hi folks! was browsing through snaps to find some of the hotels or resorts. But they have been so haphazardly saved ,didn't have the patience to go through all those stuff.will have to take hubby's help. i have uploaded one photo, the pic of the stately hotel is of krishna orchard in mukteswar in uttaranchal, just up Nainitaal. u have to pass Bhimtaal on the way. the drive is comfortable, the scenery as expected is very beautiful. all green and misty- a characteristic of uttaranchal.the speciality of Mukteswar are its orchards. other than that its a very quiet , peaceful and relaxing place to chill. no crowds, no market. just beauty and the peace! Krishna orchard is the major hotel up there. in fact its a chain of hotels in nainitaal and I think Bhimtaal. It was the best one there in Mukteswar. No complains. Enjoyed the stay. clean, luxurious, good food and nice location.

I was a bit upset over the turn of events in the great driving challenge. Need not say that we were kicked out. After following the activities there it dawned upon me that they want VOICES. Voices that are heard or are capable of being heard. As I don't have one here I am going tippety tap tap. But now I can concentrate properly on my

blogs for what they are. My adventure travelogues. ..... So where was I last time? Of course hotels! I had briefly described Manu Maharani Hotel Nainital! Let me add that the best thing I liked about it was the night view of the lake which is simply mesmerising to say the least.I was completely enchanted- the calm lake dotted with the numerous lights of its shore with a dim silhouette of the mountains surrounding it! Ummm!~ can you visualise it? I kept on gazing at it for almost half an hour motionlessly.Other than that the hotel has a discotheque, conference hall . bar and restaurant. the food is quite good.

Now about the photos above. those are of Naldehra Chalets. One of the costliest that we had to stay in. the duplex cottage had a tariff of around 10,000 Rs. But if you can afford it , its worth it. The cottage had a living room , a kitchenette, dining area, living room, world space radio - for the first time and a mini bar and refrigerator, TV and all.Moreover it boasted of a library, Internet a gym, a video library, indoor swimming pool. a children's play area. Normally we wouldn't have checked into such upscale properties, we are very 'middle class" in our means and taste and we are proud of it too. And like a true middle class couple we take pride in showing off our occasional indulgences. Naldehra Chalets wasn't an indulgence. It was the only way out. We had reached Naldehra late at night and as the curfew hour starts soon over there we were turned down every where. In desperation we had turned towards Chalets which was one of the few places where there was evidence of human activityat that time of the night. -The clock was showing twelve midnight at that time . We were tired and desperate- So desperate that if they had said that you can sleep in the hotel lobby or veranda For Rs 10,000 we would have still taken up the offer. But the place was awesome. A beautiful resort in a beautiful location. Just few kms from Shimla. Quiet and peaceful.Best of both the worlds! The experience was fabulous even if we stayed there for one night only.

Pic link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manishaleen/ Hi all ! Please visit the link if you would like to see the pics of our trips. No fabulous photography mind you. But the places are so beautiful. some of the essence is captured by even hopeless photographers like me.

Continuation of oooops! Actually there was a power cut so we had to go for an emergency shutdown. So the snap in the previous post, isn't it? Well its one of my favourite room in one of my favourite hotel. Hotel Manu maharani in Nainital, A duplex suite! and I went crazy when I first set my foot into it. The Bi level thing was just so oooh!( It was my first time dearies!). And it was affordable. I mean it didn't cost an arm and a foot.For a while I am going to post about the hotels we have stayed and I liked. Complemented with pics of course.. Coming back to this post. There are four pics. The first one of the baby and hubby-it was taken in hotel Chandrabhaga, Keylong in the Manali leh highway. the best one there. Just one snap below it i.e the third ,there is the exterior view with the signboard of Chandrabhaga in the background. Economical and comfortable. A luxury if you ask me in Keylong. Now the other two pics- the second one of my ma in law and baby was taken in Manali Loghuts- Luxury cottages run by tourism department. Nice attached garden. A living room , a dining area, two bedrooms. lots of privacy and a great view to boast and marvel at. See the cottage from out side on the pic which is right at the bottom. A bit expensive but in manali everything is expensive.... Hey Mitsubishi people if you are reading this and wondering where the list of destinations that should have been supposedly posted are, well its 2 posts down.

