Lansdowne - A retreat in hills

“You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory. Memory rebuilds the mountain, changes the weather, retells the jokes, remakes all the moves.” - Lito Tejada-Flores

Lansdowne - A retreat in hills

Another Saturday, was it 27th of July 2019? ... I don't even remember properly; you know I tend to forget many things now a days owing largely to The "long pause" from all the happening life I used to have BC (before Corona). so, why did we go to Lansdowne? You know, work in corporate is mechanical; You do what you do but you don't know why you do. It's like a devil; soothing your body while eating away your soul; you want to escape but you will not. In this perpetual act of feeding the devil, you get a small window "The weekend" you need to replenish the energy in your soul. And furthermore Prashanth have been there recently after a LOT of research (that's what he generally do.. I mean literally for everything) he suggested the place and we all were lazy to search for any weekend get-away other than this. Moreover, this is a new place I have never been to or heard of. There, we have a reason now.

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". 😁 . 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.

Click here for YouTube link 

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. 😆 . 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

You can connect on IG @pvssuneel

La Moto Mexicana - an Excerpt from Bike-India magazine Apr 2021

 I got the digital version of Bike India version through JIO and was delighted to read a fantastic story, afraid I might loose it after this month, the only way for me to save it was to write it down. (Screenshots were not that fun to read).

( Note: - neither the pictures Nor the story, I do not own both in this post.)

La Moto Mexicana (The Mexican Motorcycle)

Who am I? - Abhishek Iyer @pedalingon

Riding? - The Honda XR 150L (2019 model)

THIS HISTORY HAS ITS ORIGIN IN ME spending a month studying an adventure on a bicycle. Let me fill you first, though. A few years ago, I bicycled acress southern India, then a step further, along the length of Nepal, and, a year later, the length of Norway. It had been a  whole two years since the Northern Lights and the mind yearned for another epic adventure.

I found a slick-looking website about a six-week route through a desert in northern Mexico and, a couple of weeks with visa formalities taken care of, I was on a 24-hour bus ride across Mexico to the border wall: my starting point for this bicycle ride.

Little did I anticipate that this time things would be different. Just tow days into the ride. I would have to abandon my bicycle trip as I had packed too much for the ride and was paying for the weight of  it. With a heavy heart, I headed back to a town from the desert and decided to work on Plan B while sipping a cold local brew. Plan B would be to ditch the pedals and consider horses; not the quadrupeds, but the two-wheeled beauties we call motorcycles. A request for a motorcycle was posted on the social media, hoping that Plan B would be successful.

The next morning, I waited patently for replies on facebook Market place and, with little resourcefulness with Google Translate, I headed to a garage across town to meed Eduardo. Eduardo, with whom I got along very well, agreed to sell me his motorcycle and even offered to hold on to his name in its registration since there was no way I could legally buy a vehicle there. A really nice fellow that. Thus, a few excited runs to the ATM and about 35,000 pesos later, I was now a proud owner of a  2019 Honda XR 150L. Now the ride was most certainly on.

The plan? Ride across California from the north to the south zigzaging along the desert with the sea Cortez to the east and Pacific to the west, scenic beauty at its best. Now, although this motorcycle was not exactly a long-distance performance machine, it sure was a legitimate upgrade from a bicycle. So, I stuffed a cheap duffel with my camping gear, strapped it on to the motorcycle with bungee chords, and hit the road. I made a quick pit-stop at an Atuozone to pick up two liters of 15W20oil, an open-face helmet, and a keychain.

And there I was, about to live my own Motorcycle Diaries (devoid of any revolutionary thoughts, though) across the Baja peninsula, setting the asphalt ablaze with a top speed of ... er... 90km/hr. While I don't consider motorcycling a passion, something about the circumstances leading up to this moment really had me fired up.

Over the next couple of weeks, I was in for adventures I was not fully prepared for. Wild camping overlooking the Pacific, sharing magic moments with a surfer on a cliff one sunset, swapping bikes fora kawasaki KLR 650 to ride up to a national part, fishing for octopus with a local fishermen, grey whale watching in a lagoon in calving season, and stuffing myself with an abundance of tacos de pescados (fish tacos) and Birria.

