It's been a while, time to catch up

Hey there,

It really has been a while since I posted anything, too much travelling and too much work when I'm not. It's time however to catch up with my writing and get on track with all the places I've visited in the recent past.

To begin with I thought it best to post a list of where all I've been, if nothing else it'll help me keep a track of what all I want to write about.

I left this after Pushkar, here's where all I've been since.

// Calcutta which I refuse to call Kolkatta
// Bangalore which I refuse to call Bengalooru
// Hyderabad
// Goa
// Bombay
// Baroda
// Rishikesh
// Mussoorie
// Bombay, which I refuse to call Mumbai
// Rishikesh again
// Goa, again
// Bangkok, Thailand
// Pattaya, Thailand
// Paris, France
and my spent new years eve in...

...Amsterdam!

That was 2010, now 2011

// Goa, ofcourse
// Lucknow
// Amritsar
// Hyderabad
// Vizag
// Vijaywada
// Shimla
// Bombay

whoa, that really is a lot of writing to do, probably going to end up putting basic details for the less interesting ones. Looking forward to a real long vacation, real read no cellphone/email!. Targeting this September, will try to wrap up everything else before that so I can truly be stress free, or is that really not possible in today's day & age??

Pushkar in Pushkar

Tripped out Holi weekend, overwhelming craziness, multi colour fiesta, peace, fun laughter & religion all rolled into one orgasm called Pushkar...the place ;)

26th  February 2010 to 01 March 2010.

26/02/10 - Board Delhi - Ajmer, Rajasthan Shatabdi express, the air conditioned chair car & the fastest train on the network, leaves delhi at 6am (confirm) and reaches Ajmer at 1pm(confirm). It's the closest station to Pushkar, you can take a bus or a cab, we took the latter to save time and it was 3 of us, the fare came to 150 per head, and that too because he had to take a longer route because of a jammed up highway due to an accident or such.

Arrived in Pushkar at 1430, the closest place to where we were left was the Pink Floyd Cafe, the most disastrous place in town! we went there with high hopes of a totally spaced out place to stay, i've been hearing about it for years and years, but if you're a lonely planet traveler then I highly recommend staying far away from this idiotic place. The food is terrible, the decor is moronic and the staff, well, forget it. It's perfect for the delhi / bombay "we are cool" wannabe hippy but far cry from it type people who are so full of themselves that they end up losing out on life. we had a terrible lunch, most of which we left, some we choked on, really choked on and that was the end of that "must-try" experience. One highlight though was this german shepherd tied up on the ground floor, the friendliest, scrawniest doggy ever! we left for better prospects.

After walking the entire stretch all the way to the Brahma temple we reached a place called Bharatpur palace, room 1 is recommended because it's surrounded on three sides by the lake, which turned out to be dry and that pretty much would have been the one and only reason to have stayed there.

flip flip flip and the book says Hotel white house, 3/4 of the way back from where we came...crossed Hotel Paramount Palace, the staircase up looked like an adventure, which i'm sure the owners realised and perhaps aren't too confident of their rooms either which explains the banner below that reads, Hotel Paramount Palace, Top then Hope!

I really wanted to check out 'milkman' described as a terrifically welcoming family house with cheeky frescoes in the cosy but clean rooms...and even a lush lawn on the rooftop. we couldn't find it and instead found white house, which turned out to be overlooking milkman. anyway, the room was perfect, so was the family running it, extremely chatty and welcoming and we paid 500 for a night between the three. The room had beds which seemed to be on stilts, rising atleast 3.5 feet off the ground. a sofa and table, a small balcony overlooking the narrow lane and only access, 3 differently coloured lights to suit your mood, 2 prints, one of an African baby sucking on his mothers breast(!), a miniature bathroom (to be fair with my height a lot of things become miniature by default), small but clean!

we trudged up very very steep 1ft steps to the rooftop cafe where Hemant, the owners son, told us about his life, which includes a short stint in USA working in a restaurant before coming back to India, home, family, culture and belonging to more than nothing. All this as he brewed the complimentary mango tea, you must must have a cup, it sounds terrible but it's tasty enough to melt even the most skeptic person.

