Travel your troubles away!

‘Travel far enough, you meet yourself’ ~ Cloud Atlas.
Do you feel the urge to travel and take time for yourself from your fast-paced life? Do you seek self-discovery?  Are you more of a traveler than a tourist? If so, the wonderful unexplored places in Uttarakhand are calling you home. So, give your novaturient a nudge and take the road less traveled. From the lovely and scenic Kanatal to the pristine Abbot Mount, the following Bohemian places offer you the apt mix of an exotic, adventurous and life-altering experience.

A. Kanatal
     The perfect weekend getaway for the jaded souls, Kanatal is a calm and scenic hill station. It is 38
     km   away from Mussorie. The thick Jungle of Kodia , 1 km away from Kanatal is perfect to fulfill      your  longing for adventure. A 7-8 km walk into the forest opens into gigantic whirling valleys.         The beautiful apple orchards and breath in the scent of Rhododendrons allow you to rekindle with
     nature and  experience the ultimate bliss. A yet another unmissable place near Kanatal is the 855 ft
    Tehri  Dam. It is the highest earth-fill embankment dam in India.
     
 
 Image source : Pinterest.com
   
 
  B. Abbott Mount
    Located at an elevation of 6,400 ft, Abbot Mount is a small serene hill station where you can view
    the snowcapped cliffs of the Himalayas. The place is the ultimate spot for nature- lovers.  It is             abundant in Himalayan wildlife and sub-temperate vegetation. If you have an inclination towards      Mythology, then ‘Vasur ka kila’ which is 25 km away from Abbot Mount is your calling.  The            place  is believed to be the capital of devil Vasur who was defeated by Lord Krishna.

Image source : euttranchal.in

 
 
 
C. Askot
    This is a dwarf town located in the Gori Ganga- Kali geographical divide. The region is believed to
    be home to 80 forts i.e. ‘Assi kot’ and hence, is named as Askot. It is best to visit this place
    in the months of July and September. One of the best spots for tourists in Askot is the Askot                 Sanctuary which has been exclusively set up to protect the rare species of the Musk Deer.
    It is built amidst the  wonderful snow-capped peaks of Panchchuli, Neodhura and Chiplakot. The
   piligrim places of Chota  Kailash, Bhanar and Kalapani also constitute a part of the sanctuary.

Image Source: Pinterest.com

 


D. Binsar
     Located at an elevation of 2,420 meters in the Kumaon region, the Binsar region allows one to
     witness the magnificent peaks of Kedarnath, Nandadevi and Chaukhmaba. The Binsar Wildlife
     Sanctuary is habitat for rare animals, birds and flower species. The place is said to be the
    ‘ bird watcher’s paradise’. The best time to visit Binsar is during the months of October-
      November. An unmissable event in Binsar is the Nanda Devi festival which exhibits the rich              culture of the region.
                                                                    Image source : Pinterest.com                      
                                  
E. Chakrata
    Located at an elevation of 7000-7250 ft, in the district of Dehradun, the region is rich in Conifers,
    Rhododendrons and Oaks. When in Chakrata, you must also visit the Tiger Falls which is 20 km         away  from Chakrata. It is one of the highest direct water fall in Uttarakhand.  For those who seek
    adventure, the alpine meadows of Mundali offer skiing opportunities during winter.

Image Source : Pinterest.com

 

So, all of you who seek a shift away from the conventional, hectic and uneventful lives, pack your bags, get going and experience the numinous journey.

  

   

Simplifying Trips KOTA-SHIVPURI-JHANSI-FATEHPUR-ALLAHABAD

Hello all and thank you for reading and sharing my previous blogs.
In this blog I will share my experience from kota to allahabad.

Day 2  02/04/2016
After having a sound sleep and series of conversation with uncle, aunt and cousin brother the previous day till 1'o clock, it was not possible for us to start the next leg of our journey early. We woke up at 7:30 am and realized that we are quite late enough to depart. We did all our morning course and final meetings with grandpa, grandma, uncles, aunts & cousin and left at 9:00 am.This day we had to reach to allahabad any how to keep the schedule as planned. It was a journey of about 720 kms and the thought of crossing madhya pradesh was a concern as we all had a perception that roads in MP are not that good. The road till shivpuri was of RCC which is around 235 kms from kota. All though the RCC roads were not that great as it was from chittorgarh and had potholes and patch work. But we were able to cross that patch well within 3 hrs. One thing which has to be said about the roads in MP that the newly constructed roads were a treat to drive on. Not a single pothole and patch work you will find on these roads and one can easily cruise on whatever speed they are comfortable with. I was able to reach 140 kmph and other thing was you can easily maintain that speed for as long as you want. The ghat section before shivpuri is another treat to drive through. All though the surrounding greenery was not that green enough but still it was good scenery to look at.

