An unpalnned trip to ranikhet
- Publishing Date: 26-Sep-2018
- Category: Adventure
- Starting Date: 01-Aug-2015
- No of Days: 1 Day
- Location: Ranikhet, Uttarakhand, India
To read the same blog in Hindi, go to setting gear showing on the right hand side and change the language selection to Hindi.
You guys remember my last Poornagiri trip where after the visit of Poornagiri tempe, we sat and waiting for the next bus to Haldwani, I am confused between Nainital or Ranikhet. Lets continue this journey, I have finalized the place and took 2 tickets for Haldwani and we are going to Ranikhet via Haldwni.
Such trips in which we do not know where you have to go till the last moment have a different level of adventure, and we are going on a similar trip. Distance of Haldwani from Tanakpur is around some 100 kilometers and we just caught the bus from Tanakpur around 5 pm, and we will reach Haldwani at around 8 pm, after that we will see what we have to do.
Those who do not have information, I would like to tell that Uttarakhand is divided mainly into 2 parts: Garhwal and Kumaun, the area of Dehradun, Mussoorie comes in Garhwal and Haldwani, Nainital area in Kumaon. Dehradun is the most developed city in Garhwal and the mountains of Garhwal starts from Dehradun in the same way mountains of Kumaun starts from Haldwani. Haldwani is a big city but we can't compare Dehradun to Haldwani as Dehradun is the capital of Uttarakhand we can't compare capital city to another normal city, but still Haldwani have all the amenities needed in a city.
Information related to Ranikhet: Wikipedia
Ranikhet is a hill station and cantonment town in Almora district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the home for the Military Hospital, Kumaon Regiment (KRC) and Naga Regiment and is maintained by the Indian Army.
Ranikhet, which means Queen's meadow in Hindi, gets its name from a local legend, which states that it was here, that Raja Sudhardev won the heart of his queen, Rani Padmini, who subsequently chose the area for her residence, giving it the name, Ranikhet, though no palace exists in the area.
Ranikhet becomes very cold in the winters and remains moderate in summers, and is best enjoyed from March to October.
Ranikhet is situated at a distance of 350 kilometres (217 mi) from Delhi, well connected by road and railway. The nearest railway station is Kathgodam, approximately 68 kilometres (42 mi) from Ranikhet (GMAPS). Pantnagar Airport is the nearest airport. Nearest hill stations are Almora - 50 km, Nainital - 60 km.
The weather in the cities near to mountain is a good one, it's the month of September and in the area enclosed to mountain have a pleasant winter this time. Very lucky people here, who get the opportunity to feel the joy of this unique shade of nature, every day.
The bus took us around 8 o'clock in the Haldwani bus stand, its dinner time and we were too much hungry, so the first thing we did was to find out where to get good food around, and we got to know about a good restaurant nearby the bus stand. We took our luggage and start moving in the same direction.
It was a road side restaurant, where there was a convenience to sit inside, and in the evening these people also put 3 4 table outside of the restaurant, its name is "Bhardwaj Pure Vaishno Bhojnalaya", which is 200 meters away from the bus stand and next to hotel Park Land. Well, in this environment, I did not have the want to sit inside, so I grab an empty table outside.
In the menu, they have plate system and À la carte (à la carte is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to table d'hôte, where a set menu is offered) as well, we did our order from the menu, and on that day I ate two chapatis extra, not because the hunger was too much, but because of that the atmosphere, it was a pleasant cold and I really like the atmosphere.
After finishing our food we reached the bus stand and its 9 o'clock in the night, because we were in Uttarakhand, we had no fear of any kind. After reaching bus stand I enquired about the bus to Ranikhet, then it is known that there is no bus before midnight from here, buses coming from Delhi will go ahead and they come Haldwani at around 2 or 3 o'clock in the night.
That means we had a lot of time, so I was thinking to take a hotel and have some rest, but then I felt as if we were in the same fatigue, then if we sleep now, no one will wake up before 8 o'clock in the morning. That's why I decided that we would rest here on the bus stand so that we can catch the bus in the night.
I put a sheet on one of the bench of bus stand and arranged some space for Neha sleep by keeping the luggage aside, I sat down there. In the next few minutes Neha had slept, and I was wondering where she was trapped in my absurd plan. Well this is life, we only remember those nights of life in which we lived outside of our home, or in which we are wandering somewhere, and it was such a night.
Due to fatigue, I did not know when I was sleeping and when I got up, for the next 5 minutes, I could not understand anything, even I didn't know where I am, in a while the brain started working and then I washed my mouth and brought a cup of tea, Neha was still sleeping. While drinking tea I heard a voice - Anyone going to Ranikhet?
