The Royal Demazong, Club Mahindra, Gangtok

We reached Gangtok by road from New Jalpaiguri, where we reached by rail on the Dibrugarh Rajdhani express, which goes via Lucknow, two days a week. We booked tickets from New Delhi to New Jalpaiguri and converted them to boarding from Lucknow. Return tickets were bought from Guwahati to Lucknow, boarding from New Jalpaiguri. 
I was travelling AC 1st class for the first time. The cabins were very good and we had a nice journey except that the train's engine developed some problem and had to be replaced hence our train was delayed by 2 hrs. The train which usually arrived early was delayed. We reached at 1:30pm

The road trip from the station (New Jalpaiguri to Gangtok) was around 125 km but it took us 6hrs. The road was in a bad condition and at one place, road construction activity held us back by 2hrs. Usually it takes around 4hrs to go from NJP to Gangtok, the road is not very good.

 Entrance to Sikkim

The Club Mahindra hotel in Gangtok was not seen on my map my india GPS map and neither was it correctly marked on the google map on the mobile.
We had arranged pick up from the station through Tamu travel and treks. We had to depend on the Taxi drivers. By the time we reached our destination it was 7:30pm.

Checking in to Club Mahindra was a breeze as usual. This property has been leased by Club Mahindra. Hence the hotel did not have that feel which we associate with a Club Mahindra property, but it was a comfortable stay and we enjoyed the food.

Our room

Activity centre

The activity centre was good. It had the provision of borrowing DVDs as well as books, Table Tennis and Carrom etc. Restaurant was pleasant.

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Location:Kazi Rd,Gangtok,India

Caught in the Making - Club Mahindra resort at Corbett

While roaming on the streets of Paris in the summer of 2004, we had just been on top of the Eiffel tower, having arrived the same day by coach from Germany, Shaleen and I had been both dumbstruck by a large framed photograph of Eiffel tower built just half way up. It was kept in the show window of an expensive store dealing mostly in rare photographs. That particular photograph had been very heavily priced. Till then the very idea of a photograph of a half built building had seemed repulsive to me. Looking at that photo we marvelled at the uniqueness of it, frozen in time.
It was this photo which came to my mind when on 29th March while walking along the river just beyond the Wood castle resort, we came across the under construction Club Mahindra resort. The whole family got excited and we decided to go have a look inside. This resort is probably scheduled to start in May this year.



As we roamed over the place one of the staff came forward and showed us the rooms from inside as well. One fully furnished room was locked and another almost done one could be seen from the window.

I realized that our search for a good resort for future stays in Corbett ended right here. With a Club Mahindra stay a great holiday is almost a foregone conclusion.
People interested in Club Mahindra can weigh their options here.
A site selling and buying used Club Mahindra memberships

KGMC '86 Batchmeet contd

During these two trips to Corbett, so close together, I realized that it was a great place for family and or friends to spend time together esp people living in Lucknow, Delhi, Moradabad, Barielly, Rudrapur and nearby places. Its advantage being that no hilly drive is involved. A number of good resorts are there and you are away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Its close to nature and quiet. A nice place to catch up on things, meditate etc. One or two Jungle safaris would provide the excitement. Last year Bhabhi's batch had organised a meet at Woodcastle resort which was just adjoining the Corbett Riverview resort where we were staying. The previous day we had by mistake reached Corbett Riverside retreat instead and that resort was poorly maintained.
Next day, morning of 29th March 09, most of our group had gone to the jungle in a canter leaving early morning. We decided against going for a jungle safari. Just a few days back we had done the safari. We walked down instead to the river from the resort itself. It was lovely walking along the river. The resort itself was quite picturesque





Along the riverside we went across to have a look at the Woodcastle resort. It is one of the better and costlier accomadation available in Corbett. We were interested to have a look at the rooms after hearing about the open to sky, shower stalls in the rooms. To our disappointment all rooms having this feature were occupied so we were not able to see that from inside, instead they were just pointed out at from the outside.
Adjacent to Woodcastle resort there was another one coming up. We were very pleased to know who that belonged to!!

More pictures of Corbett Riverview resort (Leisure hotels)

Photographs of The Woodcastle resort

The Class of '86, KGMC - countdown to the 25yrs reunion

Last weekend saw us again at Jim Corbett Park!! This time it was the reunion of the batch of 86 KGMC, my batch. Organized by Dr. Sarvesh and Dr. Rajshekhar. We thought it was a trifle expensive at Rs.6300 per couple and Rs.900 per child. But noneteless we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
It was an, on the spur decision, to go to the batch meet, because we came to know that both the children had holidays in those days. Train reservations were not available, we had to go by road. Shaleen had to take an exam in Barielly. We started early from Lucknow, though we had planned to leave at 4:30am we left by 5:30am. We reached Barielly at 9:30 am despite getting caught in a massive 15km long jam at a railway crossing just before Barielly. Shaleen used his driving skills to the max to get out of this jam at the earliest which still took 30mnts.

