Yogesh Sarkar
Administrator
A year ago, I began my search for the Unknown with a trip to Gangolihat and even though I decided to abandon my search soon after that, when I went to Nachani, I continued to do trips which were quite philosophical for me. However none of them compared to the trips I did in Search of the Unknown.
A year on, I have lost my belief in quite a few things, including in my God. For a person who wishes to listen to his heart and his God, this seemed like a death of all things good and sacred. I was detached to everything, and I didn’t want that.
But you can’t believe, just for the sake of believing.
So the Search for the Unknown had to be resumed and this time, there was no letting go of it, midway.
Weather was gearing up to be quite nasty in Uttarakhand and hills in general, with heavy rains forecasted. I guess this is just the thing I needed. And even though this trip was going to be a trip to reconnect with my God and my heart, to think and contemplate. I got pretty much all of my camera gear ready. After all, photography is an essential part of my being and for me, it is in many ways a form of meditation and I wanted to do that, if I got the chance and mood was right.
RD’s suggestion was to document the trip well, claiming I was being too selfish to look at the travelogue from my own perspective and I wasn’t helping others, by not documenting it in a manner I ought to!
A point well made, and even though these travelogues will forever be more of an internal dialogue I share with others, I decided to document it, the best I can.
Day 1, 16th July 2016
I decided to skip on Volvo this time, in order to save a couple of hundred rupees. After all, Rs. 516 I had to shell out for UTC AC Bus to Haldwani (including online booking charge) was still quite steep for such a small journey, Volvo at Rs. 739 was a lot more expensive.
It is quite another thing that I spent Rs. 285.35 on a 32km Uber ride from my home to ISBT Anand Vihar.
And once again, I arrived quite early at the bus stand. Hour and a half before the scheduled departure of my bus! Thankfully weather is nice today and I get to enjoy the cool breeze and beautiful clouds in Delhi itself.
Headphones on, I wait. Occasionally playing with my mobile phone, but mostly just looking around. I love doing this. At times I chat with friends and my sister, but I mostly just think, trying to reconnect and failing utterly.
Its 7:30pm and the bus is supposed to leave at 8:00pm, I still haven’t seen the bus yet. Though I have a fear, it is the one docked in the first bay, ever since my arrival. So instead of going towards it, I walk towards the bay where another bus is parked, but this one is a Volvo. I ask the booking counter next to it, and they refer me to the first bay, and sure enough, this is my bus to Haldwani.
I haven’t printed my online ticket, and I am hoping PDF file on mobile would be enough. Conductor doesn’t even ask for that, instead he asks my name, verifies it against the list he has and that’s it! Furthermore, he refuses to put the duffle bag in the storage of bus, guess he is making “better use” of that. And I have to store my duffle bag and my full size camera backpack under my seat and under my leg for the entire journey, since the overhead bin isn’t even large enough to accommodate a laptop bag!
On top of it, the guy in the front already has reclined his seat!
This is one reason I hate Volvos and AC buses, with the seats reclined, there is hardly any knee room left. Thankfully it is still somewhat better than Volvo. Next time I am going to book the first seat, more knee room there and no such drama!
I munch on the chips I have just bought, as the clock strikes 8:10 and driver finally decides to pull out.
From the word go, suspension is bouncier than a Volvo and I am glad I am not in the last row.
Like every other UTC driver, this one too has a different route to get out of Ghaziabad and he takes a different one to reach the highway.
AC is on the full blast and ride is comfortable for now, it is raining in Rampur as per a friend and hopefully in Uttarakhand as well. I get immersed in music and at times chatting on WhatsApp. I still can't get myself to think, but then again, this isn’t something you can force yourself to do and I have decided, I am not even going to attempt that. When it gets time to get immersed in thoughts, it will happen on its own.
At Gajraula we pull into Shiva Tourist Dhaba, at first glance it looks like a slightly better version of Shivam Tourist Dhaba, which I hate. It is also more expensive version of it, with special thali priced at Rs. 200.
I sit on the table, and wait for a waiter to come. He comes with a bottle of mineral water, places it without asking and takes my order. I decide to order special thali; I am going to open that bottle of unasked for mineral water as well.
My food arrives and apart from the gawky plate, it looks great. Naan, misi roti, pulao, daal, paneer, raita, papad and salad. Kheer will arrive later.
Food is delicious and as I tell RD about it, I am advised to order kulhar wali chai, since it is supposed to be great here and I do just that.
After kheer, it doesn’t tastes as good, but is quite decent.
I am stuffed like anything and apart from paneer, I finish off everything. For some reason, I just don’t trust paneer at hotels, apart from the really good ones and on highways, I just avoid it completely.
I walk back to the bus, trying to make my sis and RD jealous by WhatsApping them what I just ate
!
What follows is a non-stop WhatsApp session, which lasts till I cross Rampur-Rudrapur stretch with relative ease. Thankfully the suspension wasn’t too bad, at least in the front, but I doubt passengers in rear seats enjoyed that stretch.
