Post-finishing our semester, I and my colleague decided to go on a short trip. I spoke with a friend from the hills and decided on a quiet (but far!) place, Binsar. We along with her mother (who was from the first batch of female police personnel from Kerala and more energetic than both of us!) reached Old Delhi Railway station to catch a train to Ramnagar. Since we could not find anything available online on Tatkal, we queued up to get tickets for us.
The Customer Care Service centers do not exist at the Railway stations because they neither care nor provide any service to the customers!
The person on the window giving tickets was extremely rude and busy with all the other things except giving tickets! As we requested/shouted at him, he just shot back with, "you should have come earlier or booked online"jibe. Anyways, we got the ticket and train which was almost full was standing on the platform. I spoke with TT and he directed us to a few empty berths. As we settled on the births in the sleeper class, lower birth for 'Amma/Umma', middle and top ones for us, a talkative girl on the other lower birth made friendly general inquiries. TT came in a while and we asked him to make our tickets, he charged less and left without giving us a receipt. The girl went after him, shouted and created a huge ruckus, we paid almost three hundred more and got a receipt. It became quite an issue to calm the girl down!
We realized that we were in the Kathgodam train, as the train gets diverted in two different directions, one goes to Kathgodam and other to Ramnagar. We were told that we should get off at Ramnagar (although later we found out that it did not matter!). We needed to change to the other side of the train at Moradabad to reach Ramnagar! TT knew we were going to Ramnagar at the platform itself, but still mislead us to make his money!
As we cursed the guy and tried to make our way hitting and poking people spilling over from their births only to realize that they close the compartment doors now, so we could only switch by walking through the platform at 2am. We changed our compartment, and after halting at Moradabad for almost one and half hours, train still managed to drop us at Ramnagar at 5am. At Ramnagar station, taxi walas were asking for extra money, they all had big cars or SUVs. We took an auto to bus stop and from there hired a Alto-taxi for Binsar at reasonable rates. The taxi driver, a young boy was extremely talkative. This was the wedding season around this part as we crossed through many baraats (Monu weds Sonu cars!). He stopped at a dhaba and we saw that around this part there is problem of gas and availability of wood has meant de-forestation and thin jungles, as people still cook on firewood. Our taxi driver told us about the benefits of cooking on firewood and better taste of food and natural water as everybody lives long, healthy lives.
The breakfast for him, was of pakoras with dahi raita (sprinkled with lots of chillies) and aloo sabzi. It was a long five hour drive and both me and my colleague got nauseous with the drive up in the hills. We again stopped at a resort for another round of breakfast at 11am.
We reached Binsar around 1pm and then tried to check with the Kumaon Mandal Guest house which was extremely expensive. We went to Binsar Eco Resort, a three-star nice,clean resort, which we had seen online, got good rates for two rooms.
We had lunch and then slept off the entire afternoon, got up to eat dinner and then slept again! The weather was mildly cold and the view absolutely beautiful.
The plan for the next day, was to go around Binsar. We hired a taxi for the famous 'Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary' heard a few hair raising tales of wild animals at the ticket office, where we paid Rs.150 per person for ticket and Rs. 250 for taxi. The road around the sanctuary was in very good shape, as our talkative taxi driver (again!) explained that the roads that were built by the British were built with engineering insights and research, the Indian authorities now just build the roads without realizing that during rains/snow they get blocked. The roads by the British are all-season roads. He kept complimenting the British engineering, as we kept going up listening to the 90s Bollywood music, till we reached a point where we had to walk up to the Zero point on a walking track. My colleague and I started walking imagining our adventurous encounters with wild animals. She wondered our response if we actually meet a leopard (common here) and me saying nonchalantly that then it would be him, not us who would be doing anything!
We were extremely disappointed to find just butterflies in the name of wildlife, and waste bins lined up on the way! Nothing wild about it, and we had paid around 650/- only for pretty sights! We came back from halfway and on our way back I went back to the ticket guy to ask for a refund and told him that 'human jungles are more scary, and they are looting people here in the name of 'wildlife'.
In response, he said animals do not come out during the day!!From, here we took a short route to the famous Shiva temple at Jageswar. Weather turned cloudy and the long drive around small villages became enjoyable.
We reached the temple complex around 2pm, had lunch at a dhaba. Food was fresh and good, and as per my habit, I asked for the dessert option, the waiter assured us that they have sweets and brought saunf and cheeni! We laughed our hearts out and went towards the temple complex with 125 small and big temples built between 7th-14th century.
It was quite a peaceful and serene experience. As it started to drizzle we had tea and bun-butter at the same dhaba and started back for our resort. By the time we reached back in time for tea and pakoras the drizzle turned into a downpour as we took a walk around the resort. Binsar had no bazar, no crowds only nature for company. The resort was at a steep slope, all the amenities and food at the resort were good, except for the desserts.
The morning actually starts at 6am in the hills and then onwards its just a long afternoon with strong sun. My fellow travelers were ready for our half day trip to Nainital at 7am. It is not a trip, until you shop, and abiding by that principle, we called a taxi for Nainital, our shopping destination, a five hour journey from Binsar. The route was beautiful as it kept drizzling throughout. The taxi driver had college going daughter, so he kept showing us the colleges and institutes on the way.
We reached Nainital around 2pm. We were supposed to leave Nainital around 6.30pm for Kathgodam station from where we had a 8.30pm train direct to Delhi. We were told by our taxi wala bhaiya that it was just around half an hour from Nainital.
To be continued.....
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