This story started some 2 and a half years ago when I joined Infogain. I with some other friends decided to go on a trip to Lansdowne. But it was realized only after I left Infogain. Though this was supposed to be our first trip on bikes but I am happy that it happened and satisfied too.
The planning for this trip started 2 and a half years ago and then there were around 4-5 programs which were made and were later scrapped too due to one or other reason. Himanshu , one other friend also made a program to go there in a bus as he doesn’t know driving bike. After more than 2 years I left Infogain and joined at Singapore. Already did my first trip on bike with Veeru to Rohtang before coming to Singapore.
Now I was in India for Diwali for 2 weeks and Veeru pushed me again for the bike trip. This time I said that if we will go on a bike trip, then we will go only to Lansdowne. Veeru also agreed to my point and we decided to meet at Ghaziabad Near Dabur on 7th Morning Saturday at around 5. But as lazy ass I am, I left my house at 5 and reached Ghaziabad at 5:50 only and missed Dabur. Finally me and Veeru met at 6 and left for Lansdowne. The dream was about to become a reality. Traffic was less as it was only dark. We kept going till Meerut where we stopped in front of my College. Did some photoshoot.
I became Nostalgic and then we moved on. Asked for some directions in the Meerut city itself as it is on Bijnor route. So kept pushing the bikes and missed an important diversion and took the wrong road which had really nicely laid tarmac.
After 2-3 kms inquired from someone and he suggested that do not go back. Stick to this road only and that is what I wanted but later on I realized such an ass I was. We kept going. For next around 8-9 kms the road was really nice and afterwards it was only broken road or no road. So inquired from someone and he told us to take another route from a village to go back to the main road. We did as told and we finally came back on the main road after wasting around 1 and half hours. Though the detour was a nice one but we lost time in that. After coming to the main road we once again started ripping. I was amazed to see that the road was beauty to ride on. Very nice road and very less traffic. Sometimes only 2 of us were there on the road. We kept pushing till there was a right turn towards Bijnor. Must be somewhere around 160 kms from Delhi, We did our breakfast at Bhutani hotel. Food was nice but very spicy.
And then we kept going till we hit Kotdwar. We stopped for directions to Lansdowne. From there on hills started and it is pleasure to drive on the hill roads. It took us around an hour to reach Lansdowne from there. I must say that it is one of the best maintained Cantt area I have ever seen. It is regimental center of Garhwal Rifles.
We kept going and stopped at Snow View point. We took some pics there. It was a nice view from there. Next to it was lovers lane. So we went there to see that no lover was there. Only me and Veeru. Of course we r lovers but we love only our bikes.
Way to Lansdowne
Snow View Point
Lover's Lane
Veeru All smiles
Me too
Lover's Lane
Just After Lansdowne
Veeru said that we should stay at Lansdowne itself but I said No we will go to Pauri. Pauri was another 85 kms from there. After much argument, Veeru agreed to go to Pauri and we again started. The road was almost empty and we went non stop till some small city on the way.
I love this pic
The Dhabewala bhaiya
There we has lunch and then we moved on after taking route info from local people who told us a different route which was a short, beautiful and empty.
We kept going and reached Pauri at around 7 in the evening. Went straightaway to GMVN TRH. Room was kinda cheap for rs. 550 only for a night with running hot water and TV.
We dumped our luggage and went out for a stroll in the Pauri distt and also for the Dinner. We had nice dinner and then we left for Pauri Utsav which was going on in the auditorium. We enjoyed for a while and came back. Went for sleep instantly. Next morning got up at 6 to see the sunrise. Sunrise was nice with snow clad mountain ranges visible. Morning was chilly but evening had more chill in it.
Then we took a decision to go to Dev Prayag. Which in a way was a mix of both wrong and right decision. Right because we were planning to see a new place and wrong which we realized later. Dev prayag is 50 kms from Pauri and the road till Devprayag is broken or non existent. I will never recommend any other biker to do that stretch. It is a pain.
NH 58
Observer the 2 rivers merging Alaknanda and Bhagirathi
Dev Prayag is a nice place to be in. We really enjoyed our stay at Devprayag. Biking oo the wooden bridge was an icing on the cake.
This place is actually called as Sangam. Here 2 different rivers Bhagirathi and Alaaknanda merge. You can literally see 2 different rivers with different colored waters in them. We had a pretty good time over there and then moved on towards Delhi via Rishikesh. Roads till the border of the Devprayag district were a breeze to ride on. But as we entered the Rishikesh distt, the roads were all broken and non existent. Very painful indeed. We rode on and on the way we say a dead Langoor which was crushed by some bloody vehicle. Veeru clicked a pick of the Langoor and then we came to the place where we did rafting almost an year ago. We straight away went down to the banks of ganga and did some photoshoot.