Day 2, 17th July
It’s 2am, by the time we reach Rudrapur. There are plenty of passengers waiting to get out, before Rudrapur bus station. Only problem, door to passenger compartment is locked shut. Conductor has been sleeping in passenger cabin, enjoying AC; now he too is stuck on this side with only driver on the other side, who does his best to help conductor and passengers on this side, unlock the door.
After 10 minutes of struggle, door finally opens and passengers can get off. Conductor holds the door open, till we finally reach Rudrapur bus station and bus is parked and driver proceeds to remove the lock completely.
It is raining outside; it has been raining for a while now. I am eager to reach Haldwani, so that I can get a connecting bus to go deeper in to Kumaon, likely Pithoragarh and find options after arriving there. The later I reach there, fewer options I will have and yet, driver is in no mood to move from here and spends half an hour at the bus station.
Even the Rudrapur to Haldwani stretch is a little bumpy this time around. I guess rain has taken a toll on things and yet, drizzle continues and accompanies us till Haldwani, and then somewhat slows down.
It is around 3:40am, when I get off from Delhi – Haldwani bus. Now it is time to hunt for a bus to go deeper in to Uttarakhand, not sure where, but somewhere, maybe to Dharchula.
But the only buses I see around me are heading for Almora and of course the same ole Dharamdhar bus, I took on my last trip to Kausani. I don’t want to board that one again.
Biggest issue of traveling alone with two bags is, going to loo. It is hard work, balancing two bags at the same time, and yet, must be done. And after the careful balancing act, I head to information counter to ask for bus to Pithoragarh.
The gent at information cum booking counter instead asks me, whether I have seen any Pithoragarh buses, I reply negatively, and he tells me last one was at 2:30!
Just then a driver walks alongside me and tells the gent at information counter to register his bus, which is heading to Nachani!
Nachani?
Did you just say Nachani?
Yes.
Where is the bus?
Over there.
He points me towards the location of the bus and I head over to it. This is so darn perfect! My search had ended at Nachani last year and it seems destined to begin there as well!
I board the bus and take a seat. Then get off to get something to munch on en route, and decide to splurge a little and get couple of cans of Red Bull, one for now, and another later.
Bus starts and head towards Kathgodam UTC shed.
Bus is refueled; new driver and conductor take charge.
I ask the conductor to make my ticket till Nachani; he is hesitant to do that. Tells me, we won’t likely be able to make it to Nachani, but we will likely make it to Thal and from there I can take a shared taxi. But if that happens, he will issue a part refund.
I am ok with that idea, in fact now I am thinking of Thal, there are couple of temples there I want to photograph and as it is, Nachani doesn’t have much to offer, apart from a raging river and a Shani Temple, that looked interesting to me last time around.
We start our journey towards hills, cold wind coming in from open window is a lot more soothing and intoxicating than the AC, adventure begins…
Scroll down for second part.
A year on, I have lost my belief in quite a few things, including in my God. For a person who wishes to listen to his heart and his God, this seemed like a death of all things good and sacred. I was detached to everything, and I didn’t want that.
But you can’t believe, just for the sake of believing.
So the Search for the Unknown had to be resumed and this time, there was no letting go of it, midway.
Weather was gearing up to be quite nasty in Uttarakhand and hills in general, with heavy rains forecasted. I guess this is just the thing I needed. And even though this trip was going to be a trip to reconnect with my God and my heart, to think and contemplate. I got pretty much all of my camera gear ready. After all, photography is an essential part of my being and for me, it is in many ways a form of meditation and I wanted to do that, if I got the chance and mood was right.
RD’s suggestion was to document the trip well, claiming I was being too selfish to look at the travelogue from my own perspective and I wasn’t helping others, by not documenting it in a manner I ought to!
A point well made, and even though these travelogues will forever be more of an internal dialogue I share with others, I decided to document it, the best I can.
Day 1, 16th July 2016
I decided to skip on Volvo this time, in order to save a couple of hundred rupees. After all, Rs. 516 I had to shell out for UTC AC Bus to Haldwani (including online booking charge) was still quite steep for such a small journey, Volvo at Rs. 739 was a lot more expensive.
It is quite another thing that I spent Rs. 285.35 on a 32km Uber ride from my home to ISBT Anand Vihar.
And once again, I arrived quite early at the bus stand. Hour and a half before the scheduled departure of my bus! Thankfully weather is nice today and I get to enjoy the cool breeze and beautiful clouds in Delhi itself.
Headphones on, I wait. Occasionally playing with my mobile phone, but mostly just looking around. I love doing this. At times I chat with friends and my sister, but I mostly just think, trying to reconnect and failing utterly.
Its 7:30pm and the bus is supposed to leave at 8:00pm, I still haven’t seen the bus yet. Though I have a fear, it is the one docked in the first bay, ever since my arrival. So instead of going towards it, I walk towards the bay where another bus is parked, but this one is a Volvo. I ask the booking counter next to it, and they refer me to the first bay, and sure enough, this is my bus to Haldwani.
I haven’t printed my online ticket, and I am hoping PDF file on mobile would be enough. Conductor doesn’t even ask for that, instead he asks my name, verifies it against the list he has and that’s it! Furthermore, he refuses to put the duffle bag in the storage of bus, guess he is making “better use” of that. And I have to store my duffle bag and my full size camera backpack under my seat and under my leg for the entire journey, since the overhead bin isn’t even large enough to accommodate a laptop bag!
