Uttar Mahayatra

Bird’s eye view: My biographer would be giving a party today, if not standing a beer at a bar, since his protégés crossed 100 kms again today. 110 kms, to be exact. But we took 6.5 hours doing it. Two stops even before leaving Ranikhet. That’s slightly unusual, because our normal trend is to hightail it out of town once we have paid the bill, like the visiting gunslinger who has accidentally shot three people in the pub while debating the superiority of Remington over Colt. But more of that later. We also took a slightly longer route. For those of you born with Google map on their palms instead of lifelines (like me), there are two major ways to go from Ranikhet to Kausani. One retraces steps to Majkhali, veers off north-east to meet the Someshwar-Almora road then turns north and goes past Someshwar to Kausani. The other longer, infrequently used, and more scenic route goes north from Ranikhet to Paithani, turns east and runs past Dwarahat, and at Someshwar, turns north a...

Bird's eye view: The morning dawned dim, but the day was anything but. Till date, this drive of Almora to Ranikhet was perhaps the most beautiful one. It was not a long distance, perhaps 55 km, but I really did not feel like driving fast. We left at 8.45 am and reached at 12.45 pm, with a Kosi river crossing and a mystery stop in between. The weather remained cloudy and cool, the perfect climate to wander around the countryside. We were dropping 600 ft below Mukteswar, so the weather became a little warmer. Leaving Almora (8.45 am): Like other days in the recent past, we had decided that we will leave after breakfast. Panna, in particular, was particularly enamoured of the alu paratha, so an early departure was out of the question. We peered out at a gloomy sky. Did it look like rain? Not really. We did not mind a little gloom in the hills; it gave the feeling that a couple of murders may have happened in this ancient KMVN heap, particularly in their super-delux-luxury...

KMVN: I somehow have a weakness for KMVN properties in Uttarakhand (or GMVN in the Garhwal part). It has a level of assured inefficiency, that can be depended upon. Which means, while booking blind, we can safely say: “It cannot be lower than this.” Location and Spaciousness will be excellent , Room quality moderate , Food good and Service unpredictable . On the other hand, for a random hotel booked online, everything will be unpredictable .  The Almora property is one of the better ones, though quite old, which is not surprising given that the city is as old as Henry the Eighth. Big rooms, running empty right now, standing next to the radio station and the stadium. Having woken up early anyways, and having checked that the early sunlight was not shining on any peeking peaks, we lazed in bed (excellent bed, linen and quilt), had bed-tea, and bed-breakfast of egg sandwich (I) and alu paratha (Panna), before completing our ablutions and considering what to do with this beautiful day...