Vacation in Almoda-Binsar-II

After collecting luggage from the Akshardham Cloak Room, I called Meru Cab for a drop to Old Delhi Railway Station. The railway station mentioned in our ticket was "DLI", which meant Old Delhi Railway Station. The code for New Delhi Railway station is "NDLS" (thanks Nilesh, for your prompt help on this one).Old Delhi Railway Station is near by to Kashmiri Gate and it was quite a congested area. Good that we had ample of time - traffic didn't really hurt.

We had no other option but to wait until our train arrives. We waited for around 3 hours @ the railway station during which we had our dinner (french fries and cold drink - we got it from McDonalds located just next to our waiting lounge - waiting lounge for first and second A/c is on ground floor, rest is on 3rd floor I guess). Thankfully the train was on time and we finally boarded Ranikhet Express @ 10:40 pm. Our's was a first A/c compartment which was quite comfortable.

We reached Kathgodam @ 4:50 AM in the morning. Thankfully it was the last station for the train as well, so we didn't have to bother tracking stations in the middle of the night. I called our Cab driver - Ramesh, who was already waiting to receive us @ the railway station entrance. We still had a 3 hour drive waiting before we can reach the resort.

Early Morning View of the Valley

It was supposed to be a pleasant early morning drive through the mountains and scenic planes with early morning sun greeting us on our way. Unfortunately, health was not with us. Both of us (I & my wife) had vomit - thanks to a smaller cab and previous day's fasting.


Had it been a bigger cab like Innova or Tavera/Scorpio, the scenario would have been different - a good lesson learned as we had multiple travel plans coming up soon. By the time we reached the resort, it started raining and the atmosphere became much more colder by the time we reached the resort.

As soon as we reached the resort, the manager greeted us with  Rhododendron Juice before handing over the keys of our cottage.

View of Nanda Devi from Eagle's Nest Cottage

It was refreshing and quite a different taste - we enjoyed the juice. We checked into our first cottage - Eagle's Nest; after a tiring overnight journey and an unpleasant road trip, rest was the priority. Room service boy lighted up the Bukhari (A traditional heater using wood as a fuel to keep the room warm) for us. The worst part about the rains was, it created cloudy atmosphere blocking the himalayan view from the cottage. For a nice view, a clear and sunny day is a must. After taking our morning bath and Pooja, we requested a cottage delivery for our breakfast. As per our request - Aalu Paratha (Stuffed Potato Breads) served with pickle, curd, butter and juice were delivered within in an hour. It was quite heavy a breakfast and we hardly had any space left for consuming lunch. The breakfast was wonderful though and we enjoyed the quality of the food - kind of homely stuff.

We were too full to inquire of lunch until we received a call from the restaurant itself requesting us to come for lunch since 3 PM was closing time for them. It kept on raining for the first two days and I was a little disappointed as rain not only threatened our travel plans, but also hampered the view of Himalayas. The manager joined us for the breakfast next day to check our travel plans and guide us on the same. The weather forecast highlighted a bright and sunny day, however I was not sure. Still we planned our first trip to Binsar on Wednesday. Should it turn out to be a cloudy/rainy day, we'd to visit Jageshwar instead. Fortunately, 3rd day was beautiful.When we got up early in the morning around 6 AM, we were astonished by the views of Snow Clad Himalayan Mountain Ranges - home to world's highest peaks, clearly visible from our cottage. The view

Closer Look @ Himalayas - View from Eagle's Nest

made both of us simply speechless - all we could say was "wow". I immediately took my camera to click snaps from appropriate angles and varying views and after my photography session was done, I handed it over to Vandana to record the movie.

Early Morning View from our cottage - Eagle's Nest

After taking the bath and performing our morning Pooja, we headed towards the manager's office, where our packed lunch and cab driver were waiting for us. As it was a bright and sunny day, we followed our plan of visiting Binsar - as neither I, nor my wife Vandana wanted to miss the view of Himalayas from the highest point in the region. We started sharp @ 9:30 AM in the morning - and yes, this time we hired a Tavera as I didn't want to go through same the pain again (Our health could have been affected either by fasting or due to jerks we faced in the smaller car, either way I wasn't interested in spoiling the vacation any further). It was not a very long drive, and took almost an hour to hour and half to its max, to reach Binsar. I had to get an entry pass for our cab at the entrance - it costed us around 300-350 Rs, not very sure on the charges though.

Glorious Morning - Clouds adorned with Sunshine

After entering the Binsar wild life sanctuary, it was quite a drive before we could reach the top where GMVN Rest house was located. Almost 7-8 km. drive, took us some 20 to 30 odd minutes I suppose! We reached the GMVN guest house by around 11:30 AM. The plan was to take a drop @ GMVN guest house and trek up the hill till Zero Point and walk down again however, through a different route to reach the meadows where our cab was supposed to wait for us. The trek was supposed to be 2/3 km walk up the hill and 2/3 km walk down the hill till the meadows. We were finding it a bit confusing hence we hired a guide who can help us reach till the highest point. It exhausted us a bit as we were climbing up the hill, however due to the coolness in the atmosphere, we hardly had any sweating.

