Ladakh Odyssey – A Tapestry of Events
Five years ago, on this day, we started this epic journey, the memories of which are still very fresh in our minds. This journey was a litmus test of our young relationship and we passed it with flying colours. A lot has happened in the past 5 years – we took many road-trips – drove to Bhutan, did several non-stop 24+hours drives. Crazy as we are, we even drove over the weekend to Mumbai and back. We made some wonderful friends and lost touch with a few. All that said, our Laddakh odyssey was a significant milestone of our lives. We still remember, vividly, the details of our experience at Baralacha Pass and our night at a homestay in Upsi or camping in Panamik.
The important thing is that we have been able to sustain the spark – both in our relationship and our passion for driving and travelling.We wish to travel the world, together and drive wherever we can and we hope we will
Neha & Puneit
Togetherness - a journey through time
Prologue
An unforgettable road trip with my sweetheart,spanning more than 3500 km in 9days, witnessing tough terrains, snow clad mountains, traversed world’s top 3 highest motorable mountain passes [1st Khardung La, 2nd Tanglang La & 3rd Chang La], did rafting in Sonamarg, Camel Safari in Hunder – Nubra, visited war-memorials in Kargil & Drass, witnessed snow fall at Khardung La, hailstorm in Bilaspur & camped at Panamik, Nubra. Rescued people and got rescued. To sum it up, it was an ultimate road trip with one of the best roads in India (NH 1) to one of the worst & unimaginable terrains – we drove it all – right from mud, snow, ice, rocks, drains, rivers & torrents, broken bridges, dust storm, hail storm, heavy rainfall, broken roads, no roads, off-roads without any damage to the car. We are glad to have completed the Delhi -Srinagar-Leh- Manali-Delhi circuit when everyone said it was not possible to cover…
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Kasol & Tosh: Untouched beauty of Himachal Pradesh
Most people when first hear of Kasol, confuse it with Kasoli. This is because, Kasol is an offbeat Himalayan town situated very close to the Sikh shrine of Manikaran. Manikaran is famous for two reasons or the combination of the two reasons – one, it hosts a famous Sikh temple (gurudwara) and two, it has hot water springs. Kasol has some feathers to its hat as well. It is famous amongst the Israelis and Italian tourists and it is famous for hash and marijuana.
Neha and I had traveled to Rishikesh with our new couple friends – Sonal and Amitoz the week earlier and since then, we all were pretty worked up about another trip. Initially, Neha and I had planned for Kanha Tiger Reserve but that was sold out completely; thus, our plan shifted from tiger spotting to cooling ourselves off in the hills. Sonal was quite keen on going to Kasol and its surrounding areas as she had been hearing travel stories from her office colleagues and wanted to explore and experience this part of the country. The dates decided for the trip were 12-16 June 2014. As we inched closer to the departure dates, each one of us started researching on the different aspects of the trip. Amitoz bought camping gear after I ranted and yapped about how cool and exciting experience camping is.
This opened an option of camping- either at Kasol or Tosh. While Neha and Sonal looked up hotels and their reviews, I checked out the route plan, road condition and overall review of these places from HV Kumar. At the same time, I wrote to Dheeraj Sharma of Devil on Wheels for his inputs. Gurgaon to Kasol: Thursday 12 June 2014 1 am to 3.30 pm Thanks to the inputs from HVK Facebook forum, we were aware that the road up to Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh has heavy traffic and one must start early to munch as many miles as possible. Thus, we started at 1 am from Gurgaon and by 1.15 am we had picked up Sonal & Amitoz from their home and we embarked on our journey. We found traffic right from NH8 and this forced us to take the internal roads of Delhi to reach the Burari turn to NH1. We stopped over at Gulshan Dhabba for food and bought some folk Punjabi music CDs from one the shops near by. Our next stopover was for fuel near Ambala and then we
took the Shambhu – Roopnagar road towards Bilaspur. Our plan was to cross Bilaspur before 7 am but we entered Swarghat by only 7. We were running behind schedule but it was not that a big deal. Neha and I were alternating the driving after every hour or so and our next halt was after Bilaspur for food. By this time, Dheeraj Sharma responded to my query and connected me to Doulos Jose (who happens to work in the same building that I do- small world). Doulos had been to Kasol a week before and he gave us valuable tips about the place. Through Doulos we got in touch with Om Negi who runs a camping site just outside Kasol. So, while we ordered Maggi and some paranthas, I called up Om Negi and told him about our arrival plans and fixed up a meeting. The journey from Bilaspur to Bhunter was smoother than earlier and much faster. We reached Bhunter around half past one and bought some beers and breezers. At Kasol we met up one of the camp organizers Hemu Negi (cousin of Om) who helped us finding a secure parking spot and started the 25 minutes walk to the camp.