Kamlesh, who prefers to be called Deepak because that's his younger brothers name who has brought him luck since he popped out of his mother is, or claims to be the most experienced and 'world famous' masseuse in Pushkar. He charges INR 300 for an hour of bliss, he's excellent and comes with an herbal paste he concocts himself everyday. There's a tiny massage room on the ground floor of the white house so no need to go anywhere either, massage and jump into a hot bath!...So Kamlesh aka Deepak, has many MANY books that are full of page-long recommendations which he makes you write in as soon as he's done with his work but what i want to tell you about is one of his stories about how this Swedish lady extended her stay for 2 months and got 60 massages from him because it helped her get cured of something i'm not aware of and is now taking him back with her to teach and train in Sweden, or was it Spain, this is the sad part about writing a blog long after coming back.

Evening we  roamed around in the market, ate ate ate and by nightfall landed up at the town center, which is no more than 4 narrow roads merging into an opening surrounded by cafes and shops. now this place is the most fascinating in all of Pushkar. It changes avatars by the hour, morning newspaper sorting, afternoon vegetable market and an evening hang out that continues late into the night. It's the place that sees the coming together of everyone to celebrate everything. Chetan Chai wallah has strategically placed his tea stall right there and offers stools to tourists he approves of, namely foreigners and the one odd authentic traveler. He did brush us off the first day, day 2 we simply took a stool each and he later warmed up to tell us about how he gets into trouble because pretend-travelers chat up the foreigners who later land up in trouble and the blame comes back to his shop and he becomes responsible, fair enough.

Out of nowhere the locals organized a couple of drummers and sticks and there was a frenzy of gharba/dandiya bang in the middle of the crossroad. Cameras clicked, some joined in, some stayed far away for fear of being hit by one of the hypnotically swung sticks and people 'flying' in all directions loosely resembling a circle.

You had to be there to feel the pulse, it was fascinating!

We walked around aimlessly looking for a place to eat, me hungry as ever spotted YOP, that's what was painted on a handcart selling marathi paranthas called Thali Peet, a favourite of mine...the onwer himself unclear of what YOP meant but it was something he said that the Israeli's could relate to, there are a lot of Israeli's in Pushkar, the way i put it, Pushkar's population is 50% Israeli, 25% local, 10%European & US, 5% other parts of the world, 5% religion driven families etc. and the rest well just people like me.

Definitely have a YOP roll if you spot one of the carts!

We continued to the Sunset Cafe, which seemed to be in a more 'developed' part of Pushkar and would have been nice had the lake been full. Apparently the lake was dried up for cleaning though i can't imagine how they would fill up a dry 'lake' in the middle of the desert! *They have segregated some water in 2-3 artificial ponds for the religion driven visitors to do their traditional plunge bath and pollute with flowers / money and plastic amongst other things.

Dinner was so-so. we crossed the river onto the other side and walked all the way back to the town center to hang till things settled down, the energy there was enough to excite the most jaded of people and everyone seemed to be enjoying watching the impromptu dance routine, which i forgot to ask someone as to whether it was a daily thing they put of for the tourists or a two nights before Holi kinda thing.

A poster back in our room had warned us of a 10pm deadline which we chose to totally ignore and even told the owners about our future disregard for their rules as we didn't A. have much time in Pushkar anywa, B. we're on holiday, C. the whole town was dancing away (well we didn't know that then)...the deadline was because the whole place is run by the family who sleeps there and would have to wake up to open the door. They did so anyway around 1am when we did finally get back and thankfully didn't create a scene about it either. spent another hour on the rooftop chatting and taking photos.

more on another day, have much to do and visiting Rishikesh again coming weekend!

Pushkar goes to Pushkar

Four hours to sleep and be ready to catch the 6am Ajmer Shatabdi to Ajmer from the New Delhi station. Seven hours in the train and 30kms from Ajmer to Pushkar by bus or cab...have double checked all timings thanks to the near miss last time. Weather reports indicate hot hot hot, packed accordingly, better not be freezing! plan to stay at the pink floyd cafe and hotel, will figure it out when we get there. It's the last of Rajasthan season so it shouldn't be too tough to get a good room. more later...