A Breathtaking view of Himalaya from Binsar - Zero Point

Zero point is the highest point in entire Almoda District. It offers an panoramic view of snow clad Himalayan Peaks like Kedarnath, Trishul, Nanda Devi etc. The view of Himalayas from the Zero Point was breathtakingly beautiful and completely worth the pain we took to walk up the hill - thanks to a nice and clear weather. We were able to clearly see the Himalayan ranges. After taking some snaps and recording a movie, we climbed down till the meadow, again with the help of the same guide, who charged us some 350 Rs. for the entire trek. It was fun, a bit tiring when walking up hill though! None the less, we enjoyed it.

We unpacked our lunch and had it at the meadows and took some snaps again post lunch and then started our journey back to our resort. By 3:00 PM, we reached the resort back with the exotic memories and a strong desire to visit Binsar again and a wish to stay in the sanctuary itself next time we come here.

Vacation in Almoda-Binsar

It was not an easy task to hunt down a scenic, serene and secluded location. After a lot of research, I found Binsar an appealing location. It had everything - A secluded location away from the noise of city and very close to nature, exotic atmosphere and a very beautiful 360 degree view of Himalayan ranges. 

We (I & My wife - Vandana) thought about lot of places - Shimla, Manali, Dharamsala, Gangtok etc. The only thing that all these places had in common was - they were famous and crowded. I was interested in a lesser crowded place as I love being nearer to nature. Finally, we decided to go to Binsar.

We took a flight to  New Delhi from my home town - Ahmedabad and a connecting train from Old Delhi Railway Station to a place called Kathgodam and then a cab from Kathgodam to our resort.

Eagle's Nest - Our First Cottage

Binsar is a wild life sanctuary located at a distance of 33 kms. from Almoda Town in the heart of Kumaon and blessed with a captivating view of Himalayas. Unfortunately, we were not able to find a decent place to stay in Binsar Sanctuary itself. Had panoramic view of Himalayas been the only priority, I'd have opted for the KMVN (Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam) Guest House. However, I didn't want to mess around with accommodation and food. KMVN Guest house has electricity from 7-9 AM and 5-7 PM only (not very sure about the timings though, however electricity is available 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in evening). Khali estate was one more option, however I wasn't convinced about the quality of accommodation, hence I started looking for alternatives. After some research, I came across a nice resort - Kalmatia Sangam. The resort is located between Almoda Town and Binsar (approx. 19 kms from Binsar). I liked the way the cottages were designed, privacy offered and something that really attracted me was the view of Himalayas.  One can get  a panoramic view of Himalayan ranges from the cottages - similar to KMVN Guest house. KMVN has the best view as its located at the highest possible altitude in Binsar though. I opted for a 5 night stay package which included 2 different cottages - Eagle's Nest and Himalayan Magpie. Our first priority was Himalayan Magpie, however it was not available for first 3 days, hence we opted for Eagle's Nest and then moved into Himalayan Magpie for last 2 days. After our stay we had a different opinion though, Eagle's nest was much better than Himalayan Magpie. It had the best possible view of Himalayas.

We took a morning flight to New Delhi and reached Delhi by 11:30 AM. A visit to Delhi Akshardham Temple was also on our list. I had stayed in New Delhi previously for a month or two and did get a chance to visit Akshardham, however it was the first visit for Vandana. After getting down @ the airport, we took a cab straight to Akshardham temple and kept our luggage in Akshardham Cloak Room. It was a long queue and by the time we reached into the the temple premise (after clearing the security check) it was almost 1:30 PM. We still had approximately 3 hours before Pradarshani (Cultural shows by temple) ends.

We went to the main temple first. After the darshan in main temple, we went to the cafeteria. It was Shivratri and both of us were fasting. We did take the Lassi though. Unfortunately that was the only thing served in the temple for people who fast. Wish, Akshardham follows the protocol  that normally all Swaminarayan temples follow and serve faral (food that could be had when one fasts) as well.

We immediately started for the Pradarshani as we already were experiencing tight schedule. By 5 pm, we were done with Pradarshani which consisted of multiple things including an introduction to lord swaminarayan, nauka vihar (cultural boat ride) and a movie on God Shree Swaminarayan.

Next task for us was to take the train to Kathgodam from where a cab was already arranged for the pickup.

2 Day Trip to Niagara Falls and Corning Glass Museum

I visited US this year on a business trip for 3 months. I was put up in Morristown, NJ which is also Honeywell's Head Quarter. I took this as an opportunity to explore some of the famous tourist spots during my stay in US. Since I was on a critical project, I usually ended up doing some research or presentation work in weekends as well. However, once the project was on track, I visited Niagara falls and Corning Glass Museum via a road trip.

I & my sister booked our tickets via gotobus.com website and based on some of the comments we heard from folks staying the same hotel as I did. Unfortunate we didn't know it was a Chinese tour operator. Nothing wrong joining Chinese tour operator, except the issue with food. Every place they stopped was either Chinese or hardly had any option for vegetarian food.

