Team-BHP - Info needed about Lansdowne

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonRider (Post 3266961)

Looks like we'll have to wait for your trip to get the latest update on the best route to Lansdowne. Have you booked a stay in advance or are you planning to hit a bargain after reaching there (it works better most of the time, especially off-seasons).

Btw glad to see a fellow T-Bhpian from BKSC :).

Would certainly post the details on my return. We have booked in Anand Resort for one night. Planning to take khatauli bijnor route. Roads would not be good after the rains.So, would have to put up with it.

Nice to know you are from Bokaro Steel City, bksc. We went there by car this june as part of our Noida Patna Jamshedpur trip. You can see my travelogue under that name. Where are you now?

#On Friday, 18/10/13 we started from Noida Sec 61 at six in the morning in our XUV 500.Picked up my bro-in-law from indirapuram and moving along hindon barrage amd meerut bypass, raj nagar extension, then modipuram, murad nagar ,modi nagar reached bypass of meerut by seven ten.

#took main meerut road through the bus stand, begum pul and then immediate right turn for the mawana bijnor road on NH 119. The roads inside meerut were empty so it was a good decision. On the mawana road, direction signages are fine and you cannot get misled. The road is wide & two laned and in ok condition.the navigator was asking us to take a right turn for mawana thirty minutes after leaving meerut but we went straight. We confirmed from the local people besides the google maps .

#Further fifteen minutes of driving, we reached miranpur, took a right turn to bypass this place as was being shown in google maps.the actual highway encircles this place in horse shoe like shape and the narrow road we took is like a chord . But even if you miss it, you would not regret it as we found out on our return because the original main road , though long, touches Monty Million, a good QSR and the road condition was also good. Anyways, after miranpur, we drove along and in fifteen minutes reached choudhari charan singh ganga barrage.

The road signage just before the barrage.

Majestic sight, it was kartik purnima and valmiki jayanti. My wife, I and the beautiful XUV beast.

We crossed the bridge and stopped.there were quite a larger no.pilgrims to take a dip and we also went down the ghat for purifying ourselves. Started toward bijnore and stopped at Vyanjan Vatika (around 0840 )which is a nice eating place about 12 kms from the barrage.had tea and used its washroom.nice and clean all though at that hour, it was just us at that place.The manager said that it gets people after eleven in the morning.

#We had only tea and took rest for thirty minutes.had breakfast in the car with the items brought from home. It was almost nine in the morning.The road condition from miranpur to bijnore is not good but is being repaired. This however adds to traffic jams. Just 1 km after vyanjan vatika, there is a petrol pump on right side and a left cut 50 meters ahead of it. this is the bijnore bypass.it is good because it steers clear of the city which appears to be a big city.do ask for directions because you have to take a left turn to hit the najibabad road. by nine fifteen, we were chugging along NH 119 towards lansdowne.

#next main city on NH119 was Najibabad. Around 30 kms from bijnore, on the outskirts of najibabad, there is a hp petrol pump and a canal that crosses NH119. Take a right turn from the petrol pump and move along the canal to hit the Najibabad-Moradabad road.This canal road is around six-seven kms and is in very bad shape,but one avoids going inside Najibabad town where an under construction flyover results is perennial jam all along NH119 portion inside the city. Take left turn on Moradabad road, cross the canal and continue straight.A railway crossing would come and then the end of the under construction flyover would be visible. Move along on the right side of the flyover and cross the Kotdwar-Najijabad rail line. It is always better to roll down the glass and ask for directions when in doubt. The railway phatak was closed and we were fortunate enough to see a three bogie passenger train cross us. The road condition after Najibabad is very good and you can see that the green cover on both sides has appreciably increased.

# after Najibabad and after thirty minutes, we reached Kotdwar city . Here, the road goes right through the city. We stopped at a shop near the bus stand and bought Bal-Mithai. First timers would surely like this chocolate type mithai.

