Rafting trip to Shivpuri.

After my last year's exhilarating rafting experience, I was eager to make the next one soon. First opportunity came when the young blood group planned, but :(.. i could not go due to some personal work.

Trip Planned
Few weeks later, while chatting to vikas and manik we planned a trip, destination choices being Manali or Shivpuri. I was given the task to find out a rafting organizer group. I talked to a couple but they had closed their camps and I was told this was not the right season. But then, probably we were destined to have fun. Nimesh talked to some group who had their camps on and bookings were made. Travel arrangements were also made by him, hiring a Toyota innova.

People who agreed for the trip : Manik aka jaat, Vikas aka lala, Nimesh aka nimi, Nitin aka Chopra aka "bada ladka", Nikhil aka nicky, Deepali aka deepali (will soon have to find something for her) and Prachi aka manju and ofcourse your's truly aka addy.

All set to leave delhi on 6th "early" morning. Early being as early as 4AM.... (ha ha ha ha)

The Night Before
All of us had decided, we were staying at nimi and jaat's place so that we can leave "early" the next day. We planned for a movie in the evening "36 china town". Nimi and jaat could not go for they were preparing their house for our welcome... Lala and deepali were to arrange the tickets.... Lala called deepali and asked her to buy a ticket for me as well as i had decided to join for the movie later. Deepali did just that and bought a "single" ticket. Then they realized they had not purchased tickets for anyone eles either... Ha Ha.. Deepali bought 4 more tickets which ofcourse were far away from that single seat. Fortunately hall was not that full and we could manage sitting together.... :). After the movie we headed for jaat's place. Nikhil was not for the movie and came directly there. All the people except for me and prachi had a "few" rounds of drinks and after much hullabaloo, we went to sleep at around 3:30.... ha ha ha.. remember we had decided to leave by 4.

The morning...
Somehow we managed to get up by 6:30. Thanks to deepali we got a cup of bed tea as well. By 7:30 we were all ready, picked up our bags, loaded the innova and started..... Innova is not meant for 8+1 people. People on the back seat were cramped for leg space. But then i believe our enthu was much higher to be bogged down by such small issues..

So we moved on and reached Cheetal grand restaurant (exactly halfway between delhi and hardwar). Took wholesome breakfast there and continued our journey. By around 1pm we reached hardwar. Nimesh's dad had arranged rooms for us in a guest house and lunch as well. Nimesh thank your dad for the wonderful arrangement overthere. After having our lunch and taking a nap, we left for our camps at around 3:30.

Reaching the camps
The camps were far far up the hills. While the journey to them was tiring, the weather there was great. We reached the camps at arnd 7 in the evening. The camps were quite luxurious compared to what I had when i went last year. After freshening up, we came out for a camp fire. For the next few hours people drank.. and .. drank.... and.. well drank again. For non drinkers like me.. it was fun watching them behave like total nuts. I am sure nobody remembers what they did or said... So i wont open their secrets here. After having a nice dinner, we went inside our camps at around 12 for a good night's sleep.

The next morning we all got up, took our breakfast and left for rafting at around 8:30. We reached the starting point at arnd 11 and started our rafting expedition at arnd 11:30. Our raft guide gave all of us some instructions which none of us could really understand coz of his accent and lingua which was 1/4 hindi, 1/4 englist and 1/2 God knows what... :).

Rafting...
For the next three hours we were on the raft (and sometimes in the water). Some of the rapids like roller Coaster and Golf Course provided for an unforgettable experience. For some reason related somehow to prachi... we were left inside the water floating(for we didnt know to swim) for quite some time by our guide and that was frightening for most of us as we had gone far off from our raft. Thank goodness we all were picked up safe and sound on the raft again. Towards the end we did a dive into the water from a 20ft cliff which was an experience of a lifetime.

We completed our rafting at around 3. The camp organizers had arranged for lunch at a local restaurant which was horrible.

And we return... :(
After changing our wet clothers at the restaurant, we left for Delhi at around 4:30. On reaching roorkee, our cab was stopped by a thulla(traffic inspector). At the start of our journey, our cabby had told us that if we get into such a situation, tell that the cab belongs to one of our friends named chetan (coz the cab didnt have a tourist permit). Nimesh got down and told exactly that to the thulla. But then, as is with all of them, the thulla had to have something (and of course he knew we were fudging....). After some brilliant negotiations and pretending as if he was the poorest being on earth Nimesh got us away by paying just Rs 160(remember actual fine would have ran into thousands). Kudos to nimesh again.
On our way back we did a halt at Cheetal grand again for some munching, and reached noida at around 11.

Yet another succesful trip....

Highlights of the trip :-
- Nimesh's taking over the responsibility of arrangements which were quite good (except for the choice of innova).
- The chaos at jaat's place the night before which included a few broken glasses and bottles of beer.
- Deepali serving us brilliant bed tea saturday morning.
- Arrangements by Nimi's dad at hardwaar.
- Tuli's mimicary of Asian Sky shop advertisements.
- Manik, tuli and nimesh acting cricketers like mohinder amarnaath, madan lal, maninder singh, sidhu and commentating. New sidhhuisms like "apni gali mein to har koi koota hota hai" were invented.
- Saturday night when everybody got drunk badly.
- Of course, the rafting and diving experience.
- Nimesh getting the thulla to leave us for just Rs160.
- Tuli disclosing the pranks he had played on others during college time.

