The enchanting Himalayas (1)

(This is my 200th blogpost. And I am happy I wrote it about the magical Himalayas 😊)

This winter I got a chance to visit the Himalayas after many years. We went to Uttaranchal and Himachal for a few days and enjoyed warm sunny times even though it was winter. The temperatures during the day were warmer than in Delhi and the sun was out everyday, which made the experience even better than expected. We spent a few days driving through the hills and enjoying the raw nature of the Himalayas. And being there brought back all my childhood memories of time spent in the mountains.

Gorgeous Himalayas

As a kid, I have spent some months every year in the mountains of Kashmir, Himachal, Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Arunachal. And those were fun times. We would just drive for hours, stop and picnic wherever we wanted, spend time walking up and down through forests and just enjoy the fresh air every day. It was also the time of no phones and internet, or sometimes even regular electricity. So when we were in the mountains, we spent all our time just exploring nature, as there wasn't much more else to do.

Things have definitely changed now. You can use your GPS in the mountains, there is internet and data everywhere, and you can research and see photos beforehand of where you are going. But a lot remains the same, which I really valued on this trip. Being in the Himalayas still feels like being far away from civilisation, they are so pristine and untouched even now. This simplicity comes from its people. People in these areas still stay in beautiful remote villages and have uncomplicated relaxed lives. It felt so refreshing to see all the simplicity and calmness there. And of course the air was refreshing too, definitely a well deserved change after the unhealthy air of Delhi. And we all totally loved our time there.


We spent a few days in the Shivaliks, one day in Renukaji lake in Himachal and some time in Dehradun where we had stayed for 3 years in the 90s. We also spent a few days going to and from Delhi to Dehradun. Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 1 - Drive from Delhi to Dehradun
Day 2/3 - Drive to Shivaliks, stay there; trek, explore the town and enjoy the sunset
Day 4 - Drive to Renukaji lake, stop at Paonta Sahib on the way, stay at the HPTDC hotel "The Renuka"
Day 5 - Drive back to Dehradun and visit IMA
Day 6 - Drive back from Dehradun to Delhi


Day 1 - Drive from Delhi to Dehradun

Our first day was spent mostly driving from Delhi to Dehradun. The drive takes about 6 hours as per Google maps. And in reality, much longer given the quality of roads and driving in India. As we got out of Delhi, we saw markings of Meerut Expressway, and got very excited given the amazing quality of the road during the first hour. But that happiness was not to last long, as the expressway was only till Ghaziabad. The rest of the way, there was no sign of any expressway at all 😂.

Also, this was the time of the student protests going on in the country and the government had stopped data services in many districts in Western UP, expecting problems. So as soon as we entered Ghaziabad, there was no signal. And we had to use the original Indian navigation systems on the way - stopping and asking passersby for the way 😜. So a lot of times we wondered if we had taken a wrong turn and missed the expressway but turned out we hadn't.

The route we were taking was Gurgaon -> Ghaziabad -> Meerut -> Deoband -> Dehradun. And as soon as you leave Delhi and other such big cities, you realise the rest of India still retains its relaxed small town living vibe. Which is so different than life in these big cities. I feel it every time. And I don't think it is only because I don't live in India anymore, I think even in India, so many people are very far from life outside their metros.

We reached Meerut within 3 hours and stopped there for lunch. Meerut is my and my brother's birthplace but we have never been there after the first 3 years of my life. We drove through Meerut Cantt, which was green and spaced out unlike the rest of Meerut. Driving through any Cantt area always feels like being home and it felt the same here too. We stopped at a friend's place for lunch and then were off to Dehradun. We took the toll road from Deoband which had been recently constructed and was almost like an expressway.

All along our drive there were loads of very small towns. And there was literally no empty area between them. Uttar Pradesh is really the densest state in India and it was quite visible during the drive. Driving was all over the place, with all kinds of vehicles moving together on the road at their own speeds and their own rules. All along the road we saw miles and miles of sugarcane fields. And the roads were full of trucks carrying sugarcane to the mills, as this was harvest season.

The road to Dehradun was mostly good after Meerut. A lot of places, the road circuited the towns and crossed them from the outskirts. In Deoband, the expressway literally went over the town. We also saw loads of huge mosques from the road which provided a nice skyline over the town.

Towards the end, we drove past some 30 mins of small hills, right next to a river, to get to Dehradun. They were not high at this point but you start to get the feeling that you are leaving the plains and off to the mountains. And right when we were out of the mountains, we got our data signal back too as we were now in Uttaranchal.