To reach the camp, we had to walk across a narrow suspension bridge over the raging Parvati river. What followed then, was a beautiful nature trail. We did get a bit impatient and kept bothering Hemu with the repeated questions “are we there yet”? The camping site was towards the right of the nature trail and we came across a cemented house overlooking a vast stretch of leveled land with several tents pitched on it.
We scouted for a place closest to the river and pitched our tents. While we were close to the river, we were at a safe distance and at an elevation of about 5 feet. We settled and ordered some pakodas and then climbed down the rocks and tried the water. It was at 10C and we could not bring ourselves to taking a dip in the river. The water was perfect for chilling the drinks that we brought along. We took some photographs and spent nearly an hour at the rocks. We returned to our camp and played a game of cards and also couple of games of badminton and then as the night approached, fatigue started to creep in.
We were awake since the day before, slogged off our asses as corporate slaves and then embarked on this road trip practically without rest.
Dinner came in- chicken gravy, chapatis and vegetarian food for Sonal. Along with the food, came some unwanted guests- dogs. There were several of them around. I would presume these stayed on the property to guard against the wild animals on the prowl in the neighboring forests. The chicken didn’t taste like chicken and the it had been cut into way too small pieces. We didn’t fancy it as much but then when you go camping, this was like elixir from gods and refusing it would have been crazy. As the food settled down, my eyes began to feel heavy and I had to call it a day. I crawled into my tent and zipped up my sleeping bag. Neha too joined me soon and then I heard Amitoz and Sonal saying good night as I was going into a deep slumber.
Day 2
I had slept in the same position for hours and many bones of body nearly crushed under my own weight. At the break of dawn , I unzipped the tent window to see the surroundings outside. It was a beautiful day, a day I had not seen in many months. Soon, we all woke up and we ordered for some tea from the camp organizers. We also decided to go up till Tosh today and probably spent the night there. Here again, Om Negi helped us with some hotels in Tosh and gave us the bad news. Tosh had no places to camp. Doulos had too shared the same piece of information. The toilets at the camp were quite decent and we comfortably freshened up, packed our belongings, paid Om Negi. He charged us only for the food and not for the space. At some places, where Neha and
I had camped earlier, people took a nominal space rentals to pitch our tents and we were quite surprised that he allowed us to stay for free. We bid good bye and as nomads started walking back to Kasol. We had breakfast at Moon dance cafe aka German bakery. The food was great and so was the music. We decided to visit the place again for food on our way back home. The car was found in the same condition as we left and it was a relief. We had parked our car at the parking space of Kasol Camps.
We did inquire from their tariffs and they are as of June 2014 1. Rs 500 to pitch your own tent 2. If you want to use their tents then the tariff ranges from Rs 1500 to Rs 3500. Food and beverages extra. From Kasol, now we headed towards Tosh which is about a 90 minute drive from Kasol. The first town and one of major attractions is the town of Manikarn about 5 km ahead of Kasol. At Manikarn, a road forks up on the right hand side and this is the road that goes up to Bansheri. The road ahead was mostly rough, with loose gravel, water puddles and potholes. Though it is very much doable (easily) in a 2wheel drive, we engaged 4 H just to gain speed and stability at certain points. We stopped for a photography session and then headed to the town of Bansheri.
Here, we could see the construction of a dam and it seemed as if this place is waiting to be commercialised. From Bhansheri, Tosh is about 3 km steep ascent with extremely rough roads. Doulos had warned me of this and had advised to take a taxi in case it was raining. He did not know back then, that we were in a 4wd Scorpio. We did most of the ascent in two wheel drive but then we halted at a steep angle for photographs. Momentum was lost and now we needed traction to continue our journey. 4H was useless, and no way, I wanted to exert stress on the clutch. So, this time 4 L was engaged to climb.
