(Day 1) Nainital Bike Tour 2011 ~ Pangot

It was Jan 2011, I was in final semester of my B.Tech and had got a decent job. And when you have a job offer, final semester is funJ To give a treat to myself, I planned of going to Nainital for a short trip. I wanted to go solo, but my friend Appu wanted to join me for this trip, I happily agreed. My friend was residing in Ghaziabad and I was in Lucknow. We decided to meet on 26^th Feb early morning at Railway station. I called Yash, he owns a adventure sports business (Mountain Rovers), for enquiring about bike rental and he agreed to help us out. I also researched and prepared the itinerary, places to see, places to eat, hotels etc etc; quite unaware from the fact that everything I planned is going to be screwed on the very first day. However, checking the Accuweather forecast was the only useful thing I did. Due to some confusion, my friend landed at Kathgodam railway station instead of Haldwani and after some more confusion and phone calls we finally met at Haldwani bus stand. After some 10 minutes of hugging and dancing ceremony, we had our breakfast of tea and Britannia mixed fruit cake :D Then we boarded a rickety bus, and at 9 AM we were at Nainital mallital bus stand. We took our luggage and headed to our pre-booked guesthouse “Home away from Home”.  I told Appu to fold up his sleeves and be prepared to sweat because it was going to be very steep climb up to the guesthouse (its located near the Zoo, quite an altitude). I had stayed there during my first trip to Nainital with my college friends. A very basic small room was for Rs 300 per night and had three beds. It was stunningly clean and view of the Naini Lake from terrace was breathtaking. Its caretaker Jeevan, a nice chap and good cook. Wait, .....that was last year, not this year. So when I reached the doorstep of the guesthouse, I found out that whole guesthouse is  under a thick layer of dirt. I dialled the number of guesthouse to make sure it is open. One guy Mr. Sawant picked up the phone and told me that Jeevan is on vacation and he is looking after this property. He showed us our room, same room in which we spent 2 nights last year. Floor was dirt covered with all sorts of trash. There was heaps of fags’ ash. Bedsheets were dirty and stained and so were the blankets. We asked Mr. Sawant to get it cleaned, but he told us that we had to live in the same room as sweeper is on vacation. With 300 bucks, we had not many options. We dumped our luggage, got freshened up in a stinking washroom and made calls to check the guy who promised us to rent a bike. It was raining (Accuweather is really accurate) and BSNL network was down. After many tries, he finally picked up the call and gave us an “awesome” news that all his bikes are booked for Kumaon Yatra and the another guy whom he persuaded to rent his bike to us has now backed out by saying that it doesn’t sound a good idea to him to rent his beloved decade old Passion Plus to some strangers who are barely legal to ride it. I was like WTF. I begged Bharat Sir to arrange a bike from someone else, but he said he did whatever he could and then he gave us mobile number of another guy Manu Shah who can help us though the chances were less. We took the number, called him and he gave his address and asked us to meet. This guy Manu Shah runs a travel agent business by the name ‘Himalayan Spirit’. His place was just 5 minutes downhill walk from our filthy hell. We met him and he called up another guy, talked to him while we waited impatiently. Then Manu told to us that there is only one guy who can help us now, and his name is Chandan Bisht who owns ‘Standard Hotel’ at Mallital. Now this was getting too much for me, going from one guy to another and so on, it seemed to me that we were only wasting our time with these guys. But we had not many options other than waiting for the rain to stop and then go, to find some public transport to visit somewhere nearby and wrap up the day. I said to Appu, lets meet this guy Chandan and if nothing favourable happens, we shall have our breakfast and then think what to do next. He said Okay and asked me to be optimistic :D  Like I already mentioned, it was raining and we had only one umbrella, Appu had forgotten to buy one for himself.  So it was time to buy one umbrella for him, raincoat was not in our budget. It was 10 AM. Most of the shops on Mall road were not open yet, and those which were open had no umbrella. Finally we managed to find one shop which had only one umbrella which, fortunately, was not Pink :D . Appu bought it for 150 bucks. Then we headed to Standard hotel. It was at the corner of Mall road, right at Mallital. He got into the hotel, it looked like a budget place. We inquired about Chandan Bisht and guy at the reception told us he will come at 11 AM. Our patience was on test. We decided to take our breakfast at the adjoining eatery. We ordered Paneer parantha (Rs 25) and believe I never had this much paneer-rich parantha ever before, aisa lag raha tha Nainital mein paneer free mein milta hain :D 

It was a beautiful morning, kind of I like. Drizzle, fog, single digit temperature, hot parantha and tea. Now I was ready for the day, no matter how odd or worst. After finishing our breakfast we went to the hotel, waited there for 10 minutes or so and Chandan arrived. He looked like a strict guy in his mid 30s, and the one who can never trust anyone. We thought it he was not our guy. But anyways, we told him about our case, series of misfortune that followed us, and now Chandan Bhaiyya was our only hope :D After some­­ good 15-20 minutes of convincing and showing him our documents which he closely cross checked with other documents, he agreed to rent us his bike. But he had his list of terms and conditions. First of which was to listen to the tales of his sentimental attachment and devotion towards his 2003 model Pulsar. He said he hardly rents it because his circle of trust had a very small radius. We listened to him ‘attentively’. He said he will charge Rs 600 per day within Nainital and Rs 800 per day if we ride outside Nainital. Also we shall have to deposit a sum of Rs 2000 along with Xerox copies of address proof and our driving licence. He also asked me to ride it for some distance to make sure I can ride. We did whatever he said. And at 11.30 PM, after passing all the driving tests and Chandan Bhaiyya’s psychometric tests, we set off for Pangot with big smiles on our glowing faces and singing our hearts out (all Dosti special songs) :D

