Travel Diaries

General nukkad-style discussions.
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sbajwa
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Re: Travel notes thread

Post by sbajwa » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:11 pm

Amritsar food places

1. Kesar da Dhaba for desi ghee Chana Bhatura.
2. Bharavan da Dhaba for Maa ki daal (Black lentils) and Parathas.
3. Kanha Sweets for Lassi.
4. Makhan Fish for Amritsari Fish.
5. Kundan da Dhaba for Keema Naan and Goat Curry.
6. Kulcha Land for Amritsari Kulche and Chhole.

watch this video for more recommendations

jamwal
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Re: Travel notes thread

Post by jamwal » Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:25 pm

Thanks. Please drop ji for me.

[/b]
Primus wrote:
Tue Oct 10, 2017 7:32 pm
Jamwal Ji, lovely tale and even better photos. Thanks for sharing.

One of my dreams in life has been to visit the Everest Base Camp or do the Mt. Kilimanjaro trek. Sadly, health reasons forbid high altitude travel beyond 12,000 feet. Good to see you are able to do this. It is a wonderful feeling being one with nature. I make do with wildlife encounters and sea-level trips. Nothing beats being on the top of the world though.
You do not really have to visit high altitudes like this to enjoy nature, but I must admit it helps a lot.
There are a lot of places in India where a traveler can enjoy mountains without going too high.

svenkat
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Re: Travel notes thread

Post by svenkat » Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:55 am

sum wrote:
Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:54 am
Superb pics sirji
+108

Karthik
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Re: Travel notes thread

Post by Karthik » Wed Oct 11, 2017 4:05 am

Heard a lot about "Kesar da Dhaba" in Amritsar, that the dal is cooked for 12-13 hours overnight. Need to try that place.

Raja
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Re: Travel notes thread

Post by Raja » Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:05 am

Singha wrote:
Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:34 am
keventer milk shake with its souvenir take it home glass bottle
Does Keventer still have that stinky spoilt milk smell? Back then you couldn't pay people to take home that glass batli :mrgreen:

jamwal
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by jamwal » Sat Oct 14, 2017 4:56 am

Keventers is a over rated place. They sell a small quantity of artificially flavoured milk with crushed ice and pass it on as a Milkshake. It is popular and hyped in CP due to shops history and low cost compared to expensive food elsewhere in locality.

Now they have opened up dozens of franchises all over the city and are using this bottle gimmick to sell their overpriced flavoured milk.

It is not bad for cheap flavoured milk, but calling it milkshake is a travesty.

People these days have seen glass milk bottles only in pictures, so they are paying to take these bottles home. But they are pretty useless due to small size.

jamwal
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by jamwal » Sat Oct 14, 2017 10:20 am

Ropa Valley and Leo :
On the way, a local woman decked up in local green dress and lots of jewelery asked for a lift till the bus stand in Reckong Peo. There was some local festival going on and she had missed the group bus. After we dropped her there, we saw quite a few local people dressed up like her on their way. It is somewhat comforting to know that there are still some places in India where even the women in their best jewelery feel comfortable enough to ask complete strangers for a lift. Compare it to Delhi or most other cities and it’s an entirely different story. If I am not forgetting someone, we gave lifts to a old woman in Ropa, a school boy near Nako and 3 women in Kibber.
Full text : http://jjamwal.in/yayavar/kinnaur-lahau ... y-and-leo/

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A noisy and beautiful waterfall we saw on way.


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View from the trail behind Ropa village


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Doorway of house in Ropa

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Extremely beautiful mountains visible from the confluence point of SPiti and Satluj rivers


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View in Kah village.

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Old bridge leading to Leo village which was washed away in 2002. Notice colour of water.


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View of Leo from my guesthouse near Nako. The greenery is fruit farms[/QUOTE]

jamwal
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by jamwal » Sat Oct 14, 2017 10:21 am

Kinnaur Lahaul Spiti Trip 2017: Nako, Kibber and Gete

Next morning started with a trip to Nako. I had little interest in the place but thought might as well see it while in the vicinity. A woman requested her to drop her grandson to the village school, so that was another reason. Strangely, the children learn Hindi and English, but no local language in school.
The drive took only a few minutes but we spent more time finding the space to park. The village is overrun with hotels, guesthouses and similar buildings. Nako lake is another big disappointment. It is more like a dirty green pond rather than a lake. We saw it for a minute and went back to the car immediately. After a few minutes of driving, we had to stop again due to traffic slowing down due to a small landslide. There were a few workers, I think from BRO (Border Roads Organisation) managing traffic. I came to know that that particular section collapsed only a few days later cutting off the traffic for a week, probably more. The mountains just after this section were very colourful and diverse and a lot of tourists were stopping every now and then to take photographs.
Full post : http://jjamwal.in/yayavar/kinnaur-lahau ... -and-gete/


