Nainital and Beyond in My Polo: May 2012

[ToughGuy]

Day-1 contd

After boat ride we roamed around for couple of hours, mall road was packed to brim by tourists had Maggi and chats from street shop.

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I noticed that hotel Grand and classic were located right on mall road with lake facing rooms, i liked the facade of hotel grand.

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We called our day off after this mall road visit and headed back to Bhowali, it's already got dark managed to reach our hotel in 40 minutes with literally no traffic in our direction. Ordered for dinner at hotel, food was quite good.

Above post concludes our day1 log will soon post day2 log.

Thanks for your appreciation and encouragement

Regards,
TG

 

[Chandranath]

Have been to Nainital twice. Have got fond memories.

The pictures made me nostalgic though it seems pretty crowded now.

Thanks for sharing

 

[ToughGuy]

Have been to Nainital twice. Have got fond memories.

The pictures made me nostalgic though it seems pretty crowded now.

Thanks for sharing

I am glad that you liked pics and my log, yes you are right it becomes quite crowded nowadays due to combination of weekend and summer vacation.

 

[mads2849]

Tough Guy, I am planning my trip to Nainital this June in my Punto Diesel with my wife. I plan to drive slow as my wife is pregnant. So driving slow how much time will I take to reach Nainital? I like the hotel you stayed so might book it as well.I stay in Indirapuram, so will save the time you took from Dwarka. Advices awaited eagerly !

 

[ToughGuy]

Tough Guy, I am planning my trip to Nainital this June in my Punto Diesel with my wife. I plan to drive slow as my wife is pregnant. So driving slow how much time will I take to reach Nainital? I like the hotel you stayed so might book it as well.I stay in Indirapuram, so will save the time you took from Dwarka. Advices awaited eagerly !

Hi Mads, even if you drive slowly it will take 8-9 hrs atleast or at max 10hrs, if your wife is in early stage of pregnancy then i suggest you the Tanda-Bazpur route else stick to Rampur-Haldwani route which got better road condition compared to pot hole filled Tanda-Bazpur route, only issue is traffic jams running into kilometers after Moradabad toll plaza which may consume 2-3 hrs but usually these jams occurs on weekends due to heavy flow of traffic, if you plan your trip on weekdays then you need not to worry.

Best of luck for your trip, do remember to post your travelogue.

Regards,
TG

 

[ToughGuy]

Day-2 (20-05-2012)

We felt little laziness on day-2, want to drop local site seeing plans but hotel staff arranged for guide he arrived by 9:30AM somehow we mustered courage and started our day of local site seeing.

On day-2 we managed to cover below mentioned places on day-2 in exact sequence:

Tea garden Ghorakhal, Golu devata temple, Naukuchiyatal, Bhimtal, Peter Smetacek butterfly research center, Sattal, local village near Ramgarh

So we started from our hotel by 10:00AM we were little late in start, our earlier plan was 9:00AM, our Guide Mr. Manik proved quite helpful and eventually we end up utilize every minute of our day2 special thanks to him for making our day so memorable.

At first we visited Ghorakhal tea garden 3-4kms from Bhowali, though it doesn't seems very large but i liked the experience, approach road was little narrow and rough.

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There was plantation work but not ready for plucking, one can access this garden till a point after that entry was prohibited.

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Yes this is me in front of tea garden main entrance there was a little shop in front selling organic tea prepared inside inhouse factory using tea garden leaves even though i am not a tea drinker we purchased couple of organic tea packets for 200 bucks only

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Road in front of tea garden goes straight to Golu devata temple, he is worshiped around this region

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My explorer-1 in front of temple, ample parking space for private vehicles though parking was not very large but enough to accommodate visitors vehicle.

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This is the main entrance of Golu devata temple right in front of parking area

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We also offered our prayers, and liked this temple very much

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[ToughGuy]

Day-2 contd

View from temple stairs, there was lots of shops in parking selling prasad thalis which one can offer here

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luckily today was some occasion here, ladies observed fast today and offer prayers in this temple, we saw lots of rush here.

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Like others we also submitted our puja thali to pandit jee for puja which lasted for good 15-20 minutes, luckily we don't have to wait too long in queue which was growing slowly due to some special occasion today.

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I never saw so many bells at a single place in my life, devotees offers bell in return when their wishes fulfilled and i must admit after seeing so many bells my faith in Golu devata reinforced further

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Here devotees also offers application to Golu devata with their wishes written, they tied them on this tree, once their wishes fulfilled they offers bell in return

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Queue of devotees increases with the passage of time, one can see faith in eyes of devotees most of them are here with applications and bells.

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One can purchase these bells from the shops located near parking, temple administration melts small bells to form large bells when numbers soars.

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View of valley from Golu devata temple is breathtaking, one can see lots of construction work going on, with this pace of development and urbanization all forest and mountains of this region will vanish soon.

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[ToughGuy]

After spending an hour here we headed towards Naukuchiyatal, time for click some pics, explorer-1 posing for shots, this shortcut route connect us to main road which was closed from long time due to some reason.