Kausani quickie: Another weekend trip from Delhi to Kausani

Train Jam - Waiting in Ghaziabad for a green signal

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The Ranikhet Express was on time, departed from the Old Delhi Railway Station at 10.40pm, lost an hour attempting to cross Ghaziabad, another hour midway and arrived at the Kathgodam station a little past 7 instead of the scheduled 5.40am arrival. It's the last station in Uttaranchal for going up to Nainital, Bhimtal, Ranikhet, Almora, Kausani and a handful of other towns & villages. Funnily the train stops about 15 minutes before arriving in Kathgodam at a station called Haldwani where taxi operators clamber on offering to take you to Nainital directly from there itself begging you to skip the 3kms to the final station and offering a "good" price to do so. We chose to stick to the train, I recommend you to do so as well. Sleeper class tickets INR 250 approximately.

Sleeping Sleepers - A inside view of the sleeper coach s3
in the Ranikhet Express

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Taxi drivers descend upon you as you exit the station and a line of private vehicles turned taxis await outside. We fixed a seemingly fair price at INR 500 for the 140 odd kilometers to Kausani, word of advice, fix before hand that they will take you a. via the Almora by-pass instead of through the town and b. that he won't stop to pick up passengers on the way unless ofcourse they substantially cut down on the fare. We did two stops, one for a quick cup of tea & pakodas and the second post Almora because the driver wanted breakfast!

The drive after Almora is breathtaking, you start to catch glimpses of the Himalayas and thank the sun for warming you when you're on the leeward side of the hill. Valleys upon valleys and a river running through with the clearest water lined with pebbles-a-dozen million and miniature virgin beaches that invite you to camp and forget about the world at large.

A non-descript arrival in Kausani at 1pm, followed by a hurried room cleaning session by the staff at Hotel Uttrakhand a minute off the town centre. We had booked in advance through www.makemytrip.com, I haven't checked after getting back but I can swear that it said they had a fireplace in each room, this sadly wasn't true. Also the hot water is only available from 7am to 10am but they do gladly provide you with a bucket of hot water if you ask for it. This ofcourse is for the "double cosy" room and not the higher end ones. The room itself cost roughly INR 750 plus about 10% in taxes.

Attached, a few steps below is the Garden Restaurant run by the hotel, a hearty praise to the staff for providing their best service, a variety of vegetarian & non veg food is on offer including chocolate pancakes & Italian espresso. This is the only place we ate at so I don't have much to offer in terms of comparison, the only other place we tried was done with lunch and all we got was a plate of maggi and more pakodas!

Three Labradors welcome you as you enter the hotel, a few steps lead to the rooms and different staircase for the more expensive ones, which do provide for a better view but the balcony running through all the rooms have benches and you're free to sit where you like. Our room was tiny and funnily  the bathroom was perhaps larger, clean & usable and one can't ask for more. The bed is worth a mention, it was warm, soft and comfy, not something you expect below a 5 star bearer. A mini tv that we never turned on, a cupboard pre-occupied with an extra blanket, a small table and we're done. to their credit all lights were energy saving cfl's.

 




A wild mountain dog drinks water from a hand pump

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Post breakfast at lunch time and enough doting over the grand himalayas, (Kausani offers a spectacular view of the entire range!), we took off for the Giria's tea factory, a fair 3km walk, longer if you don't take the strenuous short-cut. It was off season so the factory itself was shut and the tea plantation wasn't much to look at but it's worth the walk, a. because of the walk itself and the view it offers, b. there's not much to do in Kausani and c. they make you a fresh cuppa from a selection of their entire variety for INR 25 without lemon. A chat with the locals, one of whom knew delhi inside out and insisted on listing out all the places I was escaping from over this weekend and we left for the hotel as it would be dark by the time we'd reach.

Left: Select from a variety of Giria's grown tea
Right: A tea stall on the way

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Pre dinner chat with a french tourist staying in the next room, simon, a professor of history & geography on his second visit to India, more chatting post dinner which itself comprised of soup, mashed (more like grated) potatoes with butter (don't bother), garlic naan and very dry but yummy dal makhni. the highlight of the meal was the sky full of stars and a little fun with google sky map on my nexus one. A little more photography after a mix-n-match meal, some toe warming by the bonfire and we called it a night.



screeching monkeys in the distance, then silence.

Now we call it a night.

