Chilling Out At Jilling

For those of you who have read about my trip to Corbet, this is the second part of that same trip! I know this story has taken almost a year to get on to my blog, but I thought I should do it before our next trip in May this year! For your information, Venky co-authored this story with me.

Map of Uttarakhand

 

On the Road in Kumaon

The whoosh gets louder as you near the bend in the track. You are sure that a waterfall is close by or at least a Himalayan brook. When you ask to confirm, Kedar disappoints you, but with a fascinating

Pine Forest

 

explanation. “It’s the wind whistling through the pines, saab, that’s the sound you hear”. For a family collecting pine cones by the dozen, it’s another interesting fact about the pine forests of Uttaranchal.

“It’s all the fault of the British”, Vivek is quite convinced, adding liberally to the cup of imperial woe. “These hills had such abundance of oak and rhododendron earlier, but the British transplanted them with pine, hill after hill. The pine sucks all the ground water, covers the ground with its needles and virtually suffocates the undergrowth. On top of that, the needles are so inflammable. You just need a careless tourist matchstick

Forest Fire

 

or cigarette butt, and acres burn up in hours. See what happens when you want a picture-postcard countryside and an abundance of timber, as opposed to what nature seeks to give you herself”.

Regional stereotypes come alive quite vividly when you are on the road. “These Delhi drivers are really rash and don’t follow any rules,” complains Vicky, our

On The Way

 

driver from Haldwani, driving the Innova at breakneck speed himself. Taking the corners at a good 60 kmph with his hand constantly on a faulty horn, Vicky himself is a stereotypical Indian taxi driver, who sleeps 4 hours a day and drives 31 days a month. A fresh pack of Pan Paraag (wasn’t it banned?) keeps him occupied every half an hour and also “keeps me awake”.  “I have crossed 2 lakh km on this Innova itself,” Vicky declares. “Before that, I drove a Tata truck for 10 years. Name any place in this country, and I have been there”.

The route Vicky takes us through is achingly beautiful. Kilometer after

Whizzing past...

 

 kilometer, the road (pretty good condition) runs smack in the middle of a spectacular valley, with villages on both sides climbing into the mountains. A feast for your eyes and peace for your soul, as you drive through Kausani, Baijnath, Bageshwar, Kandha, Vijaypur, Chaukori, Thal, Nachni, Qweeti, Girgaon, Munsiyari.

Baijnath Temple Complex

“Uncle, uncle, please lay lo uncle, machli ke liye lay lo” plead the young boys, thrusting ‘peanuts-looking’ packets at me. I take three from one boy, only to be caught by the other two, to take from them as well. I take six more and give them to my daughters to carry, wondering what we are going to do with so many.

The temples at Baijnath go back nearly 10 centuries and make a very unusual picture in the midst of 20^th century buildings of Baijnath town. They are a collection of some seven or eight small structures. There is one dedicated to Ganesh, one to “Devi”, one to Shiva…Each structure is just a single room, with virtually everything inside a

Another view of the temple complex

millennium old. 

As we come out of the last temple, we see the pond in the front and cross over. The packets of puffed rice (that’s what they were) come in very handy. We discover a very active school of large fish, eight to ten inches long and thick as an average wrist, turning and speeding to each throw of the snack, and gobbling the grains in just a couple of seconds. The nine packs get over in a couple of minutes.

Vijaypur

Venky at the Wayfarers Resort, Vijaypur

 

Vivek Pandey runs a resort chain by  the name of Wayfarers, with his father’s help. Wayfarers has three properties, in Ranikhet, Vijaypur and Munsiyari, all in Uttarakhand.

We reach the Wayfarers property at Vijaypur at 6.30 pm.

As Mr Pandey (Vivek’s father

Evening at Vijaypur

 

who runs the Vijaypur property) strikes a match and drops it on to the bonfire pile, we get a live demo of the destructive potential of pine needles. The pile has been stuffed with them all around and the needles burst into flame in an instant and the fire is blazing away, all under a minute. Even as we marvel at this speed, we curl up in our chairs in comfort as the heat eats up the nippy air out here in the open. And perfect host that he is, he organises for coke and potato pakodas.

Padma and me, with the Himalayas hidden behind us!

