Friday night, we all packed our bags for the trip, went to kashmere gate, Maharanapratap ISBT. The idea was to take a govt. bus to Kotdwar or Lansdowne. we were a group of 5, Ajay, Prashanth, Rohit Bhaiyya, Monark Bhaiyya and myself. For some reason, there was a lot of rush at the bus station, we stood in a line, had our bags scanned and rushed towards Uttarakhand zone. I thought buses will be readily available, at least for half the distance; but the thing with govt busses was, reserved passengers only! yeah! that was unexpected. Running here and there hoping we would get a bus only to our despair. All along there were many private brokers who were asking if we would go, I have been to Haridwar prior to this on a private bus and I know how they take us and given double the price for ticket; that would be the worst service you could ever get; I would not even dare to hark back to it.
but here we don't have much of a chance, its either that or go back to room; I did not want to be the boulder of the group, so I rolled along with them following a broker to the outside of bus terminus. Ajay was expressing his disapproval all along; but as I said, we did not have much of a chance. So, we were in front of the Metro station again, we took a tickets, there was unusual rush at that time and we wait. There was not a single bus which had free space in it.. literally people were being stuffed like clothes into a suitcase. Thank God there was no corona at that time!
so we waited for an hour and a half as far as I remember, the bus has arrived to pick us up. ..a ... u ... gillu.... chulluu...... hold my hand...... (let me get down).... (push hard,, get on... ) you must be wondering what is all this. There was a lot of rush, the stampede was apocalyptic. people were rushing in to the bus as if its the last resort (indeed, it was the last bus; but you get the point) Prashant with his 3 bags, was ahead of us all, he was holding to his camera bag and tried to board the bus but there was no place.. literally, I was behind him and there was this fat uncle and aunty who had to get down as they boarded the wrong bus, I mean... seriously? so there was a stall. People were pushing in from behind and people were pushing out from the bus, Prashant was not sure where we all were, he cried "Gillu - Chullu, where are you?" (they were Ajay and my nick names give by Prashant). In this chaos ajay and I were laughing that Prashant was hanging in the air with one hand holding the bus and with the other holding the bag, Ajay told me to push him in, I did and Prashant couldn't feel a thing.
Some how, we all were in the bus, we had our reservation so there will be seats for us right? I mean, we were 5, so there must be 5 seats... that's math! right? no. we were crushed into a berth (the place in bus where you generally put your luggage was made into a sleeping berth), yeah you read it right... all! 4 in one berth.. with bags; me ajay, Prashant and Monark. Rohit was on the other with strangers. No words to describe. I suggest never travel on "Classic Bus service", for that matter, never travel by bus in this part of the country. So, crumbling upon one another, my head was hanging, Prashant's legs were hanging, Ajay occupied most of the space for his lean body, not fair.
Hey, I forgot to tell you, the bus was only up to Haridwar, so there was a lot more to travel yet. Upon reaching Haridwar, we learned that it was Kanwar festival that time hence, the rush. It took 20 minutes to get down the bus. We took a bus to Kotdwar as soon as we got down, this bus we empty. and the roads were beautiful, it was raining partially, and there was a lot of greenery. we all were silent, occupied as many seats as possible. I took the window seat, enjoyed the view, at many places I could see animal crossing caution board and looked eagerly if I could spot any, not so lucky. so this pleasant ride with little drizzles took us to kotdwar seamlessly. we had our lunch and I tried "Rabdi ghewar" for the first time, ~~~~~ it was very sweet, best gift for anyone with sweet tooth I would say. We took a jeep to reach 'Samsara and Samskara' resort. The jeep journey made me a little dizzy and was almost to cause nausea which was when we reached. hah! relief..
This place is perfect to be called as a weekend get-away, there was no network reception, you see no pesky boss or nosy neighbors; only you with your friends and lots of mountains and trees. This was the view from balcony, we were 5 members so we took a dorm; some other group was also to join the dorm but they didn't. For some reason I liked it when I heard other group is not coming.

As soon as we lodged ourselves in the dorm, we unpacked our wandering souls and let them free. we hiked up the hill behind the resort. No Idea where the road will take us, there were two dogs at resort, very friendly; one of them followed us to show the way! at first we thought of going to a temple nearby (Tarakeshwar temple) by the fog was very thick and it was raining, so we went to Lansdowne instead. We thought of walking there, it was about 2-3 kilometers, but after climbing for a kilometer or so, we were all tired, we did not use road for most of the part and the locations were very scenic; so we took some photographs instead, of all the couples, Rohit-Prashant couple is the best, one wants to take photographs and one is better at giving poses. so they were having a little DSLR photography sessions while Ajay and I were having fun taking photos with our phone.




