In this unusually hot and humid weather all your heart yearns is for a holiday in the cooler climes! Not many of us are so fortunate to actually make it and have to resort to reminisce. So here are a few of my favourite things read 'destinations.' My own top 5 in India.
5. Landour - An absolute hot favorite! As long as I was in Delhi traveling to the mountains was not a distant dream. It was very simple. . Landour where Mr. Bond, Ruskin Bond lives is a quiet little place
where I have been several times and have never felt bored. It's rhythm
is enticing and addictive. An over night bus takes you to Mussoorie and then a local cab to Landour or a good 3km up hill walk. If you have your vehicle you can just drive through.
Every year we went for a weekend (sad but that's all we could spare) down to Landour to get
our favorite walking shoes made by the cobbler in the market and some local Gouda cheese. An excuse I would like to make any time! And have butter toast and gobi parathas at Thakurs at "Char Dukan", where you still have only 4 shops! Next to it is is The St. Paul's Church where Jim Corbett's parents tied the knot. What an endearing little place. Any time you can bump into Pranoy Roy or Brinda Karat at the Char Dukan. Tom Alter's family still lives there and Victor Banerjee too had a cottage with a view near Lal Tibba, don't know though if they are still around though.
For all you horror film buffs there is an old cemetery which, can be truly spooky on a rainy evening! So, if you are looking for some goose bumps even that is available in good measure. Old pictures of Landour will show you the "Char Dukan" with the 4 shops a 100 years ago and literally so even today! Enchanting to say the least.
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| Guests relaxing at Deodar Woods |
You can stay at Deodar Woods in Sisters Bazar or 3 km away at Mussoorie if you like the humdrum. At Deodar Woods we met a motley of travellers from all over the world. It has a small parlor with a fire place where many a evenings are spent sharing stories with fellow travelers. It also boasts of a thoughtful library where you can find books in all languages. Travelers by choice leave books behind for the next reader.One place where you will never run out of reading material. I totally adore this shelf! Have left many a books myself for the weary heart who will seek refuge in them like me. When I am moving about and not reading curled up in the parlor I am a lazy tourist. I just like to amble about to Wood Stock school and back and soak in the local flavours and sit there doing nothing at 4 dukan. So, fair warning this is not a destination for people who live only for action.
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| Nandadevi from the Guest House |
4. Chaukori - Unlike Landour it has no history attached to it but Chaukori is breathtaking in its beauty. With the Nanda Devi 100kms as the crow flies, and the mighty Trishul lunging at you on your right it is a view which, can turn you deliriously happy. Best time to visit late October to June. The massive snow bound mountains up close and personal shining through just for you will soothe your nerves. The orchards around are heavenly and you can meet the red fox with its
cubs every now and then. They love it here! I can't blame them. Chaukori had a dairy farm and also a huge tea garden. The ruins of the tea estate and the dairy are open to explore and makes it a very intriguing setting for a vacation. We spent many a morning ambling from one end to another wondering about the people who must have lived 100 years ago in this beautiful place with no proper roads but were still exporting dairy products and tea to England ! One cannot but marvel at the sheer human enterprise. Even today reaching Chaukori is not so easy. One needs to reach Haldwani by either the over night train or bus and then drive via Binsar forest to Chaukori. It takes about 8 hours. So ex Delhi it is roughly 14 hrs give or take two! Chaukori is difficult to be shared in words.
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| Way to the heavenly pastures of Kinnaur Kailash |
3. Chitkul - This quaint little village beyond Sangla Valley is the last inhabited village on the Indo- Tibetan Highway. Tibet is 181 kms away. On entry you will come across a board saying Population less than 1000. Rakhchham the earlier village on the way boasted of a population of 800, by that standard it is pretty crowded. But mostly the youngsters have moved away to Shimla, Chandigarh and Delhi for education and a new life leaving the parents behind who are still farming (although nowadays they are growing cash crops such as various herbs and not the mundane staples only).