 

Mr Pandey is in his sixties, an ex-Signals veteran, who is living proof that “while you can take a man out of the army, you just can’t take the army out of a man.” The ramrod stiff stance, the brisk walk up a steep flight of steps, the white vest tucked into brown trousers tucked further into heavy boots, with not even a hint of tummy showing, the deferential address to all of us, the exasperation about the low discipline of the workforce and, above all, the sincerity in the man…. “Mujhe paison ki zaroorat nahin. Jo bhi guests yahan aate hain, woh impress ho ke jaana chahiye, bas.”

Lakshmi at the snack table

 

Dinner is elaborate. Chapati, rice, lauki kofta, mixed vegetable subzi, rice, rajma, dal and payasam.

The Wayfarers resort is very cute. It has 4 cottages, with some open space with a snacking/dining table. The property has split levels that

PadmaLakshmi - posing for the camera!

 

adds to its character and also makes sure everyone on the premises is fit!

We have been allotted 2 huts. There are many spiders in the rooms and Padma is terrified. She swaps rooms in the hope that the other hut does not have any spiders. Of course, she will learn later that there is no escape. The only form of escape is to wear pants,

Swinging Single!

 

long sleeved sweater, socks and cover yourself fully with the warm blankets in the hut. And pray that no spider decides to crawl over you while you are asleep!

May 8, 2009

Off to Munsiyari

We wake up early at 5.00 am. There is no

Inside the cottage

 

view of the Himalayas. It is cloudy again.

Mr. Pandey is busy feeding a magpie that visits them every morning for its daily quota of chapati dough!

We have breakfast of hot poha and toast, tea and orange juice. And leave for

Chapati-dough eater

 

our journey to Munsiyari.

“There is this crazy South Indian family desperate for dahi. Please hoard all your stock and demand an arm and a leg” must be the message going ahead of us village after village as we desperately search for curd, willing to offer an arm and a leg but unsuccessful most of the way. We hit pay dirt in Thal, a bustling town taken over

On our way again

 

completely by baraatis. As we negotiate the narrow roads behind Altos and Zens, we roll down the windows every fourth shop and shout out “Dahi hai?” After nearly half a kilometer of this routine, the Baijnath deities shower their blessings, and Lo! a large vat of Dahi is revealed in a restaurant. Wondering if it is merely a metaphysical vision before us, while hoping that it actually is something physical that can be mixed with rice, I respectfully tell the owner to pack 2 kg. The guy does not know whether to gape at my greed or jump at his luck.

“These are Bhotiya kutthas” says Vicky when we keep spotting the hairy, fluffy dogs on the way, which manage to look cute and handsome at the same time. “If we find one a little away from the town, I’ll simply pick it up and take it home in the car” he declares, obviously with little thought to how his guests will cope. “Bhotiya” happens to be the name given to the people of Tibetan origin who have been part of Kumaon for centuries. These dogs are obviously from the high plateaus as their thick furry coats indicate.

Rocks near the waterfall

 

The way to Munsiyari is also beautiful. On the road to Nachni, we pass a river with blue-green water. We cross Tejam at 10.45 am. As we go by, we find that there are no more pine trees.

Some way further, at around 11.20 am, we come to a waterfall at Virthi. The climb is about 125 m.

At the waterfall

 

We trek up to the waterfall. Most of the pathway is manageable. Only the last part has many rocks, which we have to scale, to reach the icy cold water of the waterfall. We spend some time there, with our feet in the icy water and take some pictures too.

Eight Below!

 

We spend about 45 minutes at the waterfall and then being our descent to the car.

As we journey up to 9000 feet, it gets quite chilly. Then we cross the last mountain to turn into Munsiyari valley. We see the snowcap for the first time and feel totally energised, all our fatigue washed away. 

Munsiyari

We reach our next Wayfarers resort, in Munsiyari, close to lunch time. There is a great view at the resort, of the valley in front and the snowcapped Himalayas beyond. Huge and majestic!