# NH119 goes to Pauri and maybe beyond. The ascent begins after Kotdwar but it is not too steep. The road is wide and well carpeted. About 20 kms after Kotdwar, one has to leave NH119 and take a right turn for Lansdowne. The road suddenly turns narrower al though the tar quality is ok. Fifteen minutes after taking the right turn, we stopped at a bridge near Fatehpur. A small rivulet was visible on the right side and most importantly, there was a path from the road leading down to the sand & gravel bed of the rivulet. Nobody wanted to miss the opportunity to dip one's feet in the knee deep cold water.

The car parked as it is where we got down to enjoy the river. That is my mother in the front.

The view of the rivulet with the sangam

#After spending more than thirty minutes at the rivulet, we started for the alst leg of the journey. It was almost 12:15 PM and lansdowne was still 25 kms away. The view becomes breathtaking now. Dark forested hills in the distant and steep slopes with pine trees starting from the edge of the road on one side. Traffic was sparse but whenever a bus/truck came along, one vehicle had to side step or retract. The first hotel on the road about 6 kms before Lansdowne was Hotel Kusang? About 3 kms before Lansdowne, we saw Hotel Blue Pine Forest on the road. Both looked impressive.

#Lansdowne is the HQ of Garhwal Rifles. It is a well maintained place. We took a right turn just before SBI Bank/ATM and went down to the main square of Lansdowne that is named Gandhi Chowk. At the Gandhi Chowk, there is Hotel Mayur. We took a turn from this square and drove through a steep descent flanked by shops on both sides selling clothes, utensils and grocery. Luckily for us, no vehicle came from the opposite side.

# We had booked rooms in Jungle Resort Anand Retreat (maybe I have got the name wrong) that was 3.5 kms from Gandhi Chowk. The first km was ok but the rest was dirt track extending hardly three feet more than the car's width. At some places, it was shockingly just enough for two opposite wheels.I shuddered to think what would have happened to such a road in rains. Rocks on one side and 30-40 meters sheer drop on the other side. My folks were dead scared. We reached the resort at 14:15 PM and had lunch. It was 242 kms exact from NOIDA to Lansdowne via Meerut-Miranpur-NH119.

The resort and our cottages.

View of the valley from the resort

We stayed overnight at the resort and started back for Noida on 19/10/13 at 1045 hrs.

Few things about the resort.
! Good for a large group( >10) with like minded people.
! Good for all ages; relaxation for old age, team games for working class, outdoor games for kids
! Not good for people who want hustle bustle, markets, hill station delights like colorful tourists, local food, etc.
! Not good for people who are in small group and like everything spic and span.
! not good for teetotallers ( my estimate)

Prices are reasonable in sync with amenities and food is normal. The staff is honest.

Anyways, the treacherous road of 3.5 kms had to be traversed again. At one point where there was a blind left turn on an incline and maybe that too on the narrowest part of the stretch, one of the wheels of XUV started rolling on the dirt track because of differential weight inside the car. Some people got out, we put a big boulder as a stop behind one of the rear wheels, and somehow after much fumbling and sweating , I managed to extricate the vehicle from this morbid situation. There was barely ten inches of ground between my side of front wheel and the precipice.One thing is for sure, I am not going there again in a vehicle.

We thought to do some sight seeing in Lansdowne. First stop, the military museum.

The museum, where we also read about the legendary Jaswant Baba, who is probably the only defence personnel to have been promoted regularly even after 50 years of his death in Sino-India war in 1962.
Must visit place.

Tip&Top point from where you can see so many valleys. It is pronounced as Tiifin Top by locals.

one more photo from tip & top

Bhulla Tal, nicely kept place. A small lake, You have paddle boats here.

The Day temp was around 26 degrees C and previous night, it could have not less than 10 degrees C. There was no rain and it was bright sunshine. By the time we were done with Bhulla Tal, we were very hungry. We had two options, either eat here at gandhi chowk or eat at Kotdwar after an hour. Some local had told us about two eateries on the outskirt of Kotdwar. We decided to eat in Lansdowne. The food at Mayur Hotel was very good. We devoured jalebis in addition to regular vegetarian meal.

