chaikidukaan.com

Category: Roadtrips

  • Single hand drive

    My car is a single hand drive and literally so!

    Its rare that I use both my hands for steering.. One of them is usually on the gear stick!

  • Panipat to Jalandhar (NH1)

    If you are planning to take a roadtrip which involves NH1, and the stretch after Panipat, plan it with some buffer time on your hands… 6 laning of the highway between Panipat and Jalandhar is on full swing, and the good news is that once its complete you would be crossing over a 100 flyovers on this stretch with state of the art roads gently massaging your cars tires throughout!
    The bad news, however, is that most of the time you would be driving in service lanes (which are at times 2 lanes wide, but mostly just about 1.5) along with the local traffic and highway traffic! The situation is bad while going towards Jalandhar though, its a little better while coming back!
    I drove to Kurukshetra this weekend, and what takes just about 1.25 hours from Panipat, took me well over 2 hours! And the worst part being that I missed a beautiful sunflower field on the way for some reason! I really would have loved to take a few pictures there!

  • Delhi – Jim Corbett – Nainital – Delhi

    Warning : Its a long post with a lot of detail! Have some 15-20 minutes spare to read it please…
    They say matches are made in heaven, I say Travel Plans are also made in heaven and executed on earth by the lesser mortals!
    There is no other explanation of how I have landed up in Nainital 3 times without the name being a part of my plan when I start from home? That statement kind of gave away a bit of the information that ideally would have made sense when I finish the first 10% of this travelogue! but whatever!
    Let’s Travel!

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    The first cup of tea being made for us at BailParao
    Back into time first!

    Early 2010, I had taken this club membership which entitled me to be a guest for some 15 odd parties in and around delhi throughout the year, not a single of which I attended! AND, it gave me a couple of nights free stay by Country Club Resorts! Honestly what I was interested in the free stay, which was not really so free, as I realised later!

    Back to the future now…
    So we had to send a Rs. 500 draft along with three preferences with different dates to Country Club Resorts before they could pick one (read the cheapest) and book us there! What we got was the Tiger Den Resort! For some reason I thought it was on the NH121 (banks of River Kosi), however we realised that it was about 13 kms away towards Kaladhungi only when we reached Ramnagar and called the resort for directions.
    The drive from NOIDA was very comfortable except the “work in progress” flyovers on NH24! I can’t believe that the status seems to be exactly what it was a couple of years ago at 3 places… And the road near Garh Mukteshwar is still a buffet of potholes with pieces of road on top! Don’t understand it!
    The 99 kms stretch between Moradabad bypass and Kashipur (via Thakhurdwara) is still bad! The last I had driven on it was when I was coming back to Ranikhet via Ramnagar, and it did not feel as bad because I was driving a Safari… It did not feel too bad in the Palio either, but it was bad! A lot of strain the arms and eyes! The road quality miraculously changes as soon as you reach Kashipur.. While I could barely touch 60 kmph at times in the last 90 minutes or so, I was driving at around 100kmph as soon as I crossed Kashipur…
    The question is WHY? And the answer is that I was now driving in Uttarakhand! Drive to Ramnagar was a breeze and it was just 15 more minutes to drive the 14 odds kms after Ramnagar to BailPadao (Resting place for Bulls – if translated in English)
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    The wooden stove for making Tea… TASTY TEA

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    Radha made for a good backdrop for this cycle in the rain!
    We reached the resort only around mid-night it was funny to see the guard room boys struggle with opening the gate!! the lock had jammed, and it took them about 5 minutes before I could drive in! We checked into a room towards the back-side of the resort and figured out a few things we could do the next day.. Safari was not on the plan for Saturday, however we wanted to go to Corbett Falls and plan for a Safari on Sunday… The additional information we got from the resort guy did not really lift our spirits as it included mood-dampners like the grasslands were still under water, most paths inside the jungle were still broken, and there were extremely low sightings so far! Except that he could arrange for a jeep for us to drive around the reserve area (outside the main forest) where there were chances of tiger-sighting! Now personally, I am not a fan of animal sighting! I love the jungle, and I hated the fact that I am not going to be able to enjoy the ride like I would have liked it!
    We also had to change the room almost immediately after we checked it, as the bed was a spring-bed, and a broken one at that! The shift was prompt, and we called it a day (or night or midnight) after a quick cup of tea!
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    On our way to Nainital via Kaladhungi
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    Saturday Morning!
    We woke up to an thick overcast sky, and did not realise that it was raining too till we opened our room door! It did not make much of a difference at that time as Pooja and myself both were not too keen on staying in that resort or waste our day driving around for nothing! We did not really know what we wanted to do, but we knew that we were checking out of the resort! We did, and decided our next milestone with a cup of tea outside the resort!
    “There is something about tea made on burning wood.. something different… something that energises me differently”