We reached Barielly and were received by Dr. Gaekwad and while Shaleen and Dr. Gaekwad took exam we stayed with Dr. Gaekwad's family. His in-laws had come visiting from Pune via Mumbai. We were lucky to eat the season's first mangoes at their place, that too Alfonso mangoes, straight from Ratnagiri and strawberries from Mahabaleshwar and sea water fish got in ice box from Mumbai. Soumya had a great time playing with the children. As we were about to leave Barielly we discovered that our Qualis had a punctured tyre pointed out to us by a three yr old "Innova doctor", Dr. Gaekwad's nephew.
We left Barielly for our onward journey. We reached Corbett Riverview retreat, Corbett Park around 5pm.

After freshening up we joined the group in the conference hall in the resort. On our way to the conference hall from our cottage we saw a hot air balloon inthe sky from the neighbouring Wood Castle resort. This is the resort where Bhabhi's batchmeet will take place in the Easter holidays in the coming month of April.

Only three female counterparts had come to the batch meet including me. Kusum Gahtori now Oli from Haldwani, Usha Rawat now Bhandari married to a batch mate also settled in Haldwani.

After introductions the children did several dance numbers, songs and jokes as well, some of them were really good. The paper dance was the most enjoyable part of the evening. Food was great and the atmosphere was great also.

We retired early because we were so tired after the long drive from Lucknow. We missed out on the discussions which took place later on, and also the distribution of momentos. I really liked the momento which was given to me later on by Ratnesh in Lucknow. Next year the batch is planning to meet in Mussorie, a reunion to be organized by Ratnesh I think. I hope the girls join in greater numbers.
Lets start collecting the details of all our batchmates.

To enter your details and your friends fill in this form. This would help us in gathering information about more and more of our batchmates.

The Lake Resort - Naukuchiatal

From The Lakeside resort, Naukuchiatal

From The Lakeside resort, Naukuchiatal

When we were at Naukuchiatal we stayed at Dancing waters, Club Mahindra's resort. It has well appointed rooms, but the it seems more like staying in a hotel, than a resort. We spent most of our second day at The lake side resort which is nearby. It is just at the lake and one can go boating from the resort itself or just walk under the trees and enjoy the feel of the lake. When I had first seen this lake side resort I had been absolutely enamoured by it. This time round the location was unbeatable and the staff very friendly but the resort seemed lacking in upkeep.

In the afternoon we lounged about in front of the lake enjoying tea and excellent cheese chilly toasts while the children went for paddle boating yet again. We decided to return to lakeside resort for dinner later.

From The Lakeside resort, Naukuchiatal

As we entered the premises of the resort later in the day it seemed quite deserted and if we had been alone we may not have ventured there, in the dark. We had already placed our order in the restaurant. We initially decided to sit outside but changed our minds because of the cold breeze. The food was great and we had a great last evening together.

The Strawberry farm at Kiccha

One of the attractions while going to Kumaon region by car is the strawberry farm at Kiccha. This farm is the source of strawberries for fruit marts of Lucknow, Delhi etc. The climax of our La Martiniere break is this farm, esp as Shaleen is extremely fond of strawberries. While returning home we stop here to buy strawberries in wholesale. It is situated between the 2 and 3 km milestone while reaching Kiccha from Haldwani on the right side.

From Strawberry farm at Kiccha

After entering through this gate we go about a half a km inside and have to look around for the farm because every year the position of the farm is changed to another plot near by.

From Strawberry farm at Kiccha

From Strawberry farm at Kiccha

We bought 14 kgs of strawberries, all freshly picked in front of us. It took us 2hrs to collect these delicious strawberries. Costing us Rs.60 a kg

Dancing waters, Naukuchiatal - Club Mahindra resort

This time of the year is a good time to take a break for parents of children studying in La Marts, as it is the only school whose session starts so early. While the rest of the schools have exams we can chill out during Holi Holidays. Many years back it was Reshu who enlightened us with the idea of taking a short break at this time of the year.
Thanks to Club Mahindra this year we had a ball. A great time with friends.
We started from Corbett after breakfast for Naukuchiatal. We went via Haldwani, it took us almost three hours to reach there, Dancing waters, Naukuchiatal. It is a school converted to a resort. The restaurant and activity centre are on the second floor. It would be wise to ask the management to reserve lake-side facing rooms to make the stay delightful.
We had a sumptuous lunch and then waited for Anupam and Shubhra and kids to join us.
In the evening we decided to walk down to the lake but half way down, it became too dark to continue so we came back and enjoyed the dinner spread.