The car just glided over the rough terrain. Should the readers of this post wish to take their vehicle up till Tosh, my recommendation is, keep the momentum stable and any vehicle can do this ascent. At Tosh, we had to park our vehicle just outside the village because there is no motorable road inside. A weak and narrow pedestrian bridge is the only entrance to the village. We called up Mr. Tari (Om Negi’s contact)
owner of the Pink Floyd hotel and asked him to get directions to his hotel. He asked us to walk into the village and ask anyone for directions. We decided to first check out the place and then assess what all would be required for a night’s stay and then bring in our luggage. The lanes of the village became quite narrow at certain stretches. The hotel is good 15 minutes walk from the parking spot. On the way to Pink Floyd we checked out another place which was just in the beginning of the village and the tariffs were around INR 200 a night, no attached bathrooms. The only advantage was that from its balcony we were able to see our car in the distance. We reached Pink Floyd, drained out of energies but did not really fancy the place. It was good, no doubt but we found the views from Hotel Sunset better. So we took two rooms at Hotel Sunset at INR 300 each. There was hot water, attached bathrooms and electricity for charging our camera batteries. There is a small tuck shop in the premises and a kitchen which can serve Italian, Israeli and Indian food. Wow! I am being greedy here, nevertheless, it is worth a mention- the downside are the bed sheets. They have dark colored bed sheets and pillow covers which means that they are not washed for quite sometime. It is advised to carry your own bedsheet and pillow covers. We ordered lunch and then Amitoz and I left the girls at the hotel and went to fetch our belongings for the night.
We were back in about 40 minutes and the girls were nowhere to be seen from a distance. While we had gone lugging bags, Neha and Sonal had gone on a short trek. They came back just in time of our arrival. From the hotel, we could see in the distance two waterfalls and two bridges. One of these waterfalls was a man-made cemented slide, yet the sheer force of the water was so magnificent that one could perceive it from the hotel. We enquired about the KheerGanga trek for next day but dropped the idea as we were short on time. While the locals said that one can do the round trip in a day, we urban corporate slaves were not the lot to walk so much in one day. We definitely needed two days. The village was quite deserted and from the hotel operators we learnt that most of the tourist have gone to the village of Pulga for a two day “rave” party. This part of the Himalayas is famous for rave parties. Weed is commonly called olive as it is sold in small black balls which resemble black olives. The hotel also told us about another waterfall which was 15 minutes away and we decided to check it out as there was still couple of hours of daylight available. We misunderstood the directions and started
walking on a different path. The 15 minutes trek took us nowhere closer to water. A few locals, we spotted on the way told us
that we had come the wrong way. We returned and found the correct trail. While walking, photographing, we met some fellow tourists and made another mistake of asking them for directions. These blokes were dressed in clothes one would wear to an office on a Friday. Totally out of place. They misguided us and put us on a different trail. Two of our group members tripped after different locations and it was kind of disheartening. Fortunately, no one got hurt. Around quarter to seven, we gave up the idea of the waterfall and headed back and decided to conquer it next day. An interesting thing happened here, we saw a man with a child playing on a natural rock slide. The crazy ones Amitoz and Neha were the first ones to burn their butts and Sonal and I needed some persuasion. As the last light approached, it was time to reach the hotel. We
ordered chicken and snacks and also got hold of olives ;). It was a full moon night and we stayed on the terrace munching, drinking, smoking and laughing till the temperature dropped to a moderate chill of 13 C. At this time (around 10 pm) the tuck shop and the kitchen also shut down and we retired to our rooms.
Day 3
I was the first one to get up and get ready. Woke up rest of the party with some tea and Parle-G. Once everyone was ready, we headed towards the first waterfall which everyone at Tosh was talking about. The hotel staff advised us against the waterfalls visible from the hotel. They said that the water is so fierce and rogue that one wrong move and you will end up in a watery grave. Who listens to such things- not us! Anyway, this time we reached the 15 minutes away waterfall in about 15 minutes. Spent about an hour there and now headed for the falls which mesmerized us since our arrival in Tosh. Here is the route which we followed in June 2014. On the way to the “famous” waterfall there is a rock on which someone had painted waterfall 100 m ahead. At this rock a small water stream trickles down and it also seems to be a dumping ground. A narrow and rough trail goes along with water stream. Now keep following the only trail and keep descending for about 30 minutes. The entire route is quite beautiful except for a 20m garbage dump in the beginning. I have seen Doodhsagar from up close and trust me when I say this, this particular one is comparable to Doodhsagar and is just one day drive from Delhi. We reached back hotel around half past one and told them that we would be checking out. At 3 pm we were in our car and headed to the German bakery at Kasol for lunch. Kasol was crowded. We tried hard for a parking space but could not find it. We tried parking at the taxi parking area but the locals became too aggressive and thus we left. We stopped at The Himalayan Retreat at Jari and enjoyed some really good food. Tried the local dishes – Dham, Kachori and Siddu Momo. Here on, we drove nearly non-stop till Gurgaon stopping twice on the way, once for tea and another time for graveyard shift food at NH1. It took us nearly 9 hours to reach Kiratpur Sahib and another 6 hours to reach Gurgaon. Around 6.30 am, on Sunday we reached Gurgaon. It was a trip successfully completed and the experience was too good. Special thanks to Sonal for picking up the destination, Dheeraj Sharma for connecting to Doulos and to Doulos Jose for helping us connect to Om Negi. Now it was time to sort out the 1800 photographs clicked by us during the three days. By the way, we all tried our hands on our new photography gear. Sonal and Amitoz brought their new Nikon D3100, Neha and I got our new Nikon D5300 and a Nikon AW120. IPhone 5s also proved to be an amazing photography device with its fast f/2 lens. The trip not only helped us rejuvenate but also strengthened the bond amongst the “Chaar Log” (four people -term coined by the Bhandari brothers during our Rishikesh camping and rafting trip) Watch this space for more adventure and travel stories. Ciao!
