very happy to see this part of the US… typically one would associate US with tall buildings and busy downtowns and here we were in the middle of nowhere, with our phones not working and cars being seen at the rate of 1 every 30-45 minutes….


Back at the camp in the evening, we did not have much to do so we decided to just walk around the camp… there were 26 camp sites in the camp and most of them were occupied…. small tents, big tents, family tents, campers and jeeps, everything was there….

The bus that Kosir’s use to ferry rafters in the Peshtigo river camp…


We were just hanging out at our camping site not doing anything… the picture below is our camp site (#10)… you can see our 3 tents and the two cars parked…

No camping is complete without a campfire and we had made all arrangements for it too… got some extra firewood to ensure that the fire stays till we manage to stay awake… I was pretty tired from my day so I decided to call it a day around 2200 and the rest of the guys I guess were awake till midnight before they decided to sleep off too…

I woke up at 0400 hrs to pee, and when I got out of my sleeping bag ( man it was tough or tough to get out of it in pitch dark) and the tent I saw one of the most spectacular sights ever… Second to Pangong Tso I must say… the sky was studded with stars and no two stars were more than 1 mm away from each other… absolutely brightly lit sky this was… I forgot to pee too :D and kept looking at it for a while before I realised that nature was calling for something else other than just stars as well :)

We all woke up around 0900 hrs in the morning and lazyly just sat around not doing anything… we had to read the rafting campsite around 1400 hrs and had a lot of time on hand so there was no hurry of any sort…

These two girls in the picture below were roaming all around the camp on their miniature bike… very cute girls they were…


I decided to pick up my lenses and take pictures around the camp again… here is what I clicked…







And then there was time to take pictures of the gang I was travelling with… so here we go :)


We finally drove out around 12 and reached the other site in abot 45 minutes… did not have much to do except just hang around the laaaaaaaaaaaaarge open spaces and I could not think of anything but to take out my camera and take more pictures…




We went out for rafting around 1430 hrs and well.. what can I say except that I love Rishikesh and I love the Ganges… there was just one rapid ( grade IV) and we did that twice… thats it !!! lets just forget it !!! ( so guys, don’t be jealous ! this was more of a water park ride that I did )

Suman dislocated his shoulder while he was being pulled up on the raft… now this was some stupid thing which I must mention here… the guys were pulled up with their hands, which increased the probability of an injury for obvious reasons… our guides in Rishikesh always say that pull a guy up holding the life jacket and not anything else…

The instructor arranged for Suman to be taken to the hospital where he was taken care of just fine… the picture below is in the hospital parking lot…


And this is Suman, who looks more treated than he was actually… not sure why all these wires were fixed to him…. he slept most of his way back home though… I drove half the distance and then Pritam took over….


Got back only by 0300 hrs and managed to sleep for 4 hours before we returned the car, and then the tents and reached office… All in all a wonderful weekend… something that I would like to remember for a long time :)

God bless !!!

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2nd August, the day of Firsts !!!

Aug05
2008 37 Comments Written by Chaiwala
I don’t really know how to start writing about this weekend, this is the third time I have started and I hope I am not deleting it again…

So Far So Good…

I was desperately looking forward to getting out of Minneapolis, its too dull and dry for me… Even though the weather is great for evening walks, I am not a guy who likes too much peace in his life, and here in my apartment I can actually sit and look at the sky for hours, with no activity happening… So the Chicago trip was something that I was really really looking forward to… Had planned it within the second week of arrival to US…

Friday evening, instead of coming back home, I went to the Minneapolis Downtown to a colleague’s place… I had to take my bus from there, and it only made sense to go to downtown, see some people around, and then take my bus to Chicago, which by the way means, a smelly onion (I wonder why).. Walked around the downtown with colleagues from work and finally took the bus at 2230 hrs on Friday night…

