Gulmarg – Meadow Of Flowers

25th DEC
We reached Gulmarg on 25th afternoon after catching a cab from srinagar.We met yasin, who booked for us a cottage(Rosewood).The cost was pretty nominal compared to the rest of the prices around and after reaching the cottage , we spent the rest of day talking to our host Ashraf, cook Kedar and the rest of the people there.
We also went out for a walk to the market and visited the Siva temple where the famous “jay jay sivasankar” song was filmed.We went around the market, were tricked to sit in a sledge for 50 rs and finally struggled back to our cottage in the dark.
We knew the next few days could be physically stressing as skiing was an intense activity and hence a good drink and a good sleep was essential.

26th DEC
The next day we reached Yasin’s shop at 10.After getting into our gear and settling with our skies , Mehmood took us to the zero point(called so since its the beginner’s point).The first day of skiing was not bad and though i did not fall much, i did not ski much either since the ski lift was not working and every time we had to carry our ski’s on our back to the top.After lunch we came back to the zero point , but the place was crowded with sledge runners and tourists.Unaware i was with the turns and ended up running into a few people and sledge guys.Enough was enough and as the crowd increased we called it a day.

27th DEC
Today , Mushtaq bhai accompanied us as our instructor.He was apparently runners up in the national championship in Manali.He guided us as far as technique is concerned and after skiing for some time from the zero point, we went to another slope where he taught us how to turn.This again i was able to do comfortably but not conveniently and i was not sure how i managed it fine at times and not at others.

We discussed over the night if we would cut short skiing and do more sight seeing, but decided to give it one more try.Kiran was particularly a bit suspicious as it seemed that he was doing something wrong with the technique still.The evenings were spent in the cottage watching TV , drinking kashmiri chai(kawa).Kesar would prepare us delicious dinner and we would hog more than ever after the tiring day.

28th DEC

Today mUshtaq bhai further taught us how to turn with parallel skies, instead of snow ploughing.Kiran seemed to have mastered this better than me and was going great guns.I could pick it up end of the day though and the later part of afternoon , we went to a higher slop and skiied down from there , this time passing through the beginner’s point and successfully evading the tourists and sledgers alike.Confidence was sky high now.
This evening , over the kawa , discussions were based on if it was worth skipping srinagar for an extra day of skiing.WE were not falling any more of the ski’s and enjoying a lot more.

29th Dec

We started off at the beginner’s slope at a higher point today and had to ski between sticks strategically placed by Mushtaq and Co.This was hardly a problem after the expert training we were provided with.Musthaq Bhai took us to the Army slope later this day.Called so because the army people practice from this slopes.It did look a bit threatening at first, but with the expert guidance of Musthaq who could precisely point out our shortcomings , we conquered this slope as well, though very slowly.
THe big headache was to carry our ski’s back to the top since there was no lift here as well and that tired us beyond bounds but it was more than made up for by our enthusiasm and Musthaq’s constant appraisal.
The later part of the day, we would o down the slope with parallel skies rather than Snow plough(read as faster),Kiran was doing this better than me,and i was snow ploughing still.In spite of my best attempts , i could not get the ski to stay parallel while turning.At times, i tried to bend my ski opposite side and it still used to plough and i would fall.Finally at the end of day, after lot of “Pitai” from Musthaq , i finally got a “Badai” from him and he said i had managed 80% parallel ski’s.

30 Dec

Our last day of skiing and we decided that we would ski for the first half of the day here and spend the evening going to the top of the gondola.
Today both of us were able to ski comfortable and falling was not even the remotest of the possibilities.My ski’s were more or less parallel now and was when Musthaq told me that my ski’s were not racer ski’s as compared to kiran and lost their edges.I felt a bit light hearing that but Musthaq added that a good skier must not worry about such things.I was more confident now and we skiied right from the top and went down vertical instead of turning to reduce speeds.
When the session ended we had big smiles of having accomplished to learn something new quite well.Musthaq told us that if there was enough snow on the top , he would advised us to ski from the top of the mountain at 1st level.
We proceeded to the gondola and supposedly the highest gondola in asia , there were 2 levels to it.The second level called affrawat is 3.9Km above the sea level and we could see the army camps at the top.Musthaq showed me the LOC(border with pakistan) , but all i could see was white snow all around.To be 13 Km from LOC was a crazy thought but true at this moment.
After quite some photo moments we descended down the gondola and once the electricity went off and the gondola got stuck.We talked about hanging 3Km above ground level and how primitive the highest gondola in the world was.
The night, my face red as a cherry because of sun burns was the centre of attraction.It was still a beaming one though.Next year , Gulmarg can look forward to one skier returning back at least.

 

The Begining was the End.. Cycling the Dordrecht region

Country : The Netherlands.
Cyclists : Va, Su ,Sa

Photos link : Click here

The decision was not a bad one, Dordrecht was a good place to cycle and the weather was not the worst.The cycles we hired, were not the standard ones. They were different, little did we know that the difference would make the whole trip a pain in the a$$(not just literally) for someone.