“We Live Young….We Live Free….We are the Living”!
Neha and I were itching for a trip for weeks now. The most recent was to Spain a month ago and it was beyond time to break away from the shackles of the corporate life.
We met Sonal and Amitoz (he and I share a desk at office) at a stand up comedy night in Nirvana County club and then at Epicenter for another comedy night. During dinner at Drift, we decided to go for rafting at Rishikesh the following weekend.
On 29 May, Neha got in touch with one of the organisers Vikrant Biswal through Facebook for camping and rafting in Rishikesh. Next day, I talked to Vikrant and understood what all was included in the package and confirmed booking for ‘chaar log’. By evening, before leaving for home Amitoz and I confirmed our plan for next morning. I woke up at 3 am and called up Amitoz to wake him up. He did not answer his phone. After 3 calls, I called up Sonal and the couple woke up. We met them at their home around 4.30 am.
We started our journey towards Rishikesh and took the Mohan, Meerut, Upper Ganga canal till Roorkee cantonment, Rajaji National Park through Cheela Dam and then through the Dugadda range, Laxman Jhoola to the camp site. The camp was located some 3 km ahead of Shivpuri next to the Rivera Resort.
The camp was being managed and operated by the Bhandari brothers -Roop Singh Bhandari and Teg Singh Bhandari. We met RP outside the resort and he identifed us as the chaar log, the group of four people. He got our car parked and asked us to take our belongings with us. The camp was situated some 300 meters down into the valley and the temperature was around 40 C when we started trekking downhill. By the time we reached and dumped our luggage into our assigned tent, lunch was served. Teg Singh warned us about swimming in the river and pointed some safe zones to stay in. As soon as we entered the water, we wanted more and more of it. Our skins cooled from scorching 40 C to a cool of 20 C. We had ordered
some beers which were put in a sack and tied to rock and dipped into the river to cool. We sipped on the beers while we enjoyed being soaked into the refreshingly cool water. As the sun hid behind the mountain in the west , we headed for the beach volleyball court and started a couples game. A few serves were thrown and none of the team could play the game well. We dropped the idea of volleyball and played several games of badminton. We played couples vs couples, swapped teams (arrest your kinky thoughts, please) and boys vs girls.
Between the matches we took breaks and cooled ourselves in the river.
After the evening snacks were served, we pulled out the beds from the alpine tents and started chatting over some more beers. As the night deepened, millions of stars shone into the black canvas over our heads. Neha spotted a couple of stray but bright meteors while we talked on topics of our respective love stories , relationships etc. The
dinner was getting delayed and I called it day and retired for the night.
Next morning, I woke up at the break of dawn. I could still see few stars as I lay awake in the bed overlooking the Ganges under the open sky. The next one to wake up was Sonal and the two of us fetched tea for our respective sleeping beauties. As the three of them sipped tea, we got ourselves booked into the pre-breakfast rafting groups. By 7 am, the sky darkened again, this time we rain and thunder. As it began to pour, we carried our bags up the trail to our car. For the chaar log, this was the first trek of the lifetime in the rain.
For me, it was quite an exciting trek. All the while, the jingle from Mahindra’s advertisement was playing in my head which goes like this, “We live young, we live free, we are the living”. By the time we reached our Mahindra Scorpio, we were completely drenched in the rain.
