April 15 2006

Nainital-Ranikhet

We were ready in just an hour and went out for a good breakfast, aaloo-puri, paranthas etc. By 9:30 AM we were descending towards Bhowali for fueling and headed off for Ranikhet. I know it is dangerous to drive without your helmet on, but I dared to enjoy the clean air and picturesque surroundings. After fueling, Rahul asked us to park in the middle of the road, and take a snap quickly. Well, no one will ever forget that stop and the ride which followed it, especially the pillions. I am seeking others help here to describe the experience better, as I did not had the luxury to concentrate on anything else but road. You can compare it to a mix of Nevada and Pacific highway stretch in Roadrash (it’s a famous game by the way, so bang your head with the wall if you don’t know about it



We drove with an average of 40 km/h on the winding twisting smooth curves honking all the time. Rahul, the iPOD chap was ahead of all and I decided not to miss the trail this time. We biked for almost 20kms non-stop. That was something…”Loose Control – Be a rebel”. We took just one stop before Ranikhet and, then crashed straight into Parvati Inn. We got a two room suite for 900 bucks which has lot better. The owner gave us a 40% discount on 1500, which is the actual season rate for the room(s). We loved the room for its nice color and woodwork. I lost my presence of mind to click a shot but hope you believe me. You do right…?
I have not told you anything about Sandeep yet. So, here it goes, this guy was reluctant in taking off his helmet even when attending nature’s call. Whichever snap I look at now, he is wearing helmet. You won’t believe me, so find out yourself.


We planned to visit Chaubattia Garden, Bhalu Dam, Jhuladevi Mandir, Sun-set point and, Baba Harikhan Aashram (dunno why?). By 1:00PM we came down to have lunch. There were only two guys both for taking and serving the orders, which meant long wait. 2:30 PM and we were cruising the road again. The only way to reach Chaubattia garden is via the cantonment area of Kumoan Regiment. As soon as we reached the chowki, one of the personnel, Mr. Nair, did the usual inquiry and asked us to wear helmets all the way (I wasn’t wearing it). He gave some life fundaes on safety etc. I had every reason to believe him.
The vegetation was quite dense on these slopes and it was an eye-candy to drive through it. I enjoyed it a lot but with my helmet on of course. I was bit frightened with signs saying “Tiger has the first right on roads”. I am not sure if tiger still exist there but according to military guys, leopards were quite common. Rahul was quite excited and was expecting to spot one.
One has to park the vehicles and walk through woods to reach Chaubattia garden. Similar was the case with Bhaludam. Since, we were running out of time, we had to choose between the two. Mr. Nair has advised us not to go for Bhaludam suspecting we would be lost in woods searching for the way and won’t be able to make it before dark. Nevertheless, I insisted on trekking to Bhaludam. One of tourist guide told he knew a short route which would roughly take 3 minutes on bike plus 15-20 minutes of trek. After a small discussion we decided to go through it. He led us to the start and left to attend other tourists. After some struggle we realized that it would not be wise to go with bikes at this hour (3:30 PM). So, we decided to park the bikes and walk.


The woods were quite dense and it was tough to spot humans. Rahul dropped a bombshell pointing towards the current carrying barbed wires, which according to him was there to keep wild animals away. While writing this memoir, I realized that it might be a separation between army and government owned areas.


We met another party who was in search of this dam and did not have any luck. They were three, two guys and a gal. I only know this about them that one of them works with DRDO. Rahul and I were moving quite fast because we wanted to get our bikes back on road before sun sets. Sandeep was finding it tough to move on the terrain. The guide has told us to take a right from a tin shed hut. Unfortunately, we crossed it and after going quite far, some villager told us to go back. By the time we were back at the hut, the guide himself was there with a couple of other tourist folks (third party). It was already 4:00PM by now and we were indecisive whether to go ahead or not. I was quite determined to reach the dam and forced everyone to come. Rahul agreed easily. After 20 minutes of steep descent, we were at the dam.


There was only 5m water that too very close to dam. It would have been a good experience to move along the bank of the river for some distance but I gave up the idea without any effort. DRDO chap took our group photograph while we relaxed a bit. I was eager to leave some mark as a token of our presence. So, I signed the dam’s wall for everyone. We decided to go back fast as we wanted to visit more places. Sandeep found the terrain quite challenging and was moving slowly. I felt going non-stop till the place where we have parked our bikes. Rahul kept close to me but got worried for others in mid-way.
By 5:15 PM, everyone was back and we were driving again. We stopped to pray in famous Jhuladevi’s temple close to the army check post. While I was getting ready for the prayer, a beautiful woman came with her spouse (Rahul?). As usual, Rahul was quite excited to see a beautiful women and tried his best to capture her, of course in camera you pervert. All of us were amazed to see a “rose tree” in the temple.

Mr. Nair insisted Raghu and party to have some tea before leaving but we were getting late to reach the sun-set spot. On the way back we felt like having some refreshments. So, we dropped the sun-set spot from the wish list and stopped at Meghdoot restaurant. I managed to capture a glimpse of the dusking sun.


We saw a big group of foreigners enjoying meals at the restaurant. The striking thing was that each and every female without exception was wearing salwar-kurta, bindi etc. This stayed in our minds and we left Meghdoot by 6:30 PM for Baba Harikhan Aashram. As expected the aashram was located in a lonely area close to jungle. It was already dark and we were driving with our head-lights on. This was the first time when I drove on slopes in dark. I was bit uncomfortable initially but got used to it easily. The aashram was quite well constructed using modern methods. There were a couple of rules written on the board kept at the entrance, but this one is still in my head – “Drugs are not allowed in aashram premises”. We went straight up to the temple from where the chants were coming. All of us were shocked to see so many foreigners chanting effortlessly in Hindi. We sat down with them and I closed my eyes to relax for a while. The music was soothing and quite comforting to ears. The view from the temple premises must have been amazing as painted on a stone tablet. You can spot most of the Himalayan ranges from that place. Unfortunately, I do not have any photograph to share with you, but it was worth riding in night to visit this aashram. We still suspect that lot of money is pumped into it through foreign accounts.

It was almost 9:30 PM and we were feeling quite hungry and no one was interested in dining at Parvati Inn. So, we walked up to Alka restaurant located round the corner. We got chappatis with lots of butter, some usual paneer stuff, dal makhani, raita, pulao etc. We ate for almost an hour till we were exhausted. Meanwhile, we were also deciding about tomorrows plan, whether we would have time to visit some other places, and which could be a better route to Delhi. Some relative of hotel owner told us to go via Kathgodam-Rudrapur-Moradabad. But one thing we were sure of after dinner was that we will go via Kathgodam route. After lot of calculations (all wrong I suppose) for the time overhead, we planned to cover Bheemtal, Naukuchiatal and Sattal. The additional price we would have to pay is to leave by 6:00 AM. Meanwhile all these discussions, we asked the hotel manager to change the dirty bed sheets. He gave us hard time explaining that no one has changed it since afternoon.

Other snaps from the day