Almora-Lakhimpur
Friday, October 28th, 2005
Monday, October 24.
It was very foggy when we got up. The town was waking up to their daily routines,(see photo) vegetable vendors setting up their produce, street cleaners sweeping the roads and sidewalks, kids off to school and such, we tanked up and started to unwind the mountains. Next 100 km was in the mountains, before we would hit the plains. That ride was very enjoyable. Fresh air, beatitful views and awesome roads. Except for a small area where there was a fresh landslide being cleaned up, there was hardly any obstacles.
In 2-3 hours, we came down through a nice town called Bhimtal, which had a nice big lake in the middle of town on to a town called Haldwani.(see photo). After the quite mountains, this was back to reality in a harsh manner. lots of traffic with noise pollution, exhaust fumes and dust.
After we crossed the towns, the scenery changed to a very agricultural scene. Lots of paddy (rice) fields and sugarcane, very similar to Punjab. Lots of tractors and lorries on the road. The roads were in very good conditions and since the mental application was less than the previous days, we all felt a little tired. So we pulled over by the fields (see photo) and a few took a quick nap. We once again would have a lot of people stop by and gather around. Amazingly, people just stop and park their bicycles, motorcycles, or any other vehicles, right on the road.
After a while longer on the road, we joined the grand truck road. This is one of the oldest national highways, route originally laid down during the Mughal era, a few hundred years back linking Delhi to Calcutta.
We reached Lakhimpur soon after the sunset (see photo) an had a little drama in front of the hotel. There was no closed parking and the crowd that thronged around was like a mob checking out the circus coming to their town. We some how go o park our vehicles in a private residence not far from the hotel and walked over to Ashirwad hotel. (the best in town, but leaves a lot to be desired).
I have stayed before in places infested with mosquitoes or even cockroaches, but this had its own, the grasshopper. They were everywhere.
We had some dinner downstairs and the rasmallai (dessert) there was very enjoyable.
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