We started our journey on June 11, 2010. We booked a cab which dropped us till Top Quality Food Market in Morristown (precisely speaking - Parsippany, NJ). It was a Chinese super market from where the bus was supposed to pick us up. The pickup time was 8:30 AM in the morning, however the bus got delayed and picked us @ 10:30 AM. Well, yes it sucked! Can't help it, we already paid in advance!!!

The reason of choosing 11th June as a date of travel was specific. 11th was Friday. I took a day's off and then followed the week end. The tour was supposed to be a 2 day tour. Hence we should reach Morristown by Saturday Night. Sunday could be a rest and I can resume job on Monday. A friend of mine witnessed consequences of not returning in time. One of his travel partner's missed his flight back to Chicago due to stress and almost missed the production release!

We boarded the bus and we were on our way towards Niagara. The bus took a halt for lunch at one Chinese restaurant and it was as good as making us starve as we hardly had anything to eat there! Thankfully, I did carry some dry-fruit bars and other snacks and stocked it enough. So although we didn't have proper food we were able to survive with what we carried. I also carried some cookies - 3/4 packs I guess which helped a lot.

Once done with the lunch, we were back on track to Niagara. I and my sister - both of us were quite excited as this was the first time we were visiting Niagara Falls. There was a traffic jam condition due to some accident which chocked up the road for hours. The distance could have otherwise been easily covered in 10-15 mins, however due to the jam, it took an hour and a half for the bus.

The schedule was to reach Niagara by 4:30 or 5:00 PM and catch the "Maid of the Mist" - The boat that ferries tourists closer to the waterfalls. However, that was not possible, hence all the visitors were requested to explore "Cave of the winds", which is Niagara Fall on American side. The other part (horse shoe fall and Bridal Veil Falls) is in Canada. Raincoats are provided to visitors when they visit Cave of the winds, which can later on be discarded.

It was a wonderful experience visiting Niagara. Cave of the winds has wooden bridge that could be used to go up towards the falls and enjoy the scenic beauty of the falls. Once done with Cave of the winds, we waited for the fireworks. Normally, on fridays fireworks take place at Niagara, this was one more reason why we decided to visit Niagara on Friday. The firework was quite nice - made me remember Diwali :)

Anyways, that was the only activity for the day. We left for the hotel. Our accommodation was fixed in a nice hotel in Buffalo downtown (The Adam's Mark Hotel). After having a cozy night stay @ the hotel, we started early in the morning back to Niagara. The first activity for the day was to take a ride on "Maid of the Mist". It drove us all the way from American falls, to Horse shoe falls and Bridal falls as well. Although I had my camera with me, it was becoming difficult to take snaps with the risk of water to the camera. I still managed to take some limited number of snaps. Once done with our maid of the mist ride, we had an option again to visit American side falls and we did go to some extent again. Took a lot of snaps and finally were ready to move towards our next destination - Corning Glass Museum. I did purchase a souvenir before we left the premises though.

We faced again the same issue - Food. The bus operator took a halt at another Chinese restaurant for lunch. For us, it was virtually impossible to even enter the premises as we were not accustomed to such a strong non-veg food smell. Had I stayed in for more than a minute, sure shot - I'd have puked :D

Anyhow, we found another small place wherein we can get some vegetarian stuff to eat. Don't exactly remember now, what was it that I had, however, it helped! Yes, it indeed help, although I didn't really appreciate the taste.

Alright - Next halt was "Corning Glass Museum". I must appreciate, the museum indeed was beautiful and it was worth the $$$ spent per head towards the ticket. If I remember correctly, they charged us 18 bucks per head, not quite sure though.

We saw couple of shows that highlighted the art of making glass and breaking glass as well ;)

It's pretty interesting to understand how delicate piece of glass is converted into a beautiful design that adorns the home and office.

It was time to move back to Parsippany. We started the return journey, couple of folks were transferred to another bus - for those who were enrolled for a 3 day tour which also involved Washington DC. For us, it was a ride back to hotel. We reached back to Parsippany by 6:30 pm and called the cab. It took the cab driver around 30 mins to pick us up and we reached back to our hotel by 7:30 pm.

We ordered a pizza for the dinner and I took a fine rest on Sunday before getting back to work on Monday.

Plagarism in Indian Music - II

This is the first post from my brand new Mac book pro :)

I do have couple of travels to discuss however I will share them sometime later.

Here is one more shock for people who loved the movie "Karz" and one of the greatest hit numbers of bollywood till date - "Ek hasina thi" (I too am a fan of this song, so it was a shock for me as well :P)

I have known that this song has been lifted from George Benson's album "Week end in LA", track - "we as love" for more than a year now, just too lazy to post it.

Courtsey - Wikipedia

Here is the popular hindi track "Ek Hasina Thi":


Here is the original Track from George Benson:
http://bit.ly/9c38GR

Exact same Guitar Tune. Its unfortunate that our music directors are lacking creativity. My question again here is - Can't we have something original? If not, how can we lift someone else's creativity without even giving due credit to him or her?

Against my conscience but may be not against the conscience of "Laxmikant & Pyarelal"