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day 1

the schedule was fast and furious as usual. after all the marriage ceremonies were over, we got up early in the morning to catch the flight from mumbai to delhi - around 1.5 hours.
then we touched base in delhi..and took a taxi till mayur vihar (pre paid taxis in delhi do not go out of delhi to places like noida and ghaziabad). we went ot my old pal nitin singhal's house. had loads n loads of anacks and good ols north indian food. had got terribly bored of idlis, dosas, sandwiches and other south indian and british stuff. then, after gulping down barrels of north indian food, we went to see the narayan temple in delhi (near noida turn).

it is a pretty big temple..but u cannot bring cameras inside it. so we took some snaps from outside. then we went back to singhal's house. took our stuff and bid him goodbye. then we went to a relative's place in noida., kept our stuff there and finally headed for old delhi railway station. we were afraid that we would be late. however, the train was late..as usual. we had taken a nice chair car. the train leaves old delhi in the afternoon and reaches kathgodam in the night, around 10:30. i think we had reached kathgodam by midnight.

it was all pretty quiet, with some signs of a prior rainfall. the kmvn guest house is a little way above the station and we could easily walk to that place, with our luggage. we had already booked it earlier, via mr. arya,the manager of munsyari/dharchula kmvn. knocking on the door loudly woke the guards and they took us to our room. it was pretty cold and quiet in the night. the next morning, we got up early. we had hired a taxi from kathgodam to munsyari - in 3000 bucks. munsyari is 299 kms from kathgodam. it was going to be a tough shot to reach there, coz we had our breakfast pretty late - around 09:00 am. Then we went back to haldwani in search of an ATM machine. so we knew that we were going to reach munsyari pretty late in the night.

from kathgodam, we first reached ranibag. from ranibag, we reached bhimtal. smira was enjoying the scenery and it was her first time in kumaon. after ranibag, there is a steep ascent for bhimtal. we stopped at bhimtal to buy some snacks, hair bands, etc. from bhimtal, the next stop was bhowali, where we bought some fruits. then it was a pretty pleasat journey till kainchi. however, just before kainchi some dude known as yashpal had decided to file for his nominations. now he had come with a whole bunch of cars and it had caused a traffic jam .. in the hills!!!! i can never understand what is the need for these stupid, brainless, characterless, nincompoop politicians to cause such problems for the general public on almost every occasion. what was the need for him to bring about everyone with him and block the roads. unfortunately, we could not do anything much except wait and wait. i think that dude yashpal and all the other "similar" politicians who contested these elections are the most miserable, pathetic jackasses (and much more) who ever walked on this earth. the sooner we get rid of them, the better.

finally, after inching forward all the way from kainchi to garam pani, there was finally some relief. we stopped at a place slightly ahead of garam pani and had some lunch. there also, some of these "campaigners" (pet dogs of these politicians, who will even lick their asses for 5 bucks) were sitting and having their meals and drinking non-stop. sheesh man, this stupid drinking habit is very bad for the pahaad. earlier, the ppl in the plains had this bad habit (a very good example is what i used to see during my hostel days in NCR). now, unfortunately, it is spreading to our hills also.

we reached almora by around 4:00 pm. so now there was no way we could reach munsyari by nightfall. there was another stupid jerk campaigning around almora. so he had blocked the road for some time. thankfully, it was not for long. we were soon on our way ahead. the path after almora is full of lovely pine forests, with places like chitai, kanalchinna, barechinna and dhaulchinna. at dhaulchinna, we stopped to get some fruit juice (locally made "buransh" bottles - also known as rhododendron in english). it was absolutely yummy. we also watched the sunset on the himalayan range from the other side of the ridge. it was a beautiful sight. finally, after dhaulchinna, you head down towards seraghat(1) (there r 2 places named seraghat, this is the first one). by the time we reached seraghat, it was dark. there was a police check post, where we had to pay some small "chungi" or toll tax. then we headed up to berinag. now it was uphill all the way. most of the people had gone to sleep. there were some drunkards walking (rather, trying to walk) on the streets. during election time, most of these characterless politicians supply the people with lots of alcoholic drinks, hoping that they will get drunk and vote for them. i just hope and pray to god that the souls of these characterless politicians burn for an eternity in the deepest fires of hell.

finally, around 8:30 pm, we reached chaukori. chaukori is around 15-20 kms away from berinag. it is on the top of the hill and a very beautiful resort. we booked a dormitory for our driver and a cottage for ourselves. had some dinner and went off to sleep, as we were pretty exhausted, travelling for the past 2 days.



some big temple in delhi


me n singhal at the temple


me n smira in front of the temple


smira enjoying the breakfast at kathgodam kmvn tourist rest centre


starting our journey


close up of smira


crosing garam pani and approaching almora


crossed almora and reached dhaulchinna. peaks are a bit misty becoz this was after sunset


more peaks


moon as seen from dhaulchinna


nanda khat


day 2

i got up early in the morning to catch the sunrise over the himalayas....guess that is the only thing for which i can get up willingly. i have to get up early to reach office in time, but that is more out of compulsion rather than choice. but the beauty of the most majestic mountains in the world is so luring and attractive, that getting up at 4:00 am in the morning is a pleasure.

well, it was dark outside, so i took some snaps with the time value of the lens lowered (the shutter speed decreases). after some time smira also got up and got ready. then we went to the edge of the ridge next to the guest house. there were some tea plantations around us. the sight that greeted us was really special. nanda devi, nada kot, panchchuli, nanda ghunti and trishul were also waking up. the sunlight was descending on the peaks, turning them from white to golden yellow. awesome!!! the sun rises from the far east....behind the mountains that form the indo-nepal border. these peaks are to our north. and their eastern faces get lit up first. the camera was working overtime, with a rapid shuffle of the lenses. this time we tried a long range, 200 mm fixed focal length USM lens to capture the close up of the peaks.



early morning at chaukori..got up early to catch the sunrise..the early bird catches the worm. the early photographer catches the sunrise


good morning smira. welcome to kumaon :-)


sunrise on panchchuli..as seen from chaukori


nanda devi



nanda devi -- getting brighter


chaukori cottages --- before we left


nanda devi looks really beautiful







the wall that surrounds nanda devi

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