Muktheswara -> Almora (25.4.25)

Bird’s eye view:

We have now started a period of short drives in the Kumaon region, where we are hanging around and enjoying nature in different places (viz Mukteswar, Almora, Ranikhet, Kausani etc), rather than rushing from point to point. After having chilled at Mukteswar at our friend’s beautiful house for two full days, today we travelled to Almora, less than 50 kms away, where we will spend two nights. Almora is at 5,500 ft, slightly lower than Mukteswar.

We left in a relaxed mode at 9.30 am and clocked in at 12.30 pm. The route was half village roads and half highways, the weather clear, though hazy.

Last two days at Mukteswar:

I had not blogged separately, since we were not travelling the last two days. As mentioned earlier, this school friend of mine has a beautiful house in a village in Mukteswar. Although his wife was away at an unexpected conference, he played super-host and super-chef all on his own, and we spent hours talking about everything on earth. Having spent most of his life in public health, and being involved in social issues, he had interesting takes on different subjects.

Mukteswar, like many other places in the hills, has changed radically in the last few years, mostly driven by tourist traffic. Cafés and home stays are aplenty. We had dinner last night at a boutique place named “Chandi Maati”, on mutton ghee roast, lachcha paratha and apple jalebi, that were excellent (I had just a soup, reason follows). We shopped at a full-fledged hypermarket for provisions, that had a product range of any metro city. And following the trend of increasing religious tourism, a Jain temple, a Shiva temple, a rechristened dhaam, have all led to exponential increase in traffic at festival times, clogging the roads.

Below is a collage of the gastronomic delights that was on offer during the trip. Unfortunately I had a touch of indigestion during these days and stuck to simpler fare, but Panna did full justice to the offerings. In fact she and my friend would work out masterchef evenings, designing the menu for the day, while I looked on indulgently.

The days were lazy and lovely. We would wake up and sit around on the verandahs in the sun, sipping hot stuff and talking, till the clock announced 9.00 am and we moved to the kitchen and had our breakfast. More adda followed, with lunch (rice and daal being made in a solar cooker placed in the garden), followed by a snooze. An evening drive, dinner, maybe a movie on OTT, and to bed. There was a lot of haze, else Himalayan peaks are visible during the day.

Having a relaxed two days, we also got a chance to observe how hard the village people work here, right from dawn to dusk, especially the women. We saw a bahu attending to the cowshed, lifting weights, just four days after childbirth, as if it was the most natural thing, harm to health or not. Our friend had been a village doctor to these people for many years, and knew practically everybody.

Leaving Mukteswar (9.30 am):

Almora, as per Google map, was a 2.5 hr drive, so we left in a relaxed manner at 9.30 am. Our friend was also leaving for Bhim Taal for a lecture. Our car had been parked at a neighbour's courtyard the last two days, and I nicked the plastic side-strip of the car while taking it out in the morning. A minor damage, but saddening. Strange how we develop a personal relationship with a non-living equipment.

Reaching Almora (12.30 pm):

Our route today, the shortest one possible, took us down to the valley through some rough village roads, crossed a bridge at the bottom of the valley and then climbed up to Almora again. I drove in a slow speed of 30 kmph, so as not to arrive too early, and also to deal better with the UK-plate drivers who sneak around bends, expecting telepathy from opposing drivers.

The climbing approach road was very good, that took us into Almora Mall Road, passing the famous Ramkrishna Mission here. KMVN guest house, where we were booked, was right at the start of the city, an old and spacious property, where we checked in and had a simple lunch of rice, daal, French fries and raita.

Almora is a very old city. Google informs me that it was founded by King Kalyan Chand in 1568. Since the Anglo-Gorkha war in 1815, it has been the administrative centre of the Kumaon district (which became Almora district later on). Swami Vivekananda visited Almora many times between 1890-98, and planned to establish a centre here, which was done after his death. The city currently has a population of 625,000.

We woke up from our snooze to find the sun setting in glorious technicolor. Since we were not getting a good view from our windows (trees in the way), we walked down to the Mall Road and down another paved walkway to a better viewpoint, sitting there till the orange orb dipped behind the hills. A bit of relaxation in the room and an early dinner of chowmein and sandwiches closed the day for us.