Even in the small mountain patch, there was so much trash thrown around, it was depressing. This green area is known as Rajaji tiger reserve though I doubt there are any tigers left here. And the road was lined with monkeys, thousands of them all along (this hasn't changed in the last 25 years when I was last here). They sit next to the roads, waiting as passengers throw them food all along the highway.

Dehradun doesn't feel like a mountain town anymore though. It used to be a nice small town when I grew up there. Green, clean and cold, given it was in the foothills. That has changed now. It felt so much bigger now, it looks like there has been a lot of uncontrolled development for the last few years. It still has the narrow roads of old. But the traffic has increased multifold.

One thing about Dehradun hasn't changed yet though, you can still see the twinkling lights of Mussoorie in the background at night, and the mountains during the day. And that is still the same. (Apparently the town is now dirtier but can't see that from down below 😁). The twinkling lights brought back scenes from my childhood again, when so often we would sit outside and just enjoy watching the twinkling lights of the mountains at night.

We drove a bit in town and visited St Josephs Academy where my brother had studied for a few years. It was started in 1934 by the British and had a very huge campus. I don't think we build such schools anymore. Just walking in there felt like having come to a different era. Dehradun was a popular place with the British and the Europeans during the British Rule given its cooler climate. That's why there are so many old educational institutes here, famous schools like Doon school and Welhams but also government institutes like IMA and FRI (which I will write about later).

We also then drove past the Ghanta Ghar which was the centre of town and a memory from my childhood as our schoolbus used to drive past it everyday. It felt weird to relive memories from a different time. Scenes I remembered which had been put in the back closet of my mind for so long.


Day 2 - Drive to Shivaliks, see sunset

Today, most of the day was spent in the drive from Dehradun to the Shivaliks. In the evening, we just enjoyed a magnificent sunset and called in an early night. Google Maps showed the drive would take us about 3 hours but given how we were back in Himalayas after many years, we stopped a lot and took our own sweet time to reach our destination. The weather was perfect, the sun was out and the sky was blue. It definitely helped in taking spectacular photos.

The first half of the drive was in the Doon valley itself. It was a wide valley with wide river beds next to the road. It was green all around with lot of sugarcane plantations and litchi trees on the sides. The road was lined with villages all along and was densely populated throughout. And all of them had similar names, a pre-fix and then 'wala'. Ranging from Suddhowala, Jassowala to Dharmawala and so on. And you can also see the overhang from the British times, with a lot of places still having very English names - like Herbertpur.

There was a lot of traffic there though and it still felt like being in the plains. The villages did not feel like mountain villages at all as they had huge houses and even buffaloes there. The residents looked like they were from the plains, and were a mix of Hindus and Muslims. They were also selling lot of local fruits on the roadside which looked very inviting and healthy. After Herbertpur, we slowly moved into the mountains, and as soon as we got up there, everything changed. The air got cooler, the people simpler and the views captivating.

The roads on the mountains were quite good. They were narrow though and at times it felt scary looking down. Again it brought back memories of the 80s. When we used to drive so much in the mountains. For hours at a stretch. And in much less comfortable vehicles! So this time we stopped quite often to take photos, or just stretch our legs.

Villages in the mountains

Every turn was so picturesque, with the bright sun, the bare mountains and the imposing villages on top of them. The mountains were huge, sometimes forested and sometimes bare. And on most of them you could spot some picturesque villages. I was very impressed with all these majestic views of villages on every turn. It felt almost unreal that in today's age, people would live such isolated lives, in places which seem almost unreachable to us. We also passed by a few locals on the streets, lot of them wearing the Himachali caps and all walking slowly. Smiling at us, when we passed them.

Village on a hill

Each of these villages had terrace farms around them. Sometimes all the way down till the valley. And you could see some goats and cows grazing around them. I also noticed that the cows here were of smaller size than the typical cows from the plains. We stopped at a maggi spot and I came across a small village which was made up of just a few houses on the mountain (spot them in the photo). And the only way to go up was walking. With all your luggage! This was just the starting of my fascination for these picturesque villages in these mountains. And I stopped everywhere to click a photo. I felt these are more captivating and natural than the alpine ones. But they don't get their due.

