aN oLd bUt TrUe sToRy

This is from a trip that i had a few months back.. with three of my college friends... you can find some of the fotographs as well at this link : http://photos.yahoo.com/prashant_bhardwaj

Hi everyone... i have been thinking of writing something for a long time.. and here i am today... with my trip to Bhimtal... its a long story which should not have been cut short for any reasons.. so read it if you have time.. if not.. never mind..


Ok... so i am back from a trip to Bhimtal... it would be injustice to call it to Bhimtal because I do not think i left anything that was worth being at and we did not visit it.. after all i am expecting about 118 photografs to be developed for these two days.. and there have neet been any fotos taken in the night... so some real beauty is on its way from the fotographer's shop to mine...

we reached kathgodam at 7:30 in the morning on Saturday and took at cab to reach bhimtal in about 30 minutes.. checked in that hotel there after bargaining on the room cost.. so finally he agreed to 500 buks for the room.. cheap we thought.. but that was the start.. we go ready to move out of the room by about 1030 hours and after having breakfast at a neat resort which costed us about 200 bucks we moved to the point from where we could get a cab to the place from where we were planning to paraglide to naukuchiatal. Our bad luck.. the winds were not strong enough for adults to take that awesome route to the beautiful lake called naukuchital. ok so after waiting for like 2 hours we decided to move on... now that we were sure that we are not taking the normal route, we decided to trek down to the lake.. after walking downhill for about 45 minutes, we could reach, naukuchital... ammazing lake.. no big hotels, none infact.. just a few restaurants, some cabs, and a govt. guest house... so we decided to rent a shikara in that huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge lake and enjoy boating.. just 120 bucks for about 40 minutes... we were four of us, me Waquar, Ashish and Rupak... taking turns to row that boat and sit on the other edge as well enjoying the water.. lovely views, lovely water, beautiful boat.... but then it was already like 1500 hrs and our stomachs wanted some attention too.. so we asked the boatman as to where we could eat food.. he suggested us to visit a small shop/restaurant where the kadhi chawal was neat... we four of us ate like pigs there.. and were full upto the brim.. food so tasty and fresh.. just like our homes.. and what did it cost.. 200 bucks i guess... ya it was 200 bucks.. ok, now though we were sleepy there was a lot of gound to cover.. to start with we wanted to find out how to get back to bhimtal...

we talked to some of the cab drivers there and were more then happy to transfer us back to bhimtal in a mere 100 bucks.. but we were not willing to spend that kinda money on a cab... so we asked some ppl as to what was the distance to bhimtal... and here is what we hear.. 4 kms.. why do we need to hire a cab.. so though we were like a li'il tired and full of food.. we decided to move on... and walked about 2.5 kms before we got a cab which was coming back to naukuchiyatal.. travelled about 1.5 kms in that with 5 bucks a person and reached bhimtal back at around 4:30 i guess... now the question was what to do the entire evening... so we decided to go to sattal.. and spend the evening there... about 9 kms away it is also considered to be a great lake... we talked to a few ppl and took a maruti car for 250 buks to go to Sat-tal and back.. Waquar as always was the one to take a lead in bargaining and getting us the right rates... reach there after driving through the hills and enjoying the great weather.... in about 30 minutes... on our way.. saw a lake called Garud Tal which is full of snakes... and after that came the world famous Quote from our friend Rupak.. " thank God snakes do not fly":) what a darling rupak is.. one of the very few guys with a heart of gold ... anyway.. we moved from there... and reached Sattal... what an awesome place.. surrounded by very dense forests and a big lake in between.. we did not feel like boating there.. coz we already had done that a few hours back... so we decided to just stroll around the lake... and finally sat at one point with our feet inside the water.. this was soemthing that really relaxed us completely... no fatigue nothing... after staying there with our feet inside water for about 30 minutes we decided to come back to bhimtal and relax again... so we had tea.. and buransh ka sharbat.. which is supposed to clear your blood.. another one of the comments which Waquar made here.. when the shopkeeper told us what this sharbat does... Waquar was very prompt in asking him "Ek hi botel se saara khoon saaf ho jayega kya ?" The shopkeeper as hundreds of others did not have an answer to Waqua bhai's instant questions :)
so we moved from there and reached bhimtal back again in the late evening.. having nothing to do.. we sat at one side of bhimtal having chips.. and watching a delhi school teacher shouting her lungs out on some of the kids who were late to come back to the bus which was waiting for them to move from Bhimtal... after all that natak we moved to our hotel.. not sure of what we want to do next.. i bought a ludo and while we were taking our turns to get fresh and all... we were also playing the age old still interesting game of saanp seedi... ok though tired.. but still with a lot of energy we were thinkg what should we do next... being practical at this hour made us rest and not freak ourself out in the evening.. so after we decided there is nothing more that we want to achieve in that calender day we decided to arrange for a movie... so we rented a VCD player and got two CDs one Hum Tum and the other Aan.. strange enough.. the CD rent was only 10 bucks as compared to 30 bucks that i pay in noida... anyway.. we were all pleasently surprised that we could arrange for the movies.. and were planning to watch the movie after our dinner... so there we were out of our decent hotel room and out on thebank of the lake towards the Neelesh Inn where we had our breakfast... we had tipped the waiter intentionally in the morning so that he would take care of the food in the evening as well.. and so he did... though he was kinda tired after his days work... so we ate and ate and ate and managed to get a bill about 420 bucks after a stomach and neck full of dinner.. the 15 minute walk back to the hotel we were staying in helped us digest that food... ok so back to the hotel room.. and waiting for themovie to start... the CD player would not work... aaaaaaaargh we really wantd to watch hum tum... anyway... we did our own bit of RnD with the player an the data cable connecting the tv to the Player but it kept crashing like the Mig 21s these days... we could not watch the movie... and finally mananged to go to sleep at 2330 hours.