My healthy dinner on Friday…
I have this interesting habit of meeting online friends far away from where I stay, so that I can easily avoid meeting them the second time, just in case ;) NO NO I am kidding… Infact both such friends, who I have met after going a long distance have been great to meet again and again… Deepu (who I met in Chennai) and Ankur (who I met in Murthal on our way to Bhakra Nangal) and this time I was meeting Kshitiz, who I really admire as a photographer and now as a person too… We figured out our itinerary and the plan of action for the weekend…

The Minneapolis Sunset from the Downtown…

I reached Chicago ( I kinda like the sound of this name) at 0630 hrs as scheduled, went to Kshitiz’s place before we left for the activity of the day… We took a bus to the Train station and then a train to O’Hare Airport…

Breakfast at Kshitiz’s, by dear chef Kshitiz…

I really like these kind of curtains…

After a little struggle with the car rental shuttle pickup, we finally reached Thrifty Car Rental’s office where a nice white Dodge Calibre was waiting for us… While I was kinda nervous about driving with all the mirrored roads and everything… But never mind, it cannot be too tough, just some focus right? !!!! but hey, I don’t even know how to take the car away from the parking mode to a normal drive mode… most of the cars I have seen have a small lever just next to the gear lever to do that, but this one was different… so we got out, got some inputs on how to drive that kinetic Honda of a car and moved from there… surprisingly it was easier than I thought, and I am happy to have driven those 100+ miles… this was an interesting experience, with we missing a turn and then finding our way back to the correct road quickly too…

Chicago is about very high and higher buildings…

We reached our destination in a li’il more than an hour, and the day being a nice bright, sunny day was perfect for our aeroplane ride… yes, we had planned to take a flight ride in the country side for a change… I felt it was the best way to see things from a different level !!!


We just kept waiting for our turn almost the entire day, being a nice day there were far too many people which were going up on the flights…

And I kept waiting….

A jumper packing her Parachute…

Another one of the jumpers with the camera video and digital (Canon Xti with a Sigma Fisheye)

anyway after a looooooooooong wait our turn came too, and we boarded the flight for a completely different view of the world !!!

The Vehicle of the day…

So there was I, leaving on a not so jet plane to reach 14500 ft, and then do something that I will probably rate as the craziest thing that I can EVER do in my life time… which basically translates into Skydiving from 14500 ft, you body falling towards the ground at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, the parachute ride for a few minutes before you finally hit the ground !!!

Aliens were falling off… and this was one of them….

Made people look for more…

There were many options that people could choose from…

She was my alien :)

I was going to jump out of the damn aircraft and rush towards the ground at 120 miles per hour !!! sounds scrary? Well… You have to be there to really know what the fkk it means to JUMP… there was not much going on in my mind when it was happening, except that what the fkk is happening !!!

More pretty Aliens…

We drove back to Chicago, and spent the rest of the evening walking around the Cloud Gate, the Navy Pier etc etc etc… actuallly I don’t want to write more and want to think about the jump again…

The Dodge Calibre I was driving…

enjoy the pictures of the walk and fireworks below…

The Cloud Gate, popular as Bean…




The Chicago downtown skyline… just before the fireworks…

I was tempted to start walking back home :)

Goodman di laltain…

Oh, and before I go, here is a visual account of what I did !!!

Ready to get on…

Dave(Photographer), me and Fin(Instructor)…
And I flew !!!!
Without wings…
For a while….
Ok, a li’il more….

And a smaller chute opened to keep us balanced while we fall at speeds of 120mph+ towards the ground
Kept Falling…

For a while more…
And landed after 5 minutes, but after the parachute opened, and we flew around in the sky…

And I am still high !!!!

This is Kshitiz’s video… the second around minute and a half in this video have me jumping out of the plane !!!

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The 28 hour Recharge

Jun02
2008 28 Comments Written by Chaiwala

Just around midnight on Saturday, me and Tushar leave home for somewhere… During our walk on the road, while looking for an auto to ISBT, we discussed our options to go in all possible directions, but froze on Rishikesh … His responses to a 24 hour trip to Bharatpur, Agra, Jaipur were funny, keeping in mind the Gujjar agitations happening around these areas :)

And it was interesting how our families let us go… with a disclaimer that we had lost it !!! and that nothing could be done !!! what else would you say about two guys, who just pack and go somewhere at midnight !!!