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Perhaps a shooting star in the night sky or maybe a satellite


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View a few kms past Nako

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A gompa inside Tabo monastery

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View of the river valley near Dhankar

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View of Kibber and Hikkim

Image [IMG]http://Gete with Kanamo peak in bacground[/IMG]

Gete with Kanamo peak in background


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View of Kii monastery and village from Gete

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Saw this stream with very dark water a few km before Tabo.

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Prayer flags blowing in the wind

Singha
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 5:05 am

Image

Lohit river, from a rustic place called hawa camp

Singha
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Re: Travel notes thread

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 5:11 am

Raja wrote:
Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:05 am
Singha wrote:
Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:34 am
keventer milk shake with its souvenir take it home glass bottle
Does Keventer still have that stinky spoilt milk smell? Back then you couldn't pay people to take home that glass batli :mrgreen:
if you are referring to the dirty unnamed small shop adjacent to Wengers, which is always heavily crowded and retains the bottle, I totally agree.
its also quite cheap for CP. it does not bear a nameplate, i looked carefully stepping out from the verandah.

the real keventers is now a small shop a few meters up baba kharak singh marg , next to a busy jain bhojanalaya , and is hygenic and clean a far cry from the fly infested unnamed shop above. its searchable in google maps.

I do agree its not a thick shake, but more like flavoured milk.....but in any other place too, a milkshake with ice cream to give it the thick flavour costs extra, and other aspect is things like banana/chikoo/apple fruit shakes which are thick but they probably do not sell. thats more a south indian "juice junction" thing with liberal 2 spoons sugar chasing it

its not very crowed but going ok, having opened many franchises incl in blr koramangala. time will tell, i saw their outlet in ghaziabad near my sisters house, its equally clean.

while in spying mode i heard a girl referring to the dirty dump as keventers so i think a misconception exists or some old history i am not aware of.

on hygiene and safety grounds that dump ought to be closed and forced to follow some norms. its by far the most unclean eatery in entire CP. there is a tough looking uncle type who rallies his boys and runs the show there, keeping a hawks eye lest anyone steal his precious bottles.

Raja
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Raja » Sun Oct 15, 2017 5:54 am

Singha saar, that dirty shack is the Keventer's Dilli Billis know. It is not a fake. :lol: Never seen the other one. I have been to the Keventers in Darjeeling - they serve meat and milk sourced directly from their farms. 8-)

Singha
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:41 am

:evil:

this the real one and it has similar branches all over delhi and some other cities now https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Kev ... 77.2160644

note the printed name on the bottle. it comes in two sizes small and large.

now under the same series of pics is the dirty shack with the unmarked bottles which you cannot take home. the grubby waiters bringing out the milk are a sight to behold and the glimpses of the back room are not edifying - shockingly right next to the high end wengers with its famous cakes and puffs

https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Kev ... 77.2160644

this is the famous grubby bottle
https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Kev ... 77.2160644

per google maps the shack is called Shakes Square and it serves sandwiches too unlike the real keventers nearby

here is the iconic grubby front end of the beast
https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Sha ... d77.218169

https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Sha ... d77.218169

i think maybe they had a franchise once or stole the name and ran with the ball for a while, before the real guys stepped in with a legal notice and banished them to this new name, albeit they attract far more clients even now due to more prominent location and dirt cheap prices !! or maybe a family business got split.

only some pukka Dbilli can decode this mystery and establish a forensic timeline... I do spend a lot of hangtime in CP, i know my way around even the spoke lanes there, like the fat dogs that sleep on the verandahs

Singha
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:54 am

one mystery solved - years ago it used to be the real keventers
then maybe the brand shut down for a while but in people's gene memory it remained intact
the uncle who runs it has DELIBERATELY not put his nameplate of "shake square" on the top to cash in on this

https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Sha ... d77.218169

blank name plane now and DUMB SHEEPLE with their 4G smartphones predictably do not perform any due diligence and keep paying for his sub par offering

https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Sha ... d77.218169

Singha
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:57 am

ha ha told ya I was right.

jamwal
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by jamwal » Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:23 am

:lol:

Well done Singha Holmes. Absence of sign board in that CP shop bugged me too. This business is operated by two brothers in turns.