We were tired of climbing the hill anymore so we took a took a jeep from there, but the dog that was following us made that cute face dogs make when they dont understand, like the one below; and Prashant was all emotional about leaving him, I almost had the Titanic background music in my head when they both grew apart, there was a lot of drama... prashant kept asking "Wo ghar chala jayega na? wo bahut confused face banaya tha yar! bechara..." (will he go home,?? he will no? he was very confused.... poor guy!) we consoled him saying he knows more roads than you in here, he is the Local guy.
So we reached Lansdowne, was it town? village? it was a settlement. there were very few houses, mostly army officers' and it started raining cats and dogs. we took some booze and some chips for the night, took a cab back to our resort.
It was almost night, we ordered food, Rohit and I were having the booze along with chicken. We were talking about cultural dance of our states I guess.. and it started with Ajay's state, Rajasthan. Rohit bhaiyya asked ajay to dance, Ghumar shy at first, No sooner he yielded to Rohit's iron will, we all were dancing to "Dhola re dhola". π . There were fire flies "Jugnu" in hindi. Only those who were there that day can understand the fun in how Prashant cried "Jugnuuuu" with a hands pointing towards it.
There was a fire place in the garden, some people were (a couple, i presume) were had their dinner and were about to leave, i felt out arrival there made them leave sooner. we sat by the fire place but there was no fire since it was raining. Looking around, there were many thoughts racing in everyone's mind, about ghosts and wild animals in jungles, we witnessed a wild fire on the hills far above us and discussed that for a bit and Ajay started narrating his story about how a bear killed students in his college at hamirpur and how he was stuck in the jungle at night with two girls and with a bike and no petrol, harking back to how stupid he was he quoted that now he has grown to be more responsible than ever. I thought its quite opposite in my case. we were all sleepy and hit bed after that.
The next day, early in the morning everybody was up and ready but I was sleeping, it was foggy and we heard that there was a landslide in the region nearby halting all the traffic, it may take a day to clear it up, our plan was to leave for Delhi that day. we had a lot of fun and made some videos, here have a look.
The gloomy weather made be feel a bit nauseous but I was controlling my self. we went to Lansdowne again to book a cab back to Kotdwar, it was raining again and after a while we got a cab after some bargaining, we all got in. I felt nice being in Lansdowne and it rained a lot while we were there. Enjoying the scenery we started our return journey, the picturesque hills, serene climate and rivulets here and there, all this beauty will soon be replaced with concrete and pollution, I thought. an hour or so by cab made me throw up. I was feeling dizzy when we got off the car, we need a vehicle to reach Haridwar and we need money so me and Rohit bhaiyya went in search of ATM machine, the sun and heat made me sweat again and I felt relief. It would have been a nice bike trip, the roads were good and there was none to very less traffic. we waited for buses to leave but there was diversion due to the Kanwar festival so only few jeeps were going there, we all boarded a jeep and adjusted in the back of it along with a stranger, so there were six of us; adjusting our legs, prashant was continuously asking us to move a bit, and there was literally no space to move, poor guy he was being pressed against metal of the jeep. Rohit and Monark made fun of the way telugu people say "Saree" and were arguing it is "Sadee".
So, we reached Haridwar, we had our booking for a bus but the thing is, there were almost a million busses there, we had the license number of the bus and in search we went, drifted away from each other, me and Ajay were together. We called the bus driver and he gave a new direction each time, once he said at the starting of the bus stand, the other time he said he was near some board. There was mud everywhere and lot of people due to festival, on top of that there was no network reception, tired and wet, somehow we all met at a particular point which would be the exit of Haridwar and waited for the bus there. I never felt so aggravated on people till then, there were many people who removed the silencer of their bikes and riding making huge sound. I love motor cycles but that sound was nowhere near where near to be called as pleasant. Many people were having their own DJ set ups on tractors and they were dancing, enjoying themselves, there was this one particular boy, short and dark complexion, Prashant made fun of me comparing to him. π . Aeons later finally the bus driver called for our location and we got into the bus. moral: NEVER GO TO HARIDWAR ON FESTIVAL
the ride was smooth thereafter, no sooner i had my seat, I removed my shoes and they were all wet. I had a good sleep. woke up for dinner and slept again. We reached Delhi Kashmiri gate, had a little trouble getting a cab but finally reached home!...
So, Conclusion : - Lansdown is a good place for weekend get-away and for couples to spend some quality time.
That's it for now folks!
Regards
P.Suneel