Just then, an auto stopped, we hopped on, reached the ISBT and took the bus after a few difficult choices of a bad bus, a not so bad bus, a not so good bus, the UP Roadways or Uttarakhand Roadways bus stared at us in the face… We finally took a decision and took the UK (Read UttaraKhand) Roadways for Rishikesh :)

Tushar did overhear a small issue when we boarded the bus, but too bad that we did not take it seriously… We realized after 15 minutes that one of the twin tyres at the back of the bus had a puncture and we could not move at more than 30 kmph till the time it gets fixed…. Which was a major disappointment as this clearly meant that our plan of reaching Rishikesh around 0600 hrs was fukked up pretty bad !!!

Li’il that we could do, but laugh at the situation :) for some reason we did enjoy the slowness on the road… Every vehicle honked and passed us while we were cruising at a top speed of 30-40 kmph on the HIGHWAY !!!

The first pit stop was at some Nataraj Restaurant, in front of the Cheetal Grand, Khatoli ( some 40 odd kms ahead of Meerut)… This is where the driver found a Puncture Shop and decided to give the tyre for a repair… It was around 0415 hours that the guy removed the tyre, and though the conductor said we should be good to go in some 30 minutes, I had a feeling it was not going to take anywhere less than 60 minutes, maybe more !!!

Me and Tushar walked around the place, discussing the entrepreneur skills of the guy at the tyre shop, who was managing the operations, the finances, and infrastructure etc etc all by himself !!! I had a cup of warm sugar with bits of coffee in it !!! We also discussed taking a different bus to Haridwar just to save sometime, but did not do it thinking that it would make a difference of about 30 odd minutes only… the slower part of the journey was already over… We finally moved at 0545 hrs ( as expected ) and dozed off almost immediately.. All I remember was that the driver suddenly had changed the entire tempo of the journey… It was his turn now to honk and pass !!! and he made a full generous use of the pressure horn in the otherwise not so quiet bus :)

The Laxman Jhoola…

We reached Haridwar around 0800 hrs and had to wait for another 20 odd minutes before we got another bus to Rishikesh… We reached Rishikesh, and then took a Tempo to Ram Jhoola… Breakfast was planned at Govindji’s Prasadam (one of our favorite eating places in Rishikesh, for its hygiene and tasty food at decent prices, but extremely slow service and a strange combo of Tea, Lassi, and Curd in the same combo breakfast)… Unfortunately the quality has deteriorated over the last 3 years… Anyway… this is where Uncle God decided to start playing a few games :) and it started raining… Our entire plan could have been washed out, had it not stopped raining in a while… It thankfully did, and we were now ready to move too… A long walk and we were on the other side of the Ganges at the taxi stand for Neelkanth Mahadev Temple…

The Rains left us with some lovely pearl like momentos ready to be captured :)

A very interesting door I saw while walking around… this ladder is the only way to reach the door…

Buddhist Prayer Flags on the Laxman Jhoola

Neelkanth is about 25 kms (drive) and 14 kms (Trek) away from Rishikesh… The taxis are available near the Ram Jhula and Laxman Jhula, near the Choti wala Restaurant and Trayambkeshwar Temple respectively… It’s a little tricky to get a taxi here, because the drivers/operators are not keen on any empty seats and because a lot of people travel in groups, it’s tough to get the exact number of seats in a cab… We were lucky and an operator helped us get an Amby shared between the two of us and family of 3… The travel time to and back from Neelkanth was not much thanks to the good quality car and very efficient driver…

Pooja Thalis at a shop near Neelkanth Mahadev…

Pooja Thalis at a shop near Neelkanth Mahadev…

Tushar’s Thali… The Plastic glass has Gangajal, Honey, Gulab Jal and Milk mixed in it…

We however were stunned to see the amount of people who were there at the temple… We took the pooja thalis and moved towards the end of the queue, walked for about 10 minutes before we saw the last person in the queue… And this meant that there were at-least 200 people in the queue ahead of us…

A part of the loooong queue….