We have lunch and after a brief rest, we go to meet Prof. Pangtey, a Johari/Shanuka (Tibetan origins, but Kumaoni in terms of culture, language and costumes). He has a private museum in his house, of all things related to the region, its culture – books, weapons, costumes, ancient household utensils, his travel maps, and so on. It is a very interesting place and we wonder at his enthusiasm in explaining everything to us in detail. It is a good thing that we go to his place by car, because it is quite far and for us, city-bred folks, walking around in these mountain areas with its steep slopes, is very tiring!

Sheroo and me

 

Sheroo, a fluffy, friendly bhotia dog belongs to the neighbouring property but roams around freely in the Wayfarers property. He is really sweet and keeps shaking hands and making friends with all visitors.

We have two cottages and they are very cute and cozy. The night

Our cottages at Munsiyari

 

is chill. There is the usual terror for us city folks of flying cockroaches, spiders, bumblebees and other flying insects.

We have to walk quite a way to the dining room. The pathway is quite dark and we are not equipped with a torchlight. Added to that, we are afraid of the caterpillars that we have seen during the day. But dinner is tasty – chapatti, rice, dal, mixed vegetable, sour curd (!) and yummy suji halwa!

May 9, 2009

Sunrise at Munsiyari - 6.00 am

 

It is 5.15 am and it is difficult to get out of bed. The weather is cold and it is, after all, another holiday. But surely we can’t miss the sight of the Himalayas! We rush out of our cottages to watch the mountain peaks, which become more clearly visible as the time passes. But it’s a good thing we are early risers, because once the sun comes up, the peaks are no longer visible. Sometimes the weather (clouds and slight drizzle) also plays spoilsport.

Munsiyari at 9.30 am

 

So, anytime you plan to visit, don’t feel lazy to rise early!! Besides, the entire experience of viewing the Himalayas in the early morning is absolutely divine! But, unfortunately, there is no charge in our camera.

Hot chai and biscuits perk us up. This is followed by regular breakfast of hot paranthas – wow!, toast, cornflakes. We meet some other guests who are also from Bangalore – Malleswaram. I don’t realise the strong bonding you feel towards strangers from your city, when you meet them in a new place! This is already the second time we feel that way – the earlier time being in Corbett!

We laze around and write notes for this travel journal.

Competition for long n silky hair?!!

 

Sheroo comes to visit and we feed him Good Day biscuits, which we take from the kitchen (since there are no shops nearby).

We notice that the Wayfarers property, as well as the village, has beautiful rose plants – with roses oozing out of them. Maybe the weather is conducive to their blooming. I am tempted to take some cuttings. I ask Khadak Singh, the cook, and he and his colleagues are very kind and actually plant some rose cuttings in a cut-fruit tin and pack it in a plastic bag, so that we can carry it with us easily.

The Himalayas continue to play hide and seek with us. Although we are supposed to leave on 10^th morning, straight to Jilling, we are worried that the drive will be too long and tiring (driving 10-12 hours in the hills can be extremely tiring!). So, we decide to leave after lunch and do the journey to Jilling Estate in 2 stages. We are to break for the night at Vijaypur again, and then leave the next morning for Jilling Estate.

Back to Vijaypur

We leave at 1.50 pm. Early in our journey, we get stuck in a major road-laying operation for about an hour. We again try for curd on our journey to Vijaypur but we don’t strike any luck. We reach Vijaypur at 7.00 pm and are received warmly by Mr. Pandey. We get the feeling that we have reached home! 

Vijaypur's singers

 

A bonfire is quickly lit up again. And as the fire blazes away, the Kumaoni talent is feeling suppressed and is urgently seeking a platform. “Gaana lagao Kedar” encourages Mr Pandey. Kedar, Heera and Prakash, the three men (more like boys, the youngest is around 20) who help Mr Pandey run the place, allow themselves to be persuaded. They sit on the floor, on the other side of the fire, and give us an hour of outstanding entertainment.

Mixing folk themes with urban boy-girl interludes, the trio belt out many Kumaoni songs, peppered by one Garhwali and one Hindi film number. While the lyrics are all not clear, given common Hindi words in Kumaoni, we get the stories right most of the time. But what is really exciting is the clapping, repetitive rhythm that is so catchy! In between, Kedar gets up to do an impromptu jig and generally completes the fun.

May 10, 2009

Jilling – here we come!