A tough trek down

At some point on the drive, we stopped at a spot to take a few photos. In a few minutes a passing vehicle dropped an old man. And then we saw him pick up his huge heavy bag and walk down to his village which was quite a walk down, on the cliff far away. Walking on the mountains has to be a slow moving activity, and he kept walking down, slowly. Everyday life in the mountains is tough. And I wish I could be as healthy as that old man I saw, who walked down the mountains, with a huge load on his back. One day I would like to go and live in one of these villages to actually experience how people can live like this even today...

There were tons of bikers on the road, all coming here for a weekend away from Delhi. Going for biking trips (especially on Bullets) is definitely something that has picked up in recent times. We also passed a few areas where there was snow and sleet on the road, left in the wake of the mountains where there is no sun. A biker group had skid there too before we came.

Villages in the mountains 

Before reaching our destination, we stopped at a picnic spot which had a hut to sit under and eat lunch. And I was saddened to see the trash next to it. Overall the mountains were so clean, but at places where tourists would stop, you can see so much trash. It pained my heart to see how heartless people can be with their own country. At times I picked up some of the trash to keep in the car, but it was too much for me to be able to do much.

View from our accommodation

Soon after the picnic spot, we came to a greener part of the mountains. There were pine covered mountains here unlike the bare brown mountains most of the way. And soon we came to our accommodation. It was an old English bungalow on top of a mountain peak. And had spectacular views of the mountains all around. We could see till 100s of miles, at range after range of smaller mountains in front. And there were trees all around. It totally felt like being in a fairytale. And our relaxation on the trip started here.

Sunset from the peak

We had reached our destination in time to see the sunset there, and were mind-blown with the view from the sunset point, which was on top of a peak. We could see snow covered ranges on one side and the sun setting on the other, over 10-15 different mountains of varying height. It was a magical feeling being on top of the mountains and watching this 360 degrees surreal scene. As the sun set, more and more colours came out in the sky - pinks, oranges and reds. And the colours varied depending on whether it was on the setting side or the other. This view lasted for at least half an hour, and felt really magical.

The snow covered peaks far off

As soon as the sun set, the weather changed and it got very very cold all of a sudden. In the mountains, it is customary to call it a day very early. So we came back and had our dinner early. Food feels tastier when in the mountains, and you eat a lot more when here. We were all guilty of that. We then spent time indoors playing cards and called it a night soon. The temperatures outside were around -10 degrees and the bungalow was quite cold inside even with the heaters. So it felt nice to be tucked under the blanket as early as possible.

Things have definitely changed here since we used to travel in the mountains around 20 years ago. We had no electric heaters then, or even electricity. We used bukharis, a locally made device for heating, known quite often for killing people with too much carbon monoxide if someone forgot to close it down before going to sleep. Also, we used to have generators only for a few hours in the evening to do all we wanted to do. But now there is electricity and cable tv all day. It felt different and more convenient now. But still it felt magical to be in the lap of nature, and feel that for a bit of time you are disconnected from the fast pace of life in the plains.


Day 3: In the Shivaliks, a small trek and the sunset again

The day today was quite a relaxed one. We just spent time casually exploring the areas around, as the main aim was to just be in the woods and take in the fresh air. We were lazy that day but my dad woke up early in the morning to see the sunrise at the same peak where we had seen the sunset the day before. And the colours were even brighter than the sunset the day before (we know it as we all saw the photos later on).

Spot the village

After a heavy breakfast, we all set out for our trek - we were going to visit one of the caves in the region, said to be linked to Mahabharat, which were an hour's drive from where we were staying. On the way, we again saw some magnificent views of the majestic mountains around, the deep valleys below and the dangerously perched villages all around.

The roads were of good quality, though quite narrow all the way, and every turn got us to a new viewpoint. It was very tough to not want to stop everywhere and just take in the scene. The sky was coloured a much deeper blue here, the hills more green and the sun very bright - it all felt very refreshing. Also, some of the mountains were fully forested but a lot of them were totally brown and bare too. It might have something to do with the wind or the sun direction I guess.

Villages in the lap of mountains

We gained height on the drive and started to encounter snow, on the road and in the forests. This was from the snowfall which had fallen a bit earlier in the starting of December. This was all the leftover snow, in the shadows wherever there was no direct sunlight.

The trek we were going on started from a forest rest house, but as we were driving towards it, we saw some of the cars had stopped and parked much before the resthouse. We were thinking of still taking our cars ahead, but then decided to park and walk the 3.5 kms till the resthouse. And it turned out to be a good idea, as soon we saw a lot of snow on the road, and there would have been no way we could have driven on it!

