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Oct 25, 2007

Travel to Nainital - Part II (Nainital - Places to visit)

The lakes we visited were:
  • Saat Tal (the seven lakes): These are
    • Ram
    • Lakshman
    • Sita
    • HanumAn
    • Garud
    • Nal and
    • Damyanti.
Whilst the first four are combined and are seen as one single lake, the rest are at different places and altitudes.

Few of the photos of the first four lakes:

Entry fee: INR 20 Boating: INR 60 per hour for one pedal boat and per full round of the lake for one row boat.


  • Naukuchiatal (or the Nine sided lake): It is the biggest lake in the region. The best of the boating experiences was in Naukuchiatal, as it was really very large and it took a lot of time for us to complete even one round of the lake, pedaling in a pedal boat andt was covering the mountains. The lake was also so very neat. The sun was also showing up every now and then. So it was a hide and seek play between the sun and the fog. simultaneously viewing beautiful trees, mountains and the fog tha
The part of Naukuchiatal which is laden with lotus and its leaves, is called Kamal Tal. This means, a lake full of lotus. Please see below:


And below is Naukuchiatal.


A view of mountains and fog covering.



  • We then went to Hanumaan Garhi (pronounced as Gaadi) temple which had a big size statue of the monkey-man incarnation and the sanctum-sanctorum of lord Hanumaan. Here is the temple

and here is the deity, lord Hanuman.

A den called Vaishno Devi Gufa on one side of the temple leads to Vaishno Devi shrine. Initially I was hesitant to go in. When I came to know that it's an artificial den, then I decided to go.

This is the entrance of the


The shrine of Vaishno Devi at the other end of the den.

After coming out from the den, we saw a very big bell.............


..... and the beautiful backyard, blending with the mountains.



  • Bhim (Bheem) Tal: As the name indicates, it is said to have been built by Bhim, one of the Paandavaas of the times of Mahaabhaarat era. I found this lake to be the cutest one. Will let you know why later.


One of the cutest creatures available on earth......... Making the place the cutest. I really wanted to see them for a long time. But I might end up disturbing these cute innocent beauties.



  • The jharnaas: These "mini waterfalls" were created by rain water flowing through the gaps and openings between mountains.
Rest will be posted in my next post.



Oct 17, 2007

Travel to Nainital - Part I (Budget hotels and travel info on Nainital)

Nainital, the land of lakes............

The name itself signifies the same. The word Naini means the beautiful eyed goddess and stands for the goddess pArvatI who is said to have been associated with the place, and the word tAl means lake.

It is located in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand. It has two parts, Mallital and Tallital, each located in the opposite ends of the Nainital Lake. The main bus terminus is located in Mallital and Naina Devi Temple, Gurudwara etc. are located in Tallital.

How to reach: (rather how we reached)

By rail: By Ranikhet Express from Old Delhi railway station. Departs at 10:45 pm and reaches Kathgodam, the last station in the north eastern railway broad gauge line at around 6 am, the next morning.

From Kathgodam, a 3 1/2 hour journey along the road embellished with natural sceneries leads you to the place I am talking about.

This is the most convenient mode of transport, as far as this place goes.

By Air: The nearest airport being Pant Nagar (70 kms from Delhi). But Delhi and Lucknow (in Uttar Pradesh) are better connected Airports. So, it is most prudent to reach one of these places and then by train.

By road: From Delhi, it is more 300 kms. This can be tiresome for few people. So again the conclusion is "go the rail way using the railways".

We traveled around September time during the rainy season from Delhi. We reached Kathgodam and were traveling from there to Nainital in a car. We thought that rain would be the only hurdle to cross before reaching the destination. But that's not all. We were to face the music of................


"the landslide."

We came to know that they have been created due to heavy showers the previous night. There was total panic for a moment. But then there also was excitement and an adventurous feeling in me to cross the hurdle packed with stones - rocky as well as lots of smaller ones. These rolled down to the road from the mountains flanking one side of the road and blocking the entire way (You can see above that they have rolled down from the left side of the road). So while crossing, we had to ensure that we cross over unscathed and also not be hit by a rocky one and fall down the slope on the right side of the road that leads to the "hell below". People coming from either side confirmed that there were no such problems anywhere else on the way.