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    Its very pleasing to click Radha and see that she stills good great… MUAH!
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    Did not know something like Choti Haldwani existed… nice find!
    We decided to drive towards Nainital, which was just about 50 kms (75 minutes) away and started our drive in light rain, with slow speeds enjoying the weather! The rain had stopped, and we drove via Kaladhungi, Choti Haldwani, to reach the foothills, and by the time were reach Tallital, it was raining heavily again! This time it was not rain, but a hailstorm… and both of us were wondering as to why the Rain Gods seem to be too pleased or angry with us.. It had rained like crazy in almost all of our trips together!
    1. Indonesia… We did not see the Kintamani Volcano and had a rainy walk to Monkey Forest
    2. Ranikhet… It was a trip with falling rocks, landslides, and overflowing rivers
    3. Goa… Wasted about half a day waiting for the rain to stop… made us move to hiring a car from a bike too (but that turned out to be good)
    4. Singapore… Well, there are just two types of days there as Aseem puts it… with rain, and with heavy rain!
    5. Jim Corbett.. Rains again!
    But we were commited to having a good time, with rain or without 🙂 So we found a nice cozy room with a lovely view at the Lake Side Inn and spent an hour waiting for the rain to stop! It converted into a light drizzle giving us enough time to walk around without an umbrella! And the waiting time did give us an opportunity to enjoy Maggi while looking out of huge glass windows! Bliss!
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    What is interesting in this photograph is that OM is opposite in all of them due to air-flow
    We just walked around the Mall eating snacks and had a few glasses of tea again while it rained and almost snowed, and we had a lovely view of the hailstorm from under a canopy next to the Naini Lake! The number of people was low in Nainital that evening, and the roads were empty, and it stopped raining too after a bit, giving us a few more hours to walk around on the mall road and the local markets!
    Chaat, Shopping, Chai, Talking, Walking, Shooting were what we did that evening!
    Finally called it a day after having some delicious Vegetable Biryani
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    Langurs enjoying the rainy evening
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    Wire cycle-rickshaws at a roadside shop.. They are made from a single piece of wire(just the frame)

    Sunday Morning
    Looked like the Rain Gods had finally made peace with the fact that Pooja and me would travel, come whatever may, and we were welcomed with a lovely bright sunny morning! It was a long drive back home, and we dediced to start driving back by 1100 hrs to reach NOIDA by 2000 hrs. With the kind of roads and distance, it would take about 8 hours for sure, specially the Sunday traffic back to Delhi!

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    Shikaras in the Naini Lake

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    Empty Tea Glasses at a road-side Tea-Shop

    The drive back via Kathgodam – Haldwani – Udham Singh Nagar (Rudrapur) – Rampur – Moradabad Bypass – Hapur was mostly uneventful except a deroute forced because of Behenji as she likes to be called, or for others, Ms. Mayawati, Chief Minister of UP. Rampur was sealed because of her visit, and we were forced to look around for options which involved driving through the town, trusting our direction instincts, and drive through a village with mud roads, and lanes just wide enough for the Palio to move through!
    Rest is mostly history! with Future looking very bright with a few good trips on the cards! Enjoy some more photographs below….

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    Steamy Tea…

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    People at the T-Shop

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    Like I said… it was a hail-storm

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    One of the two Tea-Shops we had Tea at… this guy was selling everything from Tea t0 Bread-Omlette, Bun-Omlette, Boiled Eggs, Pakodas, Cream Rolls...