I quickly finished the tea and went to the same person and enquired about, he told me that every night some vehicle goes from Haldwani to Ranikhet for delivering newspaper, they also took 8 10 passenger in this vehicle. The first thing comes to my mind at that time was to drop this idea as I am not sure about how they drive, is this safe and all, but at the same time there is a doubt on the seat availability in the bus coming from Delhi and also they will take another 2 hours to reach Haldwani.
After thinking so many times I decided to go to Ranikhet by this option. Since we were the first passengers, we could sit anywhere, but the man advised us to sit back, because in the middle seat 4 passengers will sit and the rear side seat is for 2 people's. We got his advice and Neha and I sat behind with our luggage.
After a while it was time to take the newspaper, so to make sure we didn't take another vehicle, he told us to come with him to take the newspaper and we were moving towards the newspaper press which was somewhere in the outer part of the city. After reaching the newspaper press, the car driver asked us to sit outside for a while and in the next half hour he came out with a lot of newspaper bundles and we sat again on our seat and the car went back again to Haldwani bus stand.
The search for the other passenger started here, and the owner of the car, arrange the newspaper in the order of their delivery. After doing all this, around 2 o'clock in the night, the passengers had come on all the seats, after which the car owner called the driver who was sleeping, the driver had come in the next ten minutes and he put our luggage on the top of the newspaper bundles and we were ready to move forward.
We are night riders
According to my previous experience, I knew that the driver of such type of vehicles drives very fast, but it was faster than all those experiences. From Haldwani to Bhimtal road, we were moving fast, Bhimtal part was looking very beautiful in the night, the speed of the vehicle was quite fast, so I could not capture this scene, but in my mind, this scene is still in captivity.
The car was steadily climbing up the mountains and we were moving ahead by rubbing the clouds, the winter was also increasing as we were moving forward. I never had a vomiting situation while traveling in any type of vehicle till now, but during this time, I started having a slight problem in the vehicle, so wherever the vehicle stopped, I immediately come down from the vehicle and the journey continues like this.
At around 5 o'clock in the morning, we finally reached Ranikhet, the cold was too much, and we were wearing normal clothes we used to protect from the winter. after taking our luggage and paying the fare we walked on towards the inside of the city. We had come here without any plan, so the first thing we had to do was look for the hotel to have some rest.
We were wandering in the search of the hotel, at the same time we saw a tea shop, mountain and winter, in such a climate nothing better than tea, so we just sit in the tea shop and after finishing 2 cup of tea back to back I asked about the hotel to the owner of the tea shop and he send a boy with us to search a good hotel, he showed us 2 or 3 hotels and we settle down for one which is according to our budget, the Himalayas were seen from the balcony of this hotel. The fatigue was too much, then after the booking the room, wo goto our bed and fell asleep and its like we didn't sleep for so many years.
Ranikhet map in our hotel lobby
I wake up at around 8 o'clock in the morning and we got ready at around 9 o'clock to explore Ranikhet, after exiting from the hotel we move towards the market and go to a small restaurant and for breakfast. After having Paranthe and tea in breakfast we moved to explore Ranikhet by walking.
Himalaya view from Ranikhet
Me and Neha and with a beautiful surrounding
A beautiful road crossing from Deodar's forest
The cold was no longer, the weather is normal and I was in half shirt. We explored some nearby places but I didn't like those places too much, that doesn't means Ranikhet is not a good place, it's a very good place but the thing is I had seen so many such hill stations and I want to see something new here that is away from crowd in some lonely place. While looking for such place, I saw a board "Binasar Mahadev Temple" distance 20 kilometers.
My memory is very good in some cases, one of them is that I remember the things I have read for a long time. Listening to the name of Binsar, a cutting of a newspaper came up in my mind, I do not know whether you have been a hobby or not, but I had a lot of interest in this. When I was young, I remember the newspaper on Sunday come with a colorful newspaper, in which the different unexplored places of India's were given in the words of wanderers.
In one such newspaper I read about Binsar, I knew that this Binsar Mahadev Temple is a different place from Binasar, Binsar is a very famous place among the wanderers, but still I do not know why I felt like I have to go here.
After reaching the taxi stand, I bargain with 2 or 3 taxi wala's and one of them were ready at a charge of ₹500 up to to Binsar Mahadev temple including one hour stay after that he drop us on a place from where we got the taxi upto Ranikhet. And we started the journey to Binsar Mahadev Temple, while returning from the journey, I and Neha felt that this was our best decision.
Binsar Mahadev temple and its surrounding
And this travel story stops here, you can see the temple of Binsar Mahadev in one of the pic, but I will not tell you the details of this place in this blog, and the reason is that the beauty of this place need's a separate blog. I hope you have felt the journey even with us.
Happy traveling
Fir milege kahi kisi roj ghumte firte
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