And the big one..... BHAIIIIISAAAAB... PREM...... BHAISAAAAAB... Our slogan for the whole trip.

But then, every single moment of the trip was a highlight..... Looking forward to our next trip.

Trip to Bharatpur

Around 10 days have gone by since its inception with great fanfare, nothing has happened.... Nothing looks like happening as well. Will our young blood group turn out to be another damp squib...

But then there comes a mail .... Few people planning a trip to bharatpur bird sanctuary.... And true to the name of the group, they plan to travel by MotorCycles.. WOW..... Something i always wanted.... But hey hey.. Mr Aditya Bhushan... come to reality.... what bike do you have... a hero honda passion... probably not even the makers claim it can handle a long ride....

Trip Planned
So i start looking for few people who wish to travel by car... And hitherto.. I find Nitin and Ayushman. Trip is planned. Four people travel by bikes(Paresh, Amit, Pankaj aka p2 and chaitanya), we three on my car. The day before (24th Mar) I stay at Jitender's place. In the night i ask him.. hey.. jp why dont you join us.. i have a place in my car.... And sporty that jp is.. he says why not...i am in.... and what more.. he says he can take his car as well... !!! All set...

We leave ...
Around 5:30 Saturday evening we leave for Bharatpur on jp's car. People to go by bikes already left at around 4:15. We go to P2's house first to pick up speakers and then off to our destination. By around 7 we cross faridabaad and hit the beautiful highway... Total distance to bharatpur is 180kms. JP keeps driving while me, nitin and ayush keep chatting .. various topics.. some with sense.. others senseless... At around 8:15 we reach Mathura... From here we have to take a right turn and leave the highway.. We have been told its not a good road from here on.. But never even in our nightmares we could have sensed what was coming.. The worst strech of 40Km i have ever travelled... Poor jp's car... Somehow we cross that strech and reach bharatpur!!!!! Bikers had already reached (God knows how did they manage that strech of road by bike)...YES WE ARE AT BHARATPUR....

On Reaching...
We take rooms at RTDC hotel saras and order for dinner... Alcohol enthusiasts arrange some beer for themselves and in an hour or so we are at the dinner table... After the dinner we sit down for a round of flash... For the next two hours some lose their fortunes while others make assets... Thank goodness none of us were married... Else another Mahabharata was in the making... Anyways i am Rs.65 up at the end.. so it was good fun (Paresh might have a different opinion). After some more gossiping we go off to sleep... With plans to leave by 6 the next morning..

Bird Watching...
Impossible... i must be dreaming... The next morning all of us are ready by around 6:30.. I start to wonder if were going to watch the real birds or the "figurative" ones.. coz none of us looked like the ones to appreciate any of God's creations except for one(other than ourselves of course..)... But somehow.. we were ready..
We reach the sanctury entry gate.. Thankfully for the birds, no vehicles are allowed inside.. Available modes of transport are bicycle, rikshaw or battery buses. We decide to hire bicycles for we had a rep to protect... after all we are members of young blood group.. :))We also hire a guide Mr DD Mittal, one who was an educated one. He told us he had done his research in this very park. And he had a good knowledge about birds..... For the next two hours we roam around spotting various birds...
Our first catch is the "snake bird". It has a long neck like a snake... After that many more... Hairons, eagles, various varities of ducks , stoks, and more (i dont remember all the names). We also spot a migratory bird locally named "Brahmin bird" for its saffron color. Most of the birds we see are water birds coz we see only the "Marshland" area of the park. The "dryland" is the other extreme side and we are told there are not many birds there this time of the year. We realize God has not created just "one" beautiful being on this earth... :)

Boat ride..
After roaming for around 2 hours, we free our guide and decide to go for the boat trip. A small canal flowing admist the trees... Comparisons range from a "naala" to "kerala's backwaters".. whatever it was.. it was beautiful... we take a boat... one that is driven using a bamboo stick... All of us even try our hands at becoming a naavik... but probably only chaitanya can choose it as a career... With that awesome experience we end our park adventure.

Return back to hotel..
At around 11:30, we return back to our hotel rooms. And then the discussions .. what to do next... Available options are Fatehpur sikri, Tajmahal, Agra fort and Matura temples... After few inconsiquential discussions, we decide that we will visit Fatehpur sikri fort and after that the ones on the car will head to delhi while the bikers would stop at Mathura (which as expected.. they later dropped.. :)

Off to Fatehpur Sikri..
We leave at around 12:30 and around 1:15 we reach Fatehpur. All of us are hungry and sit for lunch at a local small restaurant... After a heavy meal we head to visit the fort. We hire a guide as well.. a boy aged around 15. He tells us about the buland darwaaza, chisti's dargaah, the tunnel from agra to delhi, the mosque, the place built of principles of din-e-elahi, the seven doored corridoor...... A walk down the Mughal era is always interesting....

Back to Noida..
Finally we head to delhi... all tired, sleepy... wondering (and fearing to a small extent) how would jp drive now... But i must say Kudos to jp... he probably never even yawned and ensured we all reach back noida safe and sound...

Young blood's first outing ... Great success... !!! And surely not the last...

I have created this space to pen down all my travelling adventures. I hope i keep this alive both by travelling a lot, and then by avoiding the procrastination and writing my experiences down... :)