We get up early in the morning. There is again some problem with the water. It is muddy because the water tank was churned up. However Mr. Pandey, being the strict disciplinarian that he is (who is ever eager to please his guests), makes the boys work hard to solve the problem.

Breakfast is very early since we have to leave. So it is tea and toast. But Mr. Pandey has got the boys to pack toast, aloo, bhujiya and banana for our journey!

We stop at Bageshwar to draw some cash at an ATM (thank god for them!) and head on our journey to Jilling Estate. We pass Basholi, Almora, Bhowali. We eat pakora, rice with yummy curd (for the first time so far on our trip) and aloo subzi on the way. With our fixation for curd, we buy some more from this place. By the way, there are extremely clean toilets here that you can use by paying just Rs.5/-.

Ramlall, Guddu and Chandan - with our luggage

 

We reach Matyal at 2.00 pm, one kilometre ahead of Padampuri. From here, we trek to Jilling Estate. Ramlall brings Guddu (the horse) to carry some of our baggage. Chandan (I think he is the milkman) carries 2 cases, along with the rose cuttings we have brought from Munsiyari. It takes us 1 hour to climb what looks like around 500m. In this 1 hour we realise

Huffing n Puffing to Jilling Estate

 

how out of shape we are. We stop at least 8 times on the way, to rest. Ramlall accompanies Guddu and motivates us, as well as Guddu, to complete the journey. Although the weather is extremely cool, we are sweating by the time we reach Jilling Estate. Although the initial plan was that I should be transported by Guddu, am I glad that it didn’t happen!! Poor Guddu!!

At the fireplace in the reading room

 

The trek is worth it. We have a cute cottage all for ourselves. It even has a reading room with a fireplace!

Dinner is a yummy spread with lauki and aloo-capsicum subzis, masoor dal, curd and sohan papdi. It is chill at night and Ramesh (the cook) and Daya (the general assistant) stoke up a fire in the fireplace. We sit by the fireplace read our storybooks and retire to our beds at 10.00 pm.

May 11, 2009

Sitting cozily on the verandah

 

We rise early at 5.45 am (so what’s new?!). We have hot chai and biscuits at 7.00 am while we sit cozily on the verandah, reading our books and just lolling around. At 8.30 am we have breakfast of aloo parantha.

We explore the property around the house.

Part of the garden

 

The owner of this property is Steve Lall. His mother Hope and father John and their dog Singi Dong are buried closeby, on the property.

There are apple, pear, peach, chestnut, walnut and rhododendron trees all around. There are thick rose bushes as well as the creeper

Pink roses

 

types. They are, again, oozing with roses – pink and red. I am almost jealous that they

Wild flowers

 

grow so well here! There are many other flowers that grow so abundantly in the wild here.

We get news from Ramesh that a leopard had bitten Steve’s dog Dhanu. Apparently another of his dogs, Kali, saved Dhanu, by barking and distracting the leopard. Talk about sticking up for your clan!!

At 9.45 am we start off on a trek for 2 hours! There is a spectacular view when we reach the ridge, but of course it is also accompanied by a feeling of vertigo.

View from the top

 

There is quite a sheer drop and we are extremely careful! Wind whistles loudly through the pines. And it is eerie.

Tarun Tejpal’s property is adjacent to Steve’s and we go and see his house.

There is a remote temple with mannat of bells. I take a couple of plants from near the temple – in the hope of taking

Venky and Daya at the temple

 

them to Bangalore.

We see leopard footprints on our trek. We pick up pine cones and some plants from another private property!

Chestnut on the ground

 

We find some chestnuts – very pokey – almost like a small hedgehog! We also find some oak seeds – and we hope to grow an oak tree in Bangalore! Wishful thinking?!!

This trek is a whole lot of fun! We eat lots of mulberry-kind of fruit called khaphal. I

Daya with us girls

 

find a long, strong stick that I use for support on my trek. I will take it along with me on my next trek.

Lunch is aloo-karela, aloo-matar (the matar is from their garden), moong dal, curd, roti, green chutney and dessert is gulab jamoon.