The bike which we rented was a piece of junk and it seems it was desperately in need of a service. I mean everything was good, except its brakes and pickup. Pickup was worst. Only good points were its MRF tyres and Pulsar tag :D We were headed to Pangot. It is a small hamlet about 15 kms from Nainital town and it is famous for bird watching. I went to Pangot in Sep 2009 for the first time and I was struck by its serene beauty and peaceful life. Pangot has one post office, few houses, few shops, 2-3 resorts and no mobile connectivity. It is my favourite place around Nainital. Poor pickup and brakes make a bad combo while climbing altitude. I realized it just after we crossed Nainital town. At a U turn, I slowed my bike, shifted to first gear and tried to climb the incline but bike refused to pickup even though I was throwing full throttle. Due to pillion on its back, our mighty pulsar started to slip downwards at double pace. I applied rear brake but in vain. We fell down and Appu helped me to free me off the bike. Thank God, no injuries. Anyways, this accident revealed “true powers of Chandan Bhaiyya’s bike’ and I became careful. After some 7-8 kms we found some patches of snow on both sides of road. Uptill Kilbury, there were snow patches and we clicked some nice shots. 

Road was pathetic. With all photo breaks, it took us about 45 mins to reach Pangot. Appu was very happy; it was his first experience in hills, to be surrounded by dense forest and far away from maddening crowd. After Kilbury, we hardly encountered any vehicle. Kilbury to Pangot is about 4-5 Kms. Once at Pangot, we didn’t stop, we rode ahead for 1-2 Kms. Took some photo breaks, met and chatted with some high school folks. Then we went back to the village, ordered our lunch in a small tea shop – tea and bread omelette. 

After lunch, I went for a short walk of 15 minutes. 

Trail which I followed

What was my mistake?

Back again to village, at 4.45pm we left for Nainital. With every passing minute, weather was turning bad and by the time we crossed Kilbury, it started raining. 

We kept going until we realized it was snowing. Not actually snowing but snow mixed with rain. We stopped the bike, and started jumping and hooting like monkeys. We did some photography, shot a video and played the usual “throw-a-snowball” at each other. 

Just then, we observed the increasing frequency of ice pellets. It was becoming more like “hail” lot of raining. We knew it was going to white out in a matter of hour or so. And we were losing daylight too. There was also Chandan Bhaiyya’s deadline of 6pm. We had to make a choice very quickly, whether to stay and watch the snowing or head back to town. There was not a single homosapiens around other than two of us. With Chandan Bhaiyya’s “trusted” Pulsar, worse weather, dark dead evening and worst roads, we didn’t had much choice, we decided to save our freezing wet asses. I started riding but “rain+hail” was getting heavier. We had no raincoats, every inch of my body was drenched in freezing water. The helmet given by CB was useless, thanks to the fog on its visor. Every 5-10 seconds, I had to clean it. I was trusting too much on my first time riding in hills and CB’s out-of-control Pulsar by riding at speeds of 50-60 Kmph. Within minutes, we were outside our hotel.

I was shivering badly. From tip to toe, I was wet and cold. I parked the bike outside. The hotel bell boy (I don’t remember his name) helped me with my bag and jacket, and we went to the reception where CB was waiting for us. The best thing about that crappy reception cabin was ‘Bukhari'. CB ordered tea for us. He asked about bike’s performance, and we praised whole heartedly :D He said he spends a lot of money on its maintenance. We showed him pics of his beloved bike on our cam. He was happy and proud. Then he asked us about next day’s program and gave us some route information. I lost all energy in shivering and biting teeth, I was hungry. We bid good bye to CB after he suggested us a nice place to eat, Moti Mahal. CB advised us to give his reference in the restaurant to avail some discount. In my wet cloths, I went to Moti Mahal, ordered dosa for myself which arrived in no time. 

After having some hot food and extra sambhar slurping, it was time to play the trick. I went to the manager’s desk to ask whether this Moti Mahal is a branch of Moti Mahal at Lucknow, to which he replied ‘No’. Then I said “Food is very nice and so is the service, we are happy that CB advised us to eat at your place”. He thanked us. Later when the bill arrived, it showed a discount of Rs 25 on a bill of Rs 125. CB Rocks :D Then we strolled on Mall Road, appreciating all the beautiful ladies in skirts and no warm clothing who were giggling with ice-cream in their hand. I was hot again ;) We found not a single girl who was ‘single’ there, we cursed our lucks, ignored the girls and went back for coffee. Later at hotel, we thanked CB for the discount. He was happy and proud, again :D 


Day 1 ends :)