End of Day ONE.

Day 2:
Waquar woke me up around 7 and told me that it was raining outside and the weather was really cold... somehow i managed to get out of the blanket which in which i was.... (Blanket without a fan... and it was like 40 deg in Delhi... the thought brought a smile to me as well) and went outside.. to feel wht i cannot put in words... awesome is the only word that comes to my mind again and again... it was kinda drizzling outside and the air was pretty cold.. and i just want to get ready and g out of the room on the street to enjoy that day too... so the project to wake up the gentle giant Rupak and Ashish started.. and we would win only half the battle.. Rupak got up and me and waquar got ready during that time.... while rupak was getting ready and Ashish was still trying to get the answer to the famous Bollywood Question "Main Kahan hoon?" me and waquar got outside and went for a walk next to the bhimtal... cold and clean water.. cewl breeze... no noise.. only birds and water...and the occasional vehicles on the road next to the lake...lovely sight... we took like 20 minutes and then went back to the hotel... packed our stuff and checked out by 0900 hours... it was still raining but occasional drops and this time we decided not to go to the same resort we had breakfast and dinner at... so we went to the local market and entered a small time restaurant.. and ordered some paranthaas and bread omlette... it took at good 20 minutes for the breakfastto be served but when we had the first bite we knew it was every second worth the wait... again ate like pigs and reached the cheque of about 200 buks... but the breakfast could not have been better.. no way... now the rest of the day.... we hd to go to bhowali.. and then to nainital from there and spend the rest of the day in nainital. bt destiny and fate and planned something different for us.. we took a shared cab at 8 bucks per persn to bhowali and then decided not to visit the ghodakhaal mandir which we initially wantd to go to.. and took a maruti van to nainital instead... while talking to the driver we came to know about the places andchanged our mind.. hired the same cab to roam around uttaranchal.. and gather as mch a we could in that day.. so we wnt to ghodakhal.... this is a small temple and the learned say that the movie Baaz was shot here... dunno if you know it or not.. bt this the temple which has i guess the maximum number of bells in it.. over a lakh i guess... woooooooo man.. too gud.. spent about 30 minutes there and then moved towards Mukteshwar... we were right now at about 4000 feet and mukteshwar at 8500 feet... here we go... about two hours drive and 100s of bends on the dangerous roads... but the most beautiful views of orchids of apple, peach, apricots and what not... a temprature of 14-16 degs... we could not have asked for more.. and yes not to forget teh bunglows in these hills... awesome. you think youhave seen beautiful houses in delhi or nearby... then you gotta go there and surprise yourself.... so we reach mukteshwar and then back to bhowali and then to nainital... by about 6 in the evening... amazing awesome mind blowing 100 kms of drive in the hills....
as soon as we reached nainital... all teh four of us hated it ... add all the cars and ppl and hotels we had seen in the last 36 hours.. multiply it by 10 and nainital was still more then that... chandni chaowk is less crowded i guess.... anywa.y.. we just roamed around there... went for a swing in a giant wheel... which rupak found a li'il hard to handle... visited the naina devi temple... had dinner.. bought some squashes... and took the bus back to delhi....
End of DAY 2....
This was our trip... just the way it happened....
managed to take about 118 fotographs on the trip and spent around 1500 bucks person... including everything... cheap but mroe then we could ask for...
and yes... we four among us also plan to visit and cover the entire uttaranchal in 2004... interested ppl.. more then welcome to get in touch with us.......