Well so we have reached the end of the mitsubishi driving challenge first phase. Life will become regular hereafter . so shall I stop blogging.? no, not at all. I have so many trips to narrate about. i really wanted to be among the chosen 25 or 9 if not the three, but we wont be even in the 100 either. how miniscule it makes us feel isnt it. some friends and family members let us done. As it is we dont have much tech savy associates and the remaining few didnt take us seriously! sigh! thats one trip less to write about . but i am enjoying updating my blogs. if only people would read it. Whats the matter with me today? why am I in such a self depreciatory mode today.? ???
Ok leave it. Let me tell you about the above snap. oooops

This is the list of the 23 trips that I have mentioned.
1/Delhi-Pinjore-Shimla-Kasauli-Delhi-Corbett- Nainital- Delhi
2/Delhi- Manali
3/ Delhi-Bangalore-Goa-Bangalore-Delhi
4/Delhi-Dehradun
5/Delhi-Dalhousie
6/ Delhi-Mussourie
7/Delhi-Sariska
8/Delhi-Binsar-Joshimath-Auli-Delhi
9/ Delhi-Guwahati-Shillong-Guwahati-Delhi
10/Delhi-Narkonda-Jalori pass-kullu-delhi
11/Delhi-Dharamshala
12/Delhi- lansdowne
13/Delhi-Bangalore-Mysore-Ooty-Munnar-Kumarokam-Kovalam-Delhi
14/ Delhi-Udaipur-Mount Abu-Delhi
15/Delhi-Sarahan-Kalpa-Sangla chitkul-Spiti-Sarahan-Delhi
16/Delhi-Mukteswar
17/Delhi-Naldehra
18/Delhi-jodhpur-jaisalmer-patiala-chail-shimla-delhi
19/Delhi-Manali-Keylong
20/Delhi-Mashobra-Tattapaani-Manali-Delhi
21/Delhi-Nahaan-Renukaji-Paontasaahib-Chakrata-Delhi
22/Delhi-Nainital-Chaukori-Ranikhet-Delhi
23/ Delhi-Chamba-Harsil-Gangotri-Dhanolti-Delhi
24/Delhi-Gaurikund-Badrinath-Mana-Delhi
25/Delhi-Manali-Jispa-DeepakTaal-Mandi-Delhi
Hey that's 25! And all these while I was thinking 23.

the name and the reason

That's me and hubby. My hubby-The man behind the trips, the Man-iac behind the wheel.

Well I just want to mention the reason behind the blog's title. We usually try to take the lesser known routes for a particular place after we have gone once there by the conventional route.For example- Manali - one of our favourite places. After the conventional route, we have gone there by 1/ jalori pass 2/ By shimla tattapani 3/ once we had returned from manali via nalagarh and we had also gone through the shimla bilaspur route. So that explains why I have named the blog so. Secondly My profile name is eyeswideopen because one can just gaze wide eyed at the beautiful places that I have seen.And moreover I never really got over my crush on Tom Cruise...hee hee hee. Decipher that now.

auli 3

So we were off on day 3 after breakfast to Auli. Villages were stirring and waking up gradually. We left the beautiful in fact the very beautiful scenery of bageswar and baijnath to the comparatively starker terrains of gwaldum.It had rained the previous weeks and the road was a lesser trod one so in patches the road was muddy and slushy. my husband warned that if the car got stuck then i along with my niece in law (9 yr old )have to push the car.Just imagine his audacity .maybe he was kidding but I took it seriously becos if anything of this sort happened then there was no other option. there was no other sign of civilisation. Said too soon!Why we had hardly gone a few kms when we came upon a bunch of rowdy boys dancing and celebrating holi.They pounced upon us the moment they saw us and no they did not colour us if you are thinking so, but demanded bakshish or money. An altercation followed. i screamed hysterically ( ya I am quite capable of dramatics) but boys will be boys they simply did not relent. they sat on the road blocking our way. an impasse ensued.We were running late for the last ski lift to Auli. My hubby was about to give in when a military vehicle puled behind us. I went and complained to them but they indulgently asked us to pay the "cute boys". we knew we had lost the battle and meekly gave in . we paid up and proceeded onwards. from then on the pattern followed. A few km- group playing holi- pay up- move on. I started grumbling about what a bad time we had chosen to travel. After 7-8 such celebrations I think God took on some mercy on us, A magistrate's vehicle joined us somewhere along the way near Karnaprayag and followed us til near Pipalkoti .Nobody dared to stop us now and we had a respite till some distance. After Pipalkoti, it was same again but thankfully dusk had set in and there were few [people in the roads. But unthankfully we were late for the last ski lift to Auli. we had a reservation there and so my husband decided to attempt the road to Auli. till halfway he was managing fine but as we climbed higher we encountered snow over the road until we came upon completely covered road. slippery and dangerous. we had to turn back. there was now o way to reach Auli. there went the hotel rent down the drain. it was a day of loses. we again headed to the lift to request if they could bend the rules a bit and bend the lever abit. but no they gave us quite a stiff response. over and above they gave the very sad news that the ski lift will not be operated the next two days due to holi. AAARGH! I was never fond of holi and now u can understand how I was feeling. Shinu was devastated at the plans going awry. with a heavy heart and a light purse we headed to the tourism hotel run by GMVN.The accommodation was economical but not pleasing to me. I found them very gloomy. The workers warned us that the next day lunch and evening tea will not be served and breakfast will be served very early. Reason? what else? holi! we told them that we intend to leave the next day as there was nothing else to be done but another travel advisory was issued that travelling in holi near Auli was a very risky thing. we were trapped and as there was no other way out of the situation,we went out late in the evening to shop for some dry eatables like biscuits, wafers,fruits, bread, butter. My hubby bought a CD of jumanji. he had brought his laptop along which was a good thing he had done. we rang up our respective departments to extend our leaves for 2 more days. thankfully no problem from that side.