We had to wait a while before the rafting transportation vehicle came. The vehicle took us to the point which is called the Marine Drive. We made it a point to take a first pick at the rafting gear. We went for the best available hemelts, buoyancy aids and oars. We also profiled the other rafters and picked the ones who seemed okay to us. The initiation ceremony was – yes you
guessed right -the safety brief. Amitoz and I were positioned in the front of the raft, Neha behind me and Sonal behind her soulmate. We roared the raft through rapids, jumped into the water and had great fun. The water temperature read 19 C on my Casio Gshock.
We took a break for breakfast at our camp and then resumed the craziness. This time, Neha and I exchanged our position on the raft. At one of the rapids, our guide cum captain, permitted us to jump into the water. We were to hold the
perimeter ropes so as to remain attached to the raft. I jumped and then Neha jumped. I looked up and saw Amitoz and Sonal still sitting. He got late by a jiffy in jumping and now it wasn’t safe to leave jump into the ragging but shallow waters. My eyes searched for Neha and she wasn’t visible. I guided myself to the front of the raft and saw her holding a tethered rope instead of the perimeter rope. The freely swaying rope was not giving her stability in the rapid. While jumping, she had picked the wrong rope. It took me 10 seconds to reach her and pull her towards me.
Once we reached calm waters, We climbed up. And then, Amitoz jumped into the
water and invited me to join him.
We made a human chain so as to distance ourselves from the raft and yet be within rescuable distance from the raft. Now, we were on the last leg of our rafting trip. As we approached the shore, we all were attracted by the high velocity sound of the zipline above our heads. While we contemplated to go for zipping, we reached tge pickup point frpm where the transport vehicle was supposed to drop us back to the camp site. We waited for about 10 minutes and started to feel u easy in wet clothes. We took a lift from a dumper truck back to our car which was 3km away.
We changed into dry clothes, paid the guys and started journey back home. We started around noon and got stuck into several traffic snarls. It took us nearly 11hours to cover 300 km with two breaks for food and one break for kulfi ( an Indian frozen dairy dessert) . It seemed that the entire population of Delhi was in Rishikesh that weekend as there was very thin onward traffic towards Rishikesh.
Camping along the banks of the Ganges and rafting are surely refreshing activities and can be done more often if the traffic situation improves.
Transit of Venus 2012
Universe has a plethora of amazing views and sites to display to us astronomers.
The scale of our solar system is negligible to the vastness of the universe. Still, some of best views of the universe are right there in our backyard. Saturn and Jupiter are one of the best viewed objects in our solar system. Venus too shows beautiful phases just like our Moon. We just need to know where and when to look.
Celestial bodies strictly follow mathematical equations which were laid down by Kepler, Newton and many others. This makes it easy for us to determine the exact position and timings of rare events such as the transit of Venus. Earth’s orbit around the sun places us third to Mercury and Venus. This allows the earthlings to view not only the phases of these two planets but also, though rarely, the motion of these planets across the disk of the sun relative to earth. These are termed as transits.
The transit of Venus follows a rather complex pattern; they occur in pairs separated by 8 years and these pairs occur every 105.5 years or 121 years. The next transit of Venus will occur in December of 2117. This makes it one of the rarest events for the living population of the planet. (Unless someone somewhere discovers the fountain of youth and makes it accessible only to astronomers or a breakthrough in cryogenics takes place and people can extend their lives at will)
Like many teams which were formed to witness this rare celestial event, we too formed a team and we called it Astrohams – which signifies the two hobbies which are astronomy and ham radio (also known as amateur radio). The team comprised of the following individuals
1. Puneit Thukral
2. Neha Thukral
3. Kaustav Saha
4. Tarveen Bhasin Saha
5. Eshaan Saha
We not only called ourselves Astrohams but also, combined both the hobbies during the transit of Venus.
Objectives
The primary objective was to view the transit safely. The secondary objectives were to photograph, web-stream and SSTV streaming of the event so that the not so lucky ones can also witness this rare, once in a lifetime event
Selecting the Venue
Once an experienced amateur astronomer told me, that for a rare astronomical event, concentrate on location location and location. Rest everything will fall into place. And this is what we did. The transit occurred on June 06 2012 and it was visible at sunrise across India and most parts of the world. This gave us a huge geographical area to choose our location. Now, we had to look for a location where the probability of clouds during sunrise was low and of course has a clear view of the horizon so that the event can be witnessed as early as possible.