The next stop decided was at Jhansi for our lunch, it was 12:15 pm the time we crossed shivpuri and jhansi was almost 100 kms from here,Our four legged passenger was also enjoying the hiccup free drive and was comfortably enjoying through the window. The moment you reach the outskirts of jhansi the road condition starts to deteriorate and soon you will find yourself among potholes. Jhansi bypass was under construction and we had to cross through the city which was cramped. We halted at a small dhaba for our and our pet's lunch and started after 50 mins of break. It was 2:45 pm and still allahabad was quite distant from this place. We got fuel tank full and started again. My all passengers were taking small naps in between and lost their nap the moment we entered the state limits of UTTAR PRADESH. How can one take a sound sleep on these kind of roads, full of potholes and crests -troughs and patchwork. Allahabad was still 350 kms and we had thought when we will be reaching our destination if the road conditions would be like this. JHANSI to ORAI was really a though patch to cover. From no where it seems to be a national highway, but yes it was NH-2. From bhognipur we had to merge onto SH-46 which will take us to fathepur and from there we will be merging onto AH-1. The State highway was just a two lane road but had light traffic which somewhat made easy us to cruise,as after failing to cover the distance on NH-2 in that time we had some expectation from UP government on which they stood sound. It was 5'o clock and we merged onto AH-1. The moment you merge on Asian Highway-1 you had a smile on your face and a feeling of relaxation and you know the kilometers will be less now to cover on a such a fantastic road. Our four legged passenger was now relaxed and slept so comfortably as if it is sleeping in its house.

It was 6:45 pm and started to get dark, our destination was still 50 kms and we decided to look for some hotel on the highway itself as going into the allahabad city and searching for a hotel there which would our pet to accompany with us would be mammoth task. Luckily we found one which was 30 kms short of allahabad and the owner also allowed our pet to check in with us. It was 7:30 pm and we ended our journey for that day. We had enough time to get relaxed for the next day drive.

It was the second leg of the journey.

Third and the last leg of this journey coming soon.

Till then enjoy reading and keep sharing.   

Simplifying Trips:- RAJKOT-GANDHINAGAR-UDAIPUR-CHITTORGARH-KOTA

Hi to all the readers out there, as promised in my last post about my upcoming blog on a trip from Rajkot to Bokaro. I am here with my first day of the journey from rajkot to kota.

Day-1  01/04/2016
 It was my father's birthday, our household goods was already departed for bokaro as my father got promoted and was posted to the new place. We were left only with our luggage and was meant to leave rajkot on 1st april. The distance from rajkot to bokaro was around 2200 kms as said by the google maps and we were ready to roll out on the roads. The reason(s) we opted to cover that distance by road was because of our 5 yr old labrador and moreover we all in the family loves to travel by road ;).
As planned we got up early at 5 in the morning, it was a pleasant morning with breeze blowing and a perfect climate to drive. We tried to keep as much low luggage as possible with ourselves but in the end it resulted in a surplus. It took around 45 mins to properly adjust the luggage in our car, and by the time we could have left it was already 7.15 am and the sun was clearly to be seen heading upwards in the sky. We all knew we would today be taking more time to cover the distance to kota as we usually take coz now we had a four legged  passenger with us. As in my previous blogs i have mentioned about the road conditions of gujarat so it was treat to drive on these kind of roads, amazing roads and amazing driving experience as well, its like you are running a knife on butter.
I somehow managed to hit the speedometer at 120 kmph as my dog was a bit acclimatized to the car condition and was behaving normal. We did managed to cover 140 kms in 1 hr and 30 mins and had our breakfast at Limbdi. It was a stop of approx 45 mins as we had get our pet freshen up as well and it was a totally new place, it took some time to get relieved and that was the main reason why we all were concerned.We all started again and reached ahmedabad by-pass by 10.30 am. As it was a working day we encountered with some heavy traffic but the good part was it was moving one.We managed to cross gandhinagar by 11.30 pm and the target was set to have lunch at udaipur.

The roads were a pleasure to drive and in some patches i was able to touch 140 kmph. It was again the same route on which i had travelled 6-7 times and was familiar with the roads and rough patches. We reached udaipur by 1:45 pm after we found traffic jam while reaching udaipur as one truck had met an accident and had crossed the barricade but after all we were well in time and had our lunch there. We departed from udaipur at 3:00 pm and was set to reach Kota before the sun sets. The roads were good but not that great on which we had traveled while we were in gujarat. We had our evening tea after reaching chittorgarh. And also it was quite a long time for our four legged passenger to get freshen up.