They could be some family members of "original" keventer's

On a similar note, the famous "Kake Da Hotel" in CP is the original one since 1930s. They have some relative who has opened up another place with similar name in east Delhi. But since they are family, the original one is reluctant to get them to change names.

Singha
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:59 pm

Mtr in blr split off into maiyas it happens. Yes perhaps some poorer chacha bhatija of original family got the shop site but released the brand name. So armed with the brand value they got funding while chacha still stuck with old shop onlee

Singha
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 3:08 pm

Btw nirulas is still there in outer circle, a forlorn shadow of its old self

Wimpys of mutton burgers fame is gone

My sister used to work in a place with a good view of
Kaka da hotel and bhape da hotel. She was not fond of the sights seen in morning hours before opening bell like ppl kneading atta with feet , dogs sleeping inside premises... unverified claims but i have not gone there

Burger singh was ok shokay

Beer cafe service was indifferent and very slow the one on janpath. There is another one on opp side

Sarvana bhavan janpath is again avg but works due to
Great location and delhiites are not exposed to better south food

I heard the andhra bhavan weekend thali nd fried meats are popular but not got a chance

Barring one, all macd in cp were closed

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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by jamwal » Sun Oct 15, 2017 3:33 pm

Kake Da Hotel was raided by health department a few months back and forced to mend their ways.

Wimpy was replaced by Dunkin Donuts, I think.

Burger singh is crap.
Andhra Bhavan is famous for it's Sunday biryani. South Indian food joints in Delhi are running mostly because of vegetarian people.

How're prices in Beer Cafe ? I am always afraid of paying 1300 bill for 2 beers in Delhi bars.

Singha
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:18 pm

Local stuff like kf foster is cheap enough
Imported ones are pretty costly
Food is the usual deep fried and burger pub food

Not inspiring

I like bira white or any light wheat beer. Need to lay in a large stock in one lot to serve out a quarter

Raja
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Raja » Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:06 am

Singha wrote:
Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:57 am
ha ha told ya I was right.
Pah! All that Mycroft-giri is useless :evil: I just got it confirmed from an unimpeachable source that it was indeed the original Keventers in CP - my pitashree who personally knew the owner of Keventers and used to source meat from their farms when he was running a school in Darjeeling. The Darjeeling Keventers cafe does not inspire much confidence in their hygiene either. :lol:

I have eaten at Kake Da Hotel once onlee. Pedestrian quality of food onlee. Nirula's is no longer owned by the Nirula family. They have probably moved on to other ventures. Their kid Arjun Nirula was 2 years my junior in madrassa, a huge chubby guy and now dabbles in art, wildlife, family trust type stuff. Every birthday party his classmates and all teachers would get a huge cake from Nirula's delivered to school while we phata Abduls would gawk in awe. I don't think I have tasted a Nirula's cake till date. :oops:

Javee
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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Javee » Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:16 am

Singha, I went to a place in Hauz Kaus called Social, plenty good for beers and cocktails and not too expensive, and lip smacking food, may be try that out next time.

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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:03 am

it is a chain that is present in mumbai(its founder lives there) and blr also.
its hauz khas location is perhaps one of better ones.
quite a hit with the elite gen-next crowd.
but somehow the socials, smokehouse delhi, biere club types do not enthuse me.

i am more the moti mahal type - a handi of butter chicken, large rough naans, onion slices, nimbu , soft paneer tikka .... thats my thing . my daughter takes after me. my son is the social/smokehouse type. my wife eats only salads outside.

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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Singha » Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:09 am

the hygiene factor of parathe galli was such that my kids refused to eat there. my, wife and BIL hence ate a mix of 4 types of parathas.
the kids later ate in haldirams nearby! we had our own water and they fetched lassi from a shop across street. no tummy issues.

the prices are imo steep at 70 for a single small albeit thick paratha and you must order minimum 2. i do agree one gets many types of parathas that would not be possible in a regular restaurant like those with gur and sweet nut and rabri mixes.

but they need to spruce up the place and improve the hygiene and looks to attract the next generation of clients.

could not grab a few morsels at the 'old famous jalebiwalla' as it was quite early and he had not yet started his kadhai of hot oil

my bIL despite being in dilli for a decade+ does not know 5% of what I do about the place.

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Re: Travel Diaries

Post by Indrad » Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:59 am

Singha wrote:
Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:03 am
my wife eats only salads outside.
kindly advise her to eat anything (fried, grilled, burnt) but not salad outside, in poor hygiene you get neurocysticercosis from salads outside.


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