We didn’t have to look too far, the terrace of our house turned out to be good location. It had several advantages
1. We had high speed Internet access which would allow streaming the event live on the Internet
2. Our ham radio setup could be relocated easily on the terrace which would lower the setup time
3. There was no need for travel thereby saving travelling cost and time.
Thus we finalised our terrace as the location for transit of Venus. Having done that we registered our event with NASA as well.
Preparation
Weeks before the transit, we began arranging for the most crucial element to a safe observation – a solar filter. Our friend, Sneh, helped us with a sheet of a solar filter with which we created filters for our cameras, binoculars and newly acquired 10″ Skywatcher telescope. We were going to use 4 cameras & 1 webcam for the transit. Also, we ran some rehearsals to understand the position of sun at sunrise at the horizon and calculated when the transit will be actually visible to us in case of clear skies. We made a list of things needed and also tested out Ustream broadcasting as well as SSTV transmission on Ham bands. Many of the Delhi Hams participated in this rehearsal and helped us fine tune our setup.
Transit
We had planned for months that we will be staying home a day before the transit in case we have to travel in the event of a bad weather. As with any major astronomical event, I was studying satellite images for days now and understanding the movement of cloud cover. During the month of May and early June Northern India receives pre-monsoon showers which are accompanied by dust and thunder storms. This is due to the low pressure area created by the heating landmass which sucks in dust and moisture laden winds from surroundings. And it is now an established fact the cities being warmer than countryside are more prone to dust and thunder storms. It had been raining a few evenings before the transit which made the morning sky clear. However, during the first week of June, a big patch of cloud covered major cities in India. Upon studying visible, infra-red and water vapour channels images sent out by Kalpana-1 satellite, I decided to stay put in Gurgaon, even though the evening looked as if the cloud cover will not dissipate. I had seen a break in the cloud cover and the motion over time suggested that we will have broken clouds to clear skies by morning.
The morning of 6 June arrived and we were ready with our setup by the break of dawn. We did some final test runs and then waited for the sky to clear up. The south and west were clear and the north and east were covered with broken clouds. However, a nice and cool breeze gave us the confidence that the clouds will be soon dispersed and we shall soon be able to witness the transit.
The glowing disk of our nearest star was first visible at around 6.30 am local time and it was the most beautiful sight of the day. The broken clouds acted as a natural filter making it safe for us to view the sun directly. At this stage our solar filters were too dark for the faint disk of the sun. Amidst the clouds, we could clearly see a tiny black spot on the face of the sun. It is the best picture of the Transit that we took that day.
As our planet turned on its axis, the Sun gradually gained altitude in the sky, increase its luminance every second. The sky cleared up too and soon we were looking at the Sun through protective solar filters. Having witnessed the Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 which just lasted over 3 minutes, 5 hours of Venus transit was like a lifetime. There was so much one could do in 5 hours.
Kaustav and Neha attempted to transmit live image of the telescope through the webcast of the event – Kaustav’s office colleagues guiding him over phone (they were watching us from their office) on how to achieve a good focus with the webcam. This of course was not very stable as it was not planned earlier and thus they were trying it for the first time. Many first time observers stumbled upon to us and we formed a ritual that was to be followed – at first the were supposed to look through protective filter without any magnification and then with binoculars and finally with the telescope. No one was allowed to jump this and go directly at the scope. We shared with them the significance of the transit and how the first organised transit of Venus helped mankind to understand the scale of the solar system.
Parallely, we were uploading photographs on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter as well as transmitting near live images of the transit through amateur radio equipment using the SSTV mode on 2m & 20 m bands. Even though we did not get a response on 20 m; there was appreciable activity on 2 m. Days later, I saw one of the received images on Facebook which we had transmitted. The view from the telescope was mesmerising. The black drop of Venus among the sunspots looked so pretty that there are no words that can describe.
Back in Hanle, the sky was overcast and there was no hope to see the sun. Soon our friends who were sitting at IIA looking at Hanle, saw our webcast and decided to embed it on the AAAD’s website. The screenshot of our webcast was viewed by the team at IIA showed up few days ago on Facebook.
The transit lasted till about 10.19 am IST and we were glad that we witnessed and publicised the last Venus transit of our lifetimes. A lot of non-astronomers and non-ham radio users also came to observe the transit through our setup.