After the initial lost and found exercise, we finally proceeded on the right track. I will have to say again ,cycling in Holland is an unexplainable feeling. Sa took a lot of photos.Few of them needed elevated sense of imagination to be comprehended accurately.Failure to do so, would infuriate him and expressions such “its just a tree boss”, would only make him explain further the creative ideas behind the photo.

Sa’s Masterpiece

Me and Su were more interested in the long straight stretch of 8KM.We cycled quite fast with limited breaks.
Once we reached the 8KM stretch, Su and me started to race against the wind.The start of the long road provoked unimaginable feelings in us.They were soon to be shattered when we realized SA was missing.As we waited, Sa arrived ever so slowly. As Sa struggled to complete one complete revolution without getting his ass of the seat, one wondered was this the moment to laugh or cry.  Su found opportunities to click some quick photos. And then, Sa put a full stop to the entire expedition by announcing in puffed whispers “Yaar yeh cycle puncture ho gaya hai”.

Never miss an opportunity in front of the camera

Indeed, the cycle tyre looked more like masala papad.
We did enjoy the ride back to the cycle shop(Discount SA from the we).Sa was extremely courageous.He cycled a punctured tyre for around 8km.He still enjoyed picturing nature and the better half of it.His photos would make trees grow in 2 directions and under water(make sure you hear his application as you look at the photo).Su just stared at the photos and commented ” Boss, you get these photos in google..”

The cycle shop owner asked us to expect a bill for punctured tyre!! things work quite differently back in holland.Trip got screwed( and for one , the a$$ and back), and we still get to pay extra money.

The expereince was a different kind and i enjoyed it as always.
So the next time , take the 1 euro insurance for the cycle.

Every day is a winding road

Adios!!

 

Moments!

1) Walking on the streets in a strange(not anymore) city, in the split of moment there is a blond who walks in the opposite direction.I go right to avoid her and she goes right too , then i go left and she goes left too.
And then we both stop and smile at each other. Out of the blue she hugs me suddenly and says something and walks away while i stand stunned.

2) Walking into the stands to watch the French grand prix for the first time, its highly discouraging to see all places in free stand occupied.Not in a mood to give up, i use my broken French to communicate my desire to go forward and end up sitting right in front of the track,crossing barbed wires,convincing the gaurds in broken french, for an unbelievable experience.

3) Walking alone in the Milan station at 10:30 p.m , with no hotel reservation, i was running door to door, but all hotels were either full or too costly.Lots of pickpockets around Milan station and returning fans from a football match dint make it any better either.Of all people, a drunk football fan, suddenly approached me and guided me to a hotel nearby on the other side of road.I got a room for 30 euros.

4) That i am going to propose to her was well decided.What to say to her was not. When i finally did. i said a lot of things which i heard for the first time myself.Some were killer dialogues.I spoke my heart out.That she did not buy it is a completely different story.

I have no idea what the blond who almost kissed me, said to me, I have no idea what i spoke in French to convince the guard to let us through, i have no idea how i understood the Italian spoken by the football fan to help me. I don’t remember much of what i said to the girl who was never to become mine.

I have come to believe that words are always forgotten, its the moments you remember.
The smell of perfume of the blond girl, The obvious sympathy in the guard’s eyes to let us through, The sincere but drunk football fan who helped me and the feeling of having proposed to someone I truly love/d.

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”

M. Scott Peck quotes (American psychiatrist and Author, 1936-2005)

 

Cycling Het Loo(Not the obvious one , the Dutch one)

Apeldoorn , Cycling Het Loo

Click here for Photos

Country : The Netherlands.

Province : Gelderland.

Warriors on the wheels : Va, Raj.
We reached apeldoorn after changing 2 trains.We basically searched the whole town for the cycle hire shop. As we guessed it was right in front of us all the while.So finally, after renting the cycles , we went in the opposite direction. It was not really difficult considering our navigation skills and highly advanced gut”tary” feelings.
Finally good sense prevailed and we returned to where we had started.As i was about to recant, luckily , we found a street as marked in the route.We strictly following the route, and up ahead we entered a beautiful stretch of road.

Before reaching Juliana park

After some photo-ops, we cycled along and it got better and better.This probably is one of the best cycling routes in Holland esp if you like forests and cycling in it.The greenery just blew me away.

Green Forest

If case any of you poor soul is really interested , here is the English version of the dutch route.
Its fully copied from a dutch book. Buy it if you need 50 more good cycling maps around Holland from ANWB store.

