One more vacation;time to pack our luggages once again. This Puja (october,2017) we were to travel the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand,India. We could manage a week though and within a week course its impossible to cover everything that Kumaon had to offer. After the hangover of Ladakh in July,its really hard to push ourselves for one more tour within a span of 3 months. But that infectious 'itch' of a traveller will always refuse to subside. This time we kept it small and healthy. Shubhankar, his wife Manali and of course me and Smritikana..Only 4 of us would tour together in a very tight schedule.
Its best to reach Kumaon from Kolkata on a train from Howrah to Kathgodam. But we dint manage a confirmed ticket and I hate or you may say I feel vulnerable to plan a tour with a RAC/WL ticket. So we decided to go to New Delhi instead and from there we will hire a cab till Nainital -The decision would prove a costly one later.
9th October,2017 we boarded Hwh-NDLS Duranto express. I am not a big fan of this name 'duranto' which actually means 'lightening fast/very fast' in bengali,given to an Indian train. Likewise I had suffered previously,this time also the train was late by 5hours. The last few hours of 'duranto' journey was full of agony and anguish.
The Cab we booked was waiting at New Delhi station for all that delay and we could see the frustration of our driver as soon as we were on board. Initially I would say few words on how we booked the car because we had spent some very memorable! events that will need elaboration later as the tour unfolds. We booked the cab from online site wiwigo.com at very reasonable budget.The only thing we were pleading them to provide us with a decent driver as it was booked for the entire tour. A good driver always makes your trip all that memorable like what we got in our Ladakh days and a bad driver can really ruin your tour.
Let me say this first,If you plan to go Nainital from Delhi start early as it will take anything between 8-9hours. We were late to start and moreover we were to reach Ranikhet, which is even 50kms more from Nainital. So we were very anxious and that anxiety was further fuelled by our very special driver,Hemanshu,a Jatt and a Delhite. I had heared about the nature of Delhi people before,but never did I encounter a person/driver on duty so rude,so insensible like this gifted driver. Yes I honoured him with this 'gifted' word because of his driving skills but that should be preserved for racing tracks and not on hilly roads specially when he is on a tour duty and risking lives of others.We tried to convey our concern but he dint care at all.We were not letting our emotions outburst as we had to stay with this driver for the next 6 days and an argument with him was the last thing we wanted.
Anyway...we reached Ranikhet at 11pm.We started from New Delhi at 11am...12 hours of road journey after 22hrs of train journey..It was very tiresome. When our car was taking sharp turns after the sun went down,it felt really scary and more so because of our driver's superb driving skills!Having reached Ranikhet KMVN hotel
we were relieved and gradually another feeling had started to sink in...'Yes,here we are in the land where once one Jim Corbett used to roam about searching for man-eaters'.
Night sleep was great after all that journey.Early morning I waked up hearing a peculiar rhythmic thudding sound.I quickly put on a jacket and scampered out to find that the Army were doing their routine morning marching.Yes,Ranikhet is a cantonment town and KMVN hotel is inside the army campus,I found. I came back to my room and asked Smritikana if she would go for a morning walk? She refused. I always like to explore an unknown area over a walk in the morning with my camera.I went around to see small kids going for morning schools neatly dressed inside army trucks, clicked some spider webs,flowers,butterflies.walked for about 2 kms to see the 'Jhula devi temple'.I found Ranikhet to be a very clean and well maintained army base town with lots of bunglows and farm houses from british era,few of them converted to hotels. Later part of the day we went to 'Chaubathia apple garden', 'Haidakhan temple','famous golf course' etc. Today from Ranikhet we had to reach Kausani and we didnt want to miss the sunset at Kausani.It will take 5-6 hrs to reach Kausani from here.
We reached Kausani,just at the right time.What is special about Kausani is that one can see the 180 degree spread of the Kumaon range,The famous Nanda devi,Nanda kot,Nandaghunti and of course Trisul the most prominent peak and to the far east also the Panchachulli. We quickly got down from our car to see the great snow capped Himalayas brightened up in reddish hue at the sunset.
The KMVN hotel at Kausani had the perfect location and the hotel rooms,services were also very nice. That night I had a wish to capture the nightsky over that fantastic stretch of himalayas but to my utter disappointment I found that the headcap of my tripod is missing. Without a tripod its impossible to take the night snaps. I felt dejected.
