April 14 2006

Noida-Nainital

14th April 5:00 AM A201 gateway apartments “abe chalo na kya kar rahe ho tum”, cries out Rahul (typical of this guy). But this time he had the right to do it because we were supposed to start at 4:00 AM. Nevertheless, we met his failsafe buffer condition of one hour or so. We had three bikes, Rahul and Raghu on their Unicorn’s and me on my Passion. Rahul was supposed to take Vinu, Raghu was supposed to take Sandeep and I was glad to drive alone. I don’t like someone cracking behind me to drive carefully or fast or whatever. I decided to tie my luggage on the bike (good use of space and peace of mind). We got hold of Vinu from Kendriya Vihar and took NH-24 thereof.
Very soon, I realized that it would be tough for Vinu to carry a heavy luggage on his back all the way. So, I asked him to take on my bag pack, as it was lighter and less bulky. Engineers got down with there expert comments on how one should tighten the ropes. I was overwhelmed by their concerns for me!!! It was almost close to 6:00 AM by now and we were headed towards Hapur bypass.
We jugaadofied a digital camera, not just any but an Olympus C765 with 4M resolution plus 10x optical zoom (courtesy: Mithlesh). It is famous for its automated and advanced controls. I handed over the camera to Vinu as he can click some shots while we were enjoying the smooth ride. He was quite new with the camera but did a very fine job. I sincerely feel that he is a natural photographer. You don’t believe me right, just have a look.



It was heart-throbbing moment for me when I saw the sun rising from the horizon, and the road leading me into it. It is hard to describe but, I almost felt that something touched my soul in and out. I know I will live that moment all my life. Unfortunately, this is the best snap I have to share that experience. After crossing Hapur we made a stop at a road-side dhaba for breakfast. You wouldn’t believe but all of us unanimously said that the wind was bit chilling. We had couple of paranthas and dahi to satisfy our hunger. Everyone was happy with the quality and felt refreshed. It was almost 7:00 AM by now and the sun rays were soothing. Vinu grabbed some nice pictures on the bypass. I am putting the best one for you as I do not want to be a burden for your bandwidth. Looking at these wheat fields, I almost felt that beauty is all around us we just need to observe differently.


Till the end of Moradabad bypass, we rode effortlessly with very few stops to nourish the vegetation around. The drive was amazing and zillion thanks to NHAI for building and maintaining these roads. After crossing the Moradabad bypass (excellent again!!!) and before Rampur, we decided to go via Swaar-Baazpur-Chotta Haldwani rather than the usual routes.


I believe every one would agree with me that it was the worst part of the whole trip. It was a stretch of 40Kms approx. and took more than 2.5 hours for us to literally end it. Rahul felt being forcefully driven through a roller-coaster. I am not sure whether he has experienced the smoothness of any roller-coaster before but I can guarantee that these 40kms were hell worse. Throughout the stretch, I pushed myself to complete it non-stop and all of us knew it somehow. We took just one 2-3 minute stop to straighten our backs and inspecting the bikes a little bit.
We were quite relaxed as soon as we joined the national highway which comes via Moradabad-Ramnagar. We got Sandeep I little nervous with the thought that sugarcane juice he just had is not only good during jaundice but also the one which causes of it. After traveling for some time (too relaxed) we all assembled again for some water and swore a lot at the so called roller-coaster road. Hey don’t you think Rahul’s posture and personality resembles that of a typical neta? We were roughly 50 Kms away from our first destination – Nainital.
All of us got quite excited with the nice atmosphere along this stretch with plush green trees and clean air. It was a real treat to eyes that only see lots and lots of metal and concrete in daily life. There was a stream along the road but dried. It might get alive during rainy seasons. The hiss of the blowing wind was so absorbing that some of us really felt there is water flowing nearby. Rahul clarified that it is very common to misunderstand this sound.
As we started gaining altitude, the curviness of roads also started increasing. I was somehow able to manage a descent speed of 30 km/h but it was no where close to our wing riders. One could see the roads were being repaired with fresh layers of crushers and tar-coal. May be it is done every year as a part of preparation for the next tourist period. Tourism is a huge source of income for the Uttranchal government and community.