1) From station NS apeldoorn , Left , over by railway crossing , Right.
2) At traffic lights , LEFT , direction of Ede;
3) At next traffic lights , LEFT , Amersfoort.
4) At traffic lights, RIGHT ,direction of zwolle
5) In the end , LEFT : vosselmanstraat;
6) In the corner, LEFT , in direction of auto traffic amersfoort.
7) Just up ahead, Straight : Badhuisweg.
Follow the road, At traffic lights Jachhtlaan crossing.
9) Follow the road, J.C. Wilslaan cross via the bicycle road.
10) IN hoog-Soeren ( restaurant) , at crossing with paved road, RIGHT
11) At the crossing with grindpad, mushroom 21042 , RIGHT.
12) before the main road, RIGHT , parallel bicycle road(but for restaurant echoput , LEFT , parallel to main road).
13) at the next mushroom, LEFT , in the direction of elspleet, grindweg.
14) at driesrong , RIGHT , grindweg omlaan next , parallel to quiet road.
15) Sign apeldoorn city, precedence road crossing, hoge brink;
16) At the second crossing, RIGHT;
17) At the road split oblique, LEFT HogeKampweg.
18) First right, cycle on used to be railway track.
19) At main road, LEFT, and second RIGHT,, :marconistraat.
20) At the end, LEFT, immediately after that, RIGHT , Nobelstraat;
21) At the crossing by princen park , LEFT , langs park;Frisolaan;
22) Way crossing, immediately after the white villa , LEFT, at oblique , RIGHT , informal sandy road down.
23) Pay attention , before the bridge , RIGHT , sandy road.
24) follow the path, transfer to bicycle road,at the end,here, main road crossing , Griftstraat.
25) In corner , Straight , cycle path.
26) At the end of bicycle road, at the crossing with precedence road , LEFT , back to NS-station apeldoorn.

And as i turned my head , the road turned for me …

Adios !!

 

Cycling the Deurnse “Peel Blossom”

click here for Photos

Location : Deurne , Holland
Route : Deurne , vlierden , lissel , helmond , deurne.
Date : 26th April
Concerned cyclists : Va , Vi, and Raj.

Technical details : De Peel is a region in the Southeast of the Netherlands that straddles the border between the provinces of North Brabant and Limburg.

As usual, we started late afternoon.We caught a train to Deurne which was very close anyway to eindhoven.
We missed one train by a fraction(or say i missed it by a fraction, the other 2 would have missed it anyway while they argued whether to take the elevator or stairs).
We hired 3 cycles, which i guess were elegant in their age of prime, but now, definitely short of confidence and adequately lacking in suspension.After cycling in circles(since we assumed, we knew everything), and reaching the same place(the starting point) twice, we decided to see the map more carefully and thus began our peel adventure.

We followed the route map for a couple of minutes.The dutch route map had couple of words which i would not understand(in fact there are only a couple of words that i understand). Saint jozefstraat was our last stop with the route as our guide.After that we decided to follow our own route and Vi took the initiative.

Cycling in holland is always enjoyable.There are vast lands of openness, with hardly any one to bother. In this moment of peace,you readily connect to nature without any pain or anxiety and gracefully plummet into yourself.
This is what makes this experience retentive for a lifetime.Of course we took a lot of pictures, which also helps .

First stop in our way was Vlierden. Without the actual route, we strayed quite a bit and cycled along the main roads.From vlierden, we made our way into Lissel.All dutch towns are pretty and petite.The smaller ones are usually better.Dutch people love to decorate their houses.You always find flowers in at least one vase visible through the large windows.They take quite a lot of care to make sure their houses are painted and the details are precision perfect.
We gnawed for a bit having a extravagant coffee session with frites.Raj found ‘Photo-ops’ in these moments of uselessness, all in good spirit.

Fly like an eagle on the dutch cycle or should i say , the Flying dutchman…

We then made our way into the actual peel region, taking the peel blossom route from lissel to Vlierden.
This was probably the best stretch in this route.By now, we were hardly interested in the map or the distance and more so in overhauling the beauty of the place.The forage in the farms prompted Raj to quote “Ab to mujhe apne Ghaav ki yaad aa gayi yaar…”. Vi quickly retorted back “Abhe saale, Tere bihar mey itna clean ghaav hota hai kya kahi..”

We rested near a fountain which meant more photo-ops.The route was inadvertent to us by now and we were ready to venture deeper into unknown territories.We followed the “Deurne” signpost and thats when we hit the jackpot.
We entered in an area of lush trees , dry brown leaves concealing the road, shadowed on either sides by dense woods, birds chirping in the never ending path.Such was this celestial experience that it emaciated away all our sensibility.We transformed into 3 bright, young kids looking for best photo opportunities, capturing videos and setting timer in the camera to take pictures together. We jumped,we ran,we danced and we sang.We shed all our worries and sang as we cycled.

Yeh Raste jaane humhe le jaayenge kahan

Va “Hun jo chalne lage , chalne lage hai yeh raaste ” Chorus : vi.
Vi ” unknown song , like usual” , chorus: birds.
Raj ” Ab tere bin, jee lenge hum” .. { raj: dekh ‘va’, tere liye perfect gaan hai yeh.Isi ko gaana} chorus: vi, va

Va,vi,raj : Dheere dheere se, mere zindagi mey aana. ( Best performance award).