The transit of Venus was one of the most spectacular astronomical events we witnessed and observed. We consider ourselves to be lucky to have successfully observed it. As the saying goes, “at the right place and at the right time”
We now await for the next great astronomical event – Comet ISON in November 2013. Watch this space.
Astrohams
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Chand Baori – a lost stepwell
Neha and I visited this place in February of 2012. It was an impromptu short trip, and till 15 minutes before starting, we had no idea that we will be visiting the Chand Baori. On a regular Sunday morning, we were checking the social feeds on Facebook, when we saw a post by the Jeypore Bike Riders – a group on Facebook who had visited this place few weeks back. Within minutes the trip materialised and we were driving down towards Alwar. It took us close to 3 hours to reach the village of Abhaneri.
Located about 200 km (124 miles) from Gurgaon, in the village of Abhaneri, Rajasthan is an old baori (stepwell) which has almost faded into the history. Built in the 8th or 9th century by King Chand of the Nikumbha Rajputs of Chahamana dynasty, this stepwell was dedicated to the the goddess of joy and happiness – Harshshat Mata. The temple of Harshshat Mata is at adjacent to this beautiful architecture. It is one of the largest and deepest stepwells (20 meter deep with 13 levels) in India (source: http://www.jaipur.org.uk/excursions/abhaneri.html)
The first monument visible from the road itself is the Harshshat Mata temple, which is built on a double terraced platform mimicking the Mahameru style. Mahameru or the Great Meru is a sacred mountain in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology. This mountain is considered as centre of all physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes (a multiverse concept). Many a temples built by the Hindus, Jain and Buddhist are symbolic representation of this mountain.
From this temple a path runs towards the Chand Baori and the path takes you to a different world in a different time. All around are perfectly geometric patterns of steps, down to the water body. The periphery of the compound consists of alleys access to which was restricted. I wonder what’s inside them. Also can be seen statues carved out of stone and set into the walls and pillars of the stepwell.
Abhaneri is one of the places around Delhi which has not been explored by many people and one can see the places and come back home the same day. So, if you live in Delhi/NCR and you haven’t seen this place yet, plan a visit soon. Best time to visit this place is during winters when the days are cool and pleasant.
Liveliness of Pushkar with Royalty of Jodhpur!
On 25th November 2012, we celebrated our third wedding anniversary and for the last 2 years we have been meaning to see the famous Pushkar fair. The first year of our married life, Pushkar fair happened around our wedding day, so obviously we missed it. The second year, we had rescued few stray dogs a month earlier and their care was a priority that time. This year, we decided, we will go ahead with it.
Only when we decided to finally make it to Pushkar for a weekend, we researched more on it and realised that it was not a place where we would like to spend more than a few hours. A cattle and camel fair looks amazing in the many beautiful photographs that keep getting circulated post the fair; but to be honest, we could not be in such an environment for more than few hours. Another problem was accommodation. Most affordable accommodations in Pushkar were sold out and the luxury tents were way too expensive.
We toyed with the idea of pitching our own tent at Pushkar but being a high traffic area, especially at the time of the fair, it was not wise to do so. People from all walks of life flock at such places and it would have killed the fun of camping anyway. We checked Google Maps for nearby cities where one can stay at comfort without shelling a fortune.
Avid road travellers such as us, believe in crashing for the night at a comfortable, clean and safe place rather than a luxurious stay. We get the kick out of driving through the country and not staying at exotic locations. It is the journey which adds value to our travels and not always the stay. This thought process made us reach Jodhpur on Google Maps.
Commitments at work gave us just two days for the trip. So we decided to see Jodhpur on day 1 and Pushkar at day 2.
Day 1: Gurgaon – Fort Khejrala – Jodhpur (Umaid Bhavan Place & Mehrangarh Fort) – 600 km
As always we planned to start early to beat the traffic and crunch maximum miles the madness begins. We rolled out of our parking lot at 4 am and headed on NH-8. We crossed Jaipur in 3.5 hours and by 10 am we had crossed Ajmer. At Ajmer, we experienced heavy traffic at a railway crossing but still denser traffic jams were up on the cards. The road between Ajmer and Beawar are fantastic. Speeds greater than 150 kmph can be achieved on this stretch. At Beawar, when you turn towards Jodhpur, long traffic jams welcome you. There is another railway crossing where the road is quite narrow and one needs to wait in a long queue before one can regain speed. There is a better route to reach Jodhpur via Merta City which we took one our way back. Thanks to HV Kumar for this wonderful tip.