Just a tap… nothing specific… I click leaking taps…

It was already pretty hot by then, and I was in no mood to stand there… Tushar did not either, and we turned back towards the temple where we offered our prayers at a different Shivling, lucky us that we realized there was a view of the main temple and Shivling… and offered our prayers through that window :) smart US :)

The place for Incense Sticks and Dhoopbatti…

Another view…

A lady tying the Holy Thread (Kalava) on a grill…

A Lady looking at the interesting roof of the Neelkanth Temple… Though it’s in the north, the temple’s roof and top resembles the temples in the South a lot…

Kids need Papas and Mamas to ring the Temple Bells :)

Friends of all ages were around too :)

Tired, and yet managed to smile a bit :) Tushar must have said something cheap :P

We moved back from Neelkanth, got down at the Laxman Jhoola, took a few pictures and walked for about a km or more in the heat looking for a Tempo towards Ram Jhoola… we finally got to enjoy the best ride of the trip with our bags inside the tempo and we standing outside with the cool breeze whooshing past our faces drying up all the sweat and fatigue :)

The Trayambkeshwar Temple, near Ram Jhoola, has 11 floors in all, here is a list of all the Gods you can meet there :)

A view from the top of Lakshman Jhoola

The motor boat near the Laksham Jhoola… The same As#$%#le had hit our raft head on at full speed on one of my rafting trips… It’s only Gods grace that I am alive right now, otherwise he had made sure that the people on the left of the raft had their heads ripped off from the bodies… No idea how we managed to survive… Thank you Uncle God :)

We reached the Ram Jhoola, and spent sometime trying to figure out which beach/Ghat we could go to take a bath… It was not a very difficult decision, however once we were there, getting inside the water which seemed freezing cold was tough !!! took us a while before we decided to give up all our fear of the current, and cold water and just jumped in !!! spent some gooood 45 odd minutes before we decided to leave…

I could try some splashes too after clicking some on the recent trip to Kurukshetra :)
And I emerge a winner :) against the current and the cold water !!! Omie you rock !!!

Some relaxing time pass too :) By this time I was ok with the water :)

And then I made Tushar do some chapaak chapaak :) He is lighter… you can see his head going in… with me being atleast 100 kgs heavier than him :) my fall was quicker :D

But the two brothers were very happy after the 20+ dubkies, the throwing water at each other, the running out of water because it was cold, and the chapaak chapaaks :)

Had good food at the Chotiwala… waiting for a bus at the bus stand… thought of coming via Dehradoon for the charm of AC buses running between Delhi-Dehradoon, but finally took a decent Pawan Gold to Delhi… slept most of the way in awkward positions on the seat :) just to wake up at times with a painful lower back, or a pulled musled in the neck, or legs :) change the position and sleep again :) This time as well the journey took much longer than usual, thanks to the freaking jam at the border near Dilshad Garden… must be about 2 kms long and it took about 100 odd minutes to pass !!! We managed to reach the ISBT, Kashmiri Gate around 0400 hrs and then home around 0445 hrs….

The Ram Jhoola…

What a trip it was !!! just the perfect 24 hour recharge that my mind required… I can now wait for some 10 days before I start getting itchy about another travel :) hehehe…