Of course, there were several lows, too, such as painful ride through a storm to catch my flight back in time, having my phone run over by a lorry, and snapping my tent poles mid way into the trip. But then that is the kind of drama that makes motorcycling adventures so worthy.

The fact I realized for myself over these few weeks on the road was that when live gives you lemons, having a 150-cc motorcycle between your legs and miles of  long, lonesome road ahead makes good lemonade. Today, I find myself ogling at 650-cc mean machines here in India and fantasizing about an excuse to buy one of those and have my own Himalayan (mis)adventure.

Meanwhile, If any of you happen to be in Mexico and have time on your hands, you can go and use my Honda that is stashed away in Tijuana.

Follow Abhishek Iyer at youtube here

and facebook in @pedalingon

The Shikara Effect - Ride to Tajmahal

The Shikara Effect

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all" - Helen Keller

It was Saturday, February the 9th 2020; yes, it was just before COVID hit us in the gut. After a "hectic" (JK) office day Ajay, me and Vinay decided to watch a newly released movie on Kashmiri pundits; yes, the movie was "Shikara". Prashant was not there with us as he was with his Girlfriend and they met after a long time _ that's another story _ just, he was not with us. So, the movie was good, the way it was portrayed and the message it wants to convey were lucid and vivid. We were all moved by the movie especially the last scene where the actress takes her last breath while afloat on a boat in Yamuna river behind the famous Taj Mahal looking at the monument; and the actor (her husband) breaks down into silent tears holding her body. 

It was sad, so with that mood, we came back to our beloved chai place in HUDA market, parked our bikes and sat on them (more of a lean). for some reason we did not order anything and were discussing the movie, Prashant called me for my helmet so he and his girlfriend can go to Gurgaon and it was almost night. Yeah! you either have to be too stupid or too strong to take that decision, and he is definitely the first one. I did not stop them, but i asked them politely, Gurgaon? abhi? (samajhdar ko ishara kaafi h) and he looked confidently at me and said 'yes' and asked me for my helmet so he won't catch cold ( it was february as I mentioned) ~ (Personal note: for those of you who know prashath, he said "Thand lag jayegi na!!" :D) So I handed my helmet to him, they both took off, we were back to chatting, Vinay had his 'Sigh' nodding his head sideways disapproving their decision given the time and season, I assured him, "are kuchh nhi hoga!, kya hojayega?" and we continued to chat for a bit and suddenly out of the blue Ajay said, "I am feeling as if I may never have a chance to look at the Taj mahal, shall we ride to Agra?". Me and Vinay looked at him, checking if he is in his full senses. There was a pregnant silence which broke into my doubtful "why not?".

But wait a minute, Just a minute ago, I gave my all-season helmet to Prashant and now I have to ride with an open helmet in chilling cold weather. Yeah! shit happens. Had Ajay asked us a minute or two earlier, I would have had a much better ride. so we three were ready to leave to Agra. We came home to pack our stuff and I was urging them to get ready and pack all the things; Ironically, I was the one this time to pack so late. Vinay wore a jeans and jacket, I took my biker jacket and a jeans & Ajay with his driver jacket that he bought at Nainital. We packed two backpacks and stuffed them in my Saddle bags; by the way, Gods Triton Saddle bags were awesome, I had not problem whatsoever and we took off.

It was around 9 PM and the temperature was around 10C that night and it was waxing gibbous moon (almost full moon) so the night was a lot clearer. the traffic in Faridabad was as hectic with buses and Auto-rickshaws blocking the road most of the time, and the dust! there is always some or the other road being constructed making all the ways dusty, we had to endure it for some 45 minutes before we hit the Highway. We had some parathas (not that good) for Dinner and continued the ride.

The best part of long drives the the faster you drive, the slower you start to take things of your life. Many things flash before your eyes, especially when the road is brightly lit with street lamps and empty (I suppose there is no need to explain how empty, as we have been looking at empty roads most of the time for one year now) We exchanged bikes took as little breaks as possible as it was late in the night. But when you don't have any idea how much more time your journey will take, your mind will play games with you and make you feel all tired, I was dark and cold; we almost reached Agra, 40 Km away and felt we should rest for a bit, It was Mathura and we took a left turn into the city getting off the highway, the city road was reasonably wide and it almost looked abandoned, there were some people here and there but mostly it looked abandoned, well what else can you expect at 2AM. We were in search of a Hotel room to stay.

