rum,bonfire,music,dance.. Whatte new year sirjee!!!

New year.. Time for celebration.. Plans for Kausani had been made 2 months ago.. KMVN guest house had been booked well in advanced.. The route and the party plans had been decided upon.. But then WHAM!! first cancellation.. and then BANG!! another one.. and here I was on the 28th of December with a cancelled new year program due to people backing out at the last minute, with no hopes of avoiding a boring year end. But it seems the stars were aligned for me and suddenly I remembered a Mukteshwar plan which was being made in one of the weekend meets. Immediately I called up the concerned people and confirmed my participation in the trip. So finally here I was on the 28th sad because of the cancelled program but now equally excited about the new one. The plan was to leave at 4. I dint feel like sleeping, so spent the night watching movies. Finally we left around 7:30. The group collected at the Hapur bypass toll.

So the tourers:

Click on the photos to enlarge them

The destination:




But a delay:



Sandy’s bike started leaking oil, a fault in the seal. A few chewing gums, it was sealed temporarily and we were on our way – the 5 bikes and our car. Vivek and shruti would join us later.
Traveling in a car has its own set of advantages. Comfortable travel on the plains. No cold wind stinging your face, no dust hurting you eyes, no bad smells troubling you nose ( that is till I kept my shoes on). So Delhi to Kathgodam was a luxurious journey for DJ, Rumana, Sunil and me. Eating, drinking and teasing the bikers..
Our first pit stop was at Garhmukteshwar where we re-fulled ourselves with delicious Aloo-Berwi and Peras and a short walk along the holi Ganga.


While we were in the pits, Vivek and Shruti improved their timing and overtook us. By the time we reached Moradabad, they had an unbeatable lead and had already reached Haldwani. We carried on taking pics and videos of the bikes from the car.


The next stop was after crossing Kathgodam, just as the mountains begun. DJ and Sunil shot pics of the other guys cornering.
Manik..


Sandy...

As I stepped out of the car on to the tarmac and looked at the road twisting uphill, the biker in me started "[English for machalna]".

The tarmac.. The twisties..Ahhh i miss my bike...

The car no longer seemed the better option. I wanted a bike. I walked upto Deepan and jokingly asked him if I could have his bike. And guess what, he said... that I could (god bless him…dude i owe you one)!!! The cool wind in the face, the twist and turns of the roads, the sweet smell of nature... I am loving it!!! After 40kms of bliss I reached Nainital. After a long search for a hotel we finally settled down. This was followed by a lunch-cum-dinner, a stroll down the Mall Road

and some night photography around the lake.


Next morning we left for Mukteshwar.
The breakfast table...

This time I was in the car and believe me the twisties are no fun in it. Feels as if someone has tied you up with a pendulum. I was missing my bike like hell. Finally after a very uncomfortable journey we reached Mukteshwar.
Some shots on the way
The nainital lake..

Mountain shots..





We reached Mukteshwar in the afternoon. I found it to be a small quiet place, quite a contrast from the crowded, busy nainital. After some food and lot of rest we went to Chauli ki Jaali. This was a place 3km from our hotel. It has a temple and also the KMVN Guest nearby. It also had a mountain face which instead of sloping down, dropped vertically after the edge and was made of rocks. As I looked over the edge a beautiful view of the valley below greeted me, greenary all around with smalls roads twisting here and there and a orangish sun sitting over a distant mountains simply took my breath away (well also so because im shit scared of heights and over the edge was a straight drop of thousands of feet). Seeing the beautiful(and dangerous) setting some people got senti and did a lot of high risk photography.



And some normal one too



The sunset



The night was bonfire time. A wonderful evening with me as the bartender, music and dancing.
The bartender..

The fire..

The dance..

What i was really enjoying was the calm, quite night away from the noise and tensions of the city...
Next day began with a lovely Himalayan morning. Cool breeze blowing, warm sun shining, birds chirping, greenery all around.. aloo parathas, omelets , and boiled eggs.. yeah, this is how every morning should be..
Agenda for the day rock climbing and rappelling. Again we went to chauli ki jaali. I was riding Sandy’s Karizma. On the way were some of the most amazing twisties with perfect roads. I wasn’t feeling like getting down from the bike. In the last stretch we did some off-roading to reach the top of the mountain. As on the day before, I still couldn’t muster the courage to look over the edge. Some how I convinced myself to say yes for rappelling. When the harness was being tied on me my legs were shaking. Standing at the edge I was fighting my fear of heights. Without looking down I started descending. First a few cautious steps, then a few jumps and voila it was easy. Now I was enjoying myself. But the enjoyment ended very soon and I reached the bottom of the rock. With my heart craving for more I sat down, waiting for my chance to climb up. Vivek and Sunil had already climbed down and after me Sandy, Deepan, Shruti and Reneé also did rappelling. As one person climbed down, other climbed up. So when my turn came for climbing, I was excited. First few steps were simple but suddenly I realized I was standing with both my toes resting on 2inch wide space and rock around me was completely smooth. I couldn’t see any place to climb up. A few minutes I was hanging mid-way with my arms getting tired of my weight. The thought of using the safety rope to climb also crossed my mind. Then I heard the instructor standing below asking me to move left and that there was a crack in the rock which I could use at footrest. So slowly and with help from the instructors I climbed up. Phew!! What an experience.
Thats me..

After everyone had climbed up we clicked a few photographs with the bikes.

As the sun was setting, it got cold. Also after all the exercise, we were hungry. So with Manik, Deepan and Sunil re-living the moments from there earlier Uttaranchal trip, we started back.
The night was New Year’s Eve. There had to be a special celebration. It started by Sandy with the help from others building a big bonfire.

The fire, a bigger one this time..

Then we had music. We got the speakers from the hotel and played music from DJ’s, Rumana’s, Sunil’s and my mobile and Shamik’s mp3 player. Then the drinks: 3 bottles of rum, 2 bottles of vodka, 6litres cold drinks. The snacks: tandori chicken, pakoras, salad, chips, peanuts… In short, full preparation for a rocking year end. And a rockin party was what we had…
Some people were dancing as soon as the music began.

Some people hit the dance floor after the drinks hit them. One of the rarest pics you can find: Mr Mittal shaking his bom-bom...

The next day none of wanted to come back but offices always manage to play the spoilt sport. So the ride back was a home run, and hence ended an awesome trip and i came back with the ambers of a wonderful trip still burning in my eyes...