I did not know that Lakshman Jhoola was this old… Now I do…


Some more information, not necessarily about this trip but for the Delhi- Haridwar- Rishikesh Route:
1. Distance
Delhi – Haridwar : 208 kms; Delhi- Rishikesh : 230 kms
2. Approximate Time :
Delhi – Haridwar : 4-5 hours, Depending on the time of the day you are driving
3. Best way to travel:
Hire a cab or drive yourself…I would say hire a cab, its better to be driving around on the bad roads instead of punishing your own vehicle… The 4 lane highway is under progress for good on the stretch, however it would take a good couple of years before it can get fully operational..
4. Eating options enroute and on location:
Cheetal near Khatoli, Moolchand just before the Muzaffarnagar bypass; Mohanji Poori wale near Har Ki Paudi, Chotiwala Restaurant near Ram Jhoola, Govindji’s Prasadam near the parking in Rishikesh
5. Bus Tickets and other fare : Rs. 150 per person (Delhi Rishikesh in the UP Roadways bus); Rs. 5 for the boatride one way near the Ram Jhula; Rs. 5 for Tempo per person from the bus stand to Ram Jhula in Rishikesh; Rs. 600 for the Amby ( Seats 5) for Rishikesh-Neelkanth and back
6. Staying options: Many hotels ranging from Rs. 500 per night for a double occupancy to Rs. 2500 double occupancy

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The Land of Gita – Kurukshetra

May27
2008 17 Comments Written by Chaiwala
This was a trip long due…

Papa had been asking me about Kurukshetra for a while now, and we just could not make a plan… We thought about taking the bus, and then the train, and finally decided to drive !

The initial plan was to go early morning and return in the night, but I thought if we are going, we might as well stay back for the night and relax… so decided that we will leave late morning around 1000 hrs, reach whenever, roam around in the evening and the next day before heading back home…

So we did… This was the second long drive with parents… no wait ! third… The first and second being Agra and Bharatpur respectively…

It was a smooth drive with one pit stop at my favorite parantha party place, Murthaland the second at Zilmil Restaurant Complex, just after Karnal and finally Brahmn Sarovar in Kurukshetra…

The yummo white butter on a tandoori Aaloo Parantha…

The belief is that Brahm Sarovar is the place where Lord Brahma (The Creator) conceived the Earth… A dip in this huge 1800*1400 feet Sarovar is said to bring salvation from all your sins especially during Amavasya (No Moon night) or Surya Grahan (Solar Eclipse)…

Mummy Pappa…

Some kids enjoying a splash in the Brahm Sarovar…

More Water, more splash…

His name is Dharmendra… Studies in the day, sells alphabet bracelets in the evening at Brahm Sarovar…

The day was still young, and I was not getting any good pictures, and there were a few more places that we wanted to visit… so we decided that we would go to Jyotisar, and come back to Brahm Sarovar once again in the morning…

Papa…

Ma…

About 9 kms away from Thanesar (Kurukshetra) is Jyotisar, which is said to be the place where Lord Krishna gave the message of Gita to Arjun….

While walking around the temple complex me and Aro heard a lovely sound of someone singing a bhajan or something… though the sound was very clear, there were no loud speakers around or anyone who was singing could be heard… Some more attention to the source of the sound made us realize that it was coming from under the bridge over one corner of the pond in the temple compound…

The Pond at Jyotisar Temple Compound… just below the bridge, towards the right was Goga Singh singing…

And I did manage to go there and take a few pictures of him while he was enjoying his singing…

There was this man singing at the corner of the pond and his voice was heard crystal clear all around the temple compound… My pa was already there talking to him and called me as well… Goga Singh (his name) has been singing at the Jyotisar Temple complex since 2001 and is a well recognized person around the area… Infact there are people who come to the temple only to hear him sing… Pa requested him to sing and he did oblige with a lovely Bhajan, while I was taking pictures of him…

Goga Singh…

My Pa is a palmist… reading Goga Singh’s palm here…

After a while, we moved to a village called Narkatari… this village gets its name from the fact that it was a part of Pataal Lok and was brought to the earth by Lord Krishna ( thats was a local priest told us)…

The temple at Naraktari..

The other and more important significance of this place is that this is where Bhishm Pitamah lied on the bed of Arrows and eventually died.