Few dutch, who cycled the other way were uncertain, but pleasantly surprised.They asked in dutch “vakantie?”
Not knowing much dutch, we replied “ya”.

Rahe ab bi wahi hain, Sirf Humsafar badal jaate hain….. aur cycle bhi…

We then made our way to Deurne. By now, the roads were not confusing anymore and the small streets were much more capacious now.We returned the cycles and made our way back to Eindhoven.Vi took some close up photos of me, and i, agreed without any stigma, whilst remaining highly flattered.People around us could have giggled, but we were hardly petulant, still raving about this pleasurable journey.

Sweet home Eindhoven, Back to cooking now.

Train Tickets to Deurne .. 7.30 Euros
Cycle rent .. 6.50 Euros
Coffee + Frites .. 4.50 Euros

Singing and dancing in the woods like kids … Priceless.

 

Keukenhof- Encore

Country : Holland
Date : Apr 15, 2008

Getting ready at 1:00 p.m and reaching at 3:00 p.m is usually not called travelling, but well whatever. We braved the sun, the rain and the wrath of the “we only work when it is sunny” vipers to finally reach keukenhof .We took a break 2 km’s before the destination, i thought it was strange, but my colleagues would not agree with me on that. Now come on guys, we would have been there before you could completely scratch your a$$.

“Phool ab jyaada , pyaare lagte hain …”

Keukenhof was not as impressive like the last time i was here. The last time, it was end of april already and probably the tulips had all bloomed by then.This time most of them were still buds. The colours were not flashy and the combination was incomplete, some buds had not even flowered yet. But like they say a flower is worth a thousand words(or was it a picture ?).

We made our way without a map and thus were always on the wrong side of the road.Everybody ,everywhere was taking photos of everything around.Cameras were made to work overtime making complex actinographies(n. – instrument for calculating time of photographic exposures). There were some huge tripods and real cameras out there.We made the best use of vijeth’s camera.We had no tripod but we used vijeth’s latest acquisition from the C&A sale, A 2.5 euro cap as our actinometer to capture macro details.

The trip was not complete without seeing the farms with tulips, so i guided the team through a wooden path to show them the farms, my bleak memory of a few years back still serving me well. Alrite , not so well , there were no farms and we just ended up pee’ing in the woods.. We dont know the exact reason yet , but all of us were quite proud after this achievement. Someone thought this was mineral’ing the plants while someone else thought it was 1.2 euros saved(Cheap Thinking?, i dont care any dawgy’s balls).

We made our way out after more photos and more buildings with .. you guessed it right .. flowers.The floraited surroundings were slowly getting into our nerves.The trip was already declared fructious(staying close to the flowers) already and we walked out after picking up souveniers.I really liked a cute ceramic, a dutch boy kissing a dutch girl.I had seen this before , but since it was keukenhof, u guessed it right again .. there were flowers in it.
The boy had a flower hidden behind his hands and the girl a present in hers.There was a slightly big ceramic and a cute small one.
It reminded me of “The Gift of Magi”. Considering i am someone who now takes love a bit seriously than shreesanth trying not to dance i ended up buying both of them.(I know all you gals must be thinking, that’s so SHWEEETTTT ya, nija thanne ? , sullu helbedri).

As we walked out, we decided to cycle the farms. Vijeth,it seemed made a strong promise to someone to have his photos taken by a farm and spent his time searching for a farm on his cycle.Cycling holland is one of the best things one could do provided the weather permits. We had 3 oranje(Orange) cycles, they looked cute and flowery!!(control aagilla).
I enjoyed this short detour as always.There is something about cycling in holland, All neiderlanders, from anybody to everybody enjoys cycling.I have even bought a cycle route map(dutch) across holland but yet to put it to any good use because of bad weather.

 

“Dekha ek khwab tho yeh silsile hua , duur tak nazaaron par hai ghul khile huee..”

Finally after going around, Vijeth found his farms and had his picture taken.The farms were not as good as i had seen last time, again i guess partly because the tulips had not bloomed yet.I vaguely remember amitabh’s bell bottoms being submerged in tulips in the song ” silsila”, but right now , my shoes could be seen even when while i was sitting. I vaguely remember having thoughts of trying to run behind my imaginary love and finally catch her up at the trees.But alas, no trees, no background music and 2 chinese men staring at me put me off.

We returned the cycles and drove back to eindhoven. nothing mentionable happened during this period other than me struggling to open the fuel tank.We found parking in eindhoven.We exchanged pleasantries as to how great the weekend had been(with thoughts of how great it would have been if we had stayed in germany, etc ,etc).

Finally, a weekend travel during this trip in Europe.I hope its the first of more to come.

 

Mosel Valley – Snake on Drugs!

Destination : Mosel valley in Germany.

