A 6 Day trip to Uttaranchal under 150 US$ – Part I

There are travelers who prefer history, then there are others who like nature and then there are some who like adventure. What if you could roll up all this into a single bundle and dash it with a shoe string budget? Well, you probably would do what we just did last week!

The Plan: Travel Uttarakhand (or Uttaranchal) in its tourist peak season for 6 days and 5 nights by spending no more than US$ 150

The Travelers: Me and a buddy of mine

How did we do it? Read on this 2 part post on how we did it and what all did we see.

It all began when my buddy told me of his visit to India after a long gap of over 2 years. My mind was racing for a small trip in early June where the two of us…me freshly out of Grad school and he a PhD scholar could manage it all within a small tight budget without neglecting basic comforts.

The plan was to visit places like Nainital (yeah you have to because its so popular!), Kausani (because its secluded and enthralling), Ranikhet (I still wonder why!), Almora (deserves more respect than it gets) and Binsar (could we?).  Now with the objective places decided we had two options..either to visit Nainital first and book those quick and fast tours to visit all these or do things at our own pace. We chose the latter.

We started from Lucknow to Lal Kuan in Nainital Express, from Lal Kuan we decided to goto Almora because that was a much more central location to other places like Ranikhet and Kausani. From Lal Kuan we went to the Haldwani bus station, which allowed us to board a KMOU (Kumaon Motor Owners Union) bus to Almora at INR 78.

At Almora we were greeted we stayed at Hotel Shikhar which provided us with a room at INR 500 a night. The first evening at Almora greeted us with rains which restricted our movement to only Naina Devi temple there. However, we did walk around the Mall road and also discovered an excellent cafe in the streets of Lal Bazaar.

Next morning the rains were back after a few hours of Sun, but this time we decided not to stay within the confines of our room. So we ventured out and decided to visit Jageshwar Temples. Now the first problem propped up, there was only one KMOU bus to Jageshwar at 12 noon and the other option was to pay upto INR 800 bucks at book a taxi to this place around 35 kilometers from Almora. We instead opted for a bus to Pitohragarh and get down at Atula which is around 3 kilometers from Jageshwar. What happened next was a true local bus trip with little place to stand or even breathe. 

Nanda Devi Temple, Almora

Jageshwar Temples

Bells at Jhula Devi (Ranikhet)

At Atula the rain Gods decided to greet us with lighter drizzle and plenty of icy breeze…we trekked to Jageshwar temples on foot and enjoyed the mystic beauty of the Pine forest around us. The Jageshwar temples are of both historical and religious significance, a trip to Almora is deemed incomplete if you don’t visit them.

We returned to Almora through a regular Jeep, the last of one the day at around 3.15 pm. One key learning in Kumaon was that most of the public transport between points across towns would stop by the time it shall be 5 pm.

Next morning we visited Ranikhet, that was pretty easy to do by passenger Jeeps from Almora which drop you at Ranikhet within 2 hours at around INR 50 per person.

Ranikhet was much of a disappointment though. However, we did enjoy a trek of almost 12 kilometers to Jhula Devi temple and Chaubattia. On our return to Almora, the clear weather helped us to see the snow capped mountain himalayan mountain range including Nanda Devi peak from the naked eye.

Must visit places around Almora and Ranikhet: Chaubattia, Jageshwar, Naina Devi Temple, Kalika Temple

Check out for the second part of the series…

Adios personal web pages

Geocities shall be closing down this year…it made me also realize that I have recently completed a decade of my being on the Internet.

Here’s the Yahoo! Profile which tells that I am member since April 1999

Back then it was so cool to have a webpage on the Internet, naturally as a 15 year old I was so inclined to have one of my own. The debate used to be between Geocities, Homestead, Tripod or Fortunecity…finally it feels that the days of free web hosting are numbered thanks to Blogging and the likes.

Here you may have a look at my website (if you have the patience to explore you shall find a few gems out there): http://uk.geocities.com/ankur2130

Throwing shoes…the be-coming of the Indian electorate!

It all began when one Iraqi gentleman threw his shoes at Dubya back in 2008. While those shoes went on to become best sellers and a fashion fad elsewhere, we at India learnt the new art of shoe throwing!

The past few weeks have resulted in atleast 3 incidents of shoe throwing at various politicians across the country on issues ranging from corruption, communism to just plain anger. While this trend has resulted in some politicians signing out of the election nominations to restriction on wearing shoes in press conferences.

On the other front certain places have also witnessed public turning violently against the certain candidates holding rallies during their campaigns. Is the the beginning of regular Indians showing their exasperation against lack of governance and utter apathy of the sitting MPs who failed to deliver the goods? Is this the end of us being mere sitting ducks?

By the way, are you voting this year? I am.

 

B Division > Batch 2007 – 2009

Coaxed and threatned here I am penning down on our B Division…aka as padhaku division, boring, nerdy and the uncool or whatever the popular mis-conception  was! So then where do I start, shall I do a Mapara and give a comment of each one of us like he did for C Division? Noo…let Mapara bask in his own glory, because i believe our division was a single organism and not just individuals brought together by the Gods of acads department. 