On top of it, the guy in the front already has reclined his seat!
This is one reason I hate Volvos and AC buses, with the seats reclined, there is hardly any knee room left. Thankfully it is still somewhat better than Volvo. Next time I am going to book the first seat, more knee room there and no such drama!
I munch on the chips I have just bought, as the clock strikes 8:10 and driver finally decides to pull out.
From the word go, suspension is bouncier than a Volvo and I am glad I am not in the last row.
Like every other UTC driver, this one too has a different route to get out of Ghaziabad and he takes a different one to reach the highway.
AC is on the full blast and ride is comfortable for now, it is raining in Rampur as per a friend and hopefully in Uttarakhand as well. I get immersed in music and at times chatting on WhatsApp. I still can't get myself to think, but then again, this isn’t something you can force yourself to do and I have decided, I am not even going to attempt that. When it gets time to get immersed in thoughts, it will happen on its own.
At Gajraula we pull into Shiva Tourist Dhaba, at first glance it looks like a slightly better version of Shivam Tourist Dhaba, which I hate. It is also more expensive version of it, with special thali priced at Rs. 200.
I sit on the table, and wait for a waiter to come. He comes with a bottle of mineral water, places it without asking and takes my order. I decide to order special thali; I am going to open that bottle of unasked for mineral water as well.
My food arrives and apart from the gawky plate, it looks great. Naan, misi roti, pulao, daal, paneer, raita, papad and salad. Kheer will arrive later.
Food is delicious and as I tell RD about it, I am advised to order kulhar wali chai, since it is supposed to be great here and I do just that.
After kheer, it doesn’t tastes as good, but is quite decent.
I am stuffed like anything and apart from paneer, I finish off everything. For some reason, I just don’t trust paneer at hotels, apart from the really good ones and on highways, I just avoid it completely.
I walk back to the bus, trying to make my sis and RD jealous by WhatsApping them what I just ate
!What follows is a non-stop WhatsApp session, which lasts till I cross Rampur-Rudrapur stretch with relative ease. Thankfully the suspension wasn’t too bad, at least in the front, but I doubt passengers in rear seats enjoyed that stretch.
Day 2, 17th July
It’s 2am, by the time we reach Rudrapur. There are plenty of passengers waiting to get out, before Rudrapur bus station. Only problem, door to passenger compartment is locked shut. Conductor has been sleeping in passenger cabin, enjoying AC; now he too is stuck on this side with only driver on the other side, who does his best to help conductor and passengers on this side, unlock the door.
After 10 minutes of struggle, door finally opens and passengers can get off. Conductor holds the door open, till we finally reach Rudrapur bus station and bus is parked and driver proceeds to remove the lock completely.
It is raining outside; it has been raining for a while now. I am eager to reach Haldwani, so that I can get a connecting bus to go deeper in to Kumaon, likely Pithoragarh and find options after arriving there. The later I reach there, fewer options I will have and yet, driver is in no mood to move from here and spends half an hour at the bus station.
Even the Rudrapur to Haldwani stretch is a little bumpy this time around. I guess rain has taken a toll on things and yet, drizzle continues and accompanies us till Haldwani, and then somewhat slows down.
It is around 3:40am, when I get off from Delhi – Haldwani bus. Now it is time to hunt for a bus to go deeper in to Uttarakhand, not sure where, but somewhere, maybe to Dharchula.
But the only buses I see around me are heading for Almora and of course the same ole Dharamdhar bus, I took on my last trip to Kausani. I don’t want to board that one again.
Biggest issue of traveling alone with two bags is, going to loo. It is hard work, balancing two bags at the same time, and yet, must be done. And after the careful balancing act
, I head to information counter to ask for bus to Pithoragarh.The gent at information cum booking counter instead asks me, whether I have seen any Pithoragarh buses, I reply negatively, and he tells me last one was at 2:30!
Just then a driver walks alongside me and tells the gent at information counter to register his bus, which is heading to Nachani!
Nachani?
Did you just say Nachani?
Yes.
Where is the bus?
Over there.
He points me towards the location of the bus and I head over to it. This is so darn perfect! My search had ended at Nachani last year and it seems destined to begin there as well!
I board the bus and take a seat. Then get off to get something to munch on en route, and decide to splurge a little and get couple of cans of Red Bull, one for now, and another later.
Bus starts and head towards Kathgodam UTC shed.
Bus is refueled; new driver and conductor take charge.
I ask the conductor to make my ticket till Nachani; he is hesitant to do that. Tells me, we won’t likely be able to make it to Nachani, but we will likely make it to Thal and from there I can take a shared taxi. But if that happens, he will issue a part refund.
I am ok with that idea, in fact now I am thinking of Thal, there are couple of temples there I want to photograph and as it is, Nachani doesn’t have much to offer, apart from a raging river and a Shani Temple, that looked interesting to me last time around.
We start our journey towards hills, cold wind coming in from open window is a lot more soothing and intoxicating than the AC, adventure begins…
Scroll down for second part.
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