H2) stay - Part II

We got up fresh in the morning. It had rained heavily during the night. It was drizzling in the morning too. We thought we would be stuck up in the place for the whole day. We were still very happy to spend time relaxing and watching rains in such a lovely surrounding. The home stay is an understatement for such a lovely place, surrounded by hills greenery and a river tributary flowing underneath our abode. It is a perfect getaway place, pristine and peaceful. A great resort like property sans the artificiality of swimming pool, a badminton court etc and off course the maddening crowd normally found otherwise in resorts near big cities. The roaring sound of the water falling in the small pond beneath our sit out area and then flowing down to join the main river was a great sight. It’s unspoiled by garbage, littered plastic and sea of human being generally seen in resorts elsewhere.

The Roaring sound was a bit too harsh on ears, however, the sound of water would be very musical & gentle when the rainwater does not gush down from the hills. That would make the place very romantic, I feel. The river nearby is a perfect place for outing, taking bath and having snacks served there. Instead, we had hot pakodas & tea because of the drizzle, and then went out for a little walk around the place, we were lucky as the rains stopped at about 10.30 AM. We decided to visit Khajjiar, the so called mini Switzerland of India and Dayan Kund. Khajjiar is a lovely little picnic spot thronged by tourists. It’s a good spot for taking selfies and photos. We had lunch in Patil’s Restaurant there.

We then proceeded to Dayan Kund. It’s a lovely spot, though we have to walk up the hill for about half an hour to reach a pagoda and then go to the Kund. We decided to walk down to the base as we did not have enough time. I personally liked this spot much more than Khajjiar, because of lovely 350 degree view of the valley & mountain ranges.

We had sumptuous tasty dinner in the night. Next day we visited the Church at Dalhousie had tea break and proceeded to Mandi for our night halt there. Dalhousie is highly commercialized now. In hindsight we all felt that H₂O was a great selection. In fact it should not be called a home stay, but a homely stay resort. The ever polite and gentle Sunny, the attendant deserves special Compliments. And yes, how could I forget Anvaya? She had put lot of efforts and done great homework for selection of stay and sightseeing and it reflected in the results thus far. Special thanks to her for this lovely selection. We felt reassured about arrangements & stay other locations too. For sure, she deserves to be recognized in a special thanks giving ceremony, in a post trip meeting in Mumbai. She is bestowed with such great organizational talents, so she should only take the lead and coordinate with all for a high tea at Pathak’s house only, ha ha, ha… As it is, the Phataks have been complaining that we Ganus do not visit them. Ganus say " May God give us wisdom to say Yes. And hold your breath !! God said Tathastu ". Now its left to Anvaya.

H2O stay ( June 18 – 19 ) at Chaminoo - Part I

We stopped over at a nice joint for our tea break after leaving Pathankot, on the way to Dalhousie. We headed for Dalhousie after the good afternoon siesta we had till we reached this joint and with fresh energy. I had heard a lot about Dalhousie, but we were not to stay there but in a remotely unheard of place in the Chamba Valley. Luckily all of us shy away from the maddening crowds of cities and hill stations. So the selection of the place was a conscious choice, no doubt, but I for one never imagined it would be so far away from Dalhousie. We were told not to take Dalhousie road, but head for Sultanpur after Banikhet. So far so good till we reached Banikhet. We thought now our place is only a stone throw distance away because Dalhousie was only 8 KM away from Banikhet. Hence I thought our destination would be almost same distance from this junction, but on a road bypassing Dalhousie. That’s the way normally it is to avoid traffic and crowd in cities and such big towns. Hence this was a safe bet to avoid the maddening crowds, & still near the big town, I thought. How very grossly mistaken I was?

We stopped over at a Point to take pictures of Chamera Lake & the dam. 

Then we drove for eternity. It almost took about 1 ½ hours to reach Sultanpur – Sarol bypass Junction. It was almost pitch dark by then. We were tired & exhausted. Anvaya was in constant touch with the manager Vicky of the resort. Every time our driver got confused, he either stopped over to seek guidance from some persons / vehicle found on the lonely road at that hour or Anvaya contacted Vicky and handed over the phone to the driver to get directions. We were getting restless and exasperated by minute as we were so near but still so far. Vicky’s remarks that everyone else reaches the spot with the help of Google map without any difficulty added fuel to our frustrations. Finally the driver gave up and told us to call him or his person. Probably the night factor was a big hurdle. I wondered then that like Columbus, sailing Westward got to a destination, albeit wrong, as he wanted to reach Indies ( Asia ), we too might finally reach somewhere else, like the explorer. That would have been the biggest tragedy. Fortunately for us the two people came on a scooter and took us to our destination. I feel the owner of H₂O should think of Putting Fluorescent Signboards from the Sultanpur – Sarol Bypass Road at each Y – T – or square Junction on the road, till the last point. It is Convenience at negligible cost.

We were escorted to the resort in dim torch lights. Our baggage followed. Anvaya had intelligently foreseen the problems much in advance and had asked Vicky if our dinner could be arranged by him. We freshened up and relaxed. The dinner was ready. The Dining place was lovely. The hot fulkas, rice and vegetables & curry tasted great, not just because we were hungry but because of the preparation and also the ambiance.

We could not figure out what the surroundings looked like as it was really dark. We just wanted to retire ASAP. We did that and left everything else for the morrow. 

Amritsar Part II

First thing First, that is the bag story. 