Evening trek:

In the evening, at 5.30 pm, we again set off on another trek. In the middle of the thick forest, there is an abandoned

Abandoned glass cabin

 

glass cabin which, we are told by Daya, came from the E&W German border. It is heat proof. Steve’s German friend Ktamb Paul had it brought (he has a house on Steve’s property). Paul’s 80 year old uncle (who does not know a bit of English) was brought to this house every

Tree burnt in a forest fire

 

year by palki/harness! (till he died)

We again see Tarun Tejpal’s house. It is being renovated.

We see fresh leopard droppings and sussu!

Some areas of the forest are burnt out due to a forest fire. Apparently, when the fire broke out, Steve’s family and the help carried big dabbas of water up the hill, to douse the fire and prevent it from spreading. One face of the tree is black even now!

Padma finds a stick and picks it up and calls it her music baton!

Padma with her music baton

 

There are giant rhododendron trees, pine, cypress, deodar, oak, cedar…

Dry leaves are everywhere on the ground of the forest. And they make the ground extremely slippery. But Daya comes to our rescue here. He goes ahead and clears the path of the dry leaves to prevent us from slipping. We jokingly refer to him as our Clearing & Forwarding Agent!!

We collect 9 pine cones. Some pine cones roll down the mountain and we cannot retrieve them. But Daya

Hand-shaped tree!

 

consoles us that there are plenty more in the forest. We pluck some pine leaves for memory’s sake. We also see a tree that has been struck by lightning. Daya shows us a hand-shaped tree!

Some of the pictures that we take come

Lightning-struck tree!

 

out hazy because the camera has shaken. Venky teases us about being Movers & Shakers!!

On our way back, we hear thunder and feel some raindrops. We are apprehensive that it may pour. While the forest is fun during the day, as it becomes dark it is a bit eerie. We quicken our pace and are glad to be back home.

Pine girl

 

Daya has, meanwhile, been quite a responsible person. He has taken all the plants that we have brought from Munsiyari, as well as those from Jilling itself, and put them in a dekshi of water. The plants now

Plants in a "dekshi"

 

look quite cared for, and alive!

Pine cones on display on the window sill

 

We display our pine cones on the window sill and are quite proud of our collection. Perhaps we will paint them or at least varnish them when we get back to Bangalore.

May 12, 2009

We get up at 6.00 am. It is really very cold here. We curl up with our books on the sofa in the verandah. As usual, we eat Good Day biscuits. We check on our plants and pine cones. All are well! Daya brings us hot chai at 7.15 am. We add our extra sugar even before we taste it.

He tells us that breakfast will be puri and subzi. The smell of puris is killing us softly. For a family that usually eats breakfast before 7.00 am, 8.45 am for breakfast is highly unusual! After breakfast, we get back to our story books. Can you think of such a life in Bangalore?!

The Venkataraman Family

 

At 10.00 am, we set off on a walk through the jungle to the village, Panyali. The path is very slippery because of the dry leaves and pine needles. Added to this, the path is narrow and steep in many places. But Daya is a capable mentor and guide, and we feel safe in his presence.

Children at the village

 

We collect many more pine cones. There are many fruit trees on our way – khaphal, hisalu, plums. We help ourselves to all these berries and fruit and almost feel transported to the time of the Ramayana when Rama, Lakshmana and Sita lived in the forest and must have eaten like this!! Daya climbs on

Helping ourselves to the fruit of nature

 

to some of the trees to pluck them for us. We pass through a farm and we pick some plums that have fallen around the tree, but a young teenaged girl climbs up the tree very skilfully and plucks many plums and gives them to us in a big plastic bag! These villagers are very generous. But they are also very shy.

We see potato fields, tomato fields, onion fields; lots of apple trees, peach trees, pear trees, plenty of plum trees and, hold your breath, trees with giant lemons. They look like yellow bulbs on the tree!!

Lemons or light bulbs?

 

On the way, we pass Ramesh’s house (our cook). We meet his wife, mother and sister. They give us 3 big lemons and we have already picked up 2 earlier. So, now we have 5 lemons. Our baggage is surely and steadily increasing. And at the back of our minds we are wondering how we will take back all this stuff to Bangalore – plant cuttings, giant lemons, a bag full of plums, and a sackful of pine cones!