It was nice to be there as it is a very beautiful place. After around an hour or so we started again and Reached Rishikesh. We planned that we should leave Rishikesh by 4 P.M so that we can reach Delhi by 10. Veeru really wanted to go to Neelkanth but somehow I was not interested as it could take another 1-2 hours to go and comeback from Neelkanth. We inquired people about the way to go to Neelkanth but everybody said go ahead go ahead and finally one person said that after 2 kms there will be a turn on the left and from there it is 35 kms to Neelkanth so we dropped the idea as it was already around 5 when we left Rishikesh. We kept riding non stop till Haridwar where we stopped for Jal Jeera session.
It was no doubt tasty. From there on we moved very fast as I wanted to cover as much as possible in the daylight itself. I do not like night driving. We just crossed Roorkee and it was dark. After a few kms from Roorkee we stopped for Coffee where Veeru went to see how Gur(Jaggery) is being made.
He took some snaps. From there on we went non stop till Meerut riding sedately at 60 - 70. Once we stopped because Veeru wanted to wash his face. Veeru recently bought a waste helmet for Rs. 2200. This helmet looks good but does not have visor. Somebody tell Veeru that in India we can not drive without a visor. We then stopped at Meerut Byepass for the dinner. It was already 9:30 and we were still 70 kms away from Delhi. We were not riding fast in the night as the Highway NH 58 is not good enough to ride fast in the night. From there on we rode non stop till Delhi border where Veeru took a left for Noida and Me took a right towards Mayur Vihar to go to Najafgarh.
Rest of the pics you may see at the following link
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinayak.singh/LansdownePauriAndDevprayagTrip#
Some Stats
Bikes – Vinayak – Pulsar 180
Veeru - Pulsar 220
Total distance covered –
Vinayak – 800 kms
Veeru - 700 kms
Route Taken –
While Going –
Delhi --> Ghaziabad --> Muradnagar --> Modinagar --> Meerut --> Mawana --> Bijnor --> Najijababad --> Kotdwar --> Lansdowne --> Kaskhet --> Pauri
While coming -
Pauri --> Devprayag --> Rishikesh --> Haridwar --> Muzzafarnagar --> Meerut --> Modinagar --> Muradnagar --> Ghaziabad --> Delhi
Total money spent –
Rs. 550 – Hotel
Rs. 500 – Complete food.
Rs. 500 per head. This excludes petrol
The planning for this trip started 2 and a half years ago and then there were around 4-5 programs which were made and were later scrapped too due to one or other reason. Himanshu , one other friend also made a program to go there in a bus as he doesn’t know driving bike. After more than 2 years I left Infogain and joined at Singapore. Already did my first trip on bike with Veeru to Rohtang before coming to Singapore.
Now I was in India for Diwali for 2 weeks and Veeru pushed me again for the bike trip. This time I said that if we will go on a bike trip, then we will go only to Lansdowne. Veeru also agreed to my point and we decided to meet at Ghaziabad Near Dabur on 7th Morning Saturday at around 5. But as lazy ass I am, I left my house at 5 and reached Ghaziabad at 5:50 only and missed Dabur. Finally me and Veeru met at 6 and left for Lansdowne. The dream was about to become a reality. Traffic was less as it was only dark. We kept going till Meerut where we stopped in front of my College. Did some photoshoot.