Snow on the trail

So we started walking on the snow and it was fun. The trail was wide enough and flat as it was still the road, and there was a lot of snow there, on the road, on the sides, on top of the trees, everywhere. Some of it had also turned to sleet. It made the walk quite interesting as at times, we were all slipping and falling (but not too badly). The whole trail had high deodar trees all around. And far off, we could see high mountain ranges (Himachal ranges I think), with their peaks covered in snow. The blue, white and green all around made for some very bright photos.

After walking around 3.5 kms, we came to the forest rest house which was from the British times (built in 1848). We stopped and had our picnic lunch there. We ran into a few local goatherds on the way and then some locals who were walking back to their village. They were carrying supplies on their head and mentioned that the next few weeks, they would be doing regular trips to the plains to stock up their groceries for the winter months. As the roads will soon close and make it tough for them to get out. It's a life most of us can't imagine, right? They also spoke Hindi with a Pahadi accent, and in a singsong voice. I really liked the accent, it was so calming, so friendly and cheerful to listen to.

Snow covered Himachal range

From the guest house, there was 2.5 kms of steep climb to the caves, but as we had already walked a lot, we decided to call it a day and walk back. While walking back, we ran into a lot more tourists on the trail, some of them walking in heels! Clearly they were tourists from Delhi, here for the weekend, with no idea what to expect in the mountains! And some had come here just to see the snow. Once they walked 5 mins in the snow, they were ready to walk back. Also as expected, we saw a lot more trash on this route too. It was quite disappointing to see it all. In fact, I decided that going forward, every time I go to the mountains in India, I will always carry a few plastic bags with me, to clean up as much trash I can.

We finished our trek in about 3.5 hours and then drove back to our accommodation, enjoying the grand views of the mountains all the way back. Again, we could see the multiple mountain ranges till where the eyes could see, with haze in between. And there were a few hotels on the way too, though most were in the large towns nearby.

I also learnt a bit more about the Pahadi people of these regions. The Uttaranchal region is made up of mostly the Kumaonis from the Kumaon hills, the Garhwalis from Garhwal and Jaunsars from this Jaunsari region. They lead simple lives living in the mountains, graze animals and farm one crop in a year in their terraced farms. They do have tough lives and are generally not rich but are still laid back, content and happy people. Religion is quite important in these mountainous regions and there are lot of temples all around. Dahasu Devta is the most revered devta in this region.

The evening sky

Once back, we went to see the sunset again as we had missed it by a few minutes the last day. And it felt as magical today as yesterday. Snow covered mountains on one side of the peak, and layers of mountains coated in hues of orange, yellow and red on the other. And this lasted for almost an hour after sunset. It was truly a spectacular show.

Our guide then told us, that in these mountains, there was some wildlife, like langurs, monkeys and leopards. The leopards generally come out at night, sometimes to eat the local dogs. Our guide told us to not fear them though and just walk back if we see one. I've heard this so many times, but I don't really know if I can remain calm at such a time or not. Either because of fear or even the excitement of seeing such an animal out in the wild! Am not looking to test it out soon though 😝.

Picturesque villages

After that, we walked into town for a bit. Most of it looked new and only one of the buildings seemed to be original, made of wood. To deal with the growth in tourists I suppose. The streets were all full of eating places and some hotels. We did come across one unique shop here though. It was selling some 10 different types of rajma, and many other spices and lentils which were local from this region. I found it quite interesting, to see all these different varieties available. And stocked up on a few too. I am sure, if nothing else, this is more organic than what we get in the plains.

The town looked quite touristy, and quite dirty I must say. Walking through the town, it did not even feel that the place was in the mountains. Seeing scenes like this I wonder, as much as I and everyone else enjoys exploring such new places in the mountains, we also bring so much trash along with us. Very soon these places lose their charm. Is it worth it?

At night, from our accommodation, we could see a lot of the twinkling lights of the villages till far away. That is when I realised there were lot of villages here. All far away and distributed, but still this place was more populated than I expected. Till quite late at night, there was still some moonlight and we could see the contours of the mountain ranges till very far. It looked especially scenic, with the twinkling stars and the moon in the sky. And we could also see more stars in the sky than usual. This was all so captivating, I loved the time I spent outside in the night sky that day.


continued... The enchanting Himalayas (2)