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| Me with a local boy who didn't say a word but cuddled me anyways! |
The last army post on the Indian side is the only inhabited place beyond this village and it is 21 kms away. Chitkul is situated at the foothills of Kinnaur Kailash and the mighty waters of glacial Baspa flows like a blue ribbon across the landscape. It is the best water I have ever tasted. Couldn't care less for all the exotic varieties in the bottle!
Getting here is difficult. from Kalpa it takes about 5 hours and the roads are often closed due to mud slides and landslides. We went in June hence we were lucky. If you want to experience snow try mid- April. It gets the season's last snow during that time. But do have some spare time with you as you might get snow bound for several days.
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| Raj Guest House with attach bath and clean rooms |
Accommodation is rudimentary in nature but makes up by the hospitality of the people. Usually people stay at Sangla and visit Chitkul for a picnic. Some fear the 10,000 ft altitude and stay away. But I found staying here to be better than at the crowded Sangla. We stayed at the less popular Raj Guest house right at the entry to the village because it had two clean rooms with attached baths and sit outs. And it was perfect. There is a Forest/ PWD Bunglow though, reservations can be made at the district head quarters at Recongpeo for the same.
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| Lake Gurudongmar at a mighty 17,500 ft, oxygen in the air 2% |
2. North Sikkim - Sikkim is a hidden treasure, with friendly people, fashionable and environment conscious. Gangtok is a smoke free and plastic free city! Not an accolade cities can boast off in India. North Sikkim is definitely not for the faint hearted. The roads are awful and land slides and mud slides are in plenty but what won't I do to see this gleaming lake at 17000ft again! It is much more prettier than this picture. The color of the sky says it all mate!
Getting there is difficult. One has to make a stop over at Lachen. It takes 6 hours to drive down from Gangtok. from Lachen it takes another 3 and a half hours to Lake Gurudongmar. But trust me all the trouble is worth it. We felt slightly nauseous upon returning to Lachen but a hot bowl of Wai Wai noodles with oodles of chillies cured of us any lightness of being that we felt! The journey to reach North Sikkim is indeed a long one. If you take the train from Kolkata it is an overnight business to NJP or New Jalpaiguri and good 5 hours drive to Gangtok. Flight to Baghdogra will reduce the time considerably. Next day you set off for Lachen and stay overnight and leave before dawn to Gurudongmar. The earlier you reach the calmer the winds but that does not guarantee less of altitude sickness.
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| Enjoying the view at Yumthang Valley |
Sikkim is known for its rhododendrons. It boasts of more than a hundred and Yumthang valley is the place which turns into velvety carpet between February to April. This is the time to be in Sikkim. we went in June and missed the beauty of these delicate flowers but it was still beautiful. Snowline is very close by and planes people (read Bangalee tourists on this case and they came in by the droves so better to avoid May and June) like a good romp in the snow and can be seen bargaining with the stores for snow jackets and boots all over the entrance to the valley. If you like the macabre you can listen to their horror stories of lack of maachh - bhaat (fish curry and rice) and chicken leg pieces in the curry, I have no idea why is the chicken leg piece is such a coveted joint in this pat of the world. We steered clear from them as we had no intention of going to the snow line and instead walked through the rhododendron forests, mysterious and alluring.
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| Stok Kangri Peak |
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1. Ladakh - Yes no prizes for guessing my favourite haunt. It indeed is Ladakh and I love every bit of it! But yeah Pangong Tso is the jewel in the crown and please do try and spend a night or two at the lake. Rudimentary accommodation is available by the lake side with common dry toilets. One tour operator out of Leh operates a small guest house at Spangmik - http://illusions-illusions.blogspot.in/2009/06/desolate-spangmik-ladakh.html - which, is 8 kms from Pangong. Beyond this there are couple of villages but am not aware if there are any accommodation availability of any kind. Apart from Pangong which, has now been immortalized by Amir Khan in
3 Idiots there is so much to see and experience in this extremely barren and harsh terrain it is difficult to share in a paragraph or two. The celestial music that I heard on a very windy day at Stok Palace are things only to be experienced first hand.
Now it's your turn to share your own top 5 holiday destinations for me to explore.
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