Ajay didn't quite like the first hotel we found so
we searched for a bit more in the town and it was a good bargain. we almost took to bed when Vinay wanted to wash his face, the water was ice cold, then he remembered he needed a towel, they made fun of me while packing, now look who needs a towel. uh oh! too soon for a punch line, I forgot to take my pajamas! So I had to sleep in my jeans. We tried to watch TV, it was nothing but Blue screen. We slept sooner than we thought. another Uh-Oh! I even forgot my tooth brush.😂. So got up and ready to go out; It was still early in the morning, it was barely sunrise we rode on our bikes into Mathura, along the riverside through narrow alleys and turns and busy market streets filled with cows, cars and people alike, it was as if people spawned like in videogames, all of a sudden, I see a lot of people everywhere. There were many temples but we were not so decisive on where to go, there were a lot of people(guides) who offer to show you around for cheaper price, they even boast that are the "True Brahman" of the city whose ancestors served the gods on the same land. We did not fall for it. Silently crept, we parked our bikes at some "Dham" a bank of river Yamuna which was make accessible by steps and slowly walked our way towards the river, a boat man offered us a ride and we refused him, but the idea of boating was interesting after a minute or two. Yeah! when someone offers something, we reject and run behind it a minute later😆. We took another boat; interestingly there were a lot of gangs of monkeys in Mathura; Ajay was really startled when one of the monkeys came very close to reach a flower. We put our mobile phones in the pocket fearing they would snatch it and boarded the Boat immediately. The ride was peaceful, there were many birds gliding over the water. here have a look.

By the time we were back on track, it was very hot; quite opposite to what we  were facing the last night, now i feel the Biker jacket that i was wearing to be quite troublesome as i was sweating too much. There is not much road left from here to Agra but the time we were travelling made it tougher than we thought, there were many trucks and people everywhere even on the highway. The highway was flushed with people and most of them were going in the wrong way, I had many close encounters and after a while I got used to getting close encounters, there were many careless riders. no to mention the Car traffic, I would have to muster up all my courage to go into the fast lane, they were obviously travelling faster than the limiting speed, but then again who would care!? Highway was a straight one but I seldom rode at speeds greater than 50km/hr. The traffic didn't let me.

Finally we reached Agra after an hour or so, Night riding experience and Mathura part was very good. We met at a rally point after drifting away in the traffic and rode together into Agra, our first stop - Taj Mahal; the reason for this trip. There was more than usual crowd at the ticketing booth and there was no receptionist, people were just standing in the line for nothing, after an hour or so, we got entry into the Taj Mahal. as always, the sight of it takes all the worries away, not because of the beauty of it alone but also the architecture, the ventilation system which makes stream of air rush in through the main gate when we enter refreshing our mood while entering the Taj premises. I have been there 5 times and its the same experience every time. Here are some pics.

  

After that we went to my favorite place for Lunch, Dasaprakash <Google Maps link> the Fried rice here is really heavenly to taste; The is not a paid promotion, we have been there in person. Do try. The traffic in Agra was literally nuts, there are no signals yet people stop and move on will, no directions being followed, no nothing, there are traffic police working; I don't know, Its like they live in a different dimension and not able to see the whole chaotic situation there, I wonder how come they are at such peace. Its like they are in some kind of weird coma. So, some how we barely escaped many accidents and reached the place.

After lunch, the return journey was as chaotic as it was when we stated, the hectic traffic and on a personal note, Vinay and Ajay if you are reading this, remember the horse that running towards ahead of Ajay's bike, There was this marriage ceremonial horse which was barely under control and Ajay was afraid to cross it 😁. It was very dark and for some stupid reason, people are standing in the middle of highway, Take extra care and carry fog lights just to make sure you don't hit anyone. TRAFFIC IN HERE IS REALLY NUTS.

That's that folks! Have a great day ahead!

Regards

P.Suneel

you can connect on IG @pvssuneel