Now , for the return journey from Lansdowne.We started at 03:00 PM after a hearty lunch at Mayur in Lansdowne.

# The hill descent was smooth with little traffic. we came across a group of around 30 bikers who were probably going to Lansdowne.
# After retracing the same route which we took while going, we reached Bijnore. The bypass cut was missed and we went inside the town. Luckily for us, this route inside town involved just one left turn and was without traffic jams.
# After Bijnore, we reached Miranpur. This time,we decided to go via Khatauli to avoid evening rush hours at Meerut.
# At Miranpur, the horse shoe road, that I had mentioned earlier was traversed and we reached a T-Point which showed Muzaffarnagar to the right and Meerut to the left.
# On this T-Point, Monty Million? QSR is located. It looked well lit and overall nice from the road.
# We moved towards Muzaffarnagar and after 12 kms, reached Jasnath.
# From Jasnath, we took a left turn for Khatauli that was 18 kms away. Inside Khatauli, after crossing the flyover, we again took a left turn to hit the expressway NH58.
#Road from Miranpur to Khatauli is good.Though it was dark, there was movement of some motorcycles and jeeps on this road.
# To our delight, we found Cheetal grand outlet at the junction of Khatauli road and NH58. After a cup of warm coffee and some snacks, we started on NH 58 towards Delhi. It was around seven fifteen in the evening.
# Muradnagar and its neighbouring cousins were surprisingly free of traffic snarls and we zipped through these places. Maybe, saturday evening and india-australia match played a part.
# We reached Noida Home at 09:15 PM after dropping bro-in-law at indirapuram.

Distance between Lansdowne & Noida Sector 61 was 256 kms. via Khatauli.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonRider (Post 3266961)

Hi there.

Yes, our trip is over. I have provided my experiences in this thread. We had prior booking in Anand Jungle Resort. It is reasonable and unique. You would find many other good hotels. If going on a weekend, do book in advance. In an unknown place and that too on a hill,, it is very difficult and time consuming to search for a right place to stay. It is always better to research beforehand, get the phone numbers of hotels and look up reviews. I personally believe that reviews are context driven so may not be very objective.

One great thing about lansdowne. Contrary to so many posts in travel forums, Airtel and Reliance GSM were working in that place.

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Originally Posted by mkbksc (Post 3267932)

Thanks a lot for the brief travelogue, the route details provided will definitely help all those who are planning a drive to Lansdowne in the near future. However, you've scared me with your resolve to not drive to this place in the future :). Would you recommend driving upto Hotel Kusang or Hotel Blue Pine forest, as I understand that the problematic stretch was on the approach to Anand Jungle resort.

I had already gone through your Noida Patna Jamshedpur travelogue and that's where I came to know that you are from Bokaro. I am currently in Gurgaon, was staying in Noida - Sector 62 till Sept 2012 (for almost 7 years) before moving here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonRider (Post 3272036)

No need to get scared. The roads in Lansdowne and before it are very good. When I wrote that I would not go back on a particular road in a vehicle again, I meant only the connecting 3.5 kms passage from Gandhi Chowk to Jungle Anand Resort.Sorry for the confusion.

Driving to Kusang or Blue Pine or for that matter, any other place in Lansdowne, would be very comfortable.

When you are in Noida next, do meet me. Same applies to me. My no. is 9312569766.

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Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 3271723)

Many thanks, much appreciated. Looking foward to it, although we could probably do without it being even more beautiful due to rain as we'll be on Royal Enfields!Jeroen

Fairy Dale is also good. An old cottage converted into lodge. According to Outlook Traveller (very old issue) it is the best place to stay in Lansdowne. Within walking distance of Gandhi Chowk. Had stayed there last summer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkbksc (Post 3272203)

When you are in Noida next, do meet me. Same applies to me. My no. is 9312569766.

Glad to see someone from Bokaro munching miles. Me from Dhanbad staying in Vasundhara.