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
I became Nostalgic and then we moved on. Asked for some directions in the Meerut city itself as it is on Bijnor route. So kept pushing the bikes and missed an important diversion and took the wrong road which had really nicely laid tarmac.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
After 2-3 kms inquired from someone and he suggested that do not go back. Stick to this road only and that is what I wanted but later on I realized such an ass I was. We kept going. For next around 8-9 kms the road was really nice and afterwards it was only broken road or no road. So inquired from someone and he told us to take another route from a village to go back to the main road. We did as told and we finally came back on the main road after wasting around 1 and half hours. Though the detour was a nice one but we lost time in that. After coming to the main road we once again started ripping. I was amazed to see that the road was beauty to ride on. Very nice road and very less traffic. Sometimes only 2 of us were there on the road. We kept pushing till there was a right turn towards Bijnor. Must be somewhere around 160 kms from Delhi, We did our breakfast at Bhutani hotel. Food was nice but very spicy.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
And then we kept going till we hit Kotdwar. We stopped for directions to Lansdowne. From there on hills started and it is pleasure to drive on the hill roads. It took us around an hour to reach Lansdowne from there. I must say that it is one of the best maintained Cantt area I have ever seen. It is regimental center of Garhwal Rifles.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
We kept going and stopped at Snow View point. We took some pics there. It was a nice view from there. Next to it was lovers lane. So we went there to see that no lover was there. Only me and Veeru. Of course we r lovers but we love only our bikes.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Way to Lansdowne
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Snow View Point
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Lover's Lane
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Veeru All smiles
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Me too
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Lover's Lane
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Just After Lansdowne
Veeru said that we should stay at Lansdowne itself but I said No we will go to Pauri. Pauri was another 85 kms from there. After much argument, Veeru agreed to go to Pauri and we again started. The road was almost empty and we went non stop till some small city on the way.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
I love this pic
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
The Dhabewala bhaiya
There we has lunch and then we moved on after taking route info from local people who told us a different route which was a short, beautiful and empty.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
We kept going and reached Pauri at around 7 in the evening. Went straightaway to GMVN TRH. Room was kinda cheap for rs. 550 only for a night with running hot water and TV.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
We dumped our luggage and went out for a stroll in the Pauri distt and also for the Dinner. We had nice dinner and then we left for Pauri Utsav which was going on in the auditorium. We enjoyed for a while and came back. Went for sleep instantly. Next morning got up at 6 to see the sunrise. Sunrise was nice with snow clad mountain ranges visible. Morning was chilly but evening had more chill in it.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Then we took a decision to go to Dev Prayag. Which in a way was a mix of both wrong and right decision. Right because we were planning to see a new place and wrong which we realized later. Dev prayag is 50 kms from Pauri and the road till Devprayag is broken or non existent. I will never recommend any other biker to do that stretch. It is a pain.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
NH 58
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Observer the 2 rivers merging Alaknanda and Bhagirathi
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
Dev Prayag is a nice place to be in. We really enjoyed our stay at Devprayag. Biking oo the wooden bridge was an icing on the cake.
This place is actually called as Sangam. Here 2 different rivers Bhagirathi and Alaaknanda merge. You can literally see 2 different rivers with different colored waters in them. We had a pretty good time over there and then moved on towards Delhi via Rishikesh. Roads till the border of the Devprayag district were a breeze to ride on. But as we entered the Rishikesh distt, the roads were all broken and non existent. Very painful indeed. We rode on and on the way we say a dead Langoor which was crushed by some bloody vehicle. Veeru clicked a pick of the Langoor and then we came to the place where we did rafting almost an year ago. We straight away went down to the banks of ganga and did some photoshoot.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
It was nice to be there as it is a very beautiful place. After around an hour or so we started again and Reached Rishikesh. We planned that we should leave Rishikesh by 4 P.M so that we can reach Delhi by 10. Veeru really wanted to go to Neelkanth but somehow I was not interested as it could take another 1-2 hours to go and comeback from Neelkanth. We inquired people about the way to go to Neelkanth but everybody said go ahead go ahead and finally one person said that after 2 kms there will be a turn on the left and from there it is 35 kms to Neelkanth so we dropped the idea as it was already around 5 when we left Rishikesh. We kept riding non stop till Haridwar where we stopped for Jal Jeera session.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
It was no doubt tasty. From there on we moved very fast as I wanted to cover as much as possible in the daylight itself. I do not like night driving. We just crossed Roorkee and it was dark. After a few kms from Roorkee we stopped for Coffee where Veeru went to see how Gur(Jaggery) is being made.
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
 |
| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
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| From Lansdowne Pauri and Devprayag Trip |
He took some snaps. From there on we went non stop till Meerut riding sedately at 60 - 70. Once we stopped because Veeru wanted to wash his face. Veeru recently bought a waste helmet for Rs. 2200. This helmet looks good but does not have visor. Somebody tell Veeru that in India we can not drive without a visor. We then stopped at Meerut Byepass for the dinner. It was already 9:30 and we were still 70 kms away from Delhi. We were not riding fast in the night as the Highway NH 58 is not good enough to ride fast in the night. From there on we rode non stop till Delhi border where Veeru took a left for Noida and Me took a right towards Mayur Vihar to go to Najafgarh.
Rest of the pics you may see at the following link
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinayak.singh/LansdownePauriAndDevprayagTrip#
Some Stats
Bikes – Vinayak – Pulsar 180
Veeru - Pulsar 220
Total distance covered –
Vinayak – 800 kms
Veeru - 700 kms
Route Taken –
While Going –
Delhi --> Ghaziabad --> Muradnagar --> Modinagar --> Meerut --> Mawana --> Bijnor --> Najijababad --> Kotdwar --> Lansdowne --> Kaskhet --> Pauri
While coming -
Pauri --> Devprayag --> Rishikesh --> Haridwar --> Muzzafarnagar --> Meerut --> Modinagar --> Muradnagar --> Ghaziabad --> Delhi
Total money spent –
Rs. 550 – Hotel
Rs. 500 – Complete food.
Rs. 500 per head. This excludes petrol
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