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    Corn-cobs (Bhutte)… They taste different on a rainy evening…

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    Nothing warms cold fingers better than a wood fire…

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    Eggs were plenty around the Mall Road…

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    Another view from the same Chai ki Dukaan…

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    This guy was really happy to have his photograph clicked…I think this is one of the biggest satisfactions of being a photographer… an opportunity to make people smile!

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    Loved the steam coming out of the pressure cooker… the 10 min wait was worth it…

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    Nainital Post Office

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    Ripe Red tomatoes for the Omlettes

    Now for some objective information

    1a. Distance from NOIDA to RamNagar : Approximately 250 kms
    1b. Driving time : about 6 hours in the night with low traffic… Add another hour if driving in the day because of local traffic
    2a. Distance from Ramnagar to Nainital : Approx. 65 kms
    2b. Driving time : About 2 hours (Do take a break to enjoy the view somewhere)
    3a. Distance from Nainital to NOIDA : Approx. 310 kms
    3b. Driving time in the day : Approx. 8 hours with local traffic and bad roads and work in progress flyovers
    Recommended eating joints on the way :
    1. McDonalds just after Gajraula on the road towards Moradabad
    2. Meriton just before Gajraula towards Delhi… Its almost opposite McDonalds and serves decent food
    3. There are many dhabas near the Garhmukteshwar and Gajraula, however I am not sure if I would stop there to have food… snacks and tea would be my choice there
    I drove a total of about 660 kilometers over that weekend, and loved every second of it! Pooja is an amazing addition to my co-traveler list, and there is not much other than that a man can ask for! isn’t it?

  • 77899

    77899

    Some of my most cherished moments have been behind the wheels of my Palio!!! 77899 kms strong, and still with years to go!

  • Moments from Ranikhet!

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ondqyj-LdCg&fs=1&hl=en_US]

  • 65001

    Yesterday, me and Radha complete 65000 kms of our togetherness after a fantastic drive to and in the hills!!! Will write about the trip sometime later though!

    She has been like an angel looking after me all these years we have been together!!! Thank you Radha and thank you uncle God for these wonderful times!!!

    Like I like to say, Life is great!

  • Good ways to spend an evening – 1

    1. Leave office on time (ok, a li’il late works too)
    2. Get a tank full of gas (short for gasoline, and referred to as petrol and diesel in India) [abe firangi]
    3. Find a direction to drive in…
    4. Set a countdown timer (e.g. I will drive for 90 minutes, and look for the first nice place to have tea)
    5. DRIVE
    6. Stop…
    7. Eat and have Chai
    8. Come back!

    I managed to do a 100km drive last night with a couple of friends and went till Dharampur… about 40 kms before Solan and 13 kms before Kasauli!!!! the hills are suddenly a lot closer than they were for the last 18 months!

    I love it! Life is uber cool!

  • Visit to the Memory Stick Town!

    Kingston is a name that I have heard only in reference to memory sticks or thumb drives, or USB drives or Pen drives as the janta calls them… an opportunity to visit the place with that name had a different sort of excitement for me… I was feeling very similar when I went to Cherokee too!!!

    An evening flight to Detroit and a connection to Syracuse and a 2.5 hours drive to Kingston later I was in the city last saturday! Thankfully the weather was bright and sunny throughout and was warm enough to roam around in a sweatshirt!!!

    Kingston has nothing to do with the brand, I guess, and there is not much you can do in the town… You can be in Jail, it has a biiiig correction centre, or you could be in the Queens University, or you could be working in one of the local market places in the city! Pretty laid back, and a relaxed place to be in, with its own set of excitements too I am sure!

    The rest below, along with the pictures…

    The change of driver pit-stop some 20 miles before the US-Canadian Border. I was driving Jas’s Shwanda so far!!! I love that white car… it is so similar to my palio!

    We reached Jas’s new apartment late afternoon, and after some amazing Chai, with chips and Bananabread Cake, went to the downtown to walk around the place…

    There is something very very attractive about old stone buildings with veins all over them. In summers the entire walls can be hidden behind the leaves, but because of this being fall time, there were only veins and some last few leaves… and the red of the leaves against the grey of the walls made a very beautiful sight!