The night was now reaching close and we decided to move back to Kurukshetra and call it a day… finding a place to spend the night was not a very difficult thing to do with the Haryana Tourism Guest house being there on the main road itself…

Inside of the Haryana Tourism Guest House…

Some quick talks, a light dinner and a plan to wake up at 0500 hrs, later we finally called it a day…

Choosing to have only one day in this post because of the number of pictures !!! Some more from second day in a post later…

Time for a few statistics and other factual information now:
Distance from Delhi : 170 kms
Approximate driving time : 3-4 hours (Thanks to the construction at Murthal and Panipat). Once the flyover at Panipat is complete this should reduce by at-least 30 minutes
Night Stay options : A number of Dharamshaalas, a few hotels, all on the main road

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MP Diaries : Bhopal to Ujjain

Apr24
2008 13 Comments Written by Chaiwala
We had slept pretty late last night, and were not sure what was in store for us today… so the mood was lazy, and the conversations slow..

but at the back of our minds we knew there was much to see, and much to go to… so we kinda picked up some pace and go ready around 1130 hrs and had our breakfast at a Haldiram types restaurant just outside our hotel !!!

Oh, yes ! I am back to finishing off my MP travelogue :)

Here are the first few parts if you have missed them :

Delhi – Kanha
Kanha and around
Kanha to Bhopal

We wanted to go to Bhojpur, had heard nice things about it, a 1000 year old incomplete temple, world’s tallest Shivling etc etc and we also wanted to go to Ujjain… ok I wanted to go to Ujjain (I feel some connection with Shiva and hence all the Jyotirlings come into the list of places I feel good about; and the Shivling @ Ujjain happens to be called MahaKaal too)

Talked to a few people and found out that there was an intercity express to Ujjain from Bhopal at 1700 hrs and will take 4 hours to reach Ujjain…

Now this made perfect sense, we could take an auto, go to Bhojpur come back, pack our bags and leave for Ujjain… come back to Bhopal tomorrow and take it from there… super..

So after talking to a few Autowallahs, and doing some bit of not to successfull bargaining we agreed to give the guy 270 bucks to take us to Bhojpur ( around 25 kms away from Bhopal) and bring us back…

The drive was fine, the sun not too strong and once we were out of the city between the farms it actually became must pleasent !!! I realised how much Wheat MP must be producing looking at the wast span of the golden fields all around !!! lovely view it was… Did stop at a few places to enjoy the calm and finally reached Bhojpur…

The Sprinklers for Wheat Fields…

The temple is massive, and was my second stop next to the river Betwa (The first being Orccha), and we were surprised at the size of the Shivling too… no wonder !

A Kiddo who was there with his parents for a Pooja…

Renovation work in progress at the Bhojpur Temple…

We spent a good couple of hours at the temple before we decided to move back to Bhopal and catch the train !!!

Aro at Bhojpur

A Local Musician at Bhojpur…

The return journey was equally nice and we did manage to reach the station on time too, rather before time… I remember buying the tickets and then coming out of the station to eat something… how could we not…

So this time… we had rasmalai, some other local mithai, some tea, and some cold drinks, not in this order though :)

Soon enough the train journey started again, this time a different flavor… General Coach, Wooden Benches, not too crowded though :)

A Passenger in the Intercity Express from Bhopal to Ujjain

did take us close to about 4 hours, but enjoyed every minute of it… talked to people, took pictures, got a small lesson on gun management from a Railway Policeman too :)

Catching Hope :)

Sunset from the Train…

We reached Ujjain around 2100 hrs and checked into a hotel near the station only… Learnt that the Bhasm Aarti starts at 0500 hrs in the morning and we should be in the temple by 0400 hrs to get a decent view !!!

Arobindo in the train…

The General Compartment we were in…

Now this meant a quick dinner and sleeping without much talking !!! And that happened too !!!

More to follow…

B/W Newspaper Colorful News :)

Some Data now..

Bhopal – Bhojpur : 25 kms
Auto fare : about 250-350 bucks depending on how you bargain…
What to do in Bhojpur : Nothing :) just sit back and relax
Train for Ujjain from Bhopal : Intercity Express @ 1700 hrs everyday
Fare : 50 rs. for the General Class, You can take that ticket and enter the reserved compartment too where the ticket can be upgraded for about Rs. 17 for that coach… the difference is better seats only !!!


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