Year 2007: my only travelogue

And the hills beckoned…


Year 2007 was drawing to an end and when I peeked into my travelogues folder I realized that this year I had not done justice to any of my travels. But they say better late than never so with only a week to go I decide to pen down my first & last travelogue for this year based on my latest & greatest trip to nainital. It all started with an official trip to delhi for recruitments, the dates we got at the two colleges gave us a weekend in between to quench our wanderlust. The glasshouse on the ganges was the first destination, but they were fully booked. So just as I was looking out, a corner article in the November edition of ‘Outlook traveller’ caught my attention. It was a resort called “Shervani Hilltop’ at nainital. The pics on their website were promising and also a blog on the place reaffirmed that the place was worth a visit. After initial discussions with the gang (ricky, raghu & Hemant) I went about with the resort & train reservations.

After a lot of waiting D-day finally arrived. The adventure began in the very first leg of the journey. We set out from the hotel for the station with only about 20min of buffer time. Just as we were nearing the station I recounted to the others my previous experience at New delhi station where we realized at the last minute that the train was from old delhi. Just as we were unloading the luggage Hemant went to enquire on the platform and he returned with the news that this train too was scheduled to depart from old delhi. History repeats and I wonder if I will ever learn ;-) I will never forget that 15min drive through the streets of old delhi with ricky fuming on one side on the gross negligence & incompetence of the organizer (Moi of course) and Hemant unable to control his giggling on the other side. Good luck was ours & we did make it to the train on time and we knew it was meant to be an eventful trip right from the start. The journey was comfortable and we reached Kathgodam station at seven in the morning with the last lap through thick mist. From there we hired a cab to take us to shervani, which was a one hour drive through the twisting roads up the ghats.

As we entered nainital & caught the first glimpse of the placid waters of the lake it was truly beautiful. It was a steep uphill climb from the central mall road to the resort. The whole town is built on the hills around the lake. Our resort was a very nicely done up place with great hospitality. After checking in and freshening up we feasted on a lovely b’fast on their lawns. Trekking enthusiasts that we are we immediately set out to china peak which was supposed to be a 3 hour trek. In retrospect we feel we should have taken a break after b’fast since the steep climb was very difficult on full stomachs. Enroute we stopped at the satyanarayan temple. This trek path was through the forests and at many a point we thought we were lost but the locals who were up there collecting wood helped us find the way. It was a strenuous climb but completely worth it since the panoramic view of the snow capped Himalayas in the backdrop was like a secret hidden on the other side of the hills. We took a short break there and sipped on hot black tea that the person manning the wireless repeater station prepared for us. This peak is at an elevation of 8622 ft amsl and gets its name from a Chinese sage who used to reside there. We then walked to a viewpoint from where we had a bird’s eye view of the picturesque city below with its blue-green lake and houses around. Our downhill trek was through another route which was well laid out and less adventurous than our uphill trek. Once we got back to the resort after a light snack and a short nap we got out once again to explore mall road. By 5 in the evening the chill in the air had surely increased and we were a sight to reckon with, only about 3-4 layers of extra clothing to keep us warm. We took a nice long walk around the lake and then visited the gurudwara on its banks. We also feasted on some yummy gol gappas. One incident here worth mentioning is that we were witness to a really kind act while at that roadside stall. A group of hip guys whom I would never have thought to be philanthropic brought a whole bunch of street kids who were begging to the Chinese stall beside us and asked the kids to order whatever they wanted while they footed the bill. This gesture was truly heart rending and I do hope each one of us take the time to do something to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. At the resort we were welcomed with a delicious spread at the dinner buffet. We chatted up for some more time before we called it a night. It had been one hectic but well spent day at nainital.

Day 2 saw us rise a little later than usual. The guys got a kumaoni massage done by an old man. Once we were done with a royal b’fast we set out again. There was a cricket match going on in the pitch beside the lake and lots of townspeople had gathered to watch it. Even we joined them for sometime before we boarded a vehicle to take us to suicide/lovers point (what a combination ;-). From there we were to go horse riding uphill. Though I was not too enthusiastic due to the insistence of the others I went along. It was a good experience though the downhill trip was very scary. I never tried taking the controls of the horse whereas the guys enjoyed the ride and they even went galloping on flat land. We were on the horses for about a hour and a half and we had to walk a long way downhill to get back to the city. After this we took the ropeway up and had to wait a long time to get our chance to come down. By then we had built an appetite and after checking with the locals there we lunched at ‘Machan’. The sarson ka saag was really yummy though we did over eat. We had to rush back, pack and start back for kathgodam as our train was scheduled to leave at 8.15pm. All good things must come to an end and so we said our good byes to the beautiful lake city.

Heres to the end of this wonderful year and the beginning of another one

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things”

Travel tips for nainital:

1. For more info on the resort visit www.shervanihotels.com
2. Dec was a good time as it was not peak season and not too crowded

The pics can be viewed at

http://picasaweb.google.com/deeptipookat/Nainital_dec_07