A car traveling up the mountain

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Missed the sunrise, why did i think i'd make it, the train journey had been longer than it should've and I had read Kausani was 40 km not 140km so I wasn't too hard on myself for doing so.



























The grand Himalayas as seen from Kausani

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The crisp mountain air makes you very hungy, which explains a big stuffed omlette and 8 slices of toast and the Italian espresso which smelt better than it was. I did ask for everything in the omlette but didn't expect potato! clarify everything!!














You can see the entire range of the Himalayas, this is what Kausani has to offer, bliss

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We trekked up to the Gandhi Ashram, didn't bother to go inside the museum, it looked shut, we were running out of time and the jungle / forest looked more inviting. Seeing us sitting by the side a family of shepherds showed up, dad, two sons, a daughter and their flock of goats, a little more photography and then a quick retreat to the hotel to catch a ride back to the station.

Left: A shepherd with his children
Right: A boy shepherds his goats while the young girl chases with a stick longer than her

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Here's the catch, the taxi costs INR 500 or so to take you to Kausani from Kathgodam but they charge anywhere from INR 1,700 to 2,000 to take you back! I would expect the Lonely Planet to mention something like that, I was in no mood to spend more money than i had on the entire trip and we took the bus instead which cost us only INR 115 each. Buses leave every 15-20 minutes from the town centre, the last one is at 2pm and a news van comes in at 2-2.30pm which can be negotiated with for a ride back.

Stuffed up in the bus

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A very slow and long ride back to Kathgodam which took a grand total of 7 hours after changing buses mid-way as ours didn't have enough passengers worthy of going all the way. Sadly the second was full of passengers throwing up out of the window every now & then along with a very stoned bus driver who decided against engine braking and we just rattled & rolled all the way down. We crossed Bhimtal around 6pm, the fog had rolled in, the sun had set and it was super beautiful minus the bus ride itself, finally reaching Kathgodam at 7.00pm

Lucky restaurant, well the one next to it

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Lucky restaurant run by an earnest sikh man just outside the station was heaven sent. good warm food, tandoori rotis fresh out of the oven, some chicken curry and a dal topped with impossible-to-find coke, we were set to brave out another possible delayed train journey. Clicked a few more shots outside the station where two donkeys had decided to sleep, so still we confused them for real, statues, real, statues till we finally got near them.

  

Sleeping donkeys

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For some reason we both looked at the tickets, the announcement board at the station and read 20.40 as 10.40 pm, the train duly arrived at 8pm, we decided to park our luggage and roam around (don't if you haven't chained it, even then not a wise idea) but before we could leave the ticket collector came by and the train started moving, that's when we realised how lucky we had been to have taken the right bus at the right time, eat a timely dinner and be at the station when the train came instead of gallivanting outside! - Kathgodam to Old delhi, Ranikhet Express, departs at 8.40pm and arrives at 4.50am, which it did.

Leaning out

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Another weekend covered, next is Pushkar in Rajasthan, watch this space!

#5 Kausani, Uttaranchal, India

 

Tickets done, wait-listed at no. 17 and fingers crossed for it to get confirmed. *note to self: Indian Railway system unable to book online railway tickets prior to 2 days of departure.

Haridwar & Rishikesh

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It was to be a quick weekend trip to see the Kumbh Mela 2010 in Haridwar, Uttarkhand and perhaps a day in Rishikesh about 25kms from there. We were 5, got on to a bus from the Kashmere Gate ISBT after paying INR 400 each at 11.30pm, lucky to get seats. Arrived at 6am the following morning after stopping in Muzaffarnagar for the best tandoori roti & dal yet and before that for chai at a non-descript dhaba. All roads were sealed except for sadhus (priests) and we trekked with all our luggage for roughly 3 1/2 hours before finally getting to hotel Alaknanda at 9.30am. Run by the U.P Tourism board they had their room rates hiked to about 3,500 INR for a simple but clean 2 bed room, the toilet was usable lacking modernization yet we were supplied with 2 bars of small soap, seemingly clean towels and 2 unlimited sachets of shampoo.