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This road was kuchha and quite narrow but soon we joined tar road in no time

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We stopped again after few kms, plucked some local fruits with the help of our guide also seen in below pics, forgot the name of junglee fruits they were very tasty

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Soon after all this fun we started again, our destination was popular lake Naukuchiyatal

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[manish.ramco]

This is my first post on this thread. I was planning to visit Nainital on June 7th and 8th and came across your post. I've been this place 3 yrs ago but wanna explore again with my car this time I am happy to see that you enjoyed your trip, as you mentioned that leaving early in the morning is benificial as we can avoid the traffic. I have some queries , appreciate if you could reply on that

1. What route should I take from Faridabad to Nainital , I will be driving my in CNG Santro . I read about the kaladungi road , is it safe driving via that road in case car brakes down or is it too hilly as my wify wanna avoid the hilly driving as much as possible

2. you stayed in bhowali . I actually wanna stay in Nainital so that can have a nice view of Naini lake during late evening.. If I stay in Bhowali then how safe it is to drive from Naintal to Bhowali ?

3. Can u suggest any good Hotel to Stay in Nainital and restaurant for food..

Thanks

 

[diehardi20]

I would suggest you pre-book a hotel in Nainital. and the resturant to eat in is Nanak resturant on Mall road.

You should go from Faridabad to Akshardham and then take left towards Moradabad and take Moradabad bypass - Rampur - Rudrapur - Haldwani - Nainital.

 

[ToughGuy]

I have some queries , appreciate if you could reply on that

1. What route should I take from Faridabad to Nainital , I will be driving my in CNG Santro . I read about the kaladungi road , is it safe driving via that road in case car brakes down or is it too hilly as my wify wanna avoid the hilly driving as much as possible

i think you should also take this route: Delhi - Indirapuram (straight from Ghazipur flyover after Sarai kale khan turn via Patparganj) - Hapur - Garh Mukteshwar- Moradabad - Tanda - Bazpur - Kaladhungi – Nainital- Bhowali i suggest you to avoid NH24 hapur road via Ghaziabad which was closed inside the city due to ongoing construction work, keep going straight on Ghazipur road which ulitmately meets NH-24 near Dasna.

You can also take traditional route of:

Delhi - Ghazipur road- Hapur - Garh Mukteshwar- Moradabad - Rampur - Bilaspur - Rudrapur - Haldwani - Kathgodam - Nainital

If you notice traffic jam between Moradabad and Rampur then you always have choice to make turn towards Tanda just before Moradabad bypass NHAI toll plaza

2. you stayed in bhowali . I actually wanna stay in Nainital so that can have a nice view of Naini lake during late evening.. If I stay in Bhowali then how safe it is to drive from Naintal to Bhowali ?

From Nainital to Bhowali it is 12-13KM of distance, i felt extremely safe on hills, i drove on this route even in late night

3. Can u suggest any good Hotel to Stay in Nainital and restaurant for food..

Hotel grand and Hotel classic got good view of Nani lake and located bang on mall road try them

Hi Manish welcome to TAI, please find my answers in bold above, hope this helps you.

Regards,
TG

 

[shailinder]

We stopped again after few kms, plucked some local fruits with the help of our guide also seen in below pics, forgot the name of junglee fruits they were very tasty

These fruits are called "Cafal" or "Kafal" in Garhwal not sure about Kumoan but name should not be different i guess.

Nice details Toughguy.

So place is decided?

As far as my trip is concerned my wife is not ready to go out at least now due to the weather. But but but.. she is not interested right now, after some persuasion I am sure she would agree to it. That is the reason I am seeking support from my brats to put pressure on their mom

 

[manish.ramco]

Thanks a lot TG, appreciate it..

 

[mads2849]

Hi Mads, even if you drive slowly it will take 8-9 hrs atleast or at max 10hrs, if your wife is in early stage of pregnancy then i suggest you the Tanda-Bazpur route else stick to Rampur-Haldwani route which got better road condition compared to pot hole filled Tanda-Bazpur route, only issue is traffic jams running into kilometers after Moradabad toll plaza which may consume 2-3 hrs but usually these jams occurs on weekends due to heavy flow of traffic, if you plan your trip on weekdays then you need not to worry.

Best of luck for your trip, do remember to post your travelogue.

Regards,
TG

Thank you tough guy. I would traveling on a weekend, working class you knw . So I think I will take the Tanda- Bazpur road. I will drive slow, but getting stuck in a jam for 3 years. uuuuhhh cant stand that. I have booked the premier room at Reva Retreat on your recommendation . So the guide Manik is he from the hotel itself? I would need a guide too.

 

[ToughGuy]

These fruits are called "Cafal" or "Kafal" in Garhwal not sure about Kumoan but name should not be different i guess.

Nice details Toughguy.

Thanks Shailinder, name was something like that as told by our guide not able to recall the same right now

As far as my trip is concerned my wife is not ready to go out at least now due to the weather. But but but.. she is not interested right now, after some persuasion I am sure she would agree to it. That is the reason I am seeking support from my brats to put pressure on their mom

I am sure you manage to get approval soon from home ministry :)

Thanks a lot TG, appreciate it..

Thanks Manish, you are most welcome