I have always been fond of traveling to lesser known, offbeat places, places away from crowds and in the midst of nature. It’s never been too difficult to plan weekend getaways from Delhi nowadays as you have a long list of options towards any direction but you have to be mindful about which season you are traveling in. Summer Holidays is obviously all for the hills, cool, scenic and relaxing. And trust me, don’t follow the online reviews blindly, they can be really misleading at times. This one particular trip that I went on seemed to be a tough one because I was travelling with four friends and getting everybody on the same page, setting and meeting every specific expectation, ensuring nobody has much to complain about, kept me nervous initially. I had read about this nature retreat, Mountain Trail, at a hill station called Mukteshwar - 45 Kms from The Lake Town of Nainital. As the legend goes Lord Shiva gave Mukti (eternal freedom) to a vicious demon who was troubling the poor village folk of Mukteshwar and hence the name - Mukteshwar. Sounds pretty religious but you’d be surprised how much fun this sleepy little hill hamlet has on offer and we loved every bit of it. Not only for adventure and offbeat seekers like myself but most types of traveler. This is the first time I experienced a holiday destination covering such a wide bandwidth. We went trekking, did some rappelling at the Chauli Ki Jaali Cliff, enjoyed a stream picnic, a night jungle walk and every evening sat by our own bon-fire with our guitars, plural mind you, we were all, once upon a time, a great band. Happy to be together again. The resort manager, just a young local hillbilly, always smiling, actually offered us a long list of activities that we could enjoy like bird watching etc. but we only had 2 clear days so there’s only so much we could have done as the primary aim was to chillax. We were actually surprised with ourselves on how much we had packed into our three nights but that credit goes to the excellent team at The Mountain Trail Resort. If you’re looking at a nature friendly place, this is it but if you’re looking for star luxuries please consider Nainital or even Bhimtal as you have some high end hotels there. I was deliberating to stay away from TV, Mobiles and Luxuries, could manage to evade two but mobiles worked here 3G+ and my friends were delighted to discover that. I of course wasn’t happy about it at all. The resort is spread out in a fruit orchard facing the Himalayan Range. It has spectacular valley views which we enjoyed the most while having breakfast in their restaurant lawn. Two of my friends had experienced an orchard laden with fruits, for the first time. I mean plucking them right off the trees, with due permission of course and biting into the juiciest, most delicious peaches and plums ever…. It was something!
Before I had formally booked our holiday I
had the pleasure of speaking with the owner of the Resort - Mr. Mayank Gupta,
who seemed extremely professional along with exuding a lot of passion and
honesty. His love for the hills, his in-depth knowledge about the region and
the activities, convinced me enough but there was still a little bit of
nervousness realizing I was traveling with a lawyer, an architect, a pilot and
a dentist. Now that’s as diverse as it could get and surely professional
profiles don’t really matter but I had known them since school and that was
enough reason for me to be worried for somebody who’s organizing the trip.
Shatabdi from Delhi, a 6am departure from
the New Delhi Railway Station, 11:45am- 12Noon arrival at one of the cutest,
cleanest railway stations ever, Kathgodam. We were told this station was an
award winner and we had no reason to doubt that. Once we got out of the station
we spotted a slightly stressed out, middle aged man holding a placard with our
name on it. When we waived at him suddenly a wide smile appeared with the words
from his mouth which put a smile back on our faces “Mountain Trail” just what
we wanted to hear. Here we go, driving up the hill, as the ascend starts from
Kathgodam itself with the beautiful river Gola flowing in the opposite
direction. We made friends with Neema, our very talkative but wonderful driver.
Once again a big Thank You! To the Mountain Trail team for organizing a great
car and driver which honestly makes a huge difference to the overall
experience. I for one never save money on transportation, it’s always proven to
be ‘penny wise pound foolish’. Neema was requested to suggest all experiences
which were local and it largely meant local food. So we took a chai break, sorry, a pahadi chai break which turned out to be very
tasty but very sweet, even after our humble request for less sugar. I guess
even the water in the hills is sweet so maybe it really can’t be helped. The sweet
Pahadi Tea turned out to be a life saver afterwards as the spicey Aloo ka Gutkas (potato chunks) and the Rai ka Raita (Curd flavoured with
mustard seeds, some red chilly powder and floating graded Radish) opened each
blocked vein in our body, it was weirdly hot (spicy hot). It was quite an
experience and we thought we could never have it again but we did and we
enjoyed it more the second time and it felt less spicy. The drive up was wow.
Passed by the gorgeous lake, dense forests, hill streams, waterfalls
(small ones but pretty) and the amazing landscapes towards the valleys bowled
us over. Every sense of tiredness had escaped us and we were re-energized and
ready to take on the next three days which we were so looking forward to, away
from the stressful city lives.
We landed at the Mountain Trail Resort in Mukteshwar in about two and half hours. I checked my altimeter which was
showing off a 7430 ft ASL ….Nice. The entrance didn’t really excite us much but
once we entered it the frame opened up into a lush green fruit orchard and we
could spot some red roofs at a distance from the reception, camouflaged by
trees, we were wondering if these spread out huts, is where we’d be staying and
yes, they were. We were sent right on top to the last three and we had booked
three as two of us wanted privacy.
Spacious rooms with a typical hill cottage
feel, wooden ceilings, surrounded by flowers and fruit trees, a perfectly sized
glass sit-out which could seat four (there’s one outside every room), en-suite
baths….Wallah..this was just the kind of place we were looking for. All of us
seemed to be so happy and more or less said in sync – “this is going to be fun”.
Loved the grass patches outside all rooms where we could already imagine our
chairs sprawled out but what we couldn’t imagine was that right outside our
rooms we would have a bon-fire and it will be exclusively for us. Man, we were
in heaven. This truly was an escape from the routine, the mundane…. no TV sets
in the rooms, beautiful birds and butterflies all around, scenic views. Sorted!
The following three nights filled our
holiday with memorable experiences which we would cherish for life. The highlights
were – The bonfire evenings, the stream picnic, views from the Chauli Ki jalli Cliff, the night jungle
walk and the delectable food….Oh and the mind blowing chocolates and brownies
that are hand made at the resort. Wondering how I forgot to mention about these
earlier. I have, in my entire traveling life and I’ve really traveled, never
tasted chocolates that good.
I even doubted their claim of hand making them at
the resort itself, I mean that’s how good they were, but then I was proven
wrong when I was taken to the resort’s chocolate kitchen by the very kind Mr.
Gupta (Owner) who was staying at the resort with his wife and she, Mrs Gupta,
is the actual Queen behind these divine delights. When at Mukteshwar do not and
I repeat, do not miss these chocolates at The Choco-House Chocolate Shop.
Another café you should definitely try is Chaandi
Maati for it’s local Kumaon food, Awesome. So all in all Mukteshwar is a
great hill station for a weekend escape from Delhi. It’s at a good height so
the weather and views are great too. Loved it.
Written By
Dipika Sinha
Phone: +918010450000
Email: info@asianadventures.in
https://linktr.ee/aatoursandlodges
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