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Gorged on a variety breakfast of puri aloo, cheese sandwiches, paneer pakodas and toast along with more sugar than masala chai despite my repeated requests for tea with sugar separately. Post this we were down at the ghats for a dip in the freezing Ganges, that's what the world comes to do. All sense of morals were surprisingly lost in terms of nudity with men & women of all ages, all sizes & shapes went all out to take a dip, drenched, saris draped, undies see through with the water, shivering and chanting. If only the MNS was there to see.

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Lunch, breakfast & dinner were included in the package, we did have lunch as everything would be accessible post 6pm, when everything we came to see would be over. we did however take the long walk to har ki pauri in the evening, caught all the madness in the narrow market lanes and had a yummy dinner at 'Mathura ki pracheen dukan' or some such. They served kachauris, 2 variations of potatoes & a pumpkin mash on leaves. i bought a wrought iron cycle for around INR 300 and a wooden horse for INR 50. Hung around randomly checking out the various lanes & by-lanes and sort of sauntered back to the hotel to crash.

Upset with the whole kumbh mela disappointment we left early for Rishikesh by a 'Vikram' auto rickshaw, we payed a total of INR 400 for the long scenic route and it took roughly an hour and a half to get to where we had to take another auto rickshaw to high bank, which we graciously shared with an elderly lady from New Zealand on her way to the same area. I highly recommend "lonely planet recommended" New Bhandari Swiss Cottage as the sign said and so did the book. Though the cottages were booked we got a small clean room & funny tunnel like loo for INR 300 a night. The food there is fab, it also houses a German Bakery and the guys running it are the sweetest. Look out for e-kis, he's awesome, full of stories, ever ready to serve or tell a tale. Ironically or not we were in this German Bakery when we heard about the bomb blast in the Pune one, which i was in roughly 10 days back!

Rishikesh is fabulous, the people are nice, it has the right vibe and one can feel what the Beatles must've felt back then. Definitely plan on a longer stay here, perhaps next month, and try to get in on some of the camping / rafting experience as well.

High bank is the area which is sort of secluded and higher as the name suggests, carved out and catering solely to backpackers and is a 20 minute walk to Lakshman Jhula just as the lonely planet predicted it to be. There are a couple of other hotels, cafes, a massage parlor, a bookshop, an internet cafe, travel agents and shopping shop selling clothes, Nepali north face bags and what not.

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Lakshman Jhula is the trippiest experience ever! you simply have to walk up and down this suspended bridge running over the Ganga to feel it. The other side has the ashrams, a painfully slow cafe coffee day (i was craving my dose of caffeine) and the speed boat agent who charges INR 1200 for the farthest they can take you for a private boatfull, though the boat captain makes it up by letting you spend a few extra minutes on the mid-way isolated beach and even pulls off a couple of daredevil 180's if you befriend him. he too is full of stories, including one about how if someone is killed and thrown into the Ganga, the river will refuse them and the body will float out but if someone drowns and dies, they'll never be found. I'm sure there is a scientific explanation to the phenomena and something to do with air being trapped in the lungs causing the body to float up if killed outside as opposed to drowning, filling lungs with water, heavy body, drown, never be found. anyway. a little more shopping and we reached the Oasis restaurant, decorated with flags of the world, including a game on the menu while you wait for your order which 3 people have won. it has a page full of all the flags of the world and if you guess them all then you get a free dinner, for one upto INR 500, so go prepared. (all 3 winners were geography teachers!)

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a cup of chai at the garden restaurant at high bank and we ended the evening chatting in a very windy cafe back at our hotel before calling it a night. The next morning was a heavy breakfast, a dash to the bus-stop, a dash-back from the bus stop to retrieve the forgotten bible of travel and another dash-back to the bus stop to get onto a 2x2 back to Delhi. (2x2 is a smaller bus with 2 rows of 2 seats each, they're reclining, it's not a Volvo but comfier than a fixed seat 3x2).

we left at 2pm and reached the outskirts of Delhi by 9pm and were caught in a nightmare of a traffic jam all the way through to the Delhi border at 11pm, this area is lined with malls and wedding halls and it was the 14th, valentines day, every couple on the block was on the road or getting married! we painfully reached at 11.30pm, a good couple of hours later than we should have.

all in all Haridwar was horrid but Rishikesh made up for it with it's good food, friendly people and the vibe, it's all about the vibe man, you've got to feel it!