Nainital.. A splendid experience!

Date: Jan 9-11

Late night train from Delhi takes you to Kathgodham, which is the nearest railway station. Shailesh, Siddu & me got down at Haldwani which was Shailesh’s hometown. We felt chilled to our bones. It was cold in Delhi too but this was much chillier. But we had enough woolens. The plus was that it felt much fresher and less polluted. Took a cycle-Rick (It is famous in this part of the world) ASAP & reached Shail’s home. Freshened up, had breakfast & we were off to Nainital. It’s a 1hr drive from haldwani to Nainital. Moving thro the fog, watching the fabulous scenery had already made my day. We reached Nainital at around 12. I found myself in front of the picturesque Naini Lake which is located in the heart of the Nainital town. I was like “FUCK!” It was amazing! We checked into Army resort which is right in front of the Naini Lake. In the afternoon, we had a walk down the Hill at the Mall Road which is probably the best road I ever walked on! It is flanked by huge trees & series of shops & hotels on one side & the beautiful lake on the other. The weather was pleasant. At around 8-10 degrees, it was gr8 to walk around & explore Nainital. We had our so called lunch at Hard rock café. It’s not the original one. But a small but good hotel like. Then, we roamed around the Local Market and had a bit of shopping to do. Most of the shops are run by the Tibetans. Then we set for our boating adventure. The water was freezing cold. But it was a fabulous ride. Fog surrounded us everywhere! Just opposite to the market and hotels is the spectacular sight of hills fully covered by dense trees. I saw some trees literally hanging perpendicular to the base!! I thought it would fall anytime soon! 1st day at Nainital was over.
We got up late on the 2nd morning. We had our breakfast the Army cafeteria. Then, in the afternoon, we headed for a Local Tour. First spot was the Natural Caves. There were around 6 caves. The names were kinda weird! Some of them were named as "Leopard caves", "Monkey Caves", “bat caves”, “Porcupine Caves” etc. We enjoyed those caves. We had to crawl, bend, sleep and jump to get to the other end of the cave! Next stop was a view point where we could see the snow capped Himalayas. We opted for a few photo shoots. Then we visited famous places like “Lover’s Point”, “Suicide Point”. Then we headed to the Nainital zoo in the evening. It was high enough to climb and to visit all the preserved life. At Nainital Zoo you will find some native high altitude species. We were fortunate enough to see snow leopards as they were awake and moving around behind the barricade. We saw a huge Bengal tiger “kunal”. Thank God it was behind the fence. We again went to the mall road that night to eat ice cream (shocking!). We went to the Naina devi temple & the 2nd day in Nainital over!
3rd was our last day at Nainital. We planned for another boating adventure. This time, we thought of paddling ourselves! Siddu & Shail paddled as I watched the beautiful Nainital city. We had our food in a small hotel. And then we were off to haldwani. We had to catch the late night train to Delhi. Ah! Nainital was fantastic! Here are some few lines from the song “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin which will describe my trip!

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed..

Nainital!