    And then we walked towards the downtown…

    Being a Saturday here was a farmer’s market. Most farmer’s markets in the US and Canada sell fresh produce from the farms, Jewelery, Handmade Soaps and other handmade stuff… We bought some dry flowers from Diane (the picture below). Mostly I was attracted to the Dodge Van she had and then noticed the flowers too! It was a 1978 Dodge rescue van, and Diane did mention her fondness for the vehicle in the few minutes of conversation we had with her.

    While walking past the city hall, we heard some nice music and thought was it was coming from some speakers in a restaurant, but later realised that it was band of 3 young boys who were playing their songs in a small arrangement. We also picked up a few maple leaves of different colors to make some artwork at Jas’s apartment with the leaves!

    While walking back, I noticed this shop selling interesting stuff and had a very interesting board outside… They had a shower gel dispenser in the shape of a nose :P, and fart candies, and masks, and puzzles, and riddles and what not… I also bought a small puzzle myself and have been trying to figure out what to do with it for a while now :/

    Leaves in Kingston had these strange black dots on them… and only those leaves which had the fall colors. Not sure why, but it was both spooky and interesting to notice! Like the mark of death, as Jas’s colleague Al says!

    I also saw one of the best beautiful sunsets in a very long time at the Lake Ontario that evening!!!

    We finally called it a day as it was dark and getting real cold! Came back home, had some mind blowing dinner (Thanks Jas!!!!), saw Step Brothers and crashed! It was a nice day!

    The next day we had to leave Kingston by 1 to catch my flight back… and because I woke up pretty late, there was not much we could do… So we hung around the apartment, while I took a few photographs…

    The drive between Kingston and Syracuse has two interesting things, the border, and two very beautiful bridges over Lake Ontario through a place called 1000 Islands! yes… I was excited to be passing through this place, after knowing the 1000 Islands dressing for a long time! Its like I am seeing things which I have known only as objects so far! Its a feeling that I cannot express…

    My flight from Syracuse was delayed by an hour, and that made me miss my connection to Milwaukee. I enjoyed my complimentary stay in Holiday Inn, Newark that night, and took the first flight out on Monday. Though I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, I was still ok.

    In short, this weekend turned out to be very relaxed, de-stressing and refreshing.

    One more to the list of memorable trips I have made! Thank you Jas! thank you Uncle!

    And I almost forgot… last weekend was the first time, I signed some of my work! A huge moment of satisfaction for me as a photographer!!!!

    and today, Jas gave Diane two prints as well!!! 🙂 I am glad!


    Life is Good!!!!

  • Mission Mountains! Accomplished beyond expectations!

  • Wake me up when September ends!

    Knowing how much I love Radha, it would be a shame if I would not write about a milestone in my relationship with her! right?

    thank you Vaishali for pointing that out!

    There are so many memories that have been associated with her that I would not even know where to start and end…

    • The first time I saw her, I knew she was going to be mine
    • The extreme personification of something that a lot of people would call just a car
    • The fact that most people who know about her call her Radha too!
    • That I was using a Rs. 250 radio to listen to music for the first few months because I was totally broke after I got the car
    • That I feel the most secure when I am driving around with her
    • That she probably has one of the best audio quality that I know of… what else do you expect from a combination of Sony, JBL, and Blaupunkt?
    • That it has saved my family from an accident which would have been a nightmare in any other car
    • That she is one of the finest machines, one of the safest cars and of course one of the smartest looking cars that runs on Indian Roads
    • That she is a perfect example of what friendships should be like
    • And that she still looks as beautiful as she looked the first day I met her 🙂
    and a lot more!


    This September is a special month for me! a lot of things happened including Chai ki Dukaan celebrating 5 years, some things and thoughts moving at the personal front, and my EMIs for the car getting over! now I can start saving for the Enfield I have been eyeing for a while! 😛

    Speaking of cars, this weekend I drove the largest SUV I have been in, so far! A Toyota Sequoia. It was a 4.6 litre, 32 Valve V8 engine which produces a mind boggling 310 bhp@ 5400 rpm! The pictures below should tell you something about the size too!

    Title courtesy : Green Day
    Photographs with me in them, courtesy : Pritam