The locals seemed to have lot of experience. There were cars standing on both sides of the blockade. On one side were those who were going to Nainital and on the other side were those who were coming back from. The stones weren't piled up to the same height and extent everywhere. Some parts of the blockade were just muddy and had lesser stones. One could cross over with less difficulty. When we found that there were no stones falling for some time, people would cross over and the cab drivers would also follow suit with the luggage. This cross over happened from both sides. Then the tourists got into the cars waiting on the other side. Then the cars drove to their destinations, (and so did we).

We couldn't book accomodation in advance as none of the hotels accepted the same. There are so many hotels that one can get when one reaches there.

Accommodation: Hotel National, Mallital Road, Nainital. Very near to the Nainital lake and good accommodation. Go for deluxe accommodation because ordinary rooms had a toilet which was on sharing for two rooms.

Food: The most important thing. I wouldn't recommend ordering from the hotel. There are restaurants located in close proximities to the hotel, that serve tasty and good quality food at lower rates.

Some of these that we found were:

  • Anupam Hotel: Serves Veg as well as Non-veg. High quality. +91-5492-236417. One gets to listen good devotional music, if you are a music lover. From National Hotel, we had to cross the lake to the opposite side either by boat or in a rickshaw along the road encircling the lake.
  • Vaishno Dhaba. Pure Veg. This is well known for homely food at reasonable rates. This is in mallital bazaar.
  • Opposite to this Dhaba is Shivalik Restaurant which serves Veg as well as Non-veg food which can be a third compromise.

Visits on the first day:

The main attraction of the place is the main Nainital lake itself. Most of the tourists make it a point to visit this lake first in first. In any point of moment, one can find maximum number of tourists here.

The first day passed on with the visit to Nainital lake.

The Nainital lake:


These are different places which we saw when we had boating around the lake:
  • Nainaa Devi temple (Nainital has been named after this goddess).

(photo will be uploaded shortly.....)

  • Hanumaan temple:

Front view.


and the side view. You can see the Gadhaa, the weapon used by the monkey man
incarnation.



  • Bhole' Naath (shiva) temple:

We had a plan to visit the other lakes as well which we did the next day. The details will be posted in my next post.

(Traveled by: Shridhar and Sumit).

(Photos Courtesy: Shridhar and Sumit).

Oct 14, 2007

Travel to Nallattoor (Nallattur), Veera Mangala Anjaneyar Temple.

Nallattoor is a place near Tiruttani in Tiruvallur border in Tamil Nadu, India. It is known for a wonderful temple dedicated to lord Hanuman.

So, here is the temple I am referring to:


And here is the presiding deity, Shri Veera Mangala Anjaneyar.


One can also find a mega Hanuman outside the sanctum sanctorum in yoga posture called Shri Yoga Anjaneyar.


Sri, Rama, Lakshmana, Sita, Hanuman.


The road before the Tiruttani devasthanam entrance that leads to the temple was'nt so developed when we went last time about an year back. Now, there is a signboard which reads, "way to Nallattur Anjaneyar Temple". One can find many such sign boards on the way o lead the visitor correctly. I would also like to add that we did'nt find any hotel inside Nallattur (might have missed some) eventhough there are few in the road leading to Tiruttani. The road leading to the temple did'nt have any division in the middle. Few buses and lorries were coming every now and then in the road to the temple. So it can be really dangerous in the night.

Lord Ganesha

(will be posted shortly)

Another similar idol can be found in Sri Lakshmi Narasimhar Temple at New Delhi which is yet another good place to visit.

Oct 12, 2007

The joy !

Basically, there are two things which bring relief from the stress and tensions of life - music and travel. Thus they have become part and parcel of our life. We enjoy ourselves while listeing to music as well as while travelling. So music and travel bring the joy of life. I have given few articles on music and the joy of music with special references to carnatic music (South Indian Music) in which I am a performing artist. To view the same, please visit my website shridharmusic.googlepages.com.

I am planning to post about the joy of travel and my experiences during my travel in this blog.

Enjoy and please do post your comments and opinions.

Me and my blog:

Hi !

I am Shridhar from Chennai, India. My main interests are music and travel. I am a carnatic musician (carnatic music is the music prevalent in South India).

Read more about my musical endeavours in my website, shridharmusic.googlepages.com.

This blog is about the places I travel. I am posting few details about various places as well as my experiences about these places. I feel really proud to be a citizen of a country with a great heritage of monuments and tourist attractions - India.

I am also planning to add information on how to reach a particular place or tourist spot, accommodation (cheap or budget hotels) available.

Hope my experiences will be useful to one and all of you during your trip.

R Shridhar