Fort Khejrala – A few scores of miles after the town of Bilara, we reached the T-junction where the a Village Road merges to the State Highway. A big hoarding by the management of Fort Khejrala is erected here and it is difficult to miss it. After taking a right hand turn, we travelled for about 12-14 km on this narrow village road. The road is well laid but not broad enough. Two vehicles can not pass each other without one getting down on the left shoulder. After reaching the village of Khejrala, we took a right hand turn and climbed up the still narrower street and we arrived the gates of this centuries old fort. This has been converted into a heritage hotel and tariffs begin from INR 8000+ (in the year 2012)
The terrace of the fort provides a panoramic
view of the terrain below and in a distance we could see as far as the city of Jodhpur. The staff at the fort shared that on clear days one can see the Mehrangarh fort from the premises. We spent about an hour at the fort before we resumed our journey.
Umaid Bhavan Palace – We reached the Umaid Bhavan Palace at 3 pm. There is a parking lot available at the fort entrance and the cost of entry into the palace is INR 25/adult. The palace is more of a museum which highlights the life and ancestry of Maharaja Gaj Singh. It boasts of a beautiful blend of modern architecture with a blend of Rajasthani culture. Here on, we headed to the Mehrangarh Fort.
Mehrangarh Fort – To reach this fort, we had to go through the old city of Jodhpur and ascend up the hill leading to the fort gates.
There are two parking lots – one 100 metres before the fort and one closer to the fort gate. Keep driving till you reach the second parking lot. A strange observation at the ticket counters was that one which displayed the prices in Hindi was selling tickets at a cheaper rate than the one selling tickets with prices displayed in English. Audio guide is available at the counter which we would strongly recommend. There is an elevator facility as well (for a small cost) at the fort entrance. Walking, however is fun and offers a lot of photography opportunities.
This is a better place to see compared to the Umaid Palace museum. It gives an opportunity to walk through the fort and see the entire place. From Mehrangarh, one can witness the blue city of Jodhpur. We spent around 2 hours at the fort and it was closing time. Thereafter, we went to the area where the canons are placed and watched the sunset.
After the Mehrangarh fort, we checked in to Dhillon House – a B&B near the Circuit House. We found Dhillon House through TripAdvisior and the good ratings given well justified. We had Lal Maas for dinner at a resturant recommended by Mr. Dhillon himself called On the Rocks.
Day 2 – Jodhpur – Pushkar- Foy Sagar Lake – Gurgaon 650+ km
After travelling more than 600 km and visiting three forts, we went into a deep slumber at the Dhillon House. We checked out around 10 am and had breakfast at one of the local shops of Jodhpur near Nai Sadak.
We wanted to avoid the traffic jam at Beawar and thus took the Merta City route suggested by HV Kumar. This route turned out to be amazing. Expect for 500 m of super bad roads (which were under construction) the roads are good and traffic light.
Around 1 pm, we entered the city of Pushkar. There is a RTDC village opposite to Pushkar fair grounds where parking was available. After having lunch at the RTDC restaurant we headed for the fair. The beauty about Pushkar fair lies in the colours of Rajasthan.
We spent a couple of hours at the fair, took a camel cart ride and then we started back home. Just after we crossed the city limits of Puskhar we came across a small ghat section overlooking a lake. Modern Rajasthan boasts of many man made lakes and no longer qualifies as a dry desert. We stopped over for some photographs and proceeded for home. A few kilometers ahead, we came across a sign board which said right turn for Foy Sagar Lake.
Then through the narrow lanes we snaked our way to the Foy Sagar Lake. The Lake just pops out of no where and is beautiful. I do not know if it a camping site, but to me it appeared as a place where one can pitch in their tents and have a camp fire.
Once again, we started back home and continued till Jaipur. Back in August 2012, Jaipur to Delhi drive took 8+ hours and we did not want drive a snail pace. Therefore, we decided to go via Alwar and then via Bhiwadi- Sohna to Gurgaon.
The roads are good till Bhiwadi, though quite often speed breakers keep troubling. The Bhiwadi- Taodu-Sohna road has less of traffic but small patches are extremely horrible. Over all we managed to cover Jaipur to Gurgaon in 5 hrs and 15 minutes.
One thing that Neha and I realised during this trip was that, there should be a will to go and see places and time can usually be managed. A trip which usually takes 3 to 4 days, we squeezed in 2. Many people would sneer and criticise this kind of trips but then at the end of the day we enjoyed every moment of it and were completely refreshed by the end of it.