It was 4:45 pm by the clock and the sun has started to descend into the horizon, we got back in our places and rev upped the engine hard. From Chittorgarh the roads are again a treat to drive, Complete RCC roads and you will find very low traffic. We found one honda Jazz with whom it was an un said competition and in all this mashup all we achieved was that we managed to cover 100 kms in 55 mins. It was getting dark and the jazz was now no where to be seen.It was 6.30 pm and kota was 45 kms left. It was the time to switch on the head-lights and we could see the lights of kota from that distance. You always feel great when you are about to reach the place where you had spend the most of your summer vacations during the school days. I was about to meet my grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousin and the newly born niece.
We reached at our destination by 7.15 pm where my cousin has already planned for a surprise party as its was my father and aunt's birthday. We had our dinner and chit-chatted uptill 11.00 pm and at last our four legged member also got a place where it could relax completely.

Do read the next blog on our journey from kota to allahabad, which was completely a new route to discover.
Enjoy reading and keep sharing.

Simplifying Trips NOIDA TO RAJKOT

Hi to all readers, hope you have enjoyed my previous posts of LEH-LADAKH.
So this new post belongs to my recent journey with my mom and dad from NOIDA to RAJKOT by road , Approx 1300 kms.

Day 1 - It was 25th March 2016, the very next day of  holi, my parents had come to our place and i was meant to fetch them back from noida to rajkot by road. We woke up at 7 in the morning did all our courses, had breakfast and left noida at 10.30 am. We knew today we had to halt at jaipur at my maternal grand-parents home as covering 1300 kms in a single day would be too tiring.
It was Friday and holiday too on account of Easter, so the traffic was not that much heavy and we reached dhaula kuan at around 11:00 am. We did find some heavy traffic at dhaula kuan because of its a bus stop and many people were heading there home.We kept moving along with the heavy moving and crossed gurgaon by 11:30 am and the newly expanded 6 lane highway is a pleasure to drive. The roads were in very good condition and smooth to rev up the engine hard. Only place when you had slow down were at the toll plazas and when you cross some small town. We reached Behror which is the midway for the Delhi-Jaipur at around 1:00 pm. We had a stop at the Shiva Oasis resort, had our lunch there and left that place at 1:30 pm.

 It was a smooth drive up till jaipur and many people had already experienced it so this part of the journey has nothing left me to describe.
We reached our destination at 3:00 pm and halted there for that night.
Next day was a sought of challenge to drive as we have to cover 950 kms.

Day 2 -  The mind was set to cover approx 1000 kms in a day so we planned to leave early as possible but we left jaipur at 7:00 am. We got late as my grandparents asked us to take breakfast along with us. However the first 90 kms upto kishangarh on Jaipur-ajmer highway is itself a different experience to drive, 6 lane highway with low traffic and the early sun-rise all added up to build a different and a mesmerizing experience. We covered that part in exact 1 hr and then headed towards bhilwara which is approx 250 kms from jaipur. The roads were now reduced to 4 lane, patch work and crests & troughs  made by the heavy moving vehicles but at some patches i was able to get past 120kmph. You do get a good scenery of the aravali mountain range and that is the only pleasure to drive.We halted at 8:45 am at one small dhaba and just had tea, as we were having breakfast with us.

We started again at 9:15 am and the next target was to reach udaipur during the lunch time. The weather that day was quite pleasant, the breeze was blowing and we did encountered with some rain drops when udaipur was almost 50 kms. We did reached Udaipur by 1:30 pm and hopped in natraj hotel at station road for our lunch. We departed from udaipur at 2:15 pm and the roads now were very good at some places and having patch work at some places. The next target was to reach gandhinagar by 4:30 pm. The ghat section is good to drive through and the moment you enter the gujarat state you can easily see the difference between the road conditions.

We did reached gandhinagar well in time by 4:20 pm and were satisfied by the target achieved, a very thanks to the gujarat government for making these kinds of roads you will not find a single pothole and the motto "safety with speed" truly proves to be true. Crossing the gandhinagar and bypassing ahmedabad is itself a task to do. Being a holiday it was not that crowded and we managed to crossed that by 5:45 pm. Now Rajkot was 223 kms left and the last lap was about to start.
As the mild and hazy sun was setting in the horizon, we were heading towards our destination with around 130-14 kmph.

We made a single halt at this patch just for getting the fuel tank full and there only we all get freshened up.We were now in a hurry to reach our home and it was getting dark, the cars crossing by had put on there headlamps and it was still 45 kms to go, it was 7:30 by the clock. We were now driving for more than 12 hrs. It was a feeling like when rajkot will come, when we reach our house when it will be all over , it was too tiring as i was the lone driver. At last we reached our house at 8:15 pm, where my 5 year labrador sherry was waiting at the door and she just jumped on each of us like as if there is no tomorrow.

It was such a great feeling to be at home and that too after a long tiring journey.

I hope you all have enjoyed this travel experience.

Coming up in few days my next travel blog on Road trip from Rajkot to bokaro.

Stay tuned for some more experience.