Day 4- we woke up early so as to not to miss breakfast. I was tempted to join the people outside. Who knows we too could have earned back our losses . but that was just a thought.At around 10 am I discovered that hubby dear was running a temperature and shinu started having lose motions and vomiting.Oh God if that was your idea of keeping us occupied then sorry to say , I was not amused. somehow we managed to contain both the patients by afternoon. When both of them felt better, we watched the movie Jumanji. Dinner was served early and it was a simple affair but we found it very delicious.after having a discussion with a local guy who drove an SUV, we decided to give another shot at Auli by road the next morning.

Day 5- next morning we checked out promptly at 7 am and left for Auli. the guy was good. He drove expertly over the snow and took us till about 1 km away from Auli as the snow was heavier over there. We had to walk the remaining km but finding the near impossible destination within reachable distance, every bodies spirits were high and we went happily climbing the uphill road to Auli. we spent around 3 hours over there. Unlike Manali it was a purely a skiing destination. there was no snow tubing or tobogganing . no pesky crowds. only ski enthusiasts were seen over there lugging there ski gear around. we looked quite out of place over there. we too tried our hands ..err.. feet at skiing. slided ....pushed..fell...again slided...pushed...After few rounds of these we took our leave achieving our purpose. Another destination ticked in the Map. Another happy ending. Thank you God! Finally we started on our return journey which was thankfully uneventful.

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27012009119

27012009119,
originally uploaded by mani tours.

i hope tis gets uploaded this time

hi. today I am not going to continue about the auli trip. i am just testing whether I can upload any images or not. By the way things are not going great in the mitsubishi challenge. i mean for us. have made some changes today. lets see. Oh God ! where are you? really need your divine intervention

Auli 2

Hi. I am back ! not that I think anybody was waiting exactly. Well, so where was I ? Ya ! Day 2. Those drums and the holi celebrating crowd!. Ok! so after our tyre puncture was repaired we moved on to Kasauni. It was already evening when we reached,.It is a sleepy little town with the tourists comprising mostly from the so called spillover of Nainital tourists. The townsfolk enlightened us that it is best to visit Kasauni early morning when you can view the snow covered peaks and enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the ...what else the Himalayas! so we had tea there and decided to move on to Ranikhet. We knew that we will not be able to spend much time over there, but still we decided to have a go. When we descended down and out of Kasauni., a little away from the entrypoint of Kasauni at a lonely spot an SUV was parked across the road so that it blocked the road. we had to slow down to stop and then... three fellows walked up to us. they were drunk but were very civil and polite. Polite yet authoritatively they spoke to us. They first wished us a happy holi and then coolly , they asked us to pay a hundred rupees. They were so cool, so authoritative and so drunk we dare not argue and paid up silently, but not happily. Some how I did not feel happy at holi . After that they let us pass and we sped off to Ranikhet , a beautiful, neat and tidy cantonment . But it was dark when we reached and the only stop there was at the fuelling station. We drove back to Binsar had an early dinner and planned for an early start next morning to Auli. Next day was choti holi or you can say Holi minor.
Day 3. We started at around 5.30am in the semi darkness. Sunrise in the hills need to be experienced in order to feel its aura and magic. the scenery turning bright from the grey. Everything fresh and pure! Nothing can make you feel more optimistic then the morning mountain atmosphere hence we had no absolutely no idea how the day was about to end that day. People were still sleeping as we passed by small villages. The first major town that came was Bageshwar and then Baijnath ...or was it the other way round??? well but Bageswar and baijnath were the major places famous for its temples. But for me, what still remains etched in my memory is the picture perfect scenery. It was amazing. I use to think this type of places existed only in movies or abroad. The snow covered peaks and next to them the black or dark blue mountains, followed by the wave of green smaller mountains and after that came the undulating fields and farmed land and then the road where we were standing and admiring everything... taking in everything..I insisted that we have our breakfast there itself so that we can spend some more time there. I felt so invigorated and so carefree that i started hopping around and playing Ringa ringa roses with shinu my niece in law.. i hope i can say that. After the breakfast we set off again with a light heart , off to Auli- a skiing destination . Next only to Gulmarg and Pahalgamb in Kashmir... but, but. I am in a hurry so will turn up again in Auli 3. I know i have the talent to give the tv soaps a run for their money the way I am Extending my trip report but hey I am busy!