Dhanu - bitten by the leopard

 

Finally, we pass Steve Lall’s house and see some of his dogs – Bhontu, Kali, Dhanu and Lalu. Lalu does not come up. Apparently he is quite old and quite blind too. He had strayed into their property many years ago and had adopted

Lalu - almost blind - but the sweetest of them all

 

Steve’s family! He is a very chubby, cute dog. We briefly meet Parvati and Nandini – Steve’s wife and daughter. We promise to come back later to meet them, as it just starts to rain.

It has turned out to be a very long and tiring walk – almost 3 and a half hours! We reach home at 1.20 pm and have lunch. Chapati, rice, greens subzi, mix vegetable subzi, rajma and suji halwa. We are so tired that we sleep from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm. We get up, read our books and have tea and biscuits. Oh, what a blissful life.

Kali in a pensive mood - with Venky and the cook, Ramesh

 

We have a surprise visitor – Kali. She is extremely friendly and very fond of Good Day biscuits (just like Sheroo in Munsiyari). She has a lovely black coat. She could easily model for a shampoo ad! When I mention this to Nandini (later), she swells up with pride and agrees!

At 6.00 pm, we make our way down to Steve’s house. On the way to the house, in their property,

The calf, and the fawn - Mousey

 

we pass a shed where they have housed 2 cows, a calf and a fawn (a baby sambhar!). They have named the fawn Mousey.  They already have some guests at their place.

We meet 5 of his 6 dogs and take pictures of them. It is quite an effort to match the dogs’ names to the

Moochi - freshly bathed and powdered!

 

dogs themselves. There are so many of them. They are Kali, Lalu, Dhanu, Moochi and Bhontu. All are very friendly and lovable. Steve seems to have his favourite – and that is Kali!

We leave at 7.10 pm. It has become quite dark and the weather looks quite bad too.

Steve Lall with his favourite - Kali

 

 It is a bit scary and so we charge back home.

We have dinner at 8.30 pm and read our story books by the fireside. We sleep close to midnight.

May 13, 2009

All good things must come to an end…

We get up at around 6.00 am. Oh what a beautiful morning! (Have you seen the musical Okhlahoma?) We are now used to this routine of lolling around in the verandah and having tea and biscuits, and reading our books. Although we had each brought a book with us on our journey, we have finished reading our own books, plus each of the others’ books. We are currently reading books from Steve’s library. Venky reads up on Indian and local history. We are happy with fiction.

We have bath between 8 and 9 am. Breakfast is at 9.20 am – Aloo parantha, curd, pickle, toast.

We go back to our reading at 10.00 am. We are to leave this evening, so we decide to just laze around the house and not embark on any great trek. Anyway, in the evening we will have to trek down all the way to the main road to take the car to the station. So we conserve our energy. Besides, we have to pack all our stuff.

Eventually, we take the pine cones in a sack. And we take the plants in an open carton – with enough water to keep them alive, not too much that they will leak!

Ramlall had been informed the previous day itself that he should come at 3.00 pm. We are scheduled to start at 4.00 pm. Our train is at 7.00 pm. But today are the elections and we are unlikely to get any transport before 5.00 pm. We are a little tense. We take a little less than an hour to trek down to the road. We are accompanied by faithful Kali. In fact, we are worried how she will find her way back to Steve’s place. But Daya and Ramlall and gang are not so worried. She has done this trip many times earlier. And will probably continue to do it in the future. Talk about hospitality…

Our holiday is almost at an end. We are scheduled to reach Delhi the next morning. And from there to Bangalore by the evening flight. So, we have spent 9 days without TV, malls, and the daily chores of Bangalore life!

As we get into the train at Kathgodham station in Nainital district, we carry indelible memories of a region we knew very little about when we came in: spectacular scenery, amazing solitude, sweet people, yummy food, awesome weather…We know we’ll come back here. Again. And Again.

Home Sweet Home!

Plums imported by us from Uttarakhand to Bangalore

 

When we get back to Bangalore we feast on the plums, which are becoming redder and riper and tastier! We take pictures of the plums as well as the lemons, so that our memories will always be fresh!

We also plant the rose cuttings.

Giant lemons from Uttarakhand

 

They are yet to yield any roses but I live in hope. There are also some junglee flowers that have come along with the rose cuttings and they are blooming now! I hope they are not missing their home in Jilling. But I do take care of them here!!