Vacation - Summer of 2010 - Part 1

The topic of a destination for our annual holiday came up once more a couple of months ago. Sandhya and Dhrithi wanted wildlife and snow respectively; Akash was keen on places of historical significance and I wanted a combination of experiences. On the shortlist were Jim Corbett National Park, Rajasthan and Ladakh. After enquiry with people who had been there, Ladakh was ruled out because of the requirement of acclimatisation. We also thought Rajasthan would be too hot and hence settled for the Jim Corbett National Park. I promptly started my research on travel and stay options, which is when the broader picture of Uttarakhand as the destination emerged. We decided to take a longer holiday than we had attempted before - 2 weeks. A trip to the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam office in Bangalore settled the issue. We could combine adventure, monuments, nature and with a bit of luck, snow too. Based on this list of requirements, Anurag of GMVN drew up a tentative itinerary, and issued a warning - this one is specifically for nature lovers and not for the couch potato type. Places I hadn't heard of before figured in his itinerary - Khirsu, Harsil, Dhanaulti, etc. I googled them up and was pleasantly surprised. Anurag showed me pictures from his trip to these places and I was hooked. Although, the list contained mainly places in the Garhwal region and ignored the Kumaon region (understandably, as Anurag represented Garhwal), we okayed the itinerary and firmed up the dates. The only place in the list that was not 'off the beaten track' was Mussoorie. Even this was planned as a day visit with night halt at Dhanaulti. GMVN had rest houses / hotels in all the places we were to visit and Anurag was able to confirm bookings the same day.

And so, the vacation plan for the summer of 2010 was drawn up - we would fly to Delhi from Bangalore on April 17th (Saturday), spend a couple of days in Delhi and visit the tourist spots, and devote one day to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We would then catch a train to Haridwar where our 12 day exploration of the state described as the "Abode of Gods" would begin. On May 1st (Saturday again), we would fly back to Bangalore from Jolly Grant airport near Dehra Dun via Delhi. This would give us one day on Sunday to recover and plunge back into mundane city life.

Some more time spent on the Net and the flight and train reservations were done. The Outlook Traveller Uttarakhand Guide came in handy as a source of vital information. A list of 'must see' places at each of our stopovers and on the route was compiled with the help of this Guide and the Internet. Had a hard time remembering some of the legends associated with each place, because this state has so many stories associated with it - like they say in these parts - "Jitne Patthar, Utne Shankar"

To be continued : Part 2 : Tryst with History