 

So what was B Division – It is a potpurri of different flavors yet one color. Dahling’s of some teacher’s (read Business Law and OR) and nemesis of others (read HR). Managed to score zero as a group in one silly Eff-See-Que of RM, and managed to bail ourselves out of it too.  Certain old men give new dimesions to how HR was studied, and then there were others(certain loud mouths) who beat the CLO in explaining HR concepts. Were to the forefront of giving timely submissions and also about not caring for Foundation exams (Oh yes! some of us have still not appeared for a few of those!). 

 

Singles, engaged, committed and married you name it and we have them…oh yes some of us even changed these stages while being a part of the gang. Blessed with singers, and guitarists we even have people who could put Janice(remember F.R.I.E.N.D.S) to shame. College toppers to exam floppers, from the tallest of the tall to the shortest of them all. From pure Punjabi fun to Man madrasa, from pernnial hard workers to sleephyheads(favorites of Pathak Sir) we have seen it and done it all. We have had cake officers to certain non resident students surprising even Prantosh.

 

…but then how did this cacophony of contradictions ended up giving perfect music? I’ll never know, sometimes things just given an impression of being impossible…but then for B division things have always been possimpible!

Lifeless existence

I drove and I drove…with these words ringing in my ears. Here they are:

The tears dry up…eventually,
The soft heart hardens and crumbles up like bread
What is now left is a live body with a lifeless existence..

 

I really don’t know the context, but these words just kept hitting my head.

Silent Conversations

You walk ahead with amazing confidence and composure,
  my eyes follow you because you are my cynosure
I wonder if you know that I desperately keep you in my vision,
  secretly hoping for you to turn and give me a glance before you escape my horizon.

Your smile is like the silvery dew drops on a spring morning,
 infectious and positive it leaves me beaming.
I hope to confine this moment forever in my mind,
  for i do not know when else would life be so kind.

Those eyes mesmerize me each moment,
putting my heart into a sweet torment.
They speak without verses,
 questions, answers and even curses.

But its your face which really heals me without a touch,
just a glimpse of this concoction makes my day.
that I don’t need any more words to say…

-Ankur

The above poem is still not perfected…there are gaps (specially towards the end). Suggestions anyone?

Do something good today – Help Gaurav

Here’s something which needs immediate response. Please visit the website mentioned below, and if possible be an active contributor.  

 

http://www.helpgaurav.com

Chasing flavours – Malai Makhan

 

The traditional Malai Makkhan in Lucknow

Malai Makkhan or cream butter is one of the most amazing sweet snacks sold during the winters in Lucknow and Kanpur (and also some other parts of UP). While the name may scare the diet conscious, the true product is much much lighter and devoid of any noticeable fat content.

I normally had trouble describing how it looks like, and thus the picture above. Incidently, I have been buying this amazing sweet from the same seller (who comes on a bicycle singing along makkhan malai on the streets) for over a decade! 

The best description of the recipe of this treat is  - saffron flavoured frothed cream, made by hanging unsalted butter overnight in dew and then aerating it by beating it.

Dew being an important factor to manufacture this delicacy, its only during the winters and early spring that we Lucknow-ites are blessed with this. I has a slightly sweet flavor of  frothy cream which just vanishes in your mouth tickling your taste buds wanting for more.

Twitter…Connecting the dots

In the last week I managed to connect the dots of my Internet presence.

Today, as I write my blog a tweet is automatically posted on my Twitter account by using Feedburner.

Now any new tweets are then shown up as my status on my Facebook page. On the other hand, the same tweets are also shown up on my Orkut profile by this application called Twikut.

The only circular reference that doesn’t work now is the display of my twitter feed on my blog, which is now encrypted and cannot be shown on WordPress.com blogs (due to restriction of JavaScript widgets).

I guess the last straw would be connecting my GTalk statuses to Twitter, where any change in status would result in a new tweet being posted on Twitter.

Buy cheap @ ebay.in

Around an year ago I had done a marketing research project on Online consumer buying behaviour. The findings for my set of population estimate showed the fear of using credit cards online as being one of the major deterrants for even regular Internet users to shop online.

In the last two weeks I have been able to purchase two iPod 1 GB shuffle players for two of my friends, one of them as cheap as INR 1600 (US$ 35). The actual market price of iPod 1 GB here in Pune, India is around INR 2500, just look at the amount of savings which we did buy purchasing online!

How did we do it? 

First the How, we compared prices across sellers on ebay.in, selected sellers on the basis of their feedback rating and prices they offered. Mind you that we were saving only upto 200-300 INR by this purchase. Then we used a discount coupon which ebay.in emails most of its users every week and bingo! our saving multiplied and we ended up buying the product at a much better price than in the market. Moreover, this is a perfectly legal transaction with true warranty on the product.

And should you be doing it?

Well, sure if you are comfortable with online purchases already. While ebay.in does offer plenty buyer protection measures, I would still suggest you to first try purchasing on online stores like Indiaplaza.in etc… before moving to a seller marketplace like ebay.in

Disclaimer: I wouldn’t take any responsibility of any loss or fraud which you may get yourself into by doing online purchases. Caveat emptor still applies.