Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Vacation Time Finally

Away from the humdrum of a busy city, life in small towns is so quite yet appealing. Finally, I am on vacation.

Day 1: On roads at 4.30 a.m – reached Kotdwara around 9.00 am in the morning. What a retreat to meet Pa and Ma after so long. The place, my home, still brings tears in my eyes whenever I come here. As usual, took a round of the kitchen garden to check what is it that my folks keep themselves busy with – I could see lady finger, corn, brinjal, tomatoes, green leafy stuff and loads of mangoes and litchis.

This place is as hot as kotdwara – by evening, we were completely exhausted with the heat and around 5, we were again on roads uphill. The place is called Sindherikhaal, about 2 hours drive into the forest. It is another gateway to Jim Corbett…there is a small village there..met up with the villagers and spoke to them for a while. Nice decent place, in between the mountains, though not at a great height. We reached home around 9.30 pm, and oh yeah, saw wild elephants for the first time…kept wondering how they manage to make their way in the mountains.

Day 2: To beat the heat, around 10.30 am in the morning, we set off again – the destination was to go uphill to some villages and not a single place in person. We took the alternate route to Lansdowne (via ghoomkhaal) – awesome route, great pine vegetation and lovely villages…I almost saw my dream getting materialized…there was a hill top…if I get that, my life will be made. Paali, is a beautiful village in between cheed vegetation. We also stopped at a road side chaiwala and inquired about other villages…finally reached Lansdowne around 2.00 pm. Stopped at fairydale resorts…spent time there…had lunch, remembered the previous trip…and returned back after an hour or two. Manish went back to Delhi.

Day 3: It started raining last night – and the weather has really cooled down. Been telling dad to plan yet another trip uphill. He obviously seems tired with the frequent uphill drive and probably not very keen on the fact that I drive.  daddy, I can drive you safe to any place uphill. Trust me. Not today, but in a day or two, I am planning to go to dehradun, mussoorie and dhanaulti – covering that belt. Wait for a while to get the glimpse of exclusive pictures I have taken of all these places..


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