April 12th, 2008

The scheduled start was at 6:00 CET, we left at 7:00. On hindsight, it was better than expected.Vijeth was driving for the first time in europe which kept all of us wide awake.Navigation system were in my safe hands and once or twice i dropped it while i wondered if vijeth’s braking accumen will stop us before the car ahead.
All in all he drove well(considering we all are safe as i write this.. this is apart from rajendra getting dehydrated sweating by his palms).

The first destination was Trier in Germany from where we would begin our exploration of the mosel valley.we reached trier at around 12. We visited certain monuments which i presumed to be significant(Porta nigra, basilica etc).We decided to have pizza at a turkish restaurant in an isolated street.We were made more than welcome by a lovable chef and some of us quickly made our way into the toilet for a much wanted pee(Sneaky feeling that pee made teh decision for us to enter this place). After an elongated session of pizza waiting and eating(it was yummy btw), i had some of the best tea i have had in europe this time.
The turkish coffee was a let down though, mostly because we mixed salt in it instead of sugar.I drank half of it thinking it was turkish herbs and partly to avoid any oxymoron comments to be directed my way.Rajnish had mixed quite a lot of salt(sugar ?) and thus his coffee was to be taken away and chef after sampling a spoon decided not to give it even to his worst enemies let alone his cat.

We followed our loo-clock once again, talking via the bottom to the big white telephone,( Ok , got ya, we just used the loo).. and walked down the city of trier back to our car.
The shopping session was an interesting one and we all packed clothes in baskets like big old white ladies looking aeratedly flabbergasted!! After a long shopping session we made our way to the car to kick start the real thing!!

Famous Monument in Trier which nobody was interested to find the name of , let alone Enter….

I had noted down the list of places along the way which were worth visiting , so we hit the road towards..

1) Bernkastel-keus — This is a lovely town lying along the mosel river.It has pretty houses with some incredible scenery surrounding it.As we walked by the river, a deep relaxation engulfed me,taking away all the pain and stress and drifting slowly into a dream land with flowers blooming … well not exactly but in two words – enjoyable and relaxing.
As we enjoyed the drive through the snake like curves, the petrol head in our driver’s seat enjoyed the u-turns(references made to agumbe) and we reached our next destination ..

                                     

                                      Ready, get set and Go……..                        

                                         

               Sorry girls , I know what you are thinking but …. I will never give you that Shirt

2) Traben trarbach — The vine yards of the german mosel valley, unfortunately was closed by the time we reached at 6:00.It was another classic example of a beautiful german village in the mosel valley, and the cobble stone paths were fun to walk along.The bridge in the middle of the river gave us a good sight of the mosel valley and it was a pleasure to look around.The deserted city gave us a good view of all teh houses as we leisurely waked arnd enjoying the beauty.After this we moved to Koblenz , our main destination.
3) Koblenz – A big city in which we could not find a hotel.Sounds stupid now, but a tired mind could do a lot of silly things.

 

After losing patience, we drove back to eindhoven.A better options would have been to search for a hotel and enjoy and the next days drive to rhine valley.But since i had already done that, i was not very disappointed , but i am sure the petrol head in our group might have
liked it.

Summary notes – A nice one ! . Would really want to go back the drive to bernkastel-keus along the valley and sit in the parking place with a table in the valley and have tea with some nice music. Well we already did that, but next time it would be nice to do it with that someone special .

Memory Notes – Bernkastel-keus , added to honey moon location, if wife disappoints , at least the nature wont.

 

River Rafting in the wild Ganges!

Friday the 21st

We started from Bangalore to Delhi on Friday the 21st December. As Murphy ’s Law would have it, we had to wait for our tickets due to over booking, but Indian airlines (now called as Air India Shetriye) did finally manage to arrange it. After initial hiccups with the non existent prepaid taxi system of delhi , we managed to find a decent room in a decent area in a decent hotel.

Saturday the 22nd

The next day we caught the train to Haridwar (Dehradun shatabdi) and reached Haridwar at around 12.We had already booked with Aquaterra adventures for our entire trip. Our taxi was waiting for us at the station and we proceeded towards the aquaterra camp 50 km north of rishikesh. Uttaranchal(Uttarakhand) is a wonderfully diverse state with an amazing combination of adventure sports, romantic peaks and exotic holiday locations and people are extremely nice as well and make all the efforts required to make you feel at home. The taxi driver showed us all the important monuments (read as temples) on the way and dropped as off at our camp.

Here we were introduced to our guides and the Aquaterra staff which is well over 20 strong.Rana , Gappu , Pradeep, Jeetu etc and soon we had our lunch and started our initiation raft on the Ganges.

Rana was the safety kayaker and gappu was our guide on the raft. The water was cold but our spirits were high and so was the water level since the water released from the dam increases the water level by afternoon.

The otherwise fun rapids could topple you down now. The good morning/Good afternoon/Good evening rapid(Depending on the time ) was a breeze and a gentle reminder that unlike the other rivers I have been in , ganga rages even in the smaller rapids. The next rapid was black money named after the huge property next to it belonging to a well known industrialist .

