Our trip to the beautiful Uttarakhand - Part I(Nainital )

My wish to see snow and to experience the coldest winter actualized in our trip  to North India during December and the bookings where made around Christmas to New Year. This was my first ever trip to North India. I know the temperatures will be at its low during that time. The places we were covering were Nainital, Corbett and Mussoorie. Point to be noted is since these places are not directly accessible, travel by road was the only option from Delhi. Each place is some 7-8 hours journey from the airport.
As always vacations come with their part of experience and excitement, also some patience awaiting for it.
So on the 24th of December,2009 we had an early morning flight to Delhi. We could feel the change in temperatures when we disembarked the flight in Delhi (19 degrees ). Like a child I was excited to see my frozen breath in the air. Wore my sweater, gloves and a woolen stole(bought by Jo from Austria) and walked towards the car.

Our first point of stop was Nainital and it was a good long 7-hr journey by road. The first surprise that came our way was when the driver said some one else will be driving us to Nainital and asked us to let him go for his stupid reasons sigh! And the new driver came in. True to say we weren't very comfy with the Northie drivers, sadly we had no other option but go with it.

So the trip begins and mid-way we halted for our lunch at a dhaba. The food was good and the bill as well, the second surprise. ;)  We proceed there on sleeping and chatting all the way. It had already started to get dark at 5.30pm and we wanted to reach the hotel before it is completely dark. The Hotel Chevron Fairhavens was situated close to the Naini lake. It was a heritage hotel, a british time YWCA converted to hotel. The interiors was still maintained in  british style. The weather  was quite chilly at night around 9-10 degrees. The rooms had no fans and air-conditioners (not required though)and thankfully they had warmers in the room. Since it was X'Mas eve, they had bonfire and a buffet party...
The next day we went to Naini lake for a boat ride. The best part of Nainital is this boat ride. There is also a zoo that we had visited which was at the peak. The road to the zoo was very steep only the jeeps can take us up there. The jeeps drop us close to the zoo. I didn't find the zoo to be that great after our visit to the Singapore Zoo. Though we could see a variety of Deers,monkeys,  Cheetah & Leopard.

There was also a cable car ride to the Top station. I always thought every hill station has a Top Station, a Sunset point and a Suicide point at least in India but surprisingly we also found one Top Station in Langkawi, Malaysia. Once we reached the Top Station, there was another Top point which gives a view of the snow peaked mountains of the Himalayas. The View was charismatic and breath-taking (pun intended). We had some piping hot tea(which turned cold in a minute or two) and some hot bhajiyas..

These places have been so much commercialised, you can find shops, road-side stalls and hotels almost everywhere more than the places of interest.