Next morning we were ready very early not to miss the sunrise.It was so beautiful, specially the Mt Trisul looked dazzling with the first morning rays on its three projected peaks. We had our breakfast and left Kausani for Munsiyari at 9am.
As soon as we started from Kausani,our driver asked us to hand over 60% of the total price to him.The deal was to pay him at the end of the tour. We didn't suspect anything and gave him almost 40% thinking he might need to refuel or for other needs. So far so good.
The route to Munsiyari was very nice.Majority of the roads were maintained very well and it was a nice and usual hill road journey.The last 30 kms probably was a bumpy ride.We did not took many halts as again we were to cover almost 190kms today and also going by our driver's mood we felt he was also not too keen to stop over too many. But we did stop at 'Birthi fall',spent some quality time there. We went just about under the fall and there we spotted a rainbow!The tiny droplets from the waterfall created this amazing natural phenomenon and we viewed them from the perfect angle. Shubhankar was first to spot it.
The small village amidst the greenest of the green hills looked so beautiful from the top. We took our lunch- a bowl of maggi and a cup of tea here at a small shop at Birthi fall.
Again we reached Munsiyari just about sunset. Munsiyari is very close to the snowy himalayas. From here you feel that you can touch the Panchachullis. Our hotel, Vijay Mount view is not in the main town exactly, located little higher up the hill giving probably the best view one can ask for.
We checked in our himalaya-facing rooms and was really excited to be at Munsiyari when the bad things or should I say a really poor drama started to happen. Our driver told us that he just recieved a call that his pregnant wife has just been hospitalised and he needed the rest of the money to send her to Delhi. We refused reminding him about the deal but he pleaded and pleaded. We finally decided to pay some amount.
Bengali's are really soft hearted and like always this time also the 'cunning' Delhite trumped us,the poor bengalis. Next morning to our horror we found that the driver ditched us in the middle of our tour.We lodged a official complaint in the local police station. Its better not to elaborate much on this as everytime I remember that event I feel so disgusted. We had actually kept an extra day at Munsiyari to explore the area but it turned out to be the worst day of my entire travel experience. By the evening we somehow decided to go to the local Nanda devi temple.Being there we felt little bit relaxed and spent some time before coming back to hotel and sit down to replan our rest of the tour. Tonight I was determined to shoot the night sky with whatever leftout part of tripod I have with me. Shubhankar,Smritikana helped me in this.
Breakfast at Munsiyaru
The next day we would go to Chaukori. We planned to hire a share-taxi and reach Thal.From there to Udiyari bend,3kms before Chaukori. Few kind hearted local drivers helped us to chalk out this plan. We reached Chaukori safely and found this journey more special which was full of uncertainty than a travel with that boring driver. The hill-people that we travelled with were so amazing and down to earth that a 6hour journey ended in no time singing and gossiping with them.
Chaukori was a much sedated place. A tourist spot made out of a peaceful and less crowded village life. To my liking, we spent about 2 hours in the evening sitting idle at the edge of a wide spread-out rocky terrain and there was none to bother us. Completely soaked in the evening hues of a dipping sun far away, I could feel my every breath. Like a meditating saint in the lap of himalayas I could feel the inner energy and being in this peaceful part of the world I felt that the tour has not gone in vain.
Chaukori
We were heading towards the end of our tour. From Chaukori we will be going to Nainital,the last halt. Again we had to bargain for a drop to Nainital. We got a reasonable deal and reached Nainital without much of a hassle.
We booked Hotel Maharaja, the best hotel in terms of location and their prompt service. The view from the hotel is one of the best as it is situated high up the hill.
Evening walk along the mall road is a must in Nainital and also who can miss the boating in the lake. In between we managed time to go to GB Pant high altitude zoo,a small but well maintained one. We would love to explore Nainital more but we had no extra days. Next morning we had to leave early for New Delhi as our Rajdhani express was at 5pm and we badly needed to avoid notorious afternoon traffic jam of Delhi.
We reached our home safely after an exciting Kumaon trip with lots of unwanted drama. It taught us a very strong and useful lesson that no matter what the situation may be, dont believe in strangers and always keep your senses clear to your surrounding. Hope such an experience will help me in future tours. For now this is the end but the hunger for travel will never end and I look forward to share more such experiences in future with you.
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