The third rapid is actually a quick succession of 3 rapids called the 3 blind mice. We saw the kayaker toppling over and we thought it would be a fun show based on the previous 2 rapids. The first and second mouse rocked us and we were on the edges of our seats. But the 3rd blind mice knocked all 3 of us, including gappu of our rafts and luckily we fell inside the raft by each other. Not that falling outside would have made difference with the safety jackets and kayaker, but this was a wake up call to us and a true adventure moment.

The remaining rapids for the day failed to relive the 3 blind mice moment and our faces were still shining bright. The rest of the day had no other activities besides campfire and food and pep talk. It was a wonderful experience to be cut out from the rest of the world and sitting unprotected in nature’s lap.

Sunday the 23rd

The next day we were joined by 2 more couples and NDTV crew. They were apparently filming This for a show on a channel called metro nation for the ten thins to do on a new year or something of that sort.

The rafting today was 24km instead of the 12 km we rafted yesterday. Though the first 12 km was same as yesterday, we would come across some more raging rapids today.

The blind mice was subdued today because the water from the dam had not yet translated into high waters yet. The dam is called Tehri and is Asia’s largest dam.

Body surfing rapid allowed us to get down in the near freezing winter water of the Ganges. Few of us dared to do it and got down in the water initially holding the rope next to the raft. At one point, I let go of the rope not by choice but more by chance. Though a frightening thought for a moment but then the water pushed me closer to the raft and I held it again and was pulled back to the raft.

It was only then that we realized how cold water had been and all of us were left shivering for the rest of the journey.

Few other rapids especially roller coaster and the golf course did rock the raft but not enough to throw us out. Gappu’s scream of ‘Get down” was instantly followed though still and everybody avoided any chance of falling into the cold water.

The other mentionable rapids on this day were the Crossfire and the T-off, just before the golf course rapid.After the 24 km raft , we decided to roam around the city of rishikesh and visited some famous places like the ram jhula and lakshman jhula and had lunch at a good Bengal restaurant called chotiwala.

TIP : Prefer the first chotiwala to the second.

Our ever obliging driver drove us out to a city in dehradun district to buy something for the cold nights in the camp.This night in the camp was much of the same but more energetic with everybody enjoying the something we bought for the camp.

We discussed how really wonderful it felt to be disconnected from the real world , no newspapers , no electricity , no flush toilets.Just a campfire and staring at the skies on top , mountains far beyond and the steady but gushing and galloping Ganges.The mountains make you wonder what lies in their darkest depths and even slight moments bring the scary thought that someone is watching you from far away. The raging ganges seems to be getting closer and closer to the campfire all night and makes you wonder about the wonderful inspiring journey of this river.

Tip: No drinks available in the sacred towns of haridwar and rishikesh.

Monday the 24th

The only mentionable rapid this day was “The Wall”. The others were by and far a jolly cosy ride and inspite of the wall hitting us with all its fury, the low water level meant it was more fun and no toppling. We reached the camp by lunch and after change of clothes and exchanging good byes, we left for the railway station to catch our train back to delhi.

The memorable moment of the day was when we decided to stand on the raft instead of sitting and unwittingly fell in the cold water thus testing our life jackets.

 

Hampi : The ruins of the glory days

Our trip to hampi was planned ad-hoc and the bus journey turned out in similar lines as well. We had booked the Rajahamsa from Bangalore to hampi.As it turned out it was not the best option, the bus was pathetic, late and hardly executive as promised on ticket. On hindsight, its better to go in a sleeper bus or train to hospet and then go to hampi (which is what the rajahamsa) bus does anyway.

We reached hampi early morning and checked into Padma guest house which was decent though already occupied by hundreds of mosquitoes. We got refreshed and hired an auto to take us around Hampi, we pondered for some time about cycles and motorbikes but we opted for auto (Guess we are getting old).

Raghu, was our auto driver and took us to a decent place for breakfast and we started out touristy sight seeing around hampi.

First we went to the Kadlekalu Ganesha Temple. The grandeur and splendors was there to be seen.Sasivekalu Ganesha was another example of the amazing granite masonry in store in Hampi.

We went around some other important locations like the 2 sisters rock, the basement Shiva temple, the balakrishna and hazariram temple. Each place continued to amaze us more and more and we both took our turns to curse the Behmani Empire for reducing these marvelous structures to ruins and disfiguring others.

The lotus mahal and elephant stable are grand structures again and also have historical importance as indo-Islamic architecture.

Vijaya Vittala temple was a true masterpiece. Unfortunately we could not a demo of the musical pillars.(I would be careful too since our young Indian love birds may find it amusing to write the names of their puppy love on these pillars).The chariot near the entrance was carved out of one stone and is definitely a popular structure among the tourists. The king’s balance was another legend. Apparently, the king and queen would sit on one end of the balance and other end of the balance would be weighed in gold. A fair idea of how prosperous this kingdom should have been!!!!.