Whatever, I was quite happy, we were quite happy bending, twisting and turning with the roads. I could hear a song continuously in my head, “Loose Control – Be a rebel”. Look how happy Rahul is and why not he or rather anyone would be. Well, I was the slowest of the three, so they used to stop and wait for me. Vinu grabbed a couple of nice pictures looking from a good height which I have shared next. I love all of them, you know why, because I have lived all of them. Whenever I see them, they come to life as if everything is happening again. It is right to say, “Life without memories is worse than death”.





3:00 PM Nainital was packed with delhi-ites as everyone wanted to get away from the heat and this long weekend was a boon in disguise. As planned, we started hunting down a cheap hotel to crash in for a while. It was also decided to spend the night in here and would start early for Ranikhet. After some search we were able to get two rooms in 800 bucks for a night. It was right in front of the famous Naini lake, the main attraction here. Sounds costly huh, well remember that was a long weekend. Nevertheless, we felt this would be cheapest one we could get. The only best thing of this hotel was nice, big and safe parking space. The hotel name was “Sheela”, and for one moment, I almost felt it might be a typical bollywood dance bar.
As expected, I had forgotten to keep my shaving kit. It is a syndrome of 3 hours sleep at night which is just 1/4th of the usual. Official conference calls, damn I could not get rid of those. Hey, let me cut this crap here and continue with the trip story. So, I did some usual shopping and got ready to have a bath, he he… but guess what, water was ice chilled. Nevertheless, I did it with a bucket or two, jumped into bed and fall asleep for an hour or so. It was 6:00 PM by now and we started hunting for a good place to eat. You wouldn’t believe this, no matter which restaurant we went up to, the seats were full of dust. Probably, it was just the season start and tourists put life in those places. We had couple of dishes, the usual ones chola-bhatura, dosa, bread-toast, coffee etc. It took more than one hour for us to give up eating. It was quite refreshing by the way.
So, we started our next item on itinerary, bird-watching. As usual, I was indifferent to this activity and enjoyed the warmth of the place. It was a pleasure to see so many people who have come to relax for the weekend. I started ransacking the garment shops for a pair of gloves which I can use while driving to avoid extreme dryness. Meanwhile we saw the Sports Stadium of Nainital, which usually becomes a taxi-stand during this season to handle hoard of tourists. Rahul took us to enjoy the Tibetan market known for cheap stuff. I had the sole aim of buying a pair of gloves and everyone was like… huh! Grow-up kiddo. There was one shop which had purplish Puma painted cotton gloves. It was a nice fit for me. I visited that shop thrice in two hours while searching for some other option somewhere. Ultimately, I bought them for 40 bucks. Rahul was using Indar’s iPOD while I was hunting for gloves. Some tom-dick-n-harry saw him with it, and called loudly “ye mobile nahien iPOD flash karne ka zamaana hai”. Some people have time and mind to notice such things, and some people like me have time to not only notice but think about’em… crazy huh.
It was almost 9:00 PM by now and we were searching for a chain and lock for our bikes. Rahul and I finally decided to go for a deal of 180 bucks for both. Well, by this time some of us felt a need of deserts and Rahul took us to some shop he knew. We enjoyed some chocolate truffle pastry, chocolate chip etc. and went on. Next stuff – Ice-creams!!! I refrained from having one. We also visited a book shop where I bought Richard Bach’s Illusions, and meanwhile, these guys grazed through some of the travel books. I was quite touched with one scenic poster of Om Parvat (3,500 m) which is on the way to Adi-Kailash. I somehow felt connected to that place and took a dream of trekking it sometime. By this time we felt tired of walking and went back to hotel. We decided to go to the famous hill top next morning for the scenic sunrise view. “Good Morning you morons, it is already 7:00 AM”, cried Rahul. You see, true IST followers.

Other snaps from the day