Well 3 hours of wait at Moradabad was like a life time . But was good entertainment too. We got to see some pretty characters too.
If you are wondering what this is , u need to read from beginning
Coming back to the characters, first was a young guy running after every car and bus for a lift.. It seemed like he was desperate to get home. Then we met a drunkard, he came to us and started blabering that he was christian man and we have to file a fair report on the atrocities of majority community towards him (He was thinking we were some kinda govt officials). My cousin shooed him away. It was quite funny. He would take a few steps and then come back again. He, dunno why, took a fancy to me and used to come back to me. My cousin at last grumbled him away. Then there were all these ppl returning from the festival fair staring at us as if were some wild animal in the zoo. Later, an old man joined us. I was initially not in mood for conversation, but the kinda local information he started giving i got back to my self.
Well, for those interested in local information, Moradabad is said to be the brass capital of India. It was established by Murad the son of the Mughal emperor Shahjahan. Shahi Masjid is a place of interest in Moradabad.
The old man introduced himself as a grandson of some guy who had written a song for some bollywood movie some decades back and the song goes like "nainital se mangwaya". Also there wer all these people around us were discussing abt going to Rampur by local transport and from where they could find a bus to places like Nainital, Almora Jim Corbett Park etc. Rampur is supposedly the place where every vehicle that needs to go to haldwani, Nainital or anywhere in that direction has to touch.[ This guy with us went on to the history of Rampur and it turned out to be pretty interesting.
He said Rampur was the first princely state to join the Indian Union when the British left. Well it did not end there, when the floods came to end dwapara yuga lord Vishnu took Matsya Avatar and he kept the 60 km of land, now known as Rampur between his teeth so as to resurrect life in the beginning of Kaliyuga (For those who have not much idea of Hinduism- Lord Vishnu is one of the Holy Triumvirate of gods. Krishna, well know Hindu god is an avatar of Vishnu. Matsya Avatar is one of the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. And the existence of world is split into 4 yugas of which Kaliyuga is the last and dwapara is penultimate.)
Anyway, this guy turned out to be good entertainment. Then around 9.30 pm a bus came in and luckily for us it was going to Haldwani. It turned out to be an A/C bus with good seating and room. I stopped bitching about getting off that train, we traded the cramped seats of that train for some pretty good seating. The old man was missing. He provided the entertainment but when the bus came he was gone.
Anyway the rest of the journey to Haldwani was uneventful. We reached Haldwani at around 12.30 in the night. I thought as in many parts of India we won't find a bus at such an unearthly hour and would have to call it a day. But to my pleasant surprise the bus stand in that small town that is smaller than the bazaar outside my house was bustling with activity. We found a bus to Bageshwar(its all minibuses out there). We took the second last row as all ahead of it was unoccupied. The three seats where just enough for two of us and our backpacks. We took the ticket of about 100 bucks per head and were waiting for bus start when three men boarded the bus. Well, one of them was drunk. So drunk that he would have not recognized his mom. There was this young lady sitting ahead of us. He went straight to her and asked if the seat next to her (where her kid was sitting) was available. She just shook her head No and closed her nose. One of his friends at last exclaimed the bus was full and got off. I was pretty much relieved. The bus conductor a few minutes later brought three ppl to fill the last seats and guess wat, it turned out to be the same guys.
This drunkard, first thing he said was "Seems like this is the same bus" (in Hindi, of course). The lady had just stood up to adjust her bag on the holder above the seats then and this guy who was moving towards the back row kept this hand on her back (Not on the ass but on the back). She got a shock and moved off quickly). I virtually sprang to hit him. I was just praying for the lady to shriek so that i could hit him. My cousin later told me he too wanted to have a go. But this guy settled on the seat right behind my cousin. Now we had a constant fear of this guy throwing up as the bus moved. If he did that my cousin was in the firing line and i was ready for the brawl that would follow. I kept preparing the whole night , how and what angles i wanted to hit him . ;). Fortunately, he spared us the pain and never threw up.
Well, something more interesting and pleasant happened early in the morning. When around 2 am in the morning, when most ppl in the bus was asleep the driver jammed onto his brakes and started shouting "Bhag, Bhag" (In Hindi Bhag means leopard). I was not asleep(I have this problem of not being able to sleep on the road), I sprang up immediately and caught a glimpse of it crossing the road. Then, as we moved on the leopard stood on the bush by the side of the road, blessing everybody with a good view.
The rest of the early morning was uneventful except for me hopping seats to catch a good glimpse of the misty hills as the bus twisted and turned up and down the hills. I moved next to the conductor in the front seat to get a good view allowing my cousin to lie over our back packs and have a good sleep. I could not wait anymore, and at around 6.30 woke up my cousin and had a good go at him for sleeping and missing the scenery.
We reached Bagheshwar at around 10.30 in the morning. I bought a new bandanna from one of the local shops and tried to find out where i could find a bus for Song. There we met Balwant Johari. The next two days Balwant turned out to be god sent for us. Balwant is tourist guide and first thing i told Balwant was that i won't hire him since i love to travel without guides. He told me that we could rather wait for a bus or take jeep to Song.
Bageshwar is the last town, the famous Baijnath Temple lies here. Most trekkers have to touch this town while onway/return their trek. We can find pretty cheap accommodation here. Also after 6 or 7 pm in the evening buses stop plying out of here. Also Bageshwar is famous for a special sweet. From Bageshwar to Song a jeep can be hired which could be pretty costly(atleast 400 bucks) or can find share jeeps from near the Bageshwar bridge. The share jeeps cost around 30 bucks for a seat to take you to an intermediate point from where you will have to get on to another to get to Song. That will cost ya another 20 bucks.
Once inside the jeep, we got lot of information on Pindari and the surrounding peaks, and on how to get there. The jeep ride was more like a cross country with the kinda speed these guys were driving at. Indian Army also made its presence felt with the bridges they had built. In an hour we were at Song and it was time to trek.
What happened next ?
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