We contacted Mittals after coming out from Wagha Border. They were already in the queue in the Golden Temple. Mr. Nittal suggested morning hours on the next  day. I contacted him again in the morning. He informed that his taxi was expected any time and he would come to our hotel on the way to Khajiar.  Finally we met in the lobby and exchanged our bags. Coincidentally we met again at Khajiar too.  

The Mittals & the Kid

Now coming back to my observation& suggestion on the management of system at wagha border, here it goes:.

An observation & Suggestions ( Being a consultant, recommendations are in my blood and these flow out easily, You Know ):

Frankly speaking I feel its sheer waste of 4 – 5 hours. I would love to see the same on the TV.

There is a complete mismanagement. I am told that People stand in queues right from 1 O’clock for a show starting at 6.30 or 7 PM during summer. People have to spend minimum 3 hours on weekends & holidays after getting inside, before the show really start.

I believe it’s a BSF show. They can very well paint Row & Seat numbers on all steps at
a distance of about 2 ½ feet from each other. Then they can put say Rs.5 for children below

12 & 20 for other locals. The tourists can be charged even Rs. 50 each, but given 

assured seats on any of the two sides of the stadium like facility there. Foreigners could be 

charged USD 10 or 2 Euros. The Tickets for tourists should be sold on line too. This will then 

avoid unnecessary frustration of missing out and also of sheer wastage of time. VIP Lounge 

could also be sold on line at Rs 100 per head for adults and Rs. 20 for children below 18.

Say 80 % of the seats ( in General & VIP Category ) for tourists should be sold on line. These should be sold max 2 month in advance. All Sold out indications could be displayed so that they could plan visit there on alternate day.

This money can then be utilized for improving the infrastructure there or for making some BSF owned restaurant there given on yearly contracts, which could again generate revenue for them.

The revenue can also be spent on the welfare of the jawans subsequently.

The situation was no better at the Golden Temple too. It appeared as if whole of Punjab if not India was there within the premises of the temple, and that too at about 9 PM in the night. I could see only heads in the queues for the Mathha Tek ( offering Prayers ), so much was the crowd. A volunteer told us that it could take 3 to 4 hours to be inside the sacred place. We wisely decided to opt out and wanted to see if we could easily get to have the dinner in the lunger as a Prasad. We faced similar unprecedented crowd there. We said  “better luck next time “, came out at about 10.30 PM and dinner outside in a near by dhabha.

Next day, we first went to the Jalianwala Bag and then again to the Golden Temple only to see similar crowds. After finishing the visits to these places we went to Kesar Dhaba for lunch, as recommended by a lady co passenger in the plane. You know ladies can never go wrong in matters of tastier food. We had huge glass of Lassi at Ahuja’s again recommended by her. In fact Anvaya ( our group member ) too had fished out same names from the Google’s net. The lady’s recommendation was a confirmation test as we do in the chemistry lab. We bid good bye to Amritsar with heavy stomachs and soon started snoring in our air-conditioned tempo-traveler.

Amritsar – Part I

We landed at Amritsar on June 17^th at about 1PM. We checked in the hotel and realized the one of our bags were exchanged with some other passenger. I was checking our tags to find out which tag was missing, when Indigo officials contacted us and gave contact number of the person with whom our bag got exchanged. We had opened the bag to find the contents and saw that the bag had all the baby stuffs like diaper, milk, child clothes etc. We were not as much worried now about our bag as it contained only eatables but worried more for their bag because we thought that the kid would suffer and so the family too. We immediately contacted them. However, Mittals ( the other passenger in this exchange ) were smart enough to carry some extra stuff in a separate bag with them so they were cool and chilled out. Mr. Mittal suggested to exchange the same in the evening / night, as they were already on the way to Wagha Border.

We freshened up and came out to head for Wagha Border. Our Driver Suggested to Have lunch on the way instead of the city. We agreed as we saw logic in Jang Bahadur’s Logic. What a name, we thought. His parents though gave him this name as he was born after the war ( Jang in Punjabi ) with Pakistan. I said to myself “ Simple people – simple thoughts “. We stopped over at Balle Balle Dhaba for lunch. This name too sounded funny and weird. That is Punjab – Rustic & simple straight forward. We had Lacche de paranthe with panner vegetable and lassi. The Paneer rarely taste so fresh & soft in hotels here in Mumbai or Pune.

We reached the border at about 3.30 PM. A couple of guys gheraoed ( no better word in English ) us. They all had paint and brush in their hands. They wanted to put the tricolor on our hands. The patriot in me was lured by the idea. Immediately a tricolor was on my left hand in less than 3 minutes, I had to shell out Rs.40 for it. I felt my engineering degree never gave me such returns.

We walked up to the gate and felt that we were well in time to get some vintage seats. We were in for a shocker though. We all were used to the crowds on Churchgate / VT during the rush hours, or probably coming out from Wankhede stadium but the crowd at the border took our breath out. There were separate queues for ladies and gents. Somehow Uday Kaka & I managed to get in to the main arena and hoped to see ladies in our group sooner or later. It was not to be. Poor Ladies saw the entrance door slammed on their face as they got there. Poor Ladies!! They had to console themselves by seeing the function on the large screen hung outside for such visitors. Nothing could have been so frustrating after travelling 1000 miles for only a few such places in Amritsar. They braved it out standing for 3 ½ hours and greeted us jealously as we came out at about 7 PM. We were really sorry to hear their saga. We all laughed it out had tea and headed for the Golden temple.

Rest in part II including the Exchanged Bag story.