The Wild Crest

We stayed for two days at the Wild crest resort, Corbett park. Dr. Sanjay Singh helped us in getting the reservations. The resort was a homely place, our car could go right upto our room. As on a road trip we tend to keep a lot of loose luggage and eatables and we had the car fridge with us is was easy to get all the luggage inside.
The resort had a swimming pool also and had made arrangements for holi celebrations on the 11th of March. Holi was celebrated with great zeal by the resort's foreign guests while we were happy to be just onlookers. The whole purpose of going out on holi was to escape the colour etc. as was rightly pointed out by Divya.
We walked upto the river from alongside the resort. The next day we took an early morning safari though we just saw some deers, hens and peacocks and of course the ubiquitous tiger's paw prints, but no tiger.

The Den, Kwality Inn

Rajan gave us some great ideas about how to see Corbett park in the best possible manner though we were not able to follow his suggestions completely on this trip. Next time round when we go to Corbett we are definitely going to try them out. He suggested that we should book a cottage in the core area of Corbett, other than Brijrani, even if we prefer to stay outside the park, at resorts with better facilities. By booking a room inside we will have access to the national park between 6am to 6pm for safaris for which otherwise we will have to take permission and we would be wasting a lot of time.
The other idea was to go on the road which passes through the park and we might be able to spot a leopard or a tiger crossing over to the river. In the morning we went over to The  Den, Kwality Inn, a sister concern of the resort we were going to move into 'The wild crest' for the next two days.

Corbett Hideway

We stayed for just one night at Corbett Hideway

on the 9th of March'09.It was a lovely resort. As I have mentioned before the food at Jim's Grill was great. The waterfall area was especially beautiful. In the daytime it was quite warm even in the month of March and the waterfall area was like a cool haven.

A road trip to CorbettPark and Naukuchiyatal from Lucknow

We took a road trip to Corbett Park and Naukuchiyatal from Lucknow during Holi. We started on the 9th of March '09. We started early at 5:30am with Pankaj, Divya and kids from Lucknow. We had the day's food with us. As usual the National Highway 24 which has major stops at every approx 80 kms--Sitapur, Shahjahanpur and Barielly.
We had bought a pair of walkie talkies from Penang, Malaysia and they were put to good use with two cars going in line we could communicate with each other with them, without having to use our mobiles.
Another thing which was of great use was the special cloth which Shaleen had got from Big Bazaar with the help of which you can put almost anything on the dashboard without it sliiping off even when the car would turn acutely. This cloth he had seen the cab drivers in Singapore use.
FM radio was available till Shahjahanpur from Lucknow, so we had latest music available to us without effort. We used the HP pumps for refuelling and washroom facilities. From Barielly we went to Moradabad as Pankaj and family were planning to stay there for the night as Sanjay and Moushmi's guests.
After having a delicious lunch at Moushmi's house, we left to meet my friend Minoo. From her house it took us around 2and a quarter hours, to reach the Corbett Hideway, where we were staying as Club Mahindra guests.
We liked the room and the resort was good. We tried the food at Jim's Grill it was great.

Binsar - the valley and the Bird Sanctuary

Binsar has become our favourite haunt in the Kumaon hills, thanks to the excellent resort which Club Mahindra has in the valley about 20km from the bird sanctuary. We have already visited the place four times and seen all the attractions around the resort. This time we stayed mostly in the resort itself and just went on small trek to the villa where Club Mahindra is adding some log huts in the future

Goa - Club Mahindra Varca Beach Dec 2006

In December we went to Goa to celebrate the new year. It was a much looked forward to vacation with a stopover at Mumbai at my Maasi's place. We stayed at Club Mahindra Varca beach resort. Our room was in the main building initially, it had its own advantages. The activity centre was close by and both our children had a good time over there. The 'waterfields' quite literally are great in the resort. And then further on we could just walk upto the beach.

The beach was clean and had quite a few sporting activities as well. We tried a hand at parasailing , waterscooting and went for a dolphin cruise to spot Dolphins.

The transport from the resort was a problem with the taxi union acting smart and charging exorbitantly for sightseeing for the rest of Goa. We hired two two wheelers on our penultimate day and rode into Panjim with a child on each of our bikes. That was a stupid thing to do actually and we also paid a fine at one of the crossings for being an a non taxi bike. It seemed that the crossing was a favourite place for the cops to catch unsuspecting tourists.
New year was ushered in walking along the beach. And enjoying a magnificent display of fireworks by our resort and the neighbouring one.

Khajuraho as a venue for a conference

My husband recently went to Khajuraho to select a venue for a conference he plans to hold there in the near future. It seems an ideal place for a conference with many hotels in a small area and a major tourist attraction. The problem is that none of the hotels have large conference halls. The best hotel is Jass Raddison previously known as Jass Oberoi. Among other good hotels are Hotel Chandela of the Taj group, the Clarks group.
From Lucknow the journey by road was approx 300km it took around 7.5hrs. While returning he took a different route over a pantoon bridge over Yamuna river which was shorter and the road was better.