We lunched at Mango Tree and the surprisingly it was a pleasant location with view along the river, under the trees and good food. After a nice lunch we continued our sight seeing and in the evening we went for a short coracle ride on the Tungabhadra River. The sun hitting down on the river was a nice sight. Evening we went to the sunset point to watch the sunset. It was lovely watching the sun spray its different colors as it slowly mellowed down beyond the mountains far far away.Kiran in meantime had tried all settings on his camera for the perfect picture. He probably enjoyed the sunset through the camera’s eyes.

We went out to some hotel for dinner which was over priced and felt pale compared to our lunch. I think it was probably the deepest sleep we had and we were woken early morning to the sunset point which not surprisingly is also the sunrise point. Lazily as we reached the spot, the sun was already on its way up. Iran quickly made the most of the photo-op while I was staring at some of the old tourists who looked fresh and enthusiastic via my sleepy eyes. There were more photo-ops and some spectacular views of rocks placed one above the other in such precarious positions that we would wonder if they were about to fall!!!

That day we went to what is known as waterfalls. It’s the not the biggest I have seen but probably one of the smallest. The waterfall is hardly the attraction there. The water level of the river Tungabhadra had gone down thus enabling us the walk along the boulders. The river has over the years painstakingly carved these rocks into such beautiful pieces of modern art which even the most inspired modern artist would find difficult to fathom.

Walking on these boulders was a bit slippery and watching kiran slide his way around ahead was a bit scary as well. But I am glad we made it coz it offered us some wonderful spectacular views and to me is the whole ideology behind the trip to hampi, to travel to one of these huge places were we are the only tourists and connect with nature. Just look around, hear the sound of water gushing, the birds chirping, monkeys fighting at the horizon and the sun blazing its way on the water surface which seemed to make it skid even faster in its gleaming beauty.

We drove back to Hampi since the waterfall trek was a detour. We had our lunch at a different place and sadly did not enjoy this either. We decided to go to the Daroji Bear sanctuary in afternoon which was around 28km away from Hampi.We made our way to the watch h tower from where we watch bears come to the boulder to eat jaggery and honey on the boulders. After waiting for long we did get to see the bears. It was quite a far distance to watch them and after some photo-ops we made our way back to hampi.Raghu dropped us to hospet from where we boarded a sleeper private travels bus as we were told to be extremely lucky to get a wonderful berth.

As it turns out we were at the end of the bus sharing beds (again!!!) ,the suspension was mostly Before Christ but better compared to the ones from dinosaur ages in our to journey. The major difference seemed to be that our whole body would be thrown instead of just our buttocks. I still managed to have good sleep and we reached Bangalore early morning.

The trip was extremely enjoyable in spite of the travel discomforts.Hampi is a wonderful place and represents a glorious and a prosperous past, Hinduism projected to newer heights. It also makes for a perfect weekend getaway from Bangalore and is most certainly one place worth visiting.

 

Trip To Sunderbans

Sunderbans as the name suggest means beautiful forest in Bengali. There is also another interpretation that it is called so because of the long stretch of mangrove (sundari) trees. I prefer the first one as it has to be one of the most beautiful place I have been to. It is a perfect example of how beautiful nature can be when left alone by the ever growing human occupation.

 

 

Day 1 – 29^th January

I booked this trip as a package trip with the sunderban tigercamp. I have to say they are value for money. The bus departs from priya cinema near deshpriya park at 8:00 in the morning. I stayed overnight at a nearby hotel(?) called Hotel bliss. No fancies, basic bed at 400 per night. The location looked a posh one called as the rash behari avenue in kolkata. The bus departed early morning and at around 11 we reached a place called sonakhali from where we boarded a boat to the tigercamp located in village called Dayapur in the sunderbans. Sunderbans is basically various islands floating in estuarine delta formed by rivers which drop into the Bay of Bengal namely ganga/brahmaputra and their tributaries.

 

The boat cruise was a pleasure and as we moved deeper into sunderbans it kept getting better. The villages were disappearing and we were entering the home of the famous royal Bengal tiger. The guide Mr Sujit had a long chat with me while we exchanged information about the flora and fauna in the sunderbans especially about the Dog sharks, rare gangetic dolphins and indeed the TIGER.

 

We reached the camp at around 2:00 and lunch was ready. It was surprisingly tasty and the tent had modern attached western baths.

We then made our way to the first watch tower ‘Sajnekhali Tiger project area’. The watch tower was noisy with people all around and dense forest in front of us. It would be difficult to watch a elephant here, let alone an elusive tiger. All of us quickly realized this and headed down the watch tower to study the exhibits in the well maintained museums. There is also a crocodile pond and we could see couple of crocs sunbathing. I also noticed the crabs released into the pond, of course to feed the lucky crocs. We returned back to the camp as the forest is closed after 5:30 because of high tides and of course wild animals. Every year 240 people die in sunderbans, most of them so because they venture deep into forest to collect honey and others while fishing. Out of 10 people, 5 are killed by tiger, and remaining 5 by crocs,snakes (yeah , King cobras!) and sharks(their bite can be deadly).

