During the Later Part of my Trip to Delhi/Rudrapur I discovered that my vacation was longer than I needed for my friend jaymee's wedding . . . So jaymee's wedding was over by monday(Pics from that coming later :)) and I had the entire week to do nothing. Jaymee happens to know about my trekking hobby and suggested that I could go over to Nainital region and enjoy my vacation. So his dad dropped me to this place called Haldwani on the foot hills of himalayas from where I could continue on my trip. He was also nice enough to arrange a room in a hotel for me at nainital. so at around 10:00 in the morning I took a shared taxi to nainital. The dude played old hindi songs along the way but fortunately no altaf Raja!!
Finally I reached nainital at around 7 and met up with a Jaymee's dad's contact Mr. Bhatti who took me to my hotel room(also slipped me a quarter bottle of shark tooth vodka). He told me its cold in the hills we all understand haha!! a real understanding person lol. Anyway it was nice to have free accomadation in this place so I unpacked my bagggage and took off for a evening stroll around the lake and also to the old momo's shop that I always visit(I know choc :p) when I go to nainital. ohh yeah it was still there. I had two plates of mutton momos :D

saw some signs of "one world, one dream,free tibet: put up at the tibetean market and took some pics.Near the lake there is actually a ground where there is a Hindu Temple, Sikh Gurudwara and a muslim mosque all close to each other. I took a few more pics :)
after the tibetean market I took a long walk on the stone path around the lake. It is really peacefull at night and the temple and gurudwara look real beautifull when lit up across the lake.
There was also some exibit of local handicrafts and some cone sculptures!!
anyway I took a lil swig and drifted back towards my hotel. On the way I came across this sweet shop. One of the many things that I miss since I moved down south is the Kullhar ka doodh. For guys scratching their heads, its milk heated slowly for more than 24 hours with some dry fruits and served in a baked clay mug!! Its totally delicious. So after all I reached my room took a few more small pics along the way in the dark alleys, found this old shack with this labour hammering some bit with a bright bulb lit at his door that I particularly liked for a natural shot setting. So few more pics( He didn't seem to mind or notice haha)
Finally retired for the night watched some TV and then some nice movies on my laptop and slept so I could wake up early morning.

I woke up around 6 o'clock and called Mr.Bhatti for some directions to trekking spots. He said I could trek on a mud path to his village or I could climb up the tallest peak in the kumaon region!! I chose the latter for obvious reasons lol.So there are two ways one can go to China peak. one is take the trolley up to this place called Bitla(or Bidla) and trek from there for a further climb to china peak. or you can trek to bitla too and then trek further to china peak. I went with the latter.
Bitla itself is on a peak and the road to it is like this windind stone path. Long time no trek so I was huffing and puffing less than half way to bitla. also the climb was a lil too steep for a normal walk and it wasn't inclined enough for a regular climb either.btw the best part of walking up to bitla is the scenery of the lake on the walk up. Anyway around 1 o'clock I reached bitla. at bitla tourism department has installed these telescopes to look at the himalayas. Ao I took one and used it to get a few half-successfull shots of the snow caps.
I noticed some bottles hanging from the trees at different distances and wondered what they were for. I soon got my answer as some guys came by with air rifles. It was some 20 bucks for 12 shots!!
I took 24 shots and btw I got the farthest bottle in two shots flat!! yeah I was good :D I posed with rifle for sake of memoirs and then asked the folks there the route to China Peak(The trek destination).
I went north for some distance and gradually climbed down to a low ridge to find myself on the road. after some distance I saw a juice shop and a stone path leading up to a peak from there. That juice shop is supposed to be the landmark. I took the stone path up and met up with a group of european tourists from austria(Susie!! nice legs too . . . :) ). They accompanied me to three fourth of the trek and then decided to turn back believing we were on wrong path. anyway i continued hoping to end up somewhere atleast. I reached China peak by around 4:30. China peak itself is not exactly deserted. Indian Army has installed a radio and monitoring station at this place to keep an eye on the chinese side. Anyway I checked out their telescope in return for letting the guy there check out my camera(He was an enthusiast!! can u believe it!!)
He wanted to take a few pics and I obliged haha!! The guy was very happy so I made him happier and gave him the remainder of the shark tooth vodka. He let me in on his secret and told me about this place a lil further ahead which most touristst don't know about and that the place had a fantastic view of mountains. He showed me the way and I walked further up for five minutes till I reached the spot. And that dear friends is where I took the pic of me facing away from the camera sitting on the edge of the mountain. This time I posted the other two pics of the scenery I was watching in the earlier pic. :) I took tons of pics.
At this point my camera battery died and I started walking back. I passed the radio station on my way back and the guy there smiled knowingly looking at me. Walking down didn't take long and I was back at the shop in an hour. had some juice and a guy turned up with his pony offering to take me up to china peak lol.
I told him I had already walked up there and was on my way back but I told him I could take the horse to nainital. So I rode the horse to nainital,Sorry no pics of that :( . I reached nainital by evening. I strolled out back to Mr. Bhatti and thanked him. and then went back to the momo shop for some momo's and thupka. returned back to my hotel. woke up early morning to take the cab to rudrapur. saw a womens's parade for republic day preparations in the parade ground. looked for some lifei nmy camera battery. there was some left and I took a few more pics and took the cab to haldwani. on reaching rudrapur I realised that Jaymee and his family had gone to delhi for some stuff after the wedding. So I was left with Jaymee's brother Smarty. Me and Smarty drove to this gurudwara that evening. Not sure what the name of this place is but it's the place where gurunanak planted a tree once and is supposed to be very holy to sikhs. ohh did I mention that gurudwara langar food is awesome!! After that we drove a lil further to this huge reservoir called Bhim Tal. we storlled around there, I took a few more pics and drove back home to rudrapur.

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