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!