Back at the camp, we had hot tea and some snacks and were treated to local folk show by the villagers. I watched them perform the traditional dance and play the folk music and it was quite entertaining.

The night was spent alone in my tent surrounded by the mysterious sounds of jungle. The silence here plays a strange music and even the slightest of steps in the grass are heard loud.

In the night I woke up suddenly and I was sure I saw a big cat walk outside the tent. I could not believe my eyes and ran out (don’t know what I was thinking) only to realize that it was actually a house cat magnified on the tent wall because of the lantern outside.

Good thing I did not shout out, else it would have been the Tiger-Sheep story.

 

Jan 30, 2008

 

 

I was woken up early morning at 6:00 by bells and given hot flask of tea and warm water for bath.

After getting ready we left at 7:30 to the Dubanke watch tower and breakfast was provided on the cruise. The cruise was a long one and as we passed through the narrow creeks we searched for the ever elusive tigers. An old lady raised an alarm and as everybody rushed to one side of the boat in spite of our guide shouting otherwise, I realized she had made a tiger out of a monkey(a big one though) !.I decided to sit in the front of the boat in the open to get a better view. We spotted some crocs,deers and some varieties of birds but no tigers yet.

The watch tower was a let down like the previous one. No tigers here either and we returned back to the camp for lunch. Sujit told us that we could go for a walk to the village nearby in the evening and after a quick nap some of us headed to the nearby village (Dayapur).

Here, Mr Mondal, introduced me to some people who were attacked by a tiger. The scars were there to be seen and their experience was one to hear. Since I understood little Bengali, they used lot of hand signals and gestures and I could paint the picture in my mind. It was fascinating to know that they still would not blame the tigers for the attack and in fact offered prayers to the tiger for protecting the forests else they would have no place to fish.

It rained heavily in the night and I was afraid if this would cause all the tigers to recede into the core forest zone where we were not allowed. We watched few documentaries on tigers of sunderban in the conference room and later on watched a stage performance by the local troupe on the Folk of Dhobe and legend of Bonibibi (the forest goddess). The acting was surreal and the musical effects (provided via an out of tune trumpet and a musical keyboard with an extensive collection of crazy sounds) reminded me of the old funny theatre shows in olden days Doordarshan. With the right mix of musicals and story, improvised costumes and half applied makeup (one side of face was powdered), the show lived up to its expectations. I mean the perfect show would have been boring since I understood no Bengali, so this was just what the doctor added.

I had a good dinner at 8:30 and walked towards my tent on roads which were lighted by hanging lanterns. As I tried to sleep early, I swear I could hear myself breathe.

 

Jan 31^, 2008

 

I was woken up at 5:30 and provided with warm water and tea. As we got ready and made it to the cruise at 6:30 today, we were promised denser creeks and more chances of sighting the tiger. Today we made our way to Sudhanyakhali watch tower.  The previous day we had watched an amateur video shot from this watch tower in which a tiger attacked a dear. Spirits were high and as we all trained our eyes along the creek to catch any glimpse, Mr mondal showed us fresh tiger tracks. Aaah!!! , we just missed it by few minutes. The boat cruised slowly along the river as we looked even harder. We reached the watch tower hoping for better. As we reached the top, I sighted something in the bushes. One of my fellow traveler had a long shot camera which he placed on tripod and zoomed to the spot I mentioned. It was unmistakable, the golden color, the face nervously gazing at all directions and as I looked through the lens it felt like it knew I was watching it. Of course it did, because that what deer’s do , always stay a step ahead and be watchful.

 

As we headed back to the cruise, the boat which came in behind us had happy, expressive faces. As it turns out, the tiger had actually waited for our boat to pass and then made its way down to cross the river. The boat behind was not a luxury one and had a smaller engine (so not much sound).It was irony, we paid more , had luxury boats, had experienced guides, had expensive cameras, but as it turns out no luck. On the way back, I quickly made my new master card moment..

 

Experienced guide: 500 rs

Boat cruise: 1000 rs

Expensive camera: 10,000 rs

Missing the tiger by a whisker: priceless.

 

Money can’t buy everything and its true…

 

We reached back to the camp and had a quick lunch and set back to sonakhali. This time, I was engrossed in conversation with an old man who was an avid wildlife fan and he shared with me his experiences in Africa. I picked up some details of Africa from him and amazed at the information he had. He joked saying that at his age, he spoke “in details”.

 

We boarded the bus from sonakhali to kolkata and this time was spent with my Ipod as I wondered about the memories. In most places, Man has conquered the animals and taken away